NOTE FROM WEBMASTER:

This paper is the basis for the erroneous conclusion held by many people that the Raplee family descended from JEAN RAPAREILLER. Although the author of this paper has diligently researched his material, his conclusions are flawed. The background on the Heuguenot trials and tribulations is good as is the information on the Tricaud family who are probably related but not in our descent.

That there were Raparlier and Tricaud family members in England does not mean that they were the progenitors of the Raplee family. Any such conclusions is based solely on conjecture. There are no documents to support their coming to America in 1624. That said, it is worth reading for background information.

This material was scanned and OCRed from a very bad copy. I cleaned it up as much as I dared, but have left it pretty much as I got it, misspellings and all.

Dale C. Jones, webmaster

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The Raparlier Family in the Netherlands.
The original European home of the American RAPALJE, or RAPALYEA, or RAPLEE family, is the province of HENAULT, one of the SEVENTEEN UNITED NETHERLANDS, whose territory is now mostly covered by Holland and Belgium. Hainault was in the early Middle Ages an Earldom, and become later a Duchy. As such it kept a separate sovereign existence, with no other supreme authority above it than that of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, until in the 15th century, under the house of Burgundy, it entered the Union of the Seventeen Burundian Netherlands. In the year 1515 Charles V. who was at the same time, as heir of the Burgundy house, Lord of the Netherlands and Holy Roman Emperor gave in the latter quality the Netherlands to himself, in the former quality, thus for good separating the Netherlands from the Empire, and securing them for his house, that of Hapsburg.

When in 1517 the Church Reformation started, accompanied in the Netherlands with an attempt for greater political liberty, the inhabitants of Hainault, who were of Walloon, of old Celtic stock, were its warm advocates, Imperial edicts from 1543 on tried to suppress this tendency, and in 1544 many freedom loving Walloons left Hainault and settled either in Southern England, or ( and more especially during the reign of Mary Stuart "the Bloody" ) in the Palatine in Germany, When in 1555 Charles V in the Netherlands was succeeded by his son PHILIP II, who also became King of Spain and who in 1559 for good left for that country, the Netherlands resumed their attempts to gain more constitutional rights from their prince. Philip, who in Spain was absolute, felt even less, inclined to yield to this than his father had done, especially when in 1561. Calvinism began to unite all the Protestant Netherlanders under one Reformed Religion.

Johannes Calvin was a native of Noyan in Northern France, and Calvinism became in the beginning very strong in the French spanking parts of the Southern Netherlands, especially in the cities of VALENCIENNES, DOUAY, MONS (or Bergen) and CAMBRAY( or Cameryck) in Hainault. The inhabitants of Valenciennes who were all, without exception Protestants, began then to clear, their churches for Protestant services and called two prominent preachers as their ministers. Margaretha, Duchess of Parma, sister of Philip II, who had been made by him Governess of the Netherlands, ordered the people of Valenciennes to return these churches to the Catholic services, and at the refusal of this she sent in 1566, a division of soldiers, under Commander Norcarmes to that city to enforce her order. When Velenciennes closed the gates for the troops of the government, the city was declared rebel, and a beginning of a siege was made in the fall. Valenciennes was captured in January, 1567. A large number of it inhabitants were murdered, without any form of process. Among them were the two preachers PEREGRINUS DR LA GRANGE and GUIDO DE BRES. They had fled over the fields to Douay, but having been captured there, they received the martyr crown at Cambray. Confession of Faith, as yet at present adhered to in all. Reformed Churches, whether Dutch, French or English speaking, was the work of these two men, especially of Guide de Brea.

Valenciennes was an industrial and commercial city. It was almost entirely inhabited by silk and wool weavers, who obtained their rough silk from Southern France and Northern Italy and their wool from England and Scotland. Being situated on the linguistic borders, they all knew French end Dutch as their native tongues, and may of them added to this a thorough knowledge of English. Long time before the final great Church Reformation they had been familiar with the works of John Knox and other English and Scotch reformers.

After the fall of Valenciennes the majority of those who escaped crossed the Channel and found, like many Belgians of today, a hospitable reception in England. Queen Elizabeth had reigned there since the last nine years; she made immediately preparations to receive the refugees and to provide for them politically, religiously and economically.

