Please attach the profiles of French Huguenots who were born in Orléanais. If possible, also add their names into the text below, according to their country of emigration.

• All welcome to join & contribute (Map: Coertzen, Pieter. 1988. Die Hugenote Van Suid Afrika 1688-1988: Cape Town, Tafelberg.)

Background History of Orléanais at the time of the Huguenot Diaspora

In terms of the ecclesiastical organization of the Calvinist church with which we are so closely concerned, this part of France in the seventeenth century included the three synodal provinces of Normandy, Brittany and Anjou-Touraine-Maine, as well as the Beauce colloquy and a small part of the Ile-de-France colloquy of the synodal province of Ile-de-France-Champagne-Picardy, together with a considerable part of the synodal province for the Orleanais and Berry. With the exception of the flourishing Calvinism of coastal Normandy, members of the reformed church were largely a scattered minority and their temples focal points for small groups of worshippers from communities otherwise isolated. The church was very weak in Brittany, Anjou, Touraine and Maine; somewhat stronger in the farming areas of Upper Normandy, the Blesois and the Beauce colloquy. P105

The Cape settlers from this part of France came largely, but not exclusively, from the towns and villages of coastal Normandy and from a rural quadrilateral with Paris, Orleans, Blois and L'Aigle at its corners. Indeed one refugee ship brought a party of French settlers from the United Provinces whose original homes, despite indications to the contrary by C. Graham Botha2 and J.L.M. Franken,' were all within the quadrilateral. The vessel was the Voorschooten of Delft, which sailed from Goeree on December 31, 1687 under the captaincy of Frans Villerius.4 Special provision had been made for the spiritual needs of the emigrants. The ship carried two new quarto French Bibles and ten books of the psalms of Marot and Beze, and for the edification of the refugees on the voyage, the sermons of the former Caen pastors Pierre du Bose and Jean Guillebert.5 p105

