When I was a child, I remember that I had to do a report on an ancestor. I called an aunt of my father's, who told me about the Count du Chappelle, and that was who I wrote the report about. I don't remember many of the details, and unfortunately that report is lost to time. I seem to remember my aunt telling me he had a lot of land in New Jersey and lost it all gambling, but based on what I've learned since, that can't possibly be right, as the Count (or more properly, the Marquis de la Chappelle) never came to the colonies, and may in fact have never existed at all.
The Known Knowns
To be honest, there's aren't many of them. The facts that I have, such as they are, came from a document of genealogical research at the Historical Society of Philadelphia (HSP) called "The Blackledge Family and Allied Families of Chappell, Walton, DeHaven, Fesmie, Wright, and Others." The research collected therein was apparently a gift to HSP in 1988. Unfortunately, very little information regarding the original information sources is listed, so further research has been difficult, to say the least.
Regardless, the document does include some nuggets that have pointed the way to further research. The document first calls out the Marquis early on, as the father to John Chappell, the first Chappell that is known to have come to the colonies. John was born in England, but his father the Marquis was born in France, in 1670, according to the Blackledge document, and is thought to have probably died in England. The Blackledge document further notes the following: "The Marquis is said to have fled France during the period of persecution following the revocation of the Edict of Nantz (revoked 1685). Supposedly he fled to London where he had a brother Thomas who was a watchmaker. He is said to have had a son John and two daughters. The son John came to Philadelphia in 1715. The rest of the family presumably did not."
That blurb, unfortunately, contains all that we know about the Marquis. I set out to see if I could find out more information, and although I mostly came up empty, I did make a number of interesting finds. Even the wrong turns may prove helpful someday, for directing researchers away from dead ends, if nothing else.
History Lesson: The Huguenots
France in the 16th century was primarily a Catholic nation. But in April 1598, in an effort to promote civil unity, King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights to Calvinist Protestants, who were also known as Huguenots. The Huguenot community made up nearly 10% of the French population, so this was not an insignificant event. The edict marked the end of religious wars that had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century. It attempted to allow and promote peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants, while maintaining Catholicism as the established and dominant religion of France.
The Edict of Nantes remained in effect, more or less, for less than a hundred years. In October 1685, Louis XIV - grandson of Henry IV - declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau, more commonly called the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Protestants were intensely persecuted. Ministers were given two weeks to convert to Catholicism or leave the country; all other Protestants were prohibited from leaving the country. The new Edict ordered the destruction of Huguenot churches, as well as the closing of Protestant schools. The persecution was formalized with a policy commonly called in French "dragonnades" that was instituted by Louis XIV, in order to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or reconverting to Roman Catholicism. This policy involved billeting particularly obnoxious and difficult soldiers known as dragons (dragoons) within the Protestant households where they were encouraged to wreak havoc.
Despite the prohibition, the renewed persecution resulted in nearly 400,000 people fleeing France at risk of their lives. They fled to Great Britain, Prussia, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, South Africa, and the Thirteen Colonies in North America. The migration had ramifications for all of Europe, as skilled individuals aided France's rivals, and France's and King Louis XIV reputation suffered. The rights of non-Catholics were not restored in France until over 100 years later with the Edict of Versailles.
Why the history lesson on the Huguenots? The Marquis de la Chappelle fled France for London following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and so most likely was himself a Huguenot.
Searching For The Huguenot Marquis
One of my first stops for researching the Marquis was to research the Huguenots, and see if there were any information or insight that could be found. That quickly led me to The Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The Huguenot Society has collected a ton of history and genealogical information on Huguenots of the era, so it seemed to me a logical place to start. I scanned the contents of their genealogy magazines and publications and came up empty. Then I found their Family Research Files - a large collection of findings donated by members interested in particular families. And one of the FRF was for "Chappell(e)". I was cautioned that they vary widely in size, accuracy, and type of information contained therein, but regardless, it seemed to me to be a good place to start.
