☆TAMMY SETTERQUIST HEPP☆

GENEALOGIST and...

A smart-ass...in a good way. Began talking in full clear sentences by age 1, reading at age 2 - and by age 5 was on TV several times for reading the most books (above 30 a month).

Identified as having an intelligence level above genius at age 6.

Attended summer college courses designed for gifted children at age 9 & 10. Scouted to attend Duke University's TIP program with an SAT score of 1670 at age 12.
Anyone who wonders why I walk up-straight in perfect posture / runway-walk:

see 'ballet' and understand that it means Russians with yard sticks would whack ones legs and back if the derriere was not at ground zero or the feet did not precisely land or move as specifically prescribed. I may thank the cold war for gracefulness, balance, etc. (& perhaps a penchant for yard stick whackings...grrr. LOL)

My friends know who and what I am, where I live and where I have been... so I suppose it is my task to write what I come from.

I am ONE in 200,000 who has, by fortune's chance, genetically inherited the regal and terrible disease ACUTE INTERMITTENT & VARIEGATE PORPHYRIA - which passes as an autosomal dominant disorder at a 50% rate ( 1 of every 2 children born to the bloodline WILL inherit).

As a grand daughter of a line of Kings of Scotland to Kenneth McAlpin (also King of picts by the matrilineal of the Pictish people through his mother, my some-odd great grandmother the Queen of the Picts and her ancestors...think Kiera Knightly's portrayal of a painted warring heroine), I am cousin to every royal family of Europe, Specifically those descended from princess Maud of Scotland (daughter of King Kenneth McAlpin)including the present reigning family of England and all who descended from Queen Victoria - Tzarina Alexandra Romanoff and her children, King George III (who also inherited PORPHYRIA from the same bloodline)etc...,

My 8th great grandparents were Magdalena Jacobs Verdon (daughter of a Walloon / Huguenot immigrant to Amsterdam, Jacob Jans Ferdon / Verdon of 'Rochel' who was the SECRETARY OF THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY) and Adam Berkhoven Brouwer (b. Jan 18, 1620 (or 1627), Hoorn, the Netherlands (Immigrated from Cologne, Germany), d. Apr 15, 1693, age 73, bur Brooklyn Churchyard with his w, mother-in-law and g-m in-law), by Dom Everhardus Bogardus. In Adam's lifetime, Britain took control of New Amsterdam... and in a happy change of events, King William III (of Orange, in the Netherlands) and his wife, Queen Mary II, were installed as rulers of Britain in 1688. The "Glorious" or "Bloodless" Revolution had deposed King James II who had openly supported the Roman Catholic church, which had been alienating most of the English population. Parliament then offered the crown to William and Mary under condition that the monarchs accept the new English Bill of Rights which included the requirement that all future monarchs be members of the Church of England. These events were major steps toward a constitutional monarchy and the ascendancy of Parliament in English government. In 1690, James II mustered an army in Ireland, but "King Billy" won the Battle, fought along the Boyne River, and James fled to France. "Orangemen" still celebrate the Battle of the Boyne, to the enduring embitterment of many Northern Irish Catholics.

Adam was the son of Peter Clement Brouwer, (merchant of Hoorn and the FIRST PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY, org in 1614) and Helena Mey (she was the sis of Peter Cornelise Mey, NAVIGATOR OF THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY, for whom Cape May, NJ was named). Adam went to Brazil in 1641, on the "Swol", as a soldier for the DWI Co. He came to New Amsterdam in 1642, from Cuelen (Cologne) and bought a house of Hendrick Jansen, blacksmith, on Feb 21, 1645. In 1647, he received a patent for a lot on Manhattan Island, but sold it Aug 19, 1656, to Dirck Van Schelluyne. Shortly afterwards he removed to Brooklyn as a Miller.

He built the first flour mill in North America, at Gowanus, with Isaac De Forest (land patented Jul 8, 1645, to Jan Evertsen Bout), later called the "Old Gowanus Mill", or "Freeke's Mill"
(The property was sold by Adolphus Brouwer to John C. Freeke in 1798.) They were originally tenants of Bout, but Bout gave the land to his children in 1667.

