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This Project seeks to acknowledge people who self-identified as religious Huguenots, sometimes called "French Huguenots," who lived between 1540 and 1790, spoke French, or a language associated with French, were Protestant / Reformed Christians, and were somehow persecuted or discriminated against so that they chose to leave their home (either within France or a mixed-language borderland such as Wallonia, Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Franche Comte, or Alsace-Lorraine...), and find a better life abroad. We seek to add their profiles to our growing Global Family Tree or to improve those Huguenot profiles already on Geni.com and Wikitree. Adding or improving primary and secondary sources for such profiles is a key part of this Project's mission. It also seeks to follow their descendants and their contributions to America.
Focus: New York, Pensylvania, New England
Barred by the government from settling in New France, Huguenots led by Jessé de Forest, sailed to North America in 1624 and settled instead in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (later incorporated into New York and New Jersey); as well as Great Britain's colonies, including Nova Scotia. A number of New Amsterdam's families were of Huguenot origin, often having immigrated as refugees to the Netherlands in the previous century. In 1628 the Huguenots established a congregation as L'Église française à la Nouvelle-Amsterdam (the French church in New Amsterdam). This parish continues today as L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit, now a part of the Episcopal Church (Anglican) communion, and welcomes Francophone New Yorkers from all over the world.[77] Upon their arrival in New Amsterdam, Huguenots were offered land directly across from Manhattan on Long Island for a permanent settlement and chose the harbour at the end of Newtown Creek, becoming the first Europeans to live in Brooklyn, then known as Boschwick, in the neighbourhood now known as Bushwick.
Jean Hasbrouck House (1721) on Huguenot Street in New Paltz, New York
Huguenot immigrants settled throughout pre-colonial America, including in New Amsterdam (New York City), some 21 miles north of New York in a town which they named New Rochelle, and some further upstate in New Paltz. The "Huguenot Street Historic District" in New Paltz has been designated a National Historic Landmark site and contains one of the oldest streets in the United States of America. A small group of Huguenots also settled on the south shore of Staten Island along the New York Harbor, for which the current neighbourhood of Huguenot was named. Huguenot refugees also settled in the Delaware River Valley of Eastern Pennsylvania and Hunterdon County, New Jersey in 1725. Frenchtown in New Jersey bears the mark of early settlers.[24]
New Rochelle, located in the county of Westchester on the north shore of Long Island Sound, seemed to be the great location of the Huguenots in New York. It is said that they landed on the coastline peninsula of Davenports Neck called "Bauffet's Point" after travelling from England where they had previously taken refuge on account of religious persecution, four years before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They purchased from John Pell, Lord of Pelham Manor, a tract of land consisting of six thousand one hundred acres with the help of Jacob Leisler. It was named New Rochelle after La Rochelle, their former strong-hold in France. A small wooden church was first erected in the community, followed by a second church that was built of stone. Previous to the erection of it, the strong men would often walk twenty-three miles on Saturday evening, the distance by the road from New Rochelle to New York, to attend the Sunday service. The church was eventually replaced by a third, Trinity-St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which contains heirlooms including the original bell from the French Huguenot Church Eglise du St. Esperit on Pine Street in New York City, which is preserved as a relic in the tower room. The Huguenot cemetery, or the "Huguenot Burial Ground", has since been recognised as a historic cemetery that is the final resting place for a wide range of the Huguenot founders, early settlers and prominent citizens dating back more than three centuries.
Some Huguenot immigrants settled in central and eastern Pennsylvania. They assimilated with the predominantly Pennsylvania German settlers of the area.
Valuable Resources can also be found at:
Research New York and New Jersey:
Baptism and Marriage Records of the Dutch Reformed Church of New Netherland and Beyond (WikiTree directory page)
Records of the Dutch Reformed Church. (FamilySearch directory page)
Le Fevre, Ralph. History of New Paltz, New York and its Old Families (from 1678 to 1820) Including the Huguenot Pioneers and Others who Settled in New Paltz previous to the Revolution.
