From the Isle of Ré to the American Frontier: The Story of Pierre Rezeau and the Huguenots of Fresh Kills

 

In October 1685, King Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes and making Protestantism illegal in France. French Calvinists, known as Huguenots, faced a brutal choice: convert to Catholicism, face imprisonment or galley slavery, or flee their homeland. For maritime families along the Atlantic coast, the choice was clear. They abandoned their land, gathered what few possessions they could carry, and took to the sea.

Among these refugees was nine-year-old Pierre Rezeau, born on October 2, 1676, on the Île de Ré—an island off the coast of La Rochelle, the historic heartland of French Protestantism. The Rezeau family fled south across the Atlantic, first arriving in Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, before making their way north in the 1690s to Staten Island, New York.

Under British colonial rule, Staten Island offered generous land grants and religious liberty. Pierre settled at Fresh Kills (near modern-day Greenridge), a landscape of tidal estuaries and salt marshes along the island's western shore. There, alongside fellow refugees, he built a prosperous farm and served as a town constable, precinct warden, and vestryman.

The Sanctuary at Fresh Kills

The settlement at Fresh Kills became one of the most vibrant French-speaking enclaves in colonial New York. Fleeing severe persecution, families like the Rezeaus, Bellevilles, Blanchardes, and Disosways clustered together along the waterways to farm, fish, and build a new life while preserving their native tongue and culture.

Around 1698, the settlers formally organized the French Protestant Church of Staten Island. Located near the intersection of modern-day Arthur Kill Road and Richmond Avenue, the original church was a modest, unadorned wooden structure reflecting Calvinist simplicity. Led by itinerant French pastors—most notably Rev. David de Bonrepos—the church served as both a spiritual sanctuary and a civic hub. Church elders like Pierre managed poor relief, organized community works, and settled local land disputes.

By the 1720s and 1730s, as the immigrant generation passed away, their children intermarried with neighboring Dutch and English families. Lacking a steady supply of French-speaking ministers, the congregation gradually merged into nearby Saint Andrew's Parish (at historic Richmond Town), where many early Huguenot pioneers rest today.

Fast Facts: Pierre Rezeau (1676–1723)

• Birth: October 2, 1676 — Ste. Marie, Île de Ré, Poitou-Charentes, France
• Death: October 8, 1723 — Staten Island, Richmond County, New York
• Immigration: Fled France c. 1685; settled Staten Island c. 1690s via South Carolina
• Role: Farmer, Constable, Precinct Warden, and Founding Elder of the French Church at Fresh Kills
• Marriage Note: While some colonial records record his spouse as Marie Blanchard, ancestral family records also link him to Marie Contesse (b. 1680).
• Surname Evolution: Appears in early records as Rezeau, Rizeau, Raza, and Razo.

Direct Ancestral Lineage: From Pierre Rezeau to the Boyd Family

GEN 1: Pierre Rezeau (1676–1723) [8th Great-Grandfather]

       m. Marie Contesse (1680–  )

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GEN 2: Susannah Rezeau (c. 1717–__?)

       m. John (Jeane Louis Le Brun) Brown (1709–1802) [French Huguenot, Founder of Browntown, NJ]

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GEN 3: Mary (Maria) Brown (c. 1745–1827)

       m. Moses Groom (1746–1786)

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GEN 4: Ezekiel Groom (1767–1836) [Moved from NJ to Franklin Co., Ohio]

       m. Rhoda McDonald (1773–1859)

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GEN 5: Job Groom (1795–1823)

       m. Mary "Polly" Bloom (1799–1839)

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GEN 6: Sarah Catherine Groom (1815–c. 1858)

       m. Valentine Boyd (1811–1870)

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       └──> Sophia Boyd (1836–1908) & Siblings [Appanoose Co., Iowa Frontier]

A Century-Long Journey West

The story of Pierre Rezeau is the first chapter in a classic American migration saga. Driven from the shores of Atlantic France by religious tyranny, Pierre helped carve out a quiet sanctuary in the salt marshes of Staten Island. His daughter Susannah Rezeau married another French Huguenot refugee, John (Jeane Louis Le Brun) Brown, who fled Auvergne, France, anglicized his surname, and established the settlement of Browntown in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

For three generations, the family rooted itself in New Jersey soil. But by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the pioneer spirit pushed their descendants onward. Ezekiel Groom and his wife Rhoda McDonald packed their belongings and headed west across the Appalachian Mountains, settling in Franklin County, Ohio.