During the Battle of Long Island, in the American Revolution, much fighting took place around the mill site (just N of Union, west of Nevin and east of Bond) two of his sons continued milling after him (Their houses were at the present site of Third Ave. and 27th St. in Brooklyn, a section famous for the drowning of hundreds of soldiers in Washington's retreat from Long Island in 1776, when the routed colonials were trapped against the swamps of Gowanus Kil. )

from: Brouwer Genealogy, New City Library, NYG&B Record

I come from Adam's daughter Aeltje (Elsha) and am cousin to: the entire Vanderbilt family ....who are cousins several times over to themselves - as I am - owing mainly to Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt who married his cousin Sophia Johnson ...his mother being Phebe HAND b. 1767 & Sophie's mother being Elizabeth HAND b. 1770 , HOWEVER there was already a sort of "family wreath" going on since Sophia Johnson's father was the son of Nathaniel Johnson & Eleanor VANDERBILT b. 1747 who was his aunt, the older sister of his father Cornelius Vanderbilt b. 1764 (including George Washington Vanderbilt II who created Biltmore Estate)
cousins also including Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt,Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who all come from Adam's daughter Fytje;
My poor mother-abused cousin Consuelo Vanderbilt, once forced to marry as Duchess of Marlborough, pictured with her sons John, the 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill. Consuelo Vanderbilt was a great beauty, with a face compelling enough to cause the playwright Sir James Barrie, author of Peter Pan, to write, "I would stand all day in the street to see Consuelo Marlborough get into her carriage." Oxford undergraduate Guy Fortescue later described how he and his friends were captivated by her "piquante oval face perched upon a long slender neck, her enormous dark eyes fringed with curling lashes
cousin William Kissam Vanderbilt
My grandfather, Willie K's cousin, John North Wagner. Childhood in high society with velvet suits, linen & lace collars. The matriarch Mary Lovett North Wagner - who had survived being BORN AT ONLY 20 OUNCES IN DECEMBER OF 1875 - surrounded by her 5 children (John the intense child in the dark velvet suit with lace color) gazing upon the published children's book which her husband had illustrated and she had written "The Adventures of Jimmy Carrot", taking a break from lecturing at the Chicago institute of Art.
My cousin General John Ellis Wool who led the "Trail of Tears", who came from Adam's son Matthys.

I am a daughter of the American Revolution (DAR).

I also come from a considerably large line of Quakers, "FRIENDS OF THE TRUTH".

My 7th great grandfather was "Friend" Edmund Lovett the Assemblyman of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who. with his wife Martha Stadham, and their three daughters (Elizabeth, Susanna/Susannah, Mary) arrived on the "John and Sarah," Captain Henry Smith, August, 1681.The first immigrants who sailed direct for Pennsylvania left England in August 1681 in the ships John and Sarah, Captain Henry Smith; the Amity, Captain Richard Dimon, and the Bristol Factor, Captain Robert Drew. The John and Sarah was the first to arrive, and her passengers were called the "first landers" by those who came after them. Among them we find the following who, with their families, came into Bucks county, Nathaniel Allen, who settled in Bensalem, above the mouth of the Neshaminy; John Otter, near the head of Newtown creek, where he took up two hundred acres, and Edmund Lovett, in Falls. The first settlers had acquired their tracts from Governor Andros, representative of the Duke of York, and were under his jurisdiction until Lieutenant Governor Markham arrived in 1681, with credentials from William Penn, and announced to the settlers the grant of Pennsylvania. In 1689 definite steps were taken to have a central meeting place for "Falls Monthly Meeting". The minute reads: “it is with unanimous consent concluded that a meeting house in a convenient place from the riverside would be very serviceable.” A committee, Thomas Janney, Richard Hough, William Biles, John Rowland, EDMUND LOVETT and Phineas Pemberton, were appointed to “look out a convenient place of land. After many delays in building it was ready for the first meeting in Seventh month, 1690. This was the first of five houses used for meeting on these grounds. It was in this building that William Penn attended meeting, and the marriage of John and Mary Stocher was held therein.