Fosdick, Lucian J. The French Blood in America (The Baker & Taylor Co., New York, 1911).
Wittmeyer, Alfred V., Rev., Registers of the Births, Marriages, and Deaths, of the Eglise Francoise de la Nouvelle York, from 1688 to 1804, New York, New York: Huguenot Society of America, 1886. Collections of the Huguenot Society of America, Vol. 1.
Pennsylvania:
Roberts, Charles Rhoades. The First Huguenot Settlers in the Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1918).
Roberts, Charles R. Genealogical Research Among Pennsylvania German and Huguenot Families (Genealogical Publications of The National Genealogical Society, Washington, D.C. 1933).
Babcock, Charles A. Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People; Embracing a General History of the County, Vol. I (J. H. Beers & Company, Chicago, 1919). [2]
Elliott, Ella Zerbey. Blue Book of Schuylkill County: Who Was Who and Why in Interior Eastern Pennsylvania, in Colonial Days, the Huguenots and Palatines, Their Service in Queen Annes, French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars ; History of the Zerbey, Schwalm, Miller, Merkle, Minnich, Staudt, and Many Other Representative Families (Joseph Zerbey Publishers, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, 1916).
New England:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg_8BGJehRU
(NEH)
https://nationalhuguenotsociety.org/
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Huguenot_Migration
Resources for Huegenot history. ' England History of Huguenots, Walloons, Flemish Religions (National Institute)
National Institute for Genealogical Studies.gif
The original content for this article was contributed by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies in June 2012. It is an excerpt from their course English: Non-Anglican Church Records by Dr. Penelope Christensen.
Huguenots, Walloons and Flemish History and Beliefs
Origins of the Crockett family : https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Davy_Crockett%27s_fake_French_a...
The French-speaking Protestants who fled from religious persecution and civil war on the continent are all loosely referred to as Huguenots, however this term properly refers to only those from France, and not to the Walloons from the Low Countries. However, it is often impossible to distinguish the two groups because of the shared language and churches as well as much intermarriage in the early communities in England. Their beliefs were Calvinistic and closest to the English Presbyterian style of church government. Some of the late 17th century Huguenot congregations adopted the Anglican litany translated into French and these were termed conformist Huguenots. Others maintained the Calvinistic style they had used in France and have been called nonconformist Huguenots, although they should be distinguished from the English Nonconformists.
Walloons
The first wave of many thousands of French-speaking Protestants were Walloon refugees who arrived in England from the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium and the Netherlands) in 1567, having been forced to flee the suppression of Protestantism by King Philip of Spain’s forces lead by the Duke of Alva. This group had been in England for over a century before the true Huguenots came and the two groups settled in London and the same south-eastern towns.
Huguenots
The Huguenots, (Protestants from France), first came in 1572 after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris, and they were largely from the northern provinces of Brittany, Normandy and Picardy and mostly settled in south-eastern areas of England where the French-speaking Walloon communities had already been established. Although there was support for their religious freedom during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, during that of Charles I and particularly during Archbishop Laud’s tenure prior to the Civil War only those born abroad and now living in Canterbury were officially allowed to practise their religion, whilst their children were to attend Anglican services. In response, some moved to Holland, and the majority to the USA, taking their craft skills with them. Far more Huguenots arrived after 1685 when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes which had given toleration to French Protestants in 1598. About 60,000 came at this time, with two-thirds of these settling in London. Most of the others went to towns in SE England and some to Bristol, Plymouth and nearby Stonehouse in the south west.
