The French Connection

French citizens who embraced the Protestant teachings of the 16th-century reformation were known as Huguenots. Because they were unwelcome in Catholic France, hundreds of thousands left their native land, with several thousand eventually making their way to the British colonies in North America. Huguenots, generally prosperous and well educated, were among the immigrant groups who were rapidly assimilated into the dominant English culture of Colonial America.

Huguenots had attempted to settle in Florida (near present day St. Augustine), the Carolinas, and the Guanabara Bay (in present-day Brazil) during the late 16th century, but none of the settlements was successful. The first Huguenots to settle successfully in the Americas sailed from the Netherlands early in the 17th century, and a small number followed throughout the century. Our ancestor, Augustine Jean, was born on the Isle of Jersey so we can assume his father, Edmond Jean was one of the very early to leave France seeking religious freedom.

Augustine Jean, b. 9 Jan 1647, arrived in the Massachusetts colony in the spring of 1675, settling first in Reading then on to Falmouth in 1680. He served in King Philips War 1675/76 (first Indian War) under both Captains Beers and Turner. His wife, Elizabeth Brown (b. 26 Mar 1657) was probably an English resident of the colony, it was not common to record much of the women’s activities but there is record of their marriage in 1677.

Augustine and Elizabeth’s son John Gustin (1691-1777) and his wife Mary, produced Elizabeth Gustin who married Abraham Covalt, who were the parents of Zuriah Covalt who married Jonathan Taylor Buck in 1775. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married our Loyd Rockhold. And that’s the French Connection.

Note: My narrative is generally written specifically with my own family and ancestry in mind. There will often times be instances where references that I make will not necessarily be connected to your own ancestry, we have just too many Loyds, Roberts, Williams and Elizabeths in the extended family for it not to be confusing. MDR