The name Martineau, like Foucher, is to be found in Protestant registers over a large area of western France on both banks of the Loire. The association of the surname with those of Cape refugees in the Blois and Mer registers suggests, however, that the settler Michel Martineau, who reached Table Bay in 1688, was from this region. There was a Michel Martineau at Mer, who appeared for the bride at the marriage in Blois on June 24, 1685 of Francois Chasteigne, a weaver from Marchenoir, and Isabelle, daughter of Paul Couvret and Madeleine Pigeard of Mer. Martineau is known to have left at the revocation.103 There was also a Susanne Martineau at Aunay.104 Chateaudun in the Beauce is not far distant from Blois and the baptism took place there on August 29, 1666 of Michel, son of Michel Martineau and Esther Guelot, born on August 25.105 The vine-dresser and shoemaker Paul Couvret, who came out to the Cape in 1700 with his wife and daughter on the Delft ship the Reijgersdaal, commanded by the experienced Marten de Jeught, was from Bazoches-en-Dunois, where the Couvrets were well represented in the congregation.106 His wife Anne Valette could perhaps have ties with Chatillon-Coligny on the Loing, beyond Orleans to the south east.107 Paul Couvret was probably a late refugee, leaving France after the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697. He was admitted to membership of the Rotterdam Walloon congregation on July 6, 1698 and would seem to have married in the United Provinces.108 C.C. de Villiers has drawn attention to a Paul Couvret who was imprisoned for his faith in the castle of Saumur.109 The Couvret’s child Anne-Elisabeth was baptized at Delft on October 14, 1699.110 With the Couvrets on the Reijgersdaal were Josue Cellier, carpenter and vine-dresser, and his wife Elisabeth Couvret, doubtless related to Paul. The Celliers were from Orleans, where Josue was born about the year 1667 and Elisabeth some nine years later. The temple where the Calvinists of the city worshipped was at Bionne to the east.111 A Josue Cellier, perhaps the Cape refugee’s father, appears in the records of the church at Bazoches-en-Dunois, when Nicolas Cellier, born on April 8, 1676 to Josue and his wife Judith Rouilly was baptized on April 26. The godparents, Jeanne Cellier and Maurice Rouilly, were both from Orleans.112 Another member of this family, Jean Cellier, made reparation at The Hague on July 2, 1701 for abjuring Calvinism.113 Celliers from Orleans also made their way to London, where a daughter Marie was born to Nicolas Cellier, a lapidary of Greek Street, and his wife Claudine Fouquet on March 19, 1705/6. At her christening in the church of La Patente de Soho on March 31, 1706 she was named for her godmother Marie Cellier.114 The father could be the Nicolas from Bazoches. Before leaving the region between the Loire and the borders of Normandy we may consider the background of some other Cape colonists who, on the available evidence, would seem to have come from this part of France. There is no precise information on the birthplaces of Louis le Riche and the Cronier brothers who accompanied Duthuile and Drouin on the Driebergen in 1698. All three made their way to Delft, where assistance was given on August 18, 1697 to Louis (le) Riche “pour aprandre son mestier”.115 He does not appear to have persevered in the trade he intended to follow. The Croniers arrived at about the same time. Etienne made his peace with the reformed church on August 7, 1697 and Pierre on January 22, 1698. Pierre’s delay is accounted for in the minutes of the Delft consist ory, which also reveal that the Croniers were Catholics by birth and upbringing. “Pierre Cronier”, we read, “qui avoit embrasse nostre Ste Religion depuis quelques anees ayant eu le malheur d’estre arreste en voulant sortir de france et la foiblesse de renoncer a son esperance a fait publiquement recogce de sa faute et (a) este regeu a la paix de Peglise”.116 Pierre, born about the year 1671, and his brother Etienne considered themselves Normans and may perhaps have come from the Thimerais. The abjuration of a Francois Cronier of La Ferte-Vidame at Leyden in September 1687 provides a possible clue.117 Le Riche was perhaps from the same area. Sara Avice, listed to sail on the Zeeland East Indiaman the Oosterland in 1688, was a native of Chateaudun, where Cyrus du Moulin, son of the distinguished Charenton pastor Pierre du Moulin, occupied the pulpit.118 Claude Marais’s first wife Marie Avice was perhaps from the same town. The name Avice is also to be found at Mer and Blois. In 1659 a master surgeon from Orleans, Francois Avice, married in the latter town.119 It is possible that the refugee Louis Cordier came from the Orleanais. There was a Louis Cordier at Blois, but the name appears among the Catholic baptisms of that town. The son of a master lace-maker Louis Cordier and his wife Jeanne Blessebois, he was bap tized on March 29, 1656.120 Cordier arrived in 1688 with his wife, Frangoise Martinet, and three daughters Susanne, Jeanne and Louise. Jeanne married Mathieu Frachas, whose place of origin will be discussed in a later chapter. The Frachas farm, however, was named Orleans,121 a city with which he had no apparent connection. Was it perhaps chosen with reference to the French background of his wife’s father? There is some evidence to suggest that Frangoise Martinet was from north-eastern France and she will be discussed in that context later. The Cordier background, however, remains uncertain. Fie could possibly have come from the north-east like his wife;122 again, a Cordier family lived at Espenel, near Pontaix in Dauphine, the Cape minister Pierre Simond’s home province.123 Simond may have recommended Louis Cordier as an elder at Drakenstein in 1691 because he was a fellow-Dauphinois, although of the other members of the first consistory there only Pierre Meyer came from that province. Fie may equally have been chosen as a man familiar with the Dutch language, a circumstance which would suggest a longer acquaintance with the United Provinces than had most Cape refugees. There were certainly Cordiers at Haarlem as early as 1627.124 One thing, however, is certain. The Paris silk-weaver Jacques Cordier, in London and Amsterdam before the revocation, was not, on the evidence submitted by A.P. Hands and Irene Scouloudi, related to the Cape family.125

Pp114-120

• M. Boucher (1981). French speakers at the Cape: The European Background. Pretoria, UNISA: Ch 5: Cape settlers I: from the Loire to the Channel