The history of the Huguenots throughout the English-speaking world can be found in Currer-Briggs and Gambier (Huguenot Ancestry. Phillimore, 1985). The Huguenots were not of any particular social level, althought their textiles and other trades were prized by the courts of Europe and so they had access to many important patrons. They comprised mainly craftsmen with some nobility and some peasants. In London the upper class families and those who worked in the luxury trades such as goldsmiths, silversmiths, lapidaries, diamond cutters, jewellers, bucklemakers, clock- and watch-makers settled in London’s west end around Soho and nearby Westminster parishes. The poorer weavers, and associated tradesmen such as silk throwsters, dyers, thread- and lace makers settled in the east end in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green.
The communities were close-knit and some maintained the French language into the 19th century. Sociological studies show that it takes three generations for immigrants to totally assimilate, and most families had joined the Anglican Church or other Nonconformist groups by at least 1800.
It must also be born in mind that there was a further wave of French refugees, known as the emigrés, mainly upper class and Catholic, entering England from 1789-1814 at and after the French Revolution (circa 1789-1795). Lists of the groups of these that came, but with no union index of names, are on FHL fiche 6035980(1). The Hampshire Record Office have recently acquired a series of their letters giving graphic details of their escape and struggles.
Flemish Migrations
The Protestant immigrants from Flanders and Brabant spoke Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and can thus easily be confused with Dutch settlers. Edward III (1327-1377) encouraged the Flemish to settle in England, as he valued their silk and other textile skills. Other waves came in 1551 and 1567 fleeing the occupying Catholic Spaniards, as did the Walloons.
They settled primarily in south eastern England, particularly in London, Norwich and Canterbury and were employed especially in silk weaving, the New Draperies and market gardening. In the 17th century more Flemish immigrants arrived with the Dutch to drain the fens of East Anglia (Beharrell).
English background:
The persecution under Archbishop Laud seems to have fallen with peculiar weight upon the clothiers. This may have been owing to the fact that many of the ''clothiers'' were descendants of Dutch and French Protestants. Mr. Pryer in enumerating the petition for redress of grievances to Parlement in 1640-41 instances under the head of trade, "Divers Clothiers having been forced away who had set up their manufacture abroad to the great hurt of the kingdom." Smith, in the history of wool, cites the rigor of Archbishop Laud's execution of the acts of conformity as the cause which drove many clothiers out of the kingdom.
Later Migrations from Britain:
Many Protestant refugees from France and the Rhenish Palatinate passed through Chester in the late 17th and the early 18th century en route for Ireland, (fn. 2) notably a party of over 3,000 Palatines who arrived in the city during a three-week period in 1709 and were assisted by the Presbyterian minister Matthew Henry. (fn. 3) Others were in transit in 1713–14. (fn. 4) Some must have stayed, at least for a few years, since there was a French church at Chester in the 1710s. Jacques Denis was its minister in 1713, (fn. 5) but left for Ireland to serve the French church at Waterford in 1716. (fn. 6) His successor at Chester was M. Cortail, who was granted a royal pension in 1717 for the duration of his tenure. (fn. 7) The congregation was evidently conformist and its ministers presumably held services in one of the city churches.
Welsh Huguenot Town "Fleur de Lis"
https://caerphilly.observer/fleur-de-lis/
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FAMILIES
Cottrells /French Huguenots
sailingdeacon (View posts) Posted: 1110682058000 Classification: Query Surnames: cottrell A book entitled Huguenot Emigration to Virginia, Settlement at Manakin-Town in the opening chapter reads: "It is exhibited that there were numerous instances of indivual settlements of French Hugenots in Virginia and subsequent to the influs of 1700. The names of... Cottrell....and others have been most estimably represented." In a footnote it reads, "Charles Cottrell patented 123 acres of land in Goochland county [Va] August 28, 1748. Susanna Cottrell and Howard Cash, Executors of Thomas Cottrell, deceased, patented 700 acres in Amherst county, August 30, 1763. Virginia Land Registry. The book can be read at http://huguenot-manakin.org/brock1.htm
As we know, Huguenots were a persecuted religious group in France. Some may have had German-sounding names, but they were usually French-speaking Protestants who had been leaving France since the late 1500's. Persecution of non-Catholics started in France in 1572 and continued into the 1700's. The early refugees settled in Germany, Holland, England, and Ireland.
