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Rachel Clausse was born about 1619 or thereabouts to Pierre Clausse, a stone mason at Sedan, and Jeanne Famelart. Her paternal grandparents were Rogier Clausse, a stone mason at Daigny near Sedan, and Marguerite Grenet. Her maternal grandfather was George Famelart, a native of Chémery-sur-Bar not far from Sedan, also a stone mason. Her known family were all French Protestants and celebrated births and marriages at the Sedan Temple. There was a castle or fort at Sedan which required stone masons for building and repairs.
Rachel had brothers Elie, Jean, and Abraham, and sisters Ester and Judit.
There is no surviving birth or baptism record for Rachel; nor is there a surviving death record or record of her burial place.
Rachel married Pierre Cresson, another Sedan native, in 1639 and their first child Jacques, baptized at Sedan in 1640, was the only one of their known children to be baptized there. Soon after the Cresson family moved to Sluis in Flanders as Sedan lost its independence. They soon moved again to Rÿswÿck and then Delft in Holland. At each place a child was baptized: Christina, Susannah, Estienne, the two Pierres, and Rachel. After the seventh child the family moved to the Dutch West India Company's colony at New Amstel (now New Castle, Delaware) on the Delaware River in 1657. Pierre soon received an invitation to work for the Company's director at New Amsterdam and in 1658 the family took up residence in Nieuw Haarlem. They remained in Harlem until 1677 or 1678 and then sold land there and moved to a grant of land on Staten Island situated on the Fresh Kill waterway between Manhattan and Staten Island. There Rachel and Pierre died sometime after 1680.
Different dates are given for the death dates of Rachel and Pierre, but there does not seem to be any documentary source for either person's death date. Anne H. Cresson wrote that Rachel was on a 1690 census of Staten Island, but she does not cite any source for that record.
My transcriptions of some of the records related to Rachel Clausse and her family: (transcribed and translated by Daniel Troublefield 15 Sep 2018, 4 Nov 2021)
Décédé à Sedan le 22 Septembre 1630 George Famelart, natif de Chéméry, de profession maçon, âgé de 76 ans.
Died at Sedan the 22 September 1630 George Famelart, a native of Chéméry, a mason, aged 76 years.
(Sépultures, 1630-1635 (Ms 665/2). Image 28 of 371)
Décédé à Sedan le 11 Août 1660 6 heures 1/2 du matin Jeanne Famlar natif de Sedan âgé de 73 ans, femme de Pierre Clos vivant, me. masson à Sedan
Died at Sedan the 11 August 1660 at 6:30 a.m. Jeanne Famlar, native of Sedan, aged 73 years, wife of Pierre Clos, living, a master mason at Sedan.
(Sépultures, 1648-1666 (Ms 665) [Page] 7. Image 196 of 323)
[The following is our Pierre Clausse's baptism.]
Baptisé à Sedan le 3 février 1591. Noms, de l'enfant Pierre (Cloche).
Nom …du père Roger Cloche, maçon à Daigny. Nom de la mère Marguerite Grenet.
Parrains: Toussaint De Corteaux et Jeanne Grenet.
Baptized at Sedan 3 February 1591. Infant's name Pierre Cloche.
Father's name Roger Cloche, a stone mason at Daigny (near Sedan).
Mother's name Marguerite Grenet.
Godparents: Toussaint De Cortreaux and Jeanne Grenet.
(Baptêmes, 1587-1597 (Ms 663/2) Image 108 of 317)
Mariés à Sedan le 5 Juin 1639 Pierre Cresson, serger, fils de feu Pierre [Cresson] et Elisabet Vuilesme, demeurant à Sedan [et] Rachel Clausse, fille de Pierre [Clausse], maçon à Sedan, et Jeanne Famelart
Married at Sedan the 5 June 1639 Pierre Cresson, woolen clothmaker, son of the late Pierre Cresson and Elisabeth Vuilesme, living at Sedan, and Rachel Clausse, daughter of Pierre Clausse, a mason at Sedan, and Jeanne Famelart.
(Mariages, 1572-1682 (Ms 664/2). Image 100 of 385)
France, Protestant church records, 1536-1897, France, Ardennes, Sedan. |