My 9th great grandmother was Hannah Hadley, founding Member of Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in North Carolina (the original Cane Creek Meeting House was built on the farm of she and her husband Thomas Dixon). Her small church, and that which she left in Pennsylvania, contained the ancestors of many notables and persons of historic significance. Sarah Miller Milhous and her husband Thomas Milhous were Hannah's dear friends who attended the tiny meeting house, witnessing the marriage of Hannah's sister Katherin. Interestingly, they were the 3rd great grandparents of President Richard Milhous Nixon. While Hannah's religion is interesting in itself (and certainly her friendships and alliances) ... the most notable item regarding my dear grandmother was her unshakable resolve toward peace and her devotion to the American cause. Hannah's Manor House at Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina was confiscated by General Lord Cornwallis and used as his headquarters during the Battle of Guilford Court House in the Revolutionary War. She was instrumental in organizing the Cane Creek Meeting House on her farm as a center to support the American cause during the Revolution, thus offering passive resistance to the Tories. Hannah is buried in the cemetery at Cane Creek Meeting House in Snow Camp, North Carolina. Next to her grave is a memorial to her son Simon Dixon, who was died as a result of defending his mill during the Revolutionary War. I am my own cousin through this family, as I come from Hannah's daughter Rebecca Dixon (donated 26 acres to the Monthly Meeting on which the 2nd Meeting House was built) who married William Marshall... and I come from Hannah's son Simon Dixon who wed Elizabeth Allen.

My 8th great grandfather Simon Dixon gave his life as an act of passive resistance during the American Revolution. Simon and his sons, Thomas Dixon who wed Abigail Stuart & my 7th great grandfather John Dixon who wed Rebecca Johnson (and shortly after the Revolution was among the founding inhabitants of Orange County, Indiana and the Cane Creek Church therein) distributed the pamphlets of Simon's brother-in-law Husbands which rallied American's to the cause. They then hid out assisting friends and neighbors... BUT the most important and memorable act performed was jamming his mill with a stone to prevent the British from processing grain (Simon being overcome by Camp Fever in the process, which would soon take his life) . Lord Cornwallis and his British Army camped at Simon Dixon's grist mill near the Cane Creek Meeting House, following their retreat from the Revolutionary Battle of Guilford Courthouse . When Cornwallis's troops were fleeing from Greene's armies, they encamped a day and a night at Dixon's Mill.
Cornwallis commandeered Simon Dixon's stone house, for his headquarters. About 20 of his sick and wounded soldiers died at this encampment, and were buried in the Cane Creek Cemetery. A monument in the old Quaker cemetery (ironically a large mill stone) was erected to the memory of the British soldiers who died during their encampment at the settlement, which, according to legend, they named "Snow Camp" and which still bears the name.

Simon Dixon's wife Elizabeth Allen Dixon was no less a "character". When the Lord General took over the Dixon house, the family took temporary quarters in an out - building near by. That night the good old Quaker lady, Mrs. Dixon (who was Elisabeth Allen) wanted a smoke. She remembered that she had left her pipe in the house. But when she went to retrieve it, a hard boiled sentry barred the way and refused permission to enter. 'But I want my pipe!" said Aunt Lib, "You can't have yer bloody pipe!" growled the sentry, "An' 'ow do I know yer not a bloody hound? Away am' begone, ye rebel!". The General heard the loud argument outside of the door, finding two sentries with the miller’s wife. . He had recognized Mrs. Dixon's Voice.'What's this! What's this!" He called to the sentry. "Trying to keep a - lady out of her own house! Of course she can have her pipe. Come on in, Mrs. Dixon, and get what you like." Cornwallis escorted her inside and helped her search until she located the pipe, and then showed her out once again. Mrs. Dixon retrieved her pipe taking leave of General Cornwallis, wrapped in a blanket, seated in a chair before the fire. Her husband Simon would die in that same chair in the days following. The chair is now in the Greensboro Museum.