In the following article please note the Cottrell comments in bold (near the end of the article.)
A Brief History of the Manakin Huguenots Reverend Wilbur M. Sims Lecture Presented October 30, 1993 [As copied from http://huguenot-manakin.org/Sims.htm ]
Why were the Manakin Huguenots so late in arriving at their haven of peace and religious freedom? After all, those who bought Manhattan Island for the equivalent of twenty-four dollars arrived in 1623. Those who settled in New Paltz, New York arrived in 1670, and the Charleston Huguenots arrived at that small but growing city in 1680. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was registered on October 22, 1685, and it was followed by a horrendous holocaust, yet those who became known to history as the Manakin Huguenots did not arrive until the summer of 1700. Why? To answer that question, we must look at Europe and the British Isles and consider the rapid and kaleidoscopic events taking place during those times.
The French refugees who made it to Manakin, Virginia came from all over France. Some had arrived in England some years before 1685 so that even heads of families, and even more children, had not been born in France. These, reading the times, escaped just ahead of the holocaust while others were able to escape to England soon after. It would take much too long, even if it were possible, to trace even a few of the families. We do know, however, that five families escaped at the time of the holocaust from Sedan, and they seem to be more or less representative of the refugees who made it to England. Let’s trace their movements to see what happened in those years between 1685 and 1700.
'Relationship between Quakers and Huguenots'
The Camisards or Cevennes or Cevennol Prophets, 1700 AD Quakers have roots of origin within the Camisards Camisards: "Probably from camise, a black blouse worn as a uniform" Camisards, southern France (often called the Prophets of the Cevennes). ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11.; "Camisards," ERE, 111,175-176; "Pentecostal Churches," EB XIV, 31; Schaff, I, 114; "Tongues, Gift of," B, IV, 796.) A group of Huguenots (French Protestants), mostly peasants, who resisted the attempts of Louis XIV's government to convert them to Roman Catholicism. Many were imprisoned, tortured, and martyred. Observers reported tongues, uneducated peasants and young children prophesying in pure, elegant French, enthusiastic, demonstrative worship, and people "seized by the Spirit." Cevennes: After Montanus, the next time any significant tongues-speaking movement arose was with the Cevennol Prophets of the seventeenth century. The Cevennol prophets likewise were outside of the church - their primary emphasis was on politics and the military. Converts of Camisards, England. ("Tongues, Gift of," Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, IV, 3310-11.) Some Camisards fled to England to avoid persecution, making converts there. Camisards, or Prophets of the Cevennes: The rapid growth of an enthusiastic group among those who endorsed resistance, largely confined to the Cevennes mountains, further complicated the divisions. These Camisards, or Prophets of the Cevennes mountains, claimed that they were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. Their religious "enthusiasm" as well as their political resistance made them special targets of the king's wrath. In the course of prolonged armed conflict, thousands on both sides were killed. Under divine inspiration, their prophets encouraged the Camisards to wage war against Louis' dragoons from 1701 until 1710. They fought for religious reasons, but the intensity of their political opposition was reflected in the increasing enthusiasm of their spiritual experiences. (Andre Ducasse, La Guerre des camisards (Paris, 1946).) The Camisards maintained that "God has no where in the Scriptures concluded himself from dispensing again the extraordinary Gifts of His Spirit unto Men." Indeed, a "more full Accomplishment" of Joel's prophecy than that of Acts could be awaited. They found historical roots by developing an interesting view of church history: "the Christian Truth survived the Deluge of the Grand Apostacy, and rested upon the Mountains of Piemont, Dauphine, and Languedocq, as the Ark once upon Mount Ararat; the Waldenses and Albigenses could never be quite rooted out by the Legions of Hell in Croisade; and when the great Tribulations of the modern Pharaoh had extinguished in appearance the other Churches of France, out of the Ashes of those of Languedocq there arose within a few Years last past, a powerful Testimony of Jesus, animated by immediate Inspiration...." (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), pp. v-vi.