By the mid-1800s, when Sarah Catherine Groom married Valentine Boyd, the line pushed even further into the American heartland—moving from Pickaway County, Ohio, out to the Iowa frontier in Appanoose County. From a small French island in 1676 to the rolling prairies of Iowa in 1858, Pierre Rezeau’s descendants carried forward the resilience, faith, and quiet determination of their Huguenot ancestors.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Colonel Thomas Andrew Dew: Political Rise & The Speaker's Chair

 

Colonel Thomas Andrew Dew (10th great-grandfather)(c. 1625–1661) was a central political and military figure in 17th-century Virginia. Arriving in the colony during its formative decades, he rose to become one of the most powerful colonial officials of his era.

Political Rise & The Speaker's Chair

Dew established his landholdings in Nansemond County along the lower James River. His political career unfolded rapidly through the Virginia House of Burgesses:

• Burgess for Nansemond County: He served across multiple assemblies throughout the 1640s and 1650s, representing local planter interests.
• Speaker of the House of Burgesses (1652–1653): Elected Speaker during the English Commonwealth period, Dew led the assembly through delicate negotiations following the execution of King Charles I, ensuring Virginia retained legislative autonomy under Oliver Cromwell's rule.
• Member of the Governor's Council (1655–1660): Elevated to the colony's highest executive body, advising the Governor and serving on the General Court.

Expeditions & Land Holdings

As a militia colonel, Dew helped organize coastal defenses and expand trade routes:

• The Outer Banks Expedition (1656): Authorized by the General Assembly, Dew led an exploratory sea voyage along the coast between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear to map navigational channels and establish trade alliances with indigenous nations.
• Plantation Estate: He accumulated thousands of acres in Nansemond and surrounding counties, helping pioneer the early tobacco export trade.

Key Historical & Family Timeline

Year	Milestone
c. 1625	Born in Kingston Lisle, Berkshire, England.
c. 1642	Arrived in Virginia; established seat in Nansemond County.
1652	Elected Speaker of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown.
1655	Appointed to the Governor's Council.
1656	Commissioned to explore the North Carolina coastal waters.
1661	Died in Jamestown, Virginia.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Rev. William Thompson: The Expedition to Colonial Virginia (1642)

Rev. William Thompson (10th great-grandfather)(often spelled Tompson in contemporary colonial records) played a brief but dramatic role in early American Puritanism. Educated at Oxford University, Thompson fled religious conformist pressure in England to join the Great Migration to New England.

The Braintree Ministry (1639–1666)

Upon arriving in Massachusetts Bay, Thompson settled in Braintree (a community encompassing modern-day Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts).

• First Ordained Pastor: On September 24, 1639, the Church of Christ at Braintree was formally organized, and Thompson was appointed its first pastor. He was formally ordained in November 1639 alongside Henry Flint, who served as the church’s teacher. 
• Connection to the Founding Generation: The Braintree parish went on to serve as the spiritual home for several generations of prominent American families, educating and shaping the early ancestors of Founding Father John Adams.

The Expedition to Colonial Virginia (1642)

In September 1642, the Massachusetts Bay authorities received an urgent letter from Puritan dissenters living along the James River in Virginia. They requested that the northern colony send "a supply of faithful ministers" to help preach Congregational doctrine on the southern frontier.

• The Mission: Governor John Winthrop and the Boston ministers selected three clergymen for the journey: William Thompson of Braintree, John Knowles of Watertown, and Thomas James of New Haven. 
• The Journey: The three ministers set sail in October 1642. They traveled south to preach to English settlers in the Virginia wilderness, making several high-profile converts (including Daniel Gookin, who later became a prominent magistrate and military officer in Massachusetts). 

