1658 January 1. Daniel Trezevant was born in Authon-en-Perche, Beauce, France, and was baptized on March 20, 1658. He was a son of Theodore Trezevant (1640- ) and Susanne Menou (1640- ), who had married there on December 5, 1655.
1679 February 5. At age twenty-one he married Susanne Maulard ( - ), born in Chanceville, Beause, France, a daughter of Lubin Maulard ( - ) and Gabrielle Berou ( - ). They were married at the Protestant temple of Fontaine-sous-Premont in Ouerre. Antoine Poitevin, the step-father of the bride and head of the family, witnessed the marriage.
1680 Their son Mathieu was born in Mainthenon, Beauce, France, his baptism on May 30 witnessed by Antoine Poitevin. Daniel possibly did his apprenticeship as a weaver in Menthenon. The Poitevin and Trezevant families would stay together as they fled to England and then sailed for South Carolina.
1682 Daniel Trezevant Jr. was born in Maintenon, Beauce, France. He died in the province of South Carolina in 1706. A daughter Susanna Trezevant was also born there. She married Cornelius Pranpain in 1707 and died in South Carolina.
1684 Summer. A weaver by trade and a merchant in Bordeaux, at age twenty-six Daniel and his wife and young son fled France because of the persecution of the Huguenots. They sailed from Bordeaux to England. [See Van Ruymbeke p. 61 for typical routes to London.]
The main church of the refugees in London was that of Threadneedle St. and the family were apparently connected with it. When the refugees came over from France and applied to become members of the French churches here they were expected to bring with them their ‘temoignage.’ In theory no candidate was admitted to the congregation unless he brought his ‘temoignage’ with him, but in practice this was not always possible under the conditions. In the summer of 1684 Daniel Trezeuan and Susanne Molart (this could have been his wife’s maiden name?) brought their ‘temoignage’ from Coutumay, being the only people from Coutumay in this record. [Huguenot Society Notes]
1684 December. Daniel Trezevant, a member of the French Church (Huguenot), was admitted as a foreign journeyman and paid dues to the Weavers Company of London.
1685 Summer. Months before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes on Oct. 22, 1685, the family sailed to Charles Town in the English colony of South Carolina. [See Van Ruymbeke, p. 64 for a typical route to South Carolina.]
1685 October 6. From King James II, Daniel had accepted a grant of 180 acres of land along the Cooper River, so long as he would pay passage for himself and his family to settle it. Daniel was issued a warrant for the land and settled at Orange Quarter, Parish of St. Thomas and St. Denis, Berkeley County. [Harris, p. 237]
1685 A study of the passenger lists of the Richmond and Margaret further corroborates the familial dimension of the migration. . . . A significant proportion of Carolina Huguenots also emigrated in clusters of families. Some, usually from the same areas in France, met in London and decided to continue on to Carolina from there. In other cases related families from the same towns and socio-economic milieus migrated together all the way to Carolina from France via England. Archtypal examples of these interfamilial clusters are found in the migrations of . . . and the Poitevin-Dutarte-Trezevant groups.” [Van Ruymbeke, p. 85]
Soon after their arrival in the colony, these three families settled in the community of Orange Quarter, along the Cooper River. [Van Ruymbeke, p. 86]
Although individual Huguenots settled throughout the Carolina low country in the proprietary period, most congregated in four distinct original communities: Charleston, Orange Quarter, and Goose Creek, all in Berkeley County; and Santee in Craven County. [Van Ruymbeke, p. 105]
Much less in demand in the nascent South Carolina economy, the artisans who worked in the textile industry formed a homogeneous subgroup. Most of them were weavers, and many came from the same areas in France. Antoine Poitevin and Antoine Jr., Daniel Trezevant and Daniel Jr., and Pierre Dutartre, for example, were all weavers from the province of Beauce. Unlike the tanners and shammy dressers sought by the Indian traders, weavers, if they could practice their trade, sold their production locally only, most likely to their neighbors. In 1708 Pierre Dutartre and Daniel Trezevant Jr. wove and spun silk and wool into woofs, kerchiefs, and caps for their neighbor Nicolas de Longuemare Jr. Most weavers acquired land and switched to farming but, for a while at least kept weaving as a minor secondary activity. [Van Ruymbeke, pp. 79-80 ]
It is estimated that no more than two thousand Huguenots fled to British North America before 1700, but many of which came to South Carolina. The colony of Carolina offered greater religious liberty and wider latitude in matters of religious conscience than its neighbors. [Hirsch, Arthur Henry. The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999; Converse, Robert Shelton, “St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish Church: An Anglo-Franco Alliance in the Lowcountry” (master’s thesis, College of Charleston/Clemson University, 2011) 6.]*
1686 October 15. Daniel signed his oath of allegiance to King James II of England.
1686-1692 The couple had four more children: Isaac (1686- ), Theodore (1688-1732), Marianne/Marian (1690-1767), and Magdalene/Madalene (1692-1768).