This includes reminiscences of Camisard refugees in England.) This "inspiration" had startling results. Those so moved "struck themselves with the Hand, they fell on their Backs, they shut their Eyes, they heaved with the Breast, they remained a while in Trances, and coming out of them with Twitchings, they uttered all that came into their Mouths." (De Brueys, Histoire du fanatisme de notre temps (Paris, 1692), p. 137.) Children as well as adults were so affected, and illiterates of the "Dregs of Mankind" amazed their hearers by quoting Scripture texts at length. (De Brueys, Histoire du fanatisme de notre temps (Paris, 1692), p. 89.) John Vernett, who escaped from Bois-Chastel to England, recalled that when under this power of the Holy Spirit his mother spoke only French. This "surprized [him] exceedingly, because she never before attempted to speak a Word in that Language, nor has since to my Knowledge, and I am certain she could not do it."(John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 14) This testimony was given in London on January 14, 1706. His mother had first experienced this linguistic ability in 1693 and had been imprisoned because of her spiritual gifts since 1695. Similar phenomena occurred repeatedly, and often when the operation had ceased the inspired had no memory of what he had uttered. Another strange phenomenon which occurred quite frequently among the Camisards was the sudden ability of infants who could not yet speak to deliver discourses in perfect, fluent French. In 1701, for example, a child about fourteen months old "which had never of itself spoken a Word, nor could it go alone," in a loud, childish voice began exhorting "to the Works of Repentance." (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 15) The Camisards also spoke sometimes in languages that were unknown: "Several persons of both Sexes," James Du Bois of Montpellier recalled, "I have heard in their Extasies pronounce certain words, which seem'd to the Standers-by, to be some Foreign Language." These utterances were sometimes accompanied by the gift of interpretation exercised, in Du Bois' experience, by the same person who had spoken in tongues. (John Lacy, A Cry from the Desert (London, 1708), p. 32) (The Charismatic Movement, 1975, Michael P. Hamilton, p 75)
DODGE
https://www.dodgefamily.org/Biographies/T/Tristram.shtml
DeLand:
https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G001645.pdf
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TIMELINE
Timeline Events
Background Events 1460-1550 – printing of the Bible in several languages over many years in German, French and English, etc; opens its passages to the common man; homes are afire with God’s word for the first time; took issue with the fallacies and debauchery of the day in the predominant religion
1517 – Martin Luther advocates reform in the Catholic Church, posts the 95 Theses
1510-1530 – Printing of the Bible douses Dark age stagnation; ignites religious Reformation throughout Europe and France. First time in history the word of God in Biblical writ opens public and private discourse in the towns, villages, streets, in homes and in the minds of hundreds of thousands throughout Europe and casts contrasting shades of light in the corners of the prevailing religion; hostility grows in the hearts of the governing ecclesiastic authorities. Harsh laws ensue against Protestantism.
1523 – Barbaric measures result in the first Martyrs of the Protestant movement in France; many are imprisoned, disenfranchised, or begin to flee into exile
1545 – First Calvinistic town founded at Meaux, France; about a million converts to Protestantism throughout France and bordering countries
1547-1553 – by this period, surveys revealed about 40,000 French Protestants in London; French Protestantism spreads to England with French and Dutch church established at Austin Friars (London)
1551 – Persecution of Protestants intensifies in France with Edict of Chateaubriant
1558 – Newly deigned Queen Elizabeth I of England is excommunicated from Catholicism—for accepting and harboring French Protestant refugees; Philip II, King of Spain and Pope Pius seek Elizabeth I’s death and envision plans to invade England by armada to re-enthrone Catholicism as the national religion
1560 – The word ‘Uguenot’ or “Huguenot” is first used about this time
1550-90 – French & Flemish austere laws send the first wave of emigrants to England
1562-1598 – Phillip II wages a brutal war against all Protestants causing waves of French Protestant refugees to flee into England—a Protestant refuge during this era
1565 – Norwich becomes a refuge of numerous French Protestants
1567-8 - More Protestant refugees from Netherlands and France build a church at Southampton and come to other Walloon places of settlement at London, Canterbury, Norwich, etc.