The final resting place of Simon Dixon, patriarch of Snow Camp and one of the county's earliest settlers, is marked in the Cane Creek Friends' cemetery by a stone mill wheel which Mr .Dixon is said to have brought with him from Pennsylvania .The modern-day community which exists in that place honors his selfless moral fortitude in a yearly theatrical production "Sword of Peace" that commemorates his bravery. "Simon’s Gold" is a children's book which is an exciting tale about the search for a cache of gold lost during the Revolutionary War at Simon Dixon’s Mill in Alamance County, North Carolina.

William Marshall's grave memorial. Simon Dixon's grave memorial & that of his peaceful-patriot mother Hannah Hadley Dixon Stanfield. The memorial for those who fell at the encampment at "Snow Camp".
The marker for Simon reads: "In Memory of Simon Dixon And his wife Elizabeth Allen Dixon. Born in Penna 1728. Pioneer Settler who bought these Lands from the Lords Proprietors of North Carolina, 1751. Built Dixon's Mill, 1753. Died April. 1781. Born in Penna 1728. Died 1793. Both were charter members of Cane Creek Meeting organized 1751"

My 7th great grandfather John Bradford served in the Dunmore War and a year later participated in the Revolutionary War, serving in the Militia under the famous minister/colonel Peter Muhlenberg (an intimate friend of Patrick Henry & George Washington) whose valedictory sermon at his church in Woodstock concluded with: "The endangered fatherhood, we owe wealth and blood, needs our arms, it calls its sons to drive off all oppressors. The Holy Scripture says 'There is a time for everything in this world'. A time to talk, and a time to be silent, a time to preach and a time to pray. But also a time to fight and this time has come. Therefore, whoever loves freedom in his new fatherland, he may follow me". Peter Muhlenberg then laid aside his clerical robe to reveal his militia uniform. He walked to the door as the congregation sang Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". The drums rolled and the men of the church followed their pastor and signed up. Within an hour 162 men had enlisted in the Virginia 8th Regiment of Foot - the "German Regiment" ,which served under a Salmon colored silk flag with broad fringe of the same and a simple scroll in the center. When relieved and placed into George Washington's main army in 1777, a group of about 200 men remained... including John Bradford who had participated in the "Battle of Charleston" was said to be among those who spite of broken and bleeding feet walked barefoot on near frozen ground the 260 miles to Washington's Headquarters. George Washington wrote on April 3, 1777 "How I am going to oppose them God knows, for except a few hundred from Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia (the Virginia 8th had only 134 men at this time), I have not yet received a man from the new Continental levies. The army was not only small, it was also destitute, absolutely perishing for want of clothes", many of the men "quite barefoot", wrote General Washington.

'On August 23rd General George Washington decided to parade his army through the Capitol formally, for the first time. The troops were roused at 3:00 a.m. on the morning of August 24, 1777. At four, they fell into formation and by six they had reached Philadelphia. The American "uniforms", were extremely varied and individually customized (far from "uniform") . All the men were ordered to wear a sprig of green leaves in their hats (an emblem of hope) for the parade.'

I come from the Drake family, along with other intermarried and associated families including Smith, Brouwer, Oldfield etc., intrinsic in the early history of Orange County, New York.

My 4th great grandfather David Grasset Drake
served in the Militia from Orange County, New York where my 5th great uncle Joseph Drake used his Chester Village tavern to secret to safety and save the lives of French author St John de Crevecoeur's children - Author of "Letters from an American Farmer" including the famous "What is an American" (...took an Americanized name of St. John. A daughter of Joseph Drake's nephew James, Fanny, would later married John St. John)

My cousin was Admiral John Drake Sloat (5th cousin, son of my 5th great uncle Joseph's daughter Ruth) who placed the flag upon California and FOR WHOM THE TITLE ADMIRAL WAS CREATED - the first to bear the title in the American military.
From: "Along the Wawayanda Pass" by Donald Barrell, (deceased,former Chester historian) Chapter Nine, JOSEPH DRAKE and the CHESTER IRISH

Joseph Drake's Tavern was very old, older than the Yelverton Inn, and was located on the Ramapo Pass Trail, first as a home. It soon became a tavern as thirsty, hungry travelers kept stopping for refreshments. It was a two story slab building with split shingle roof. The first story had grout filled siding, which had settled so it was always out of plumb. It was never painted and blended with the hillside so it could easily be passed without notice. Quite possibly it had a still connected with it, as early tavern keepers had to make their own grog. Built long before the Revolution, it was burned in 1944 to make room for Joseph Fichera's new house.