1695 The couple’s names appeared on the Liste des Francois et Suisses, compiled 1694-1695 for the Santee and Orange Quarter.
Also known as the St. Julien List, the document contained names of those French of the Orange Quarter who desired naturalization. Daniel Trezevant, Jr. was also listed. [Smith, Henry A.M. “The Orange Qaurter and the First French Settlers in South Carolina” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vol. 18, no. 3, Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Historical Society, 1917.]*
In Orange Quarter, the Huguenots “cultivated the vine, olive, and mulberry, and engaged in the manufacture of wine, oil, and silk,” often referred to as “impoverished artisans.” [Van Ruymbeke, Bertrand. From New Babylon to Eden: The Huguenots and Their Migration to Colonial South Carolina. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2006.]*
1697 March 10. The couple’s names appeared as registered for the English Naturalization Act.
1698 On March 25, Daniel Trezevant was issued a warrant of 330 additional acres in the Orange Quarter. [Smith, Henry A.M. “The Orange Qaurter and the First French Settlers in South Carolina” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vol. 18, no. 3, Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Historical Society, 1917.]* [According to “Warrants for Lands in South Carolina 1680-1692,” edited by A. S. Salley Jr., 1911, the warrant was for 430 acres.]
1706 Their son Daniel Jr., a weaver, died at age 28.
1726 Daniel Sr. died on one of his plantations at age 66. In his will he provided for his wife until her death, gave his entire estate to his then eldest son, Isaac, and gave only one English shilling to children Theodore, Marian, and Madalane. The family tradition is, that Daniel was a merchant at Bordeaux, and brought with him a considerable sum of ready money,–quite an unusual instance in those days. In any event, we find by the records, that at the time of his death, forty years after he had immigrated to America, he was possessed with what in those days was a considerable fortune, consisting of plantations and slaves. [Trezevant, p. 12] [See Trezevant, pp. 49-50, for “The Last Will and Testament of Daniel Trezevant.]
ADDENDUM
The Huguenot Family of Poitevin-text
The Huguenot Family of Poitevin-chart
SOURCES
Bates, Susan Baldwin and Harriott Cheves Leland. French Santee: A Huguenot Settlement in Colonial South Carolina. Baltimore, MD: Otter Bay Books, 2015. (background) [This new book has an entry on Naturalization, pp. 356-359, which includes Daniel Trezevant, plus several references beyond the Index (p. 264, pp. 266-7, p. 295, p. 323, and p. 358).]
Baird, C. W. History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. Baltimore, MD: Regional Publishing Company, 1966. (background)
Butler, Jon. The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World
Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. (background)
Grace, Charlet Poitevint. Email correspondence with author. 2015.
Grace, Charlet Poitevint. The Huguenot Family of Poitevin: From France to the Province of Carolina. Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, No. 120, 2017, pp. 1-34.
Harris, Margaret Louise. In the Shade of Oaks: A Story of American Heritage. Missoula, MT: Margaret Louise Harris, 2009. [Details about this expansive narrative of genealogy, biography, and history can be seen at <www.intheshadeofoaks.com>.]
Huguenot Society of London. Notes on the Huguenot name of Trezevant. London, England: March 25, 1973.
Kenan, Robert Gignilliat. History of the Gignilliat Family of Switzerland and South Carolina. Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1977: pp. 266-268.
Lavelle, Brittany [*]. Historic Preservation Research. February 2014.
Trezevant, John Timothee. The Trezevant Family in the United States. Charleston, SC: The State Company, 1914: pp. 11-13, 49-50 (his will).
Van Ruymbeke, Bertrand. From New Babylon to Eden: The Huguenots and Their Migration to Colonial South Carolina. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. (includes Appendix of “Huguenot Refugees in Proprietary South Carolina, 1680-1718”: pp. 225-241)
Excellent research; the best I have ever seen. The information is presented in a clear, precise, scholarly fashion. Daniel Trezevant’s will was probated in Jan 1726; his birth date can be estimated a few years after his parents’ marriage in Dec 1655; say 1657, unless there is a parish record to be found giving his exact birth date as 1660, the exact date is still not confirmed. Eglise Reformee Fontaine-sous-Premont parish record contains the marriage of Daniel Traizevant [Trezevant] & Susanne Moulard Feb 5, 1679. The Poitevins and the Trezevants were closely related. Susanne Maulard was the sister of Pierre and Anthoine Poitevin; albeit, half-sister technically, but kinship shows in deeds as close til death. Daniel and Susanne Trezevant’s daughter, Susanne Trezevant(Peter Poitevint’s niece)was given a gift of 92 acres adjoining her parents and Peter Poitevint’s land after her marriage to Cornelius Pranpain. It reverted to back to the family after both she and her husband died before 1707. This is recorded in Langley, Vol. III, deed of 1755. Thank you for posting this informative and comprehensive family tree online.