1572 -3 – A marked increase of French refugees due to revolts and massacres on the continent
1575 – Foundation of the French church at Canterbury
1581 – The first conference (Colloquy) of French churches in England
1598 – Edict of Nantes brought some measure of peace to French Protestants for a period
1604 – First synod of French and Dutch churches in England
1610-1629 – Peaceful era in France
1634- Under the King’s direction, Archbishop Laud of England wages war on Nonconformist churches including Huguenots
1635-1649 – England erupts in sporadic civil wars; the King commits genocide on his own people; thousands of Nonconformists—including some Huguenot families flee i.e. the city of Norwich due to Charles I’s warring campaigns against Nonconformists. This nightmare was repeated in various areas throughout the realm
1649-1660 – Charles I’s death and resultant Interregnum with no monarch brought a period of great tranquility to all Nonconformists in the realm. Nonconformity flourishes during the period
1660-1690 – Any prior advances in the establishment of peace won by Parliament for Nonconformists during the Civil War and Interregnum period throughout England is erased respectively by King Charles II and James II’s oppressive policies; still, Nonconformists (and Huguenots) held some degree of social maneuverability in England and Ireland
1662-1685 – 10 French congregations with churches were established in Ireland—at Dublin (4), Cork (2), Lisburn, Portarlington, Carlow, and Waterford (1 each); congregations—without churches were located in colonies at Dundalk, Clonmel, Innishannon, Kilkenny, and Wexford.
1685 – Revocation of the Edict of Nantes sends about 80,000 to Great Britain and Ireland
1687 – James II publishes Declaration of Indulgences giving greater freedoms to Huguenots
1689-1697 – Nine years war
1762 - the last known Huguenot martyr in France
1787 – Peace brought about by government-sponsored religious freedoms is at last established in France
Sources:
400 Years of Creativity In Soho: The Huguenots, How It All Began (SohoCreate 2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpAd4epZ_mk
The Huguenot Society http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history.html
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt2/pp180-183
Some Descendant Family Names; NAMES of the Foreign Refugees* who settled in Great Britain and Ireland before the reign of Louis XIV, (1643) of France; and their descendants:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fianna/surname/hug1.html
444 Years: The Massacre of the Huguenot Christians in America http://www1.cbn.com/ChurchWatch/archive/2008/07/02/444-years-the-hu...