Countries of Dispersal

South Africa

• AVICE Marie MARAIS Claude 1690 CHATEAUDUN ORLEANAIS 1688 ? Le Plessis Marle/Drakenstein
• AVICE Sara CHATEAUDUN ORLEANAIS 25/04/1688 Oosterland ?
• BASCHÉ Marguerite PETERSEN Hans X 1688 AUNAY/ Mer ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Woorschooten Stellenboch
• BRUÈRE Estienne des RUELLES Ester X 1690 BLOIS ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten Rust-en-Werk/Daljosaphat BRUWER
• CELLIER Josué COUVRET Elisabeth ? ORLEANS ORLEANAIS 1700 Reijgersdaal Het Kruijs Pad, Bottelary CILLIERS
• CORDIER Louis MARTINET Françoise ? ORLEANAIS 1688 ? Bethel, Drakenstein
• CORDIER Suzanne FOURIE Louis 1695 ORLEANAIS 1688 ? Bethel, Drakenstein
• CORDIER Louise JACOB Daniel X1702 ORLEANAIS 1688 ? Bethel, Drakenstein /XX 21/01/1714 PINARD Jacques
• COUVRET Elisabeth CELLIER Josué X ? ORLEANS ORLEANAIS 1700 Reijgersdaal Het Kruijspad, Bottelary XX 1722 ROUX Paul
• COUVRET Paul VALETTE ANNE ? BAZOCHES en DUNOIS ORLEANAIS 1700 Reijgersdaal Drakenstein vers Europe 1712
• FOUCHER Philippe SOUCHAY Anne 07/06/1677 SUEVRES ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten De Wilde Paardenjacht, Drakenstein FOUCHÉ
• FOUCHER Anne JOURDAN Pierre 1696 SUEVRES ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten De Wilde Paardenjacht, Drakenstein FOUCHÉ
• FOUCHER Esther SUEVRES ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten De Wilde Paardenjacht, Drakenstein FOUCHÉ mort peu après l'arrivée
• FOUCHER Esther PINARD Jacques 10/12/1687 SUEVRES ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten Lustig-Aan, Drakenstein FOUCHÉ
• FOUCHER Gaspard SUEVRES ORLEANAIS ? Voorschooten mort durant voyage
• FOUCHER Jacques SUEVRES ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten De Wilde Paardenjacht,
• GODEFROY Paul BAZOCHES-EN-DUNOIS ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten Knolle Vallei-Daljosaphat
• GRILLON Marie MALHERBE Gédéon 1690 MER ORLEANAIS 12/05/ 1688 Borssenburg Normandie, Drakenstein
• LE ROUX Jean MOUY Jeanne 1703 BLOIS ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten Parys,Drakenstein
• LE ROUX Gabriel LE FEBURE Marie-Catherine 1701 BLOIS ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten La Concorde,Drakenstein
• MACHEPASTÉ Jean BELOIS,MER ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten
• MARTINEAU Michel BLOIS, MER ORLEANAIS 12/05/1688 Borssenburg Drakenstein
• RÉTIF François MOUY Marie 02/05/1700 MER ORLEANAIS 12/05/1688 Borssenburg La Paris, Drakenstein RETIEF
• RÉTIF Anne ROUSSEAU Pierre 1689 MER ORLEANAIS 12/05/1688 Borssenburg L'Arc d'Orléans,Drakens
• ROUSSEAU Pierre RETIF Anne X 1689 MER- BLOIS ORLEANAIS 12/05/1688 Borssenburg L'Arc d'orléans, Drakenstein
• RUSSAAR Marie JANSZ VAN EEDEN Jan X 13/07/1688 BLOIS ORLEANAIS 12/05/1688 Borssenburg Stellenboch ROSSAR
• SOUCHAY Anne FOUCHER Philippe 07/06/1677 AUNAY ORLEANAIS 13/04/1688 Voorschooten De Wilde Paardenjacht, Drakenstein
• TERRIER Daniel JACOB Sara 1692 BLESOIS ORLEANAIS 05/06/1688 De Schelde ?
• VALLETE Anne COUVRET Paul X ? BAZOCHES-EN-DUNOIS ORLEANAIS 1700 Reijgersdaal Drakenstein

North America

Britain

Ireland

References & Resources

• List of Huguenots embarking from France
• Huguenot Heritage Society of SA

Jump Back To

• French Huguenot Provinces of Origin Project Index
• Huguenot World Diaspora