Nicolas de Vaux

Nicolas de Vaux was born about 1642 in Festubert, Province of Artois, France.^1,2 The date comes from the statement in Thomas De Voe’s book that Nicolas was about sixty-four years old at the time of his second marriage in 1706.³ He was the son of Nicolas de Veau and Susanne François.

The de Vaux family belonged to the group of French Protestants called Huguenots, cruelly persecuted by the French authorities. At the Saint Barthomew's Day massacre that began 24 August 1572 in Paris, more than five thousand Huguenots of all ages were slain. After many years of religious warfare, Henry IV in 1598 issued the Edict of Nantes which in principle granted religious tolerance to French Protestants, but which after his death was flagrantly violated. To quote Thomas De Voe's book: "Among the suffering Protestants the de Veaux family, or portions of them, had prepared themselves for flight; and when a favorable opportunity appeared they left their country and their home for ever."⁴ Nicolas's parents and their family escaped from Festubert in Artois probably around 1658, arriving in Mannheim, Germany by 1667.^5,6

Nicolas de Vaux married Marie Sy on 10 July 1667 at the French Church, Mannheim, Germany. A translation of the church record reads Nicholas de Vaus, young man, native of Festubert, province of Artois, and Marie Sy, widow of Jaques Petilion, resident at Mannheim, have been married in this Church the 10 July, 1667.^7,8 Mannheim and the surrounding Palatinate was invaded and devastated by the armies of Louis XIV under Marshal Tureme. Nicholas and his family escaped to England.⁹

From "New York City, 1664-1710, Conquest and Change," by Thomas F. Archdeacon, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1976 (University of Maryland library): . . . Dutch New Yorkers might have been able to maintain their superiority in the city had it not been for the addition to the population in the late seventeenth century of many French Protestant refugees, who resembled the English socially and followed their lead politically. These refugees joined a contingent of other Huguenots who had been among the first settlers dispatched to Manhattan by the Dutch West India Company. The early arrivals were descendants of Protestants who had emigrated to the Netherlands during the years of religious warfare that followed the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572. . . . The major migration of Huguenots to America began in the latter part of the seventeenth century when Louis XIV, who equated heterodoxy with treason, renewed large-scale persecution of the Protestants in his kingdom. In 1685 the Sun King, who incorrectly believed that few heretics remained in his dominion, set off an exodus from France by revoking the Edict of Nantes. Many of the refugees went temporarily to England and then proceeded to the American colonies. They migrated most frequently to South Carolina and New York, where they established the town of New Rochelle in present Westchester County and formed the second wave of French immigrants to Manhattan Island. . . . Manhattan was not destined to remain a Dutch possession. By the Treaty of Westminster signed on February 9, 1674, Holland returned the city and colony to England. On November 10, English forces took over the surrendered port, and James Stuart [Duke of York] was once again in possession of his proprietary, which was for a second time named New York. The Duke of York dispatched Edmund Andros to be governor-general of his province. James instructed Andros to encourage men of all nations to settle in New York . . .

In 1674 Nicholas accompanied Sir Edmund Andros across the ocean when Sir Edmund became the Governor of New York.⁹ The ship was H.M.S. Diamond¹⁰ which arrived in New York on 22 October 1674.¹¹ Nicholas came with his wife and one child, his younger brother Daniel, and several other French refugee families including Isaac See. They settled at Harlem, on upper Manhattan island, probably because Mannheim acquaintances were already there.^9,12 According to Riker, Revised History of Harlem: "Some brought their household goods, but as choicer treasures, the Holy Scriptures in French, the French Psalm Book, and the then highly prized Book of Martyrs."¹² Nicolas de Vaux and Marie Sy joined the church on 13 December 1674 at Harlem, City of New York, New York.¹²

On 6 December 1675, Governor Andros organized a "Night Watch" at Harlem to guard against Indian attacks. Nicholas de Vaux was included in one of the four "corporalships" of seven men each. The instructions read, in part: "The whole or half corporalships, whose turn it is to watch, shall, in the evening, at the hour of eight, upon beat of the drum, be in full number at the watch-house, shall place their sentinels, and take the necessary rounds; and shall not retire before the beating of the morning reveille; upon a forfeiture, fixed or to be fixed, of 3 guilders."¹³ In 1677, Nicholas was taxed for property he owned at Harlem.⁹ A law suit of Nicholas de Vaux versus Pierre Cresson was decided on 15 November 1677.¹⁴ Nicholas was among those cutting 5,000 trees for a "palisade wall" to guard against an expected Indian attack, where Wall Street in lower Manhattan now stands. This wall gave Wall Street its name.⁹ The governor‘s order of 27 November 1677 specified the palisades were to be "under 4 inches thick and 12 to 13 feet long, to be delivered at the waterside in a convenient place to be taken away."¹⁵

Nicolas de Vaux and Marie Sy moved to Bergen County, New Jersey, in about 1679.^9,14 They were drawn there by David Demarest (ca 1620-1693), an acquaintance of theirs in Harlem. Demarest (sometimes written des Marest or de Maree, etc.) had purchased about 2000 acres of land between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers in 1677 from the Tappan Indians, on which he hoped to establish a French colony; it was commonly known as the "French Patent."^16,17,18 Nicolas de Vaux and Marie Sy joined the First Reformed Dutch Church at Bergen Village (now Jersey City)^19,18 on 5 April, 1679.¹⁴ Nicholas helped David Demarest organize a