http://huguenot-manakin.org/manakin/Sims.php
R. A. Brock
Documents, Chiefly Unpublished relating to the Hugenot Emigration to Virginia and to the Settlement at Manakin Town, Published by the Virginia Historical Society in 1886, Richmond Virginia
To Part II: DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE HUGUENOT EMIGRATION TO VIRGINIA
To Part III: LISTE GENERALLE DE TOUS LES FRANCOIS PROTESTANTS REFUGIES ESTABLYS DANS LA PAROISSE DU ROY GUILLAUME, COMTE D'HENRICO EN VIRGINIA, Y COMPRIS LES FEMMES, ENFANS, VEUSES, ET ORPHELINS
To Part IV: REGISTER CONTAINING THE BAPTISMS MADE IN THE CHURCH OF THE FRENCH REFUGEES AT MANNIKIN-TOWN IN VIRGINIA and Notes
http://huguenot-manakin.org/manakin/brock1.php
The Huguenots By Samuel Smiles
Comments by Collaborators: (Please place your comments below)"
- 9/3/18 I found this video about the Huguenots very interesting: YouTube: Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary - Huguenots and the French Reformation. by Ryan Reeves - Pat Scoggin (my 7th g-gf, Gabriel Bernon was a Huguenot)
Huguenotstreet.org About the Dutch/French Huguenots who settled in colonial New York
Among the Huguenots who left were a group of families from northern France, located near Calais, and what is now southern Belgium. Their names were Bevier, Hasbrouck, DuBois, Deyo, LeFever, and others. They first found safety in die Pfalz, a Protestant region in present-day southwest Germany. It was a tenuous existence, however, given the growing desire of Catholic France and Spain to subdue Protestantism throughout Europe. Consequently, fears that violence was again about to reach their doors caused the families to leave their homes once more and set sail for a Dutch colony in North America, New Netherland, where Protestants were embraced. The Dutch were famous for their religious toleration and, unlike the equally tolerant English, had reformed their church in ways much more similar to the Calvinist faith practiced by the Huguenots. It is likely that such circumstances influenced the decision of many of the families to make the perilous transatlantic journey and settle in the Dutch colonial town of Wiltwijck (today's Kingston), on the Hudson River in the 1660s and 1670s. By that time, though, the colony had been surrendered by the Dutch to the English and renamed New York--the same year that a French army ravaged die Pfalz.
Perhaps fearing the loss of their religious identity and French heritage in a community dominated by seemingly less pious Dutch settlers and merchants, a group of Huguenot families led by Louis DuBois and Abraham Hasbrouck, among others, decided to create a community of their own, one where they could exercise more authority over their worship and their way of life. They arranged the purchase of approximately 40,000 acres of land from the local Esopus Munsee tribe, and a land patent confirming it was issued by the new English Governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andros, in 1677. By 1678, the families had moved to the banks of the Wallkill River and established the village of New Paltz. The families built their first homes out of wood, along with a palisaded fort on a site that had been used for centuries by the Esopus. They divided up their property among the families, began to farm and plant orchards, and created their own church, overseen by the Consistory, comprised of the 12 leaders of the families, who also assumed all political authority over the small community (historians have come to refer to the Consistory as "the Duzine," the French word for dozen). They then, over the next several decades, began to construct more permanent buildings around the outside of the original fort, made out of stone and in a Dutch style, as the community grew to include more people of Dutch descent. Those famous buildings form the foundation of the Historic Huguenot Street you see today.
Over the course of the 1700s, the Huguenot community expanded to include people from many different ethnic backgrounds, including enslaved Africans. They attempted to hold onto their French heritage, through their language and religion, and actually succeeded much longer than any other Huguenot community in North America. But the economic changes brought by an expansive British Empire and a strong local Dutch influence soon transformed New Paltz into a multicultural society, one in which French, Dutch, and English were spoken and written with seemingly equal facility, although their religious practice appears to have permanently shifted from the French Reformed faith of the Huguenots to the somewhat more moderate Dutch Reformed Church at some point in the eighteenth century (and survives to this day). By the 1770s, however, the people of Huguenot Street were actively involved in the creation of yet another society: the United States of America.
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French Huguenots that emigrated to South Africa
French Huguenots arrived in South Africa from 1671 to 1726. Between 1688 and 1689 a large-scale emigration programme of Huguenots who had fled to the Netherlands was organised to the Cape of Good Hope - then a colony of the Dutch East India Company, which needed more settlers to provide food for the passing fleets. It began on December 31, 1687, and in total some 180 Huguenots from France, and 18 Walloons from the present-day Belgium, eventually settled at the Cape of Good Hope, comprising about one sixth of the free burgher population. Individuals continued to arrive sporadically until the termination of the state subsidised emigration in 1707. By 1720 about 270 French refugees had settled in the Cape. By comparison more than 50 000 Huguenots fled to England.
Link to the project: https://www.geni.com/projects/Huguenots-who-emigrated-to-South-Africa/8652
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