Joshua Mercereau

1657-1756 · Moeze, Saintonge, France

Born 1657, probably Moeze, Saintonge, France

Died 1756

Father: Jean Mercereau

Mother: Elizabeth Du Bois

Children include Marie

Joshua Mercereau was a Huguenot, a French Protestant, of the family of Moeze (Moise) in Saintonge, near La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast of France. In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and outlawed Protestant worship in France, and Huguenots fled by the thousand.

About 1688 Joshua came to New York with his widowed mother, his brother Daniel, and his sisters Elizabeth, the wife of Pierre Masse, and Marie. His father Jean had died in France.

On 16 July 1693 he married Marie Chadrayne at the French Church of New York. His sister Marie married Jean La Tourette the same day. His brother Daniel married Susanne Marie Doucinet three weeks later, on 6 August.

He settled on Staten Island. His daughter Marie was baptized on 16 May 1695, and his son Joshua was born in New York City on 18 May 1696. Two more sons followed: Paul, a shipwright, and David. There were probably other children as well.

He died on 23 May 1756, "aged 98 years and 5 months." His son Joshua made his will two months later, and one of its witnesses was a Henry Chadrayne, probably of his wife's family.

Parents

Jean Mercereau (b. 1627)

Elizabeth Du Bois b. 1643

Children

Marie Mercereau (b. 1695)

Sources

Henry Lawrence Mersereau, "Mersereau Family Genealogy," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 27 (1896), p. 195, archive.org newyorkgenealogi1896gree, leaf 255

Henry Lawrence Mersereau, "Mersereau Family Genealogy," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 27 (1896), p. 196, archive.org newyorkgenealogi1896gree, leaf 256

Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York, vol. 2, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for 1893 (1894), Liber 7 p. 521, printed p. 17, archive.org collectionsofnewv26newy, leaf n36

Charles W. Baird, History of the Huguenot Emigration to America (1885), vol. 2, p. 22 and notes, archive.org historyofhugueno02bairuoft, leaf n31

Collections of the Huguenot Society of America, vol. 1 (1886), registers of the French Church of New York (1886), p. 30, archive.org collectionsofhug01hugu, leaf n129

Henry Lawrence Mersereau, "Mersereau Family Genealogy," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 27 (1896), pp. 195-196, archive.org newyorkgenealogi1896gree, from the register of the French Church of New York; Latourette Annals (1954); New York Wills 30:394 (Paul Mersereau, 1777)

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Cite: Heirology, "Joshua Mercereau (1657-1756)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joshua-mercereau-1657-1756-311523.