Conflict and Expulsion from Virginia (1643)

The mission put the Massachusetts ministers directly at odds with the royal and religious authorities of colonial Virginia:

  [SEP 1642]               [OCT 1642]               [LATE 1642 - 1643]               [1643]

Puritan Request ──► Ministers Depart Boston ──► Preaching in VA Wilderness ──► Expelled by VA Assembly

 (From VA Dissenters)     (Thompson, Knowles, James)    (High-Profile Conversions)      (Return to New England)

1. The Anglican Stronghold: Unlike the Puritan government of Massachusetts, Virginia was a Royalist, Anglican colony. Sir William Berkeley, the Royal Governor of Virginia, viewed non-conformist Puritan ministers as a threat to royal authority and social order.
2. Legislative Ban: In March 1643, Governor Berkeley and the Virginia General Assembly passed strict legislation requiring all ministers within the colony to conform strictly to the rites and liturgy of the Church of England.
3. Expulsion: The law specifically prohibited non-conforming ministers from teaching or preaching in Virginia. Refusing to submit to the Anglican hierarchy, Thompson and his fellow missionaries were formally expelled from the colony and forced to return north to Massachusetts.
4. Tragic Personal Loss: Upon returning to Braintree, Thompson learned that his first wife, Abigail, had died during his absence on the Virginia mission.

Historical Legacy & Cotton Mather

Despite his expulsion from Virginia, Thompson returned to his post at Braintree, where he served until his death on December 10, 1666.

His mission to Virginia and his theological influence left a lasting mark on early colonial history. Famous minister and historian Cotton Mather later memorialized Rev. William Thompson in his landmark history of New England, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), praising Thompson’s devotion, missionary efforts, and conversion of key early colonial figures.

Arrrrr The Pirate Mutiny of Captain John Fillmore Jr

 

John Fillmore Jr (1702–1777) (3rd cousin 8x removed)—the great-grandfather of U.S. President Millard Fillmore—lived through an extraordinary sequence of events after his capture by Captain John Phillips in late August 1723.

Capture on the Dolphin

In the spring of 1723, 21-year-old John Fillmore set out from Ipswich, Massachusetts, on his first major voyage aboard the fishing sloop Dolphin, commanded by Captain Mark Haskell. On August 29, 1723, while fishing off the coast of Newfoundland, the Dolphin was ambushed by the notorious pirate Captain John Phillips aboard the vessel Revenge.

One of Phillips’s crew members, William White (a former acquaintance of Fillmore from his apprenticeship days), recognized John and pointed him out to Phillips as a skilled, useful hand. Phillips offered Captain Haskell a deal: hand over Fillmore, and the rest of the Dolphin’s crew and vessel would be released unharmed. To save his crewmates, Fillmore voluntarily stepped forward, agreeing to serve under Phillips after the pirate captain swore an oath to set him free after two months of faithful service.

Nine Months of Forced Service

Phillips broke his promise. When two months passed and Fillmore requested his release, Phillips extended the period by three months. When that deadline expired, Phillips famously spat: "Set you at liberty! Damn you! You shall be set at liberty when I'm damned, and not before."

During his nine months of captivity, Fillmore witnessed constant brutality:

• Pirate Discipline: Phillips maintained a violent, unpredictable rule. In one paranoid outburst, he ran his sword through one of his own men and shot him in the head.
• Near-Execution: Following the murder of that crewman, a crazed Phillips turned to Fillmore, held a loaded pistol to his chest, and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired twice—and Fillmore managed to deflect the barrel away before Phillips played it off as merely "testing" his courage.
• Forced Labor: As a captive, Fillmore feigned obedience while constantly seeking an opportunity to strike back alongside other pressed men, including Edward Cheeseman (a navigator) and William White.

The Mutiny of April 18, 1724

By April 1724, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Phillips’s crew captured additional fishing vessels and spent the evening celebrating with a heavy drinking binge. Recognizing their chance, Fillmore, Cheeseman, and a few fellow captives plotted a morning assault while the surviving pirate crew slept off the alcohol below deck.

Around noon on April 18, four key pirate leaders—Captain Phillips, the Boatswain, the Master, and the Quartermaster (John Rose Archer)—came on deck. Armed with heavy broadaxes and carpenter’s tools, Fillmore and his co-conspirators struck:

1. The Assault: Fillmore split open the head of the pirate captain with an adze/broadaxe, while Cheeseman and others killed the Boatswain and Master, throwing them overboard.
2. Securing the Ship: The remaining officers and crew below deck were trapped and forced to surrender immediately upon realizing their leaders were dead.

