Hiram L Merrick of Pa: A Huguenot DNA Story

When Hiram L Merrick, father of our grandpa* (see relationship notes below), Leon Arthur Merrick, was born on April 14, 1871, in Bingham, Pennsylvania, his father, Joseph, was 30 years old. We've already told some of his family's story.

Hiram Merrick

His father, Joseph Sylvester Merrick, fought in the Civil War at Fredericksburg, Va. (here)

Grandpa Hiram's grandmother, Joyce (called Joysa) and her sister, Caroline, married brothers: our grandpa Hiram (the elder) and his brother, William, Merrick. Our great uncle was known by his middle name, Lester. (here)  

Grandpa Hiram was nine years old when his first cousin, Floyd Whitney, killed his own step-mother's brother and hid from the law. (here)

This post presents our connection to the story of his Huguenot ancestors; told through DNA and genealogical records.

Beginning in 1624. Huguenots began to arrive en masse in the New York and New Jersey area. In 1628, some moved into what would become Bushwick, Brooklyn. Others moved to New Rochelle and New Paltz, New York, as well as Staten Island.By the time of the exodus beginning in 1685, Huguenot communities sprang up in Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina.  

Read more: HISTORY

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Ancestry.com develops individual matches and family DNA circles. At first, they created  'mystery' groups. These were family DNA circles that didn't match any surnames in your family tree. Not anymore.

Now you must have the names in a tree before you are assigned to that family's circle. We're one of thirty-four people in the Susan (Resseguie) Whitney DNA family circle. This means we have the records, and we have DNA proof of our association with this family.

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Susan Resseguie

Our fourth great grandmother, Susan Resseguie, born in 1796 in Connecticut married Jeremiah M Whitney on August 7, 1812, in Fishkill, New York. Grandma Susan was the great grand-daughter of Alexander Resseguie. His grandfather was a Protestant Huguenot. With his father, they fled France for England. He would later come to America.

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At least two sets of Grandma Resseguie's great grandparents - The Resseguies and the Fellows (or Fillows)  - were French Protestants fleeing their home country.

Alexander Resseguie

Alexander Resseguie was a settler in Norwalk, Conn., in 1709.  Tradition has it that he was the younger son of one Alexandre de Resseguie, a Huguenot refugee from France, who brought with him from the mother country a small hair-covered trunk, studded with iron nails, containing all of the family wealth he was able to secure, consisting largely of title deeds to property in France.  

Alexander Resseguie's
'Hair Trunk'

 

Hoping to some day regain his abandoned possessions, he educated his eldest son to the profession of the law, intending when the time was ripe, he should return to Fiance and establish a claim to the family estates.  

This hope was destined never to be realized, for the son died just previous to the time of his intended departure on this mission, and the father, disheartened, abandoned the undertaking; the trunk and papers passed into the possession of the younger son, and at a subsequent period the latter were, the most of them, destroyed by fire.   

Resseguie Family...  pg 10

Alexandre de Resseguie's father - our ninth great-grandpa David - fled France to England.  It was his grandson, Alexander, who left England and came to America bearing land titles.

Alexandre de Ressiguice's name appears in 1696, in the list of the principal silk manufacturers employed by the " compagnie royale des lustrez" in London. His son Alexander settled in the town of Norwalk, Connecticut. 

History of the Huguenot emigration to America, v. 2 pg 146

Grandpa Resseguie became a farmer - and a prosperous one - in America.

History of the Huguenot Emigration to America by Baird, Charles Washington - Publication date [1885] (here)

The Resseguie family. A historical and genealogical record of Alexander Resseguie of Norwalk, Conn., and four generations of his descendants by Morris, John Emery - Publication date 1888   (here)

Sarah Bontecou

On the 18th day of October 1709. Alexander Resseguie married Sarah Bontecou, daughter of Pierre and Marguerite (Collinot) Bontecou of New York. She was born in France and reached New York with her parents in 1689.   

The Resseguie Family page 12

The Bontecou family also fled France.

The family in France were Protestant, and undoubtedly endured the privations and suffering imposed upon the Huguenots by the Romish Church, both before and subsequent to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Huguenot migration
to America

By this act of revocation and the consequent flight of those embracing ' the Religion ' from her borders, France was deprived of a large population of her most intelligent and useful citizens, and the adjoining states of Holland and Switzerland, as well as the neighboring islands of Great Britain, were correspondingly enriched by the influx of this best blood of France. America, too, became the gainer by a large immigration to her shores of this sterling people, skilled in the mechanic arts. 

Among the refugees from France at this time were Pierre Bontecou and his family ; tarrying for a time in England, they arrived in America in 1689.' " During the year 1685 there was a large addition of French Protestants to the population (of New York). By the year 1695 they had increased to nearly two hundred families, and were among the most influential of the city. (ibid pg  12)

Grandpa Bontecou became a merchant in America.

The Bontecou genealogy. A record of the descendants of Pierre Bontecou, a Huguenot refugee from France, in the lines of his sons by Morris, John Emery - Publication date 1885   (here)

John Fillow

John Fillow was undoubtedly born in France, but exactly when will probably never be known.  ...Probably he was about 33 years of age when he came to America, now a land of freedom, and in it he found a second country.   

Huguenot weavers

Artemas says " He came from the southern part of France." Another tradition : " He came from Paris and was a glove maker." Still another : " He was a shepherd boy, and being discovered reading Watts Hymns fled for fear of being severely persecuted or perhaps beheaded." 

Fillow Genealogy pg 23

Tradition has it grandpa Fillows was a weaver in America. A loom was among the possessions in his will.

The Fillow, Philo, and Philleo genealogy. A record of the descendants of John Fillow, a Huguenot refugee from France by Van Hoosear, D. H. (David Hermon) - Publication date 1888  (here)

The Legacy of the Huguenots in London

*Note: Relationships, such as grandmother, 2nd great, etc., are expressed from the perspective of the grandchildren of Leon Arthur and Anna Grace (Fuller) Merrick.

Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc.  - are used here generically to include relatives such as fourth great grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.