Among those who in the course of the year 1567 landed at South Hampton, England were also the aged JEAN RAPARLIER, and his family from Valenciennes. Of this, sons, GEORGE, JAQUES( or Jacob) and B0NNE,the two last named and their wives end children were with him. ,

He was born at Valenciennes about the year 1490, at the time when formally Hainault belonged to the United Seventeen Burundian Netherlands which 'twenty-five year later were for good and lawfully separated from the Holy Roman(German) Empire. His life long he had been a silk weaver there, and he had been an intimate friend of the two martyred Ref Reformers, Guido de Bres and Peregrinuadde la Grange the latter being hi a blood relative.

The aged patriarch did not long survive his arrival at South Hampton. He reached "a safer harbor" on the 19th of September, 1567, being the first one of the Walloon Colony, who died there. On the 21st following he was buried there. A manuscript record, now in the possession of the Huguenot Society of London, contains the following entry:

Registre de Ceux qui sont more de l' eglise des Estrangers Walloons admise par laMaieate de J a Rayne Elizabeth Fn la Ville' de Hampton, 1567.

21 Septembre, 1567
JEAN RAPAREILLER, (Native) de Vallentienne, feut enterre au Cimitiere dudit hampton."

translated:
Register of those of the Foreign Walloon Church, admitted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in the City of Hampton, who have died, 1567."

JEAN RAPAREILLER, native of Valenciennes, was buried in the cemetery of the said Hampton." This cemetery is yet existant, but no sign marks the last resting place of the old exile, than the flowers and the green sods. On him the word has become true: "Blessed are the Just, for their Seed shall inherit the Earth. In 1567 there were not many indications are facts to predict that the descendent of the Netherland exiles were ever to settle and to spread over a large portion of the New World, discovered for Spain in almost the same year when Jean Raparlier was born, and then belonging to the unexplored dominions of the tyrant Philip.

Like in all times of war, infantile mortality was great among the Walloons, during and immediately after their emigration: 18 October, 1567. - JEUDE, son of ( fils de) B0N RAPARELLIER, was buried in the same cemetery as his grandfather.

Soon after their arrival at South-Hampton and after the organization of their church there, Holy Communion, or the Brother Meal was held by the Walloons for the first time on December 21st, 1567. A list of the names of those who partook in this has been preserved in the records, as follows:

Here follows the names of those who have confessed their faith and who have been admitted to the Meal, the 21st of December, 1567.

At the first Table - BON RAPEILLE and his wife They are the Thirteenth and fourteenth persons on the list. Their only child was at that time their daughter ANNA.

At South-Hampton they remained until the end of the year 1568. The baptism of their son DAVID is found recorded there as follows: AUG. 8, 1568 - DAVID, son of BON RAPPARLIER, from Valanciannes. Godfather: MATHIEU SOHIER.

This Mathieu Sohier was also from Valenciennes. He, his brother, JEHAN SOHIER, and their housekeeper, KATHERINE MICHELLE ,also had taken part in the Communion on Dec. 21, 1567. Late in the year 1568 the family migrated to London, as appears from a document in the Record Office in Chancery Lane, London, which reads as follows: (giving a list of foreign residents.) 1568. Norton follie. the Parish of St. Bottholphe within Bishops Gate:

Andrew Hotten, skynner, a Duchman, and Margareth, his wife a French woman; Elizabeth and Sara, his daughters. They go to the French Church.

BONE RAPARLIE, Valencian, Silkweaver, JANE, his Wife, DAVID and ANNE, his children, All these tenants to James Forde, butcher.

Dutch persons VIIen; Frenche, one.

In London the family remained and after nine years they became citizens there, as appears in the case of BONNE, from Patent ##. 18th year of Queen Elizabeth, p.7. m. 45)

BONNE RAPERLYE from the dominions of the King of Spain. 11 February, 1576. From a list of the year 1583 the following appears:

The names of all the strangers inhabiting within the Precincts of Hally Well as well householders as wyves, children and servants; where they were borne, of what trade they are of, howe longe they have been here, whether they be denisons or not, and of what churchs they are.

The first name on the list is that of:

BOONE RAPARLYE, silk weaver, borne in Valentia, and JANE, his wife; have bene here XVI yeres, and are of the Frenche churche. (denison VII years.)

In the Hatfield House, in the Salisbury Mss. a list of foreign residents of London is found, containing this entry:

1585, BOONE RAPARLY, silk weaver, born in Valiances, and, Jane, his wife of the French Church; living in Black Friar.

After the death of his wife, JANE or JANETTE, Bonne Raparlier remarried, BARBARA. On a tax list of 1597 they appear as living in Colman Street Warde - St. Stephens Parish, as "BON RAPERELLY and BARBARA, his wife - XVId. Taxed per polle.

Further their names appear on tax lists of 1598,1598 and, 1600,as BON RAPERLEY, and Barbara, his wyfe; and as BON RAPELLEY, and Barbara, his wife

For the last time we find BONNE RAPARLIER' a name mentioned in 1604,on July 23, when in the French Church on Threadneedle Street he was witness to the baptism of JEAN, son of JEAN LOREAU and SUSANNA, his wife. The latter probably being his daughter.

For the sake of historical connection it deserves to be mentioned that the TRICAUD family, to which CATALINE TRICAUD, (or TRICO), the wife of JORIS JANSEN RAPAIJE belonged was also represented in London, and that some of its members also belonged to the French, congregation of Thread needle Street.

The TRICAUD family was originally from DOUAY, in Henault, a city of weavers, not far-from Valenciennes. Jerome TRIGAUD, the father of CATALINE TRICAUD, settled at Paris during the reign of Henry IV, who was very benevolent towards the Huguenots, having been a Huguenot himself, before he came to the throne of France' in 1589.

At Paris CATALINE TRICAUD was born in 1605, and when on May 14, 1610 the King was murdered by a fanatic Catholic priest, the Huguenots and also her parents fled from there.

JAQUES TRICAUD, who as a native of DOUAY, on Oct, 13,1625, married in the French Church on Threadneedle Street, London, seams to have been one of her relatives, likewise ROBERT TRICAUD, brother of JACQUES, who lived with his brother and his wife in Bishopegate Ward, St. Bottholphes, 1625. The TRICAUD family invented end gave its name to a well known woven stuff named "tricaut" or "trico,"

JACQUES RAPPARLIER, the other son of JEAN RAPPARLIER, of Valenciennes, settled from South-Hampton, in Canterbury'. He kept up the relations with his Hainault home, and it is more than probable that he frequently visited Holland, especially Leyden, where a large colony of Walloon weavers had settled. Among them JESSE DE FOREST, ancestor of the DE FOREST family in America, should be mentioned, who has done so much for American colonization. (See: Mrs. Robert W. de Forest' s" A Walloon Family, in' America",1914, 2 vols.) See also: Baird's" History of the Huguenot Immigration. into, America",)

There are many manuscript sources in Hainault cities which can spread light upon the history of Protestant Walloon families, who have settled in America. That these documents have not been published is due mainly to two reasons. The first one is that in the seventeenth century Louie XIV annexed a large part of this Spanish-Netherland province to France. In that Part Valenciennea and Douay are located, The archives referring to the history of these two cities, are now partly kept in the cities themselves, partly in Paris, the capital of France, partly in Mons, the capital of the Belgian provinces of Hainault, and partly in Bruxelles, the capital of Belgium. The other reason for the non-publication of these records, is the lack of interest, if not the animosity of the Hainault and Belgian government against the Protestants and all what concerns their history. Huguenot Societies in Holland, Germany, England and America, have in vain tried to obtain access to these records. Also the "Societe de historie du Protestantism en Belgique", a small and poor, but prior to 1914 a very active and enterprising historical society, has done but little. At present its president, Professor Paul Frederick of Ghent University, is a war prisoner in Germany. God bless him,

Besides there are numerous manuscripts on the earlier history of Valenciennes, which undoubtedly contain material for the history of the Raparlier and other American families, from 1200 to 1500.

In the "anales de Cercle Archiologique de Mons, V, 1864", appears a "Bibliographie de la histoire du Henault", This bibliography is alpha bethically arranged by place names, and Valenciennes occupies seventy numbers. (no. 891-961.) Especially the following numbers seem to us to be of probable help in the reconstruction of the Raparleir and other Walloon family histories. No, 896;-904;-905;-909;-112;-913;-921-,-928;-929;-933; -934;-934;-944; -955.