University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE LXIII.

King William Parish, or Manakintown, the Huguenot Settlement
on James River.

This parish was originally in Henrico county, which extended
thus far and far beyond it on either side of James River. It is now in
Powhatan county, whose name is taken from the ancient name of
the river and the old King Powhatan. By Act of Assembly in 1790,
it was assigned to the French refugees who were driven from their
country by the persecutions of Louis XIV., and sought an asylum in
Virginia, as hundreds of thousands did in all the various countries
of Protestant Christendom. Before giving that brief detail of the
parish which its tattered records afford, it will be proper to allude
to the history of that most cruel persecution. Though the Reformation
had so far succeeded in France as to number one million
of its most resolute converts, yet there were twenty millions of
bigoted adherents to the Papacy. By uniting their influence and
arms with other Protestants around, the Huguenots, however, had
for a century been a terror to the monarchs of France and the
Papal throne. The bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew's eve, in
1572, only served to increase their resolution. By their aid was
Henry IV. placed upon the throne of France. Out of policy he declared
himself a Romanist, though it was believed he was more of
a Protestant at heart. He soon determined to put a stop to the
persecution and wars which had been carried on, and while declaring
the Papal the true and established Church, and the Protestant the
"Pretended Reformed Religion," secured them both in their religious
privileges, by the Edict of Nantes, in the year 1685.[126] This
continued in force during the reign of Louis XIII. and the minority
of his son, Louis XIV. On his accession to the throne, he determined
on a different course. The dupe of Jesuits, confessors,

Madame Maintenon, and Cardinal Mazarin, he set about converting
the Huguenots to the Catholic Church. He did not for some time
repeal the Edict of Nantes by a formal decree, but set it aside by
various acts which rendered it of no avail. He declared his determination
to convert all his subjects to the true faith of Rome.
This he attempted by bribery, using large sums for the purpose;
by persecution of various kinds; by destroying their churches and
requiring them to attend the Romish worship. Immense numbers
stole away from the country, though death and confiscation were
the penalties. At length the formal decree was passed. The Edict
of Nantes was revoked. The Protestant clergy must be converted,
or leave the kingdom in fifteen days, or be sent to work in the
galleys. Great numbers of false-hearted ones, chiefly of the laity,
were converted, either by gold or the sword,—for dragoons were the
chief ministers of the King, therefore converting was called dragooning.
It is computed that by emigration alone not less than
three hundred thousand were lost to the country. All the nations
of Protestant Christendom, and even Russia, were shocked at the
scene, and, deeply sympathizing with the sufferers, threw open their
doors to receive them, and vied with each other who should afford
most succour and most immunities and privileges. They thus found
their way into every Protestant country of Europe, and into many
parts of the United States, especially into New York, Virginia,
and South Carolina, where their names are to this day the names
of some of the most respectable families of the land. Dearly has
France and the Romish Church paid for the inhuman treatment of
these brave soldiers of the cross. Ardent lovers of religious liberty,
they have been in every land the most strenuous asserters of it;
and, sound in the faith, they have boldly contended against the false
docrines of Rome. Trained from generation to generation to contend
for their rights on the battle-field, in gratitude to those who
have afforded them an asylum, they have on many a field of Europe
revenged their own and their fathers' wrongs. Nor did Louis succeed
in his design to banish them from the land. The blood of the
martyrs was again the seed of the Church. Some faithful ones
were kept there by the arm of the Lord, as in the hollow of his
hand, who have increased and multiplied to this day; and it is believed
that at this time the proportion of Protestants in France to
the Catholics is as great as in the days of Louis the persecutor.
Then there was one million to twenty, now one million eight hundred
thousand to thirty-four millions; and the same policy by the
Bonapartes has been found necessary as that adopted by Henry
IV. In the providence of God, who can bring good out of evil, it
has also come to pass that the banished Huguenots have been benefactors
to all countries where they have gone, by contributing to
the improvement of the same, not only in religion, but in all the
arts and sciences,—being remarkable for their industry, skill, and
integrity. The very best of the old ministers of Virginia were
from this stock. Moncure, Latane, the two Fontaines, the two
Maurys, and others who might be mentioned, were among them.
To these, I am told, may be added one of recent date,—the pious
William Duvall, of Richmond. If we extend our view, and look
to the patriots and statesmen of the Revolution, where shall we find
better men than Chief-Justice Jay, of New York, Elias Boudinot,
of New Jersey, the Bayards, Legare, the Laurenses, the Grimkys,
Marion, Neuvilles, Gervais, Rutledge?

THE FONTAINE AND MAURY FAMILIES.