It turns out, it was not that good of a place to start. While the file was very interesting, it mostly concerned people who could not really be the Marquis - people who were too old or too young, or not in the right place at the right time, who were known not to have had children (or at least a child named John), etc. The file mentions a few promising leads, including:
- Jean Chapelle, "a doctor of medicine from (Aimex) Aymet in Perigord settled in London. He made his Reconnaissance (i.e. made himself known as a Huguenot) at the French Church of the Savoy on July 1st, 1686 when he was thirty ... and in the next year obtained a grant from the Royal Bounty Fund for the relief of the Refugees." Alas, as far as I could tell, he is not known to have had a son.
- Thomas Chapel, apprenticed to a Huguenot goldsmith - promising lead maybe, but not enough information to really take anywhere.
- Armand Boisbeleau de la Chapelle, a Huguenot minister in London and Ireland at around the correct time, but with very little additional information given in the file.
So, no silver bullets to be found there, but perhaps some avenues for further research.
Following Leads: Armand Boisbeleau de la Chapelle
I spent a bit of time trying to follow up on these leads to see if they went anywhere, and found some additional information on Armand. He went to Ireland to preach to the French congregations, but apparently returned to Wandesworth (near London) after only two years. And he may possibly have had some association with a Thomas Chapel, who was apprenticed to a goldsmith - and it is believed that the Marquis had a brother Thomas that was a watchmaker (or maybe a jeweler or goldsmith?). He later returned to London about 1696-1697, right around the time John Chappell was born. I started to think that Armand could really be the Marquis, and so I reached out for some help from a professional genealogist to either prove or disprove my theory.
We started with Armand Boisbeleau de la Chapelle. After some initial research, she replied with this: "I am unable to find a record of Armand marrying or having kids in the UK, I have looked at the two parishes he was a preacher in namely Wandsworth and Artillery French Church. I did find a reference to
him in Chalmers General Biographical Dictionary but there was no mention of his family...even in other websites which give details of his life there is no mention of a family. He preached in Ireland as well before moving to the Hague, its possible he had children in these countries but then I would be surprised for these children to be your ancestors in London... I did search under just his family name of Boisbeleau as well as De la chappelle."
Well, it was a good theory while it lasted, but it was time to move on.
(Not) Following Leads: Thomas Chapel
I thought for a brief minute that following up on the Thomas I had seen mentioned might be helpful. I thought, perhaps, that some help might be found from The Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of London, specifically from The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Unfortunately, their records go back only as far as 1728, which was no help for any information from before then.
Random Googling
In looking for the Marquis de la Chappelle, I came across a Wikipedia page describing marquisates that were established in France. One of these, the Chapelle-la-Reine, was established in 1680 by letters patent received by a family called d'Argouges. The head of this marquisate would likely have been called the Marquis de la Chapelle-la-Reine. This seemed promising, but unfortunately does not pan out:
The Baron (not Marquis) de la Chapelle was a man named Jacques d'Argouges, married in 1645. From what I have found so far, neither him nor any of his offspring fled France with the Huguenots, none of his offspring was named John, and none ever emigrated to North America.
Maybe There Is No Marquis?
At the time I was searching for the Marquis, I was simultaneously searching for his son, John, who around 1715 came to North America and eventually became my several-times great grandfather. That research was also not panning out, though it did bring to light some more possibilities (food for a future post). For the Marquis, at this point, I started to think that maybe everything I think I know is wrong. Or at least, maybe John's father was not the Marquis de la Chappelle - maybe that was his uncle, or grandfather, or more distant relative. Or maybe he only called his father the Marquis, out of respect or even derision. Or maybe there was no Marquis.
Regardless of the reason, if we accept that John's father may not be the Marquis, then who is John's father?
We can be fairly sure that John started out as a shipbuilder in London. I had found some baptismal records for a John, son of John Chappelle of Blackwall. Blackwall is on the River Thames, in the area of the private shipyards on the north bank. John of Blackwell is a Cawker (I think, it is hard to read). A Cawker is part of a horseshoe, and horses were the main way of getting goods to and from the ships at the port. The trades of blacksmiths and shipwrights are linked, and a Cawker may have been some sort of specialist type of blacksmith. Perhaps, then, the "Marquis" is really a blacksmith named John? Maybe, maybe not, but hopefully one of these days I can do some further research and figure it out.
