My Huguenot Ancestors: Pierre Morriset and Elizabeth Faure

Pierre Morriset, a Huguenot, immigrated in 1700, arriving from London on the ship Mary and Ann. Also on that ship was Elizabeth Faure and her mother Mary Ann (Chastain) Faure.¹.   Pierre later married Elizabeth Faure.

If you are a descendant of Samuel Anderson, you are also a descendant of Pierre Morriset and Elizabeth Faure.

After years of persecution in France and then life in exile, they were finally on their way to a new permanent home. “The first ship was the “Mary and Ann” with Capt. George Haves that took 13 weeks crossing the Atlantic. It arrived at Hampton on 23 July 1700 with 118 men, 59 wives and girls and 38 children.”²

Who are the Huguenots? Huguenots was the name given to sixteenth and seventeenth century French Protestants. They were basically followers of John Calvin (who was French). By 1561, the Huguenots had over 2,000 churches in France and over 400,000 members — about 10 percent of the French population. This was followed by a period of religious wars over control of the crown. Then on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 23-24 August 1572, Catholics massacred about 400,000 Huguenots all over France. And the violence continued for months.

Finally the Edict of Nantes in 1598 restored tolerance of the Huguenots. However, in 1685 the Edict of Nantes was revoked and the Reformed church was made illegal in France and its colonies. People had the choice of converting to Catholicism, but many instead fled the country to Britain, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc., even though leaving the country was illegal.

“… from the beginning their slogan has ever been: “An open Bible, freedom of conscience, political and religious liberty.” By persecution they have been scattered to the ends of the earth, and “the foot-prints of many of them, as they fled from France for their lives, left blood stains in their tracks. Truly theirs was a trail of blood.””⁴

A side note: the word refugee was first used in France (“réfugié”) to refer to the Huguenots—French Protestants who fled to other countries after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685.

I’d like to tell the story from another Virginia Huguenot family because I think it illustrates what these people went through to maintain their Protestant faith…

“My grandfather, Anthony Trabue, fled from France in the year of our Lord, 1687, at the time of a bloody persecution against the dissenters by the Roman Catholics. The law against the dissenters was very rigid at that time. Whoever was known to be one, or even suspected, if he would not swear to visit the priest, his life and estate were forfeited, and [he was] put to the most shameful and cruel torture and death. And worse than all, they would not let any move from the kingdom. Guards and troops were stationed all over the kingdom to stop and catch any that might run away. At every place where they would expect those persons might pass, there were guards fixed and companies of inquisitors, and patrols going on every road, and every other place, hunting for those heretics, as they called them; and where there was one who made his escape, perhaps there were hundreds put to the most shameful torture and death. * * When the decree was first passed, a number of the people thought it would not be put in execution so very hastily; but the priests, friars and inquisitors were very intent for their estates, and they rushed quick. * * I understand that my grandfather, Anthony Trabue, had an estate, but concluded he would leave it if he could possibly make his escape. He was a very young man, and he and another young man took a cart, and made their escape to an English ship, which took them on board, and they went over to England, leaving their estates, native country, relations, and everything for the sake of Jesus who died for them.”⁵

Fortunately, a number of countries welcomed the Huguenot refugees. “The people of Britain responded with a very great compassion for their outraged compatriots in their Calvinist understanding of the Christian religion. Most of the refugees arrived in England utterly destitute. After all, it was not a matter of leaving, but escaping with your life and a few rags on your back–if one were so fortunate as to escape. More were caught than escaped.”⁶

So in 1700 and 1701, five ships brought Huguenot refugees from London to Virginia where they were promised land. This was funded by the Huguenot Relief Committee in London, supported by the government.

Calvinism attracted sizeable portions of the nobility and urban bourgeoisie, so many of the French Huguenots were not farmers but townsmen, tradespeople, very ill equipped for Virginia in 1700. Plus rather than putting them in or near cities, where they could ply their trades or crafts or even giving them good farm land, they were transported to the frontier to settle in the wilderness. Some food and help was provided but the first few years were very difficult.

Pierre Morriset and Elizabeth Faure were married about 1702. Pierre was naturalized in 1705. Pierre’s son John (my ancestor) and John’s son David both furnished supplies for the revolutionary army. Family story is that John died from wounds received while fighting with the Chesterfield militia.

The Manakin Huguenots integrated very quickly into the general society and no permanent town remained after a few years at Manakin. Pierre’s son and my ancestor John had three wives, the first two of which, including my ancestor Judith Gordon, did not have Huguenot names. I am descended from John’s daughter Judith Morriset (who married another Gordon).

How many living descendants would Pierre Morriset and Elizabeth Faure have? They started having children about 1712 or so… A very conservative estimate is that they probably have over 100,000 living descendants.

Are these my only Huguenot ancestors? Probably not. The German Reformed church is very similar to what the Huguenots practiced. Our German ancestors lived near the Rhine River, very close to France. In fact, during one period I had to read records in French and the name Johann became Jean because that region was ruled by France at that time. I’ve read that certain ancestors were French and others have French sounding names. Since it is doubtful that any Catholics married into our Evangelical and Reformed German ancestors, I’m betting that there are Huguenots in both sides of my family: Klamm/Brenner and Anderson.

More references:

• Manakin Town: The French Huguenot Settlement in Virginia 1700 – ca 1750
• The French Huguenot Frontier Settlement of Manakin Town
• Huguenots on history.com
• Huguenots on Wikipedia
• The Journal of Colonel Daniel Trabue
• Colonial men and times: containing the journal of Col. Daniel Trabue, some account of his ancestry, life and travels in Virginia and the present state of Kentucky during the revolutionary period; the Huguenots, genealogy, with brief sketches of the allied families by Lillie Du Puy Van Culin Harper (1916). This journal starts with stories about his grandparents in France and how they escaped.

1. Elizabeth’s father may have died before the trip or on the ship. Many people believe Mary Ann (Chastain) Faure was the “widow faure and four children” that is in the records. In any case, we hear no more of Elizabeth’s father Danial Isaac Faure.
2. More About Manakin Town
3. The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre (French: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. More about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
4. Stein-Schneider, H., Stein-Schneider, H. (2018). A Brief History of the Huguenots. (n.p.): Cool F/X Publishing. (APA format, available from google books)
5. Read the entire short journal here: The Journal of Colonel Anthony Trabue
6. A Brief History of the Manakin Huguenots