Arrival in Boston & Legacy

Fillmore and his fellow mutineers sailed the captured pirate vessel into Boston Harbor on May 3, 1724, delivering the surviving pirates to the authorities.

• Court Verdict: The Court of Admiralty tried and convicted the surviving pirate crew. Several, including John Rose Archer, were hanged at Boston's Bird Island.
• The Trophies: For his heroism, the Admiralty Court awarded John Fillmore Captain Phillips's personal belongings: his silver-hilted cutlass, a heavy 4-foot sic pistol, a silver shoe and knee buckles, gold rings, and a carved tobacco box.

• Aftermath: Fillmore swore off the sea entirely after the ordeal. He settled inland in Norwich (Franklin), Connecticut, where he worked as a carpenter, mill owner, and farmer until his death in 1777. The silver-hilted pirate sword remained a treasured heirloom within the Fillmore family for generations, passed down directly to President Millard Fillmore.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

George Mason I: The Royalist Pioneer

 

George Mason I (1629–1686) was the patriarch of one of the most politically influential dynasties in early American history. His arrival in Virginia laid the wealth, status, and geographic foundation that directly enabled his great-grandson, Founding Father George Mason IV, to shape the American Republic.

Early life:

Born in Pershore, Worcestershire, England, George Mason I (9th great-grandfather) was a staunch Royalist (or "Cavalier") who fought for King Charles I and King Charles II during the English Civil War.

• The Flight from England: Following the disastrous Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester (1651), Mason fled the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, boarding a ship for Virginia around 1652.
• Establishing the Frontier Seat: He settled first in Norfolk County before moving north to Stafford County along Accokeek Creek. His plantation marked the far northern edge of the English frontier at the time.
• Military & Political Command: As Lieutenant Colonel of the Stafford County Militia, he commanded frontier defenses during the tumultuous skirmishes that led up to Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). He also served as High Sheriff of Stafford County and represented the region in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

The Direct Lineage to the Founding Father

The estate, public prominence, and political influence passed down directly through four generations of eldest sons, each named George:

  [George Mason I] (1629–1686) ── Cavalier Immigrant, Burgess & Militia Colonel

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  [George Mason II] (1660–1716) ── Justice of the Peace & Militia Commander

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  [George Mason III] (1690–1735) ── County Lieutenant & Planter (Drowned in Potomac)

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  [George Mason IV] (1725–1792) ── Founding Father & Author of the VA Declaration of Rights

The Legacy Handed to George Mason IV

While George Mason I built the empire through land grants and military force, George Mason IV inherited both the physical wealth and the philosophical tradition of colonial leadership.

• The Land & Wealth: By the time George Mason IV came of age, the land holdings secured by his great-grandfather and expanded by his grandfather and father encompassed tens of thousands of acres across Northern Virginia, including the land where Mason built his famous estate, Gunston Hall.
• The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776): Drawing on his family’s long heritage of public service, George Mason IV drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Its opening principles—that all men are inherently free and equal and possess unalienable rights—were famously adapted by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
• The Bill of Rights: Mason IV was one of the most prominent delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he refused to sign the U.S. Constitution because it lacked an explicit protection of individual liberties. His stubborn principled stance earned him the title "Father of the Bill of Rights," as his arguments directly forced the adoption of the first ten amendments in 1791.

Comparison Across Generations

Metric / Aspect	George Mason I (Great-Grandfather)	George Mason IV (Great-Grandson)
Era	17th-Century Colonial Frontier	18th-Century American Revolution
Key Role	Militia Colonel & Burgess	Framer of the Constitution & Philosopher
Primary Legacy	Secured Northern VA land and estate	Authored VA Declaration of Rights & inspired U.S. Bill of Rights
Seat of Power	Accokeek Creek Plantation, Stafford Co.	Gunston Hall, Fairfax Co.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Scottish Enlightenment, American Independence and George Mason

 

The Scottish Enlightenment was one of the most intellectually fertile periods in European history, producing ideas that traveled directly across the Atlantic to forge the ideological engine of the American Revolution. Rather than adopting the abstract, centralized models of Continental thinkers, the American Founders drew heavily upon Scotland’s practical approach to human nature, governance, and fundamental liberties—an influence that ultimately shaped both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Bill of Rights.

