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The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, in 1685, drove from France no less than half a million Protestants, who, under the name of Huguenots, sought in other lands that freedom of conscience denied them in their own country. So bitter was the persecution that by 1705, it is said, there was not an organized Huguenot congregation in all France.
To these people, many of whom were of the ancient nobility and nearly all of eminent respectability, the English colonies in America opened an avenue of escape from the rigors of the governmental inquiry and persecution. To nearly every seaport between Nova Scotia and Florida they came, many selecting New York and some Philadelphia as their new homes. From these centers the movements of population carried certain of these French families to New Jersey. By 1686, and even earlier, Huguenot family names appear in the towns of the Monmouth shore. With their coming a new element appeared in the provinces--an element which was so distinctively Romance as to make its presence among settlers of Germanic stock as picturesque as it was valuable.
With but few exceptions the Huguenot had no political ambitions, or at least had not in the early years of the eighteenth century. He spoke not the language of his new home. Around him lay restraints in his advancement in the political state, which a new generation did not overcome. Yet the Huguenot social and moral influence was early patent and has remained a power until the present day.
To New Jersey came Antoine Pintard, Peter Bard, Pierre le Conte, Joseph Ray, Ives Ballinger, Elias Boudinot, and Hyppolite le Fever, names with which one could conjure in either East or West Jersey. There, too, were the De la Fontaines, the Stelles, Monsieur Hance, Jaques la Rue, the De Cous, John de la Valle, and the Demarests, some of whom, forgotten, some remembered, have impressed themselves and their families upon the history of New Jersey.
THE SETTLERS OF EAST JERSEY
To New Jersey came Antoine Pintard, Peter Bard, Pierre le Conte, Joseph Ray, Ives Ballinger, Elias Boudinot, and Hyppolite le Fever, names with which one ...
www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state1/settlers_of_east_jersey.htm - Cached - Similar pages
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