Pierssené Links to Beveren in Belgium

When my book Pierssené, a Huguenot Family of London was published in 2007 (still available through BookPOD in Melbourne), I acknowledged the work of Gordon Pierssene of London for his extensive genealogical research back to 1678, when the family arrived in London. 

Subsequently, in 2015, Ronald Pissens of Belgium proved the origins of the English branch of this family. (Refer to my previous post on this topic.) He organised high-level DNA tests on a number of men, using the 111 marker tests which compare two male persons genetically. He concluded that the common ancestor for Gordon Pierssene in London and Ronald Pissens in Belgium lived in Flanders just to the west of Antwerp between 1322 and 1466, with a confidence level of 95%. The lack of documents for the 1300s and 1400s makes it unlikely that the identity of the common ancestor will ever be discovered. 

Thanks to Ronald and his extensive research, the English branch of the family can now see back a further 100 years from 1678, to 1578. At that time lived Jacob or Jacques Pierssene, son of a Michiel Pierssene who was a landlord at Beveren, on the west bank of the River Scheldt and opposite Antwerp. Since the mid-1300s, Beveren had been the political centre of the north-eastern part of the historical County of Flanders. But in 1570, a catastrophic tide had flooded the area, around the time the Eighty Years War broke out with Spain. For strategic reasons linked to the protection of Antwerp, the local authorities decided to dismantle Beveren’s various flood barriers and the sea began to encroach.

In 1581 Jacob was still in Beveren, in charge of the inventory of the clerical properties ordered by the Reformed Government in Gent. In 1583 the Castle of Beveren was conquered by Spanish forces led by the Duke of Parma, and in 1584 Jacob had moved across the river to Antwerp, as a citizen son of Michiel and a merchant ex Beveren. Antwerp, which had been the centre of the entire international trading economy, fell to the Spanish forces in 1585. Antwerp declined and Amsterdam took over. 

Cortwalle Castle, Beveren, source Wikipedia

I wish I had known the details of this history when I visited Antwerp in 2018. I should have visited Cortewalle Castle, a white sandstone castle dating back to the 15^th century, and now hosting the Municipal Local History Museum. 

I got no closer to Beveren than the banks of the Scheldt River on the Antwerp side. 

Scheldt River, Antwerp, near Norderterras, 2018

Jacob had moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam by 1591, when he was mentioned in a Notarial Act, and in 1592 he was mentioned as a citizen merchant from Flanders. Some of the extended Pierssené family living in London later mentioned relatives living in Amsterdam in their Wills. But by 1598 Jacob was bankrupt and fleeing Amsterdam. 

Did he and his family move to Dieppe? Ronald Pissens found mention, in a biography of the Dutch painter Vermeer, of a merchant named Emanuel Pierssene contesting a court case in Amsterdam in 1610 but living in Dieppe. Dieppe is easily accessible by boat from Amsterdam and was the premier port of the French kingdom in the 17th century. It is located in today’s Department 76 (Seine-Maritime) in the Region of Haute-Normandie, directly across the English Channel from Brighton in England. The name Emanuel, with various spellings, later turns up as a given name in the English Pierssené family, where Michael is also a strongly-held naming tradition. 

Although Emanuel’s forebears were originally Protestants from Flanders, described as Walloons, ‘that doesn't stop them from being Huguenots by the end of the 17th century’ says Robert Nash, Secretary of the Huguenot Society of Australia. ‘Quite a few families in France who identified with the Protestant minority were in fact of Dutch/Flemish origin, and living in Dieppe makes this more likely’. In 1632, Wikipedia tells us that 300 Protestant colonists departed from Dieppe for New France in North America and when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, 3,000 of Dieppe’s Huguenot citizens fled abroad. 

As my book of 2007 also recounts, across the North Sea from Antwerp, in Norfolk in 1600, the unnamed wife of a Thomas Persene was mentioned in the registers of ‘The Walloons and their church at Norwich’. Norwich was a medieval centre of the wool trade, and in 1565 the first group of master weavers came as ‘Strangers’ (Protestant refugees) from Flanders. ‘Strangers’ eventually comprised about one third of the city’s population. The name Thomas also later turns up as a given name in the English Pierssené family, which contains no records of weavers, but references generally point to a family active in trade. 

Otherwise, the Pierssenés were not officially recorded amongst the foreign Protestants in England between 1618 and 1688. Despite decades of religious upheaval, no evidence has surfaced to prove that any member of the Huguenot Pierssené family actually lived in England until after the royal marriage in 1677 between William of Orange (a Dutchman) and his English cousin Mary. 

This marriage roughly marks the dates of arrival of Pierssené family members in England, commencing with a witness at a Huguenot baptism at the French Church in Threadneedle St, London on 1 September 1678: Thomas Pierresenay [sic], a merchant. 

On 1 June 1687 Anne Hebert, widow of Emmanuel Piercené [sic] of Dieppe, Emmanuel Piercené, young man, and Anne Piercené, spinster, were listed amongst the congregation of the French Church of Threadneedle St, London. Young Emmanuel was a horologist – a clock or watchmaker. Thomas and Emmanuel’s widowed sister Madelaine, a native of Dieppe and the young watchmaker's aunt, had also fled to England by 1701. 

The story continues in my book Pierssené, a Huguenot Family of London, available worldwide through BookPOD in Melbourne.

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