At the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment was the concept of "common sense" realism, championed by philosophers like Thomas Reid, alongside the moral philosophy of Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. Hutcheson, often considered the founding father of the movement, popularized the doctrine that all human beings possess an innate "moral sense" capable of discerning right from wrong without relying on aristocratic authority or religious dogma. He argued that government exists to promote "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers" and famously asserted a natural right to resist tyrannical rule.

These ideas found a direct conduit to America through educational institutions, most notably the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). Its president, Scottish immigrant John Witherspoon—the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence—educated a generation of American leaders. Among his pupils was James Madison, the primary architect of both the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Under Witherspoon’s tutelage, Madison absorbed the Scottish view that political systems must be designed for real human beings driven by self-interest, rather than ideal citizens.

This practical philosophy directly influenced the push for independence and the structure of early American liberty:

• Philosophical Justification for Independence: Hutcheson’s belief in natural rights and the right to resist oppression supplied Thomas Jefferson with the intellectual foundation for writing that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed."
• Checks and Balances: David Hume’s political essays demonstrated that institutional checks, balances, and divided powers could harness factional self-interest to preserve freedom in a large republic, directly inspiring Madison’s arguments in Federalist No. 51.
• The Bill of Rights: Scottish common sense philosophy held that basic human liberties—such as freedom of conscience, speech, and trial by jury—were self-evident and essential for a virtuous society. Codifying these liberties into explicit amendments reflected the Scottish distrust of unchecked power and the desire to safeguard the individual against government overreach.

Ultimately, the American Founding was not merely an assertion of political independence, but a practical application of Scottish Enlightenment thought. By grounding individual liberty, governance, and rights in the observable realities of human nature, the Scottish philosophers helped transform abstract concepts of freedom into the enduring constitutional framework of the American Republic.

George Mason IV: A Cerebral Revolutionary

George Mason IV acted as the crucial bridge between abstract Enlightenment philosophy and codified American law. While he did not travel to Scotland for his education, his intellectual and political life was deeply intertwined with the Scottish Enlightenment’s core principles of inherent rights, civic virtue, and practical limits on power.

A Cerebral Revolutionary

Unlike many of his peers, Mason never attended college. Instead, he was largely self-educated, reading deeply into classical literature, philosophy, and the English Whig tradition in his youth. He absorbed the Enlightenment consensus that a republic could only survive if its citizens possessed "virtue"—which Mason defined as the willingness to subordinate private desires and ambition for the good of the community. Like the Scottish philosophers, Mason believed that prosperity was dangerous unless restrained by moral discipline and frugality.  

Drafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

When Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, he perfectly channeled the "common sense" realism of the Scottish Enlightenment. He famously opened the document by stating that "All men are born equally free and independent," possessing "inherent natural rights" that no government could strip away. This was a profound shift: rights were no longer privileges granted by a king, but observable, self-evident facts of human nature. Just weeks later, Thomas Jefferson—who was heavily influenced by Scottish Enlightenment thinkers like Francis Hutcheson—drew directly on Mason’s words to draft the Declaration of Independence.  

The Madison Partnership

Mason's ideas were further refined through his close collaboration with a young James Madison. Madison, who had been educated directly in the Scottish Enlightenment tradition at Princeton by Rev. John Witherspoon, worked alongside Mason to amend the Virginia Declaration of Rights to include absolute "free exercise of religion" rather than mere tolerance.

The Bill of Rights

Ultimately, Mason’s refusal to sign the U.S. Constitution embodied the Scottish Enlightenment's deep skepticism of human ambition. Scottish philosophers argued that humans are driven by self-interest, meaning centralized power would inevitably become tyrannical if left unchecked. Mason agreed, recognizing that a theoretical framework was not enough. He demanded that the fundamental, self-evident liberties of the people be explicitly written down to bind the hands of the new government—a stubborn, practical stance that directly forced the creation of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy