Huguenots were French Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who followed the teachings of theologian John Calvin. France and other European counties during this period were seeking to forcibly convert Protestants back to Catholicism. To escape persecution, many members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France and southern Belgium (Wallonia) fled to the United Provinces of the Netherlands. French speaking Protestants from southern Belgium are commonly referred to as Walloons.
The Huguenot merchant referenced in the excerpt above is my 11th great-grandfather Jesse de Forest. Jesse was born in 1576 in France, fled to the Netherlands and died in the Guianas (north-central coast of South America) in 1624. His life was full of hardship, adventure and a quest for religious and economic freedom.
It is very likely that Jesse knew and met with the Pilgrim Fathers (Plymouth Colony) while he was residing in the municipality of Leiden in the Netherlands. He is also recognized as the the force behind the settlement by 30 Huguenot/Walloon families of present-day Manhattan by the West India Company in 1624.
The following excerpts weave an amazing story about the life of Jesse de Forest.
The petition mentioned in the excerpt above is referred to as the ‘Round Robin for Freedom‘. (Translated: “We promise my Lord Ambassador of the Most Serene King of Great Britain to go and inhabit in Virginia, a land under his Majesty’s obedience, as soon as conveniently may be, and this under the conditions to be carried out in the articles we have communicated to the said Ambassador, and not otherwise, on the faith of which we have unanimously signed this present with our sign manual.”
Jesse Departs the Netherlands for South America
Additional resources:
The De Forests and the Walloon Founding of New Amsterdam. By Lucy Garrison Green · 1924
Protestantism in Belgium (Musee Protestant)
© David R. French and French in Name Only, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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