220 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



Peril of 

 Twelve 



Families 



Legrand 



Cousseau 



Crommelin 



eleven other families that went at the same time. The 

 priests used to search every house where they imagined 

 that Bibles were concealed or meetings held. They con- 

 cealed their Bible for some time, but finally it was dis- 

 covered and taken away. They managed, however, to re- 

 tain some leaves, which were concealed under the bottom 

 of a chair. The twelve families fled by night from Paris 

 to La Rochelle, where they continued for some time. But 

 iutelligence from Paris to La Rochelle soon detected their 

 several abodes. Their houses were to be broken into on 

 a certain night. They would all have been cut off, had it 

 not been for a good man, a Catholic, who had become ac- 

 quainted with them. He gave them notice, so they fled 

 the night before, at about one or two o'clock. The twelve 

 families muffled the wheels of their wagons, so as not to 

 make any noise, but they were discovered on the way and 

 pursued to a river, before they were overtaken. Ten 

 families got over the stream in safety, but two were taken. 

 The others succeeded in getting aboard a ship which 

 sailed for America." During the voyage over a plague 

 broke out on shipboard and many of the passengers died, 

 among them being both of Claude Requa's parents. 



Pierre Legrand, native of Hahain, was naturalized in 

 England in 1682. In 1684 he was in New York, as his 

 application for membership in the Dutch Reformed 

 Church shows. He seems to have lived for a year or so in 

 Kingston, N. Y., and then returned to New York to engage 

 in the tobacco trade. 



Among those who accepted the articles of capitulation 

 by which New Amsterdam became New York we find the 

 name of Jacques Cousseau, one of the French citizens, 

 who had attained prominence. 



The well-known Crommelin family is descended from 

 Daniel Crommelin, son of a wealthy manufacturer of Saint 

 Quentin. He fled to p]ngland, from thence to Jamaica, 

 and finally settled in New York. His sons Charles and 

 Isaac established the ancient country-seat of the family in 