In connection with these notices of the Manakin settlement,
some account of the Fontaines and Maurys may very properly
come in, not merely because they were descendants of the Huguenots,
but because one of them—the Rev. Francis Fontaine—was at
one time its minister. Whoever would see a full and most interesting
account of the ancestors of these families must examine
that deeply-touching history of them, entitled "The Huguenot
Family," prepared by the Rev. Dr. Hawks and Miss Ann Maury,
of New York. I can only briefly refer to some of the children
and grandchildren of those remarkable persons, James Fontaine
and his wife, who were so signally rescued from destruction on the
coast of Ireland. Their five sons and two daughters were well
educated. John entered the army, and came over to this country
to explore it for his brother. He returned, and with Morris remained
in England. Peter, Francis, and James settled in Virginia.
Peter became minister first, for one year, at Weynoake, Martins
Brandon, and Jamestown, then settled in Westover parish. Francis
lived for one year at Manakintown, then settled in York-Hampton.
Their sister, Anne Fontaine, married Strother Maury,
from Gascony, in England. They came to Virginia, and settled in
King William. Their son, James Maury, was ordained in 1742,
and was for one year minister in King William county, then went
to Louisa to Fredericksville parish, which was afterward added in
part to Albemarle. He married a daughter of Mr. Walker, of
Albemarle. He had numerous sons and daughters, of whom more
hereafter. His son Matthew succeeded his father as minister.

I will now speak more particularly of those Huguenots who settled
in Virginia. As early as the year 1660 some few came over,
fleeing from the earlier persecutions. They were sufficient in
number to induce an Act of the Assembly granting them the privilege
of citizens. Toward the close of the century we read of some
settling themselves on the Rappahannock. In the year 1790, so
many had settled on the south side of James River, in Henrico
county, (which was then on both sides of the river,) that the Assembly
passed an act giving them a large tract of land along the
river as their possession, exempting them from all county and
State taxes for seven years, and then extending the privilege indefinitely.
They were required to support their own minister in
their own way. Accordingly, in dividing the grant into farms, all
running down to the river in narrow slips, a portion of the most
valuable was set apart for the minister, and continued for a long
time to be in possession and use of the minister, while one was
resident in the parish, and after that to be rented out, and the
proceeds paid for such occasional services as were rendered by
neighbouring ministers. At length, as it could not be seized and
alienated by the act for selling the glebes, it got into private hands,
and has been thus held for many years. As service is now regularly
held in the old church in Manakintown settlement, it is believed
that the glebe originally consecrated to the support of a
minister will be restored to its first design and long use. The
service of the Episcopal Church was used, and sermons preached
for some time in both French and English, as some of both nations
attended the church at Manakin.[127] In the year 1714 a list of the
little Colony was sent to England of men, women, and children,
amounting to nearly three hundred. The list is before me. The
minister was the Rev. Jean Caison. In the year 1728 the Rev.
Mr. Niern, who had been their minister for a year or two, left them
and took with him to London a letter showing that there had never
been more than thirty tithables in the parish, and that they could
not support a minister by themselves. Dr. Hawks speaks of a body
of six hundred coming over with their minister, Philippe de Richebourg,
and settling there. It may be that these are the same of
whom we read as first settling at Manakin and then moving to
South Carolina. I have the old register of baptisms, &c. of this

parish, written in French, and beginning in the year 1721 and
continuing to 1753, from which it would appear that a Rev. Mr.
Fontaine was minister in 1720 and 1721, baptizing a child by the
name of Morris, establishing that to be a Huguenot name. In
the year 1726 a Mr. Murdock, minister of St. James Northam,
Goochland, officiated by baptizing at Manakin. In the year 1727
the Rev. Mr. Brooke, of Hanover, did the same. In that same
year and the next Mr. Niern was the minister. In the year during
which Mr. Niern went to England Mr. Massamm was minister. In
the years 1728 and 1729 the Revs. Mr. Swift and Deter baptized.
In the years 1731 and 1732 the Rev. Mr. Marye was minister. In
the year 1739 the Rev. Mr. Gavin baptized in the parish. From
the year 1750 to 1780 the Rev. Mr. Douglass, of Goochland, and
other ministers around, occasionally served it. After this the Rev.
Mr. Hopkins, of Goochland, was their minister. Since the revival
of the Church in Virginia, it has been partially supplied by various
other ministers to the present time, when the Rev. Mr. Tizzard, of
Chesterfield, is the pastor, in connection with the Church in Chesterfield.
One thing is worthy of remark in relation to the baptisms
in this parish,—that those of the negro children are far more in
number than those of the whites. Their names are regularly registered.
This shows their sense of duty as to the religious dedication
of the children of Africa. To the foregoing brief statistics I cannot
forbear adding the following extract from a letter received
from one of the descendants of the family of Dupuys. She writes:—

From the family of Dupuys I have gotten the old church register,
which, though rotten and torn and in fragments, has been kept
so as to enable me to obtain the statistics given in this article.
The foregoing account of the escape of Bartholomew Dupuy and
his wife is a true picture of the methods resorted to by the persecuted
Huguenots to fly from the kingdom. Nothing now remains
but that I mention the names of those families still remaining in
Virginia who derive their descent from the Huguenots. From
information coming through books and individuals they are as
follows:—Marye, Fontaine, Dupuy, Harris, Sublett, Watkins,
Markam, Sully, Chasteen, Duvall, Bondurant, Flournoy, Potter,
Michaux, Pemberton, Munford, Hatcher, Jaqueline, Bernard,
Barraud, Latane, Moncure, Agie, Amouet, Chadouin, Dibrell,
Farrar, Fuqua, Jeter, Jordan, Jouette, Le Grand, Ligon, Maupin,
Maxey, Pasteur, Perrou, Thweatt, Maury, Boisseau, Fouche, Lanier,
Le Neve. Concerning a few of these it may be questioned whether
they be not of Welsh descent, while there are doubtless others who
might be added.