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– )
│
GEN 2: Susannah Rezeau (c. 1717–__?)
m. John (Jeane Louis Le Brun) Brown (1709–1802) [French Huguenot, Founder of Browntown, NJ]
│
GEN 3: Mary (Maria) Brown (c. 1745–1827)
m. Moses Groom (1746–1786)
│
GEN 4: Ezekiel Groom (1767–1836) [Moved from NJ to Franklin Co., Ohio]
m. Rhoda McDonald (1773–1859)
│
GEN 5: Job Groom (1795–1823)
m. Mary "Polly" Bloom (1799–1839)
│
GEN 6: Sarah Catherine Groom (1815–c. 1858)
m. Valentine Boyd (1811–1870)
│
└──> 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
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