Joseph Drake was a friendly old man, much too old to sserve in the Revolution but who gave good service in other ways.

All Drake's in this part of the country claimed kinship to Sir Francis Drake, the buccaneer and adventurer, but England's hero at the time of the Spanish Armada. Drake was, no doubt, deCrevecoer's first acquaintance when he came here, and his lasting friend. When deCrevecoer was persecuted because of his French blood, his house burned, his wife's death hastened and his children scattered, it was secretly, old Joseph Drake, who cared for them and saw to it that they got safely to Boston and put in charge of deCrevecoer's loyal friends. This was done at great personal risk to Drake."

Shortly before my 4th grandpa Drake's death , he recounted stories of the village, war and happenings at the Drake Tavern / house to several historians who eagerly put his memories to quill and paper (while found quite lubricated from drink at the also historically significant Yelverton Inn.) The tavern saw guests the likes of Burr, Hamilton and Washington.

One New England traveler described his experience at the Drake Tavern: The "Diary of Dr. Increase Mathhews" describing a summer journey, passes through Orange County, including the Edenville area of Warwick... he speaks of being hosted by Mr. Drake (and seems to feel differently than most... AND boy is this funny....

"Saturday, 30th (June 1798). Put up at Drake's, Chester, 7 miles...Our landlord is a singular character, rough & grumbling, swears at every breath." (I can imagine it now...fekkin' this and 'shite' that. laugh.)

Gratefully, "History is made by historians" and those Historians seemed to have an inherent liking of the Drakes...even to modern day

Wednesday, June 10, 1992, Independent Republican, Clipping (reciting a 1937 work): "Main Street was the old "Wawayanda Pathe" from the ancient Algonquin tribal meeting grounds near Philadelphia to the Dans Kammer on the Hudson, joined by the "Ramapo Pass Trail" at what is now Hudson Street. Joseph Drake's old tavern, built long before the Revolution, stood nearby. Drake, a friendly old man, was far too old to fight when the Revolution broke out. In 1946, the Drake Tavern was burned to make room for a modern house."

"Early Chester and Its Settlement ", Frank Durland ,Chester , NY, July 1937:

"The first deed on record, filed in the Clerk's office in Orange County, some 231 years ago., is dated March 5th, 1703. This deed, given under Royal authority in the reign of Queen Anne, was signed by twelve Indian Sachems, or Chiefs, then living in different parts of our historic Orange County."...."Chester at that time was a small hamlet in the town of Goshen. We have the deeds for the following sales: a tract of 120 acres was sold to one John Beers, who in turn sold a portion of 42 3/4 acres to one John Ensign, dated June 16th, 1751, who then sold this same tract by deed dated May 19th, 1755, to John Yelverton for the sum of 97 pounds and 4 shillings, about $475.00. This is part of the acreage on which our village of Chester is located. "

John Beers ,who owned the land which Chester occupies, was my 6th great grandfather, David Drake's maternal grandfather.

Through the Sherman family of John Beer's mother ( to Henry Serman & Agnes Butter), I am cousin to current President George Bush and Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry as well as many other past presidents, Susan B. Anthony, Janis Joplin, Steve Young of football fame,and many others.

AS I CONTINUE HEREIN, LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I HAVE NO APPRECIATION OF THE BLIND FAITH AND INABILITY OF CRITICAL THOUGHT OR THE ABSENCE OF DEDUCTIVE REASONING WHICH IS A LOATHESOME ATTRIBUTE OF ADHERENTS OF CATHOLICISM. I DESPISE CATHOLICISM AS A RELIGION AT-LARGE, A CULT OF FRIGHTENED SMALL-MINDED SHEEP...IT IS A PLAGUE RESPONSIBLE FOR DEGENERATION, DEGRADATION, DECLINE AND DESOLATION... OF INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS OPERATING UNDER FLIMSY, REPREHENSIBLE, RELIGIOUS EXCUSES FOR INTENTIONAL VIOLENCE, BIGOTRY, MISOGYNY, PEDOPHILIA AND EVERY SINGULARLY NAMEABLE TORTURE OR CRIME THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. DESPICABLE ACTS ARE NOT ADMONISHED, AND ARE THEREBY ENCOURAGED BY-DEFAULT...AS THEY ARE THE MEAT-AND-POTATOES OF THE RELIGION'S LONG STANDING "HAIL-MARY REPENTANCE AND PAY THE CHURCH FOR YOUR SINS".. WHICH ESSENTIALLY CREATES THE OPPORTUNITY AND POSSIBILITY FOR EVEN THE MOST HEINOUS ACT WITH THE CONTEMNOR HAVING NO MORE ACCOUNTABILITY THAN NEEDING TO ENACT THE CATHOLIC "RE-DO" OR "RESET" BUTTON THROUGH REPENTING, WHICH IS NO MORE THAN CALLING OUT A SOCIAL "MULLIGAN"!!! IN MY EXPERIENCE, CATH-O-HOLICS APPROACH THE REST OF LIFE IN THE SAME MANNER, ENACTING THE SAME REPREHENSIBLY UNAPOLOGETIC LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND PRONOID EXPECTATION WITH ANY AND ALL PERSONS, INSTEAD OF STRIVING TO UPHOLD REASONABLE STANDARDS OF HUMAN DECENCY. But I will interject some levity here, to bring you back to a smile...

What do you call a decrepit old pedophile who hates women and has a $500 dollar hat?

Pope.

My 8th great grandfather, from whom David Grasset Drake received his middle name, was a truly great man named Augustus Grasset who escaped the catholic-church-led atrocities of 1600s France ( AUGUSTE GRASSET OF LA ROCHELLE, LONDON AND NEW YORK CITY , Neil D. Thompson, F.A.S.G.)

AUGUSTE GRASSET, also called AUGUSTUS GRASSETT, was a Huguenot schoolmaster, merchant and public official, born 18 January 1645 at La Rochelle in France and there baptized in the Huguenot Temple de la ville neuve 5 February 1645 ( Registres protestants, Archives departmentales de la Rochelle .., Temple de la ville neuve 5 fevrier 1645. hereafter referred to as: Arch. la Rochelle). He was the son of Pierre and Elizabeth (Coustardeur) Grasset whose marriage in the same church took place 7 December 1642 (Arch. la Rochelle). The Huguenot faith was representative of nobility and the upper class , until becoming politically unfavorable.

In 1652 Louis XIV, King of France, confirmed the Edict of Nantes (1598) of his grandfather Henry IV. However, an assembly of the catholic clergy in 1655 called for a stricter interpretation of the edict; their assembly of 1660 asked the King to close all Huguenot colleges and hospitals, and to exclude Huguenots from public office. By 1664 advancement to mastership in the guilds (trades) was made especially difficult for any but Catholics. In 1665 boys of fourteen and girls of twelve were authorized to accept conversion to Catholicism and to leave their parents, who were thereafter required to pay them an annuity for their support. In 1666 the King expressed his appreciation of Huguenot loyalty during the Fronde... but the Huguenots were forbidden to establish new colleges, or to maintain academies for the education of the young nobility. In 1669 the emigration of Huguenots was made punishable with arrest if they were captured, and confiscation of goods; and anyone who aided a Huguenot to emigrate was subject to condemnation to the galleys for life. The catholic assembly of 1670 recommended that children who had reached their seventh birthday should be deemed legally capable of abjuring the Huguenot heresy, and that those who so abjured should be removed from their parents; in 1675 their assembly demanded that mixed marriages be declared null, and that the offspring of such marriages be classed as illegitimate. In 1685 King Louis XIV. of France - who had earlier had himself declared the Protector of Catholicism - formally revoked the Edict of Nantes. French dragoons, already in 1681, were ordered to evict French protestants. The Dragonnard campaigns were conducted during the years following the order, and caused ten thousands of Huguenots, Waldensians (in French : Vaudois; in the Alpine regions bordering on Savoy), Lutherans (from the Alsace) to emigrate, others nominally to convert to Catholicism. Some were arrested, sentenced and sent to the galleys. In most cases the Dragonnards met no resistance, but in some areas, such as the Waldensian valleys, actual military campaigns were fought.

Says the leading French authority on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes: All was permitted except murder. They made the Huguenots walk or dance till exhausted; they tossed them up in blankets; they poured boiling water down their throats . . . ; They beat the soles of their feet; they pulled out the hair of beards . . . ' they burned the arms and legs of their hosts with candle flame . . . ' they forced them to hold burning charcoal in their hands . . . They burned the feet of many, holding them long before a great fire . . . They forced women to stand naked in the street, to bear the mockery and outrages of passersby. They bound a nursing mother to a bedpost, and held away from her the infant crying for her breasts; and when she opened her mouth to plead with them they spat into her mouth.

In 1672 the Huguenot church register recorded the marriage of Auguste Grasset, age 27 merchant, to Marie Pele, age 28, daughter of the late Pierre and Marie (Gautier) Pele. Arch la Rochelle 27 janvier 1672.

My 8th great grandfather and his family fled La Rochelle ...
and made safe passage to London, England and on to New York by 1681. Auguste continued in his previous occupation(s) as well as taking on the title of Master of the Weigh House and served as the "Chef de famille" of the first (Independent) French Church in New York.

The first independent French Church was organized under the Rev. Pierre Daille who had been a professor at the French Protestant college of Saumur before it was closed by order of the king and its faculty banished. Seeking refuge in Holland, Mr. Daille then went to London where he received Anglican holy orders. He came to America to work with the French and Dutch, not only in Manhattan, but in the surrounding area, going on a regular schedule to Huguenot communities in New Paltz, Staten Island, and New Jersey. In 1687 he was aided by the arrival of the Rev. Pierre Peiret, a native of Languedoc in the South of France. Concentrating on the French of New York while Mr. Daille continued his work in the surrounding area, Mr. Peiret organized the first French congregation to have its own edifice. This small church was located on what was then called Petticoat Lane, later Marketfield Street. Today it is Battery Place between Broadway and West Streets. It was called simply "L'Eglise Francaise a la Nouvelle York." However, Huguenot immigration was so great that after a few years the congregation became too large for the building. In 1704 a new and larger church was built at the corner of Pine and Nassau Streets and was called, for the first time, "Le Temple du Saint-Esprit." It was to serve the parish for the next 130 years. The church was a simple rectangular building, 50 by 75 feet. Beside it was a graveyard. There was a wooden fence on the sides which bordered the streets. It possessed a small tower which was surmounted by a cupola. By all accounts, it looked like a small country church.

Auguste was a beloved man, not-only by members of his church and fellow expatriated Huguenots, cherished by friend and neighbor.

In the early hours of a crisp April morning in 1712, the ministers house was set afire. Men of the village rushed to the aid and protection of all... and fell into a perilous, murderous trap which was badly orchestrated by a group of slaves (who had been imported from a Dutch settlement called Cormentine). Auguste was stabbed in the neck as he rushed out of his home to extinguish the fire. The great teacher and patriarch was no more.

"Negro Plot in New York": "New York, April 7, 1712 Some Cormentine negroes to the number of twenty-five or thirty, and two or three spanish indians, having conspired to murder all the Christians here, and by that means thinking to obtain their freedom, about 2 o’clock this morning put their bloody design into execution; and , setting fire to a house, they stood prepared with arms to kill everybody that approached to put it out; and, accordingly, barbarously murdered the following persons that were running to the fire, viz: Adrian Hoogland, Adrian Beekman ( son of Gerardus, merchant, stabbed on coming out of his door and died in the arms of his wife), Lt. Corbet, Augustus Grasset, William Echt, ____ Marschalk, Jr., ______ Brasier, Jr. , Johannes Low. These also were wounded: Lawrence Read, merchant, Hendrick Hoogland, Jr., Johannes de Honneur, John Troup, Thomas Stewart, George Elsworth, Jr., and David Coseart; the first and last ‘tis feared mortally. Upon which the town was soon alarmed; which occasioned the murderers fleeing into the woods; where several parties are out after them and have taken some (who are committed), and hope to rest before night. This has put us into no small consternation, the whole town being under arms. April 14: We have about seventy negroes in custody, and ‘tis feared most of the negroes here (who are very numerous) knew of the late conspiracy to murder the christians. Six of them have been their own executioners by shooting, and cutting their own throats; three were executed according to law; one was burnt,; a second broke up upon the wheel; a third hung up alive; and nine more of the mudering negroes are to be executed tomorrow." - BOSTON NEWS LETTER The General Assembly voted, as compensation to the owners, fifty ounces of plate for each of the 19 slaves executed.

Record of the coroner's inquest into the murder of Augustus Grasset by the slave Toby and his 37 confederates remains an important holding of the New York Historical Society.

August's son was Samuel Grasset, tanner and leatherworker; his house is the famous "Treasure House" on Richmond Hill Road on Staten Island...which was later home home and shop of a series of saddlers and shoemakers; bakery and post office in late 19th and 20th centuries. Name received from tradition that a cache of gold coins was found, c. 1860, hidden in the walls by the British during the American Revolution.

August's great grandson (and thereby my 1st cousin 8xr) was Henry Laurens who was president of the 2nd Continental Congress and (here's some trivia) THE ONLY AMERICAN PRESIDENT HELD PRISONER BY A FOREIGN COUNTRY ....
In an ironic twist, Henry became heavily involved in slave trading (perhaps coincidence, perhaps retribution for the previous violence the family had suffered...to claim either would be mere speculation).

In either case, Historians claim that Henry Laurens imported 1/4 of the slaves to the US... his father-in-law Elias 'Red-Cap' Ball importing another 1/4

(and the previously mentioned DWIC importing yet another 1/4 slaves. sigh)

NEW ARRIVALS... My 3rd great grandparents James Curran and Mary Hamilton arrived to the port of New York aboard the Cornelia in November of 1846, just before "Black 47". While the rich English lords and land owners of Ireland exported 8 ships full of food per day out of Ireland, the peasantry of Ireland was left with nothing to sustain them but potato crops which had been infected by a deadly fungus. Irish citizens starved to death as victims of racist insensitivity during the height of Ireland’s agricultural ABUNDANCE.

The Holocaust, alternately called the “Potato Famine”,“Great Starvation” or in native Irish tongue “An Gorta Mor” (The Great Hunger) , killed between 1 1/2 million to 2 million Irish and caused the emigration of another 1 1/2 million. Thousands of Irish died in decrepit “coffin ships” before reaching the shore of their new land. Typical Provisions provided for the journey were set out as: 'Three Quarts of Water each day, and Seven Pounds of Bread, Biscuit, Flour or Oatmeal per week, one-half of which supply will consist of Bread or Biscuit.'

Twenty years later, the law declared that passengers should receive: 'To each statute Adult, 3 quarts Water daily, exclusive of what is necessary for Cooking the Articles required by the passenger Act to be issued in a Cooked State; and a weekly allowance of Provisions according to the following scale:

3.5lbs. Bread or Biscuit, not inferior in quality to Navy Biscuit, 2.5 lbs. Flour, 3 3/8 lbs. Oatmeal, 2lbs. Potatoes, 1.25 lbs. Beef, 1lb. Pork, 2ozs. Tea, 1lb. Sugar, 2ozs.Salt, .5oz.Mustard, .25oz.Pepper, 1 Gill Vinegar.

My 2nd great grandfather Thomas James Curran was among the passengers to survive passage to America. He was one of the luckiest of Irish toddlers , to have survived starvation, cholera , typhus and to make it to America’s safe harbor alive...as did all of his siblings, which is owed entirely to the strength, love, mothering and perseverance of Mary Hamilton Curran. However, The year 1846 in New York saw unfortunate conditions likened to that depicted in the film "Gangs of New York". The Curran family made it's way to Ohio - where generations of builders and stone masons took beginning. Thomas Curran became a skilled builder who was in high demand in constructing railroad structures and public edifices throughout the country, which he traversed in his private train car with his wife - and children who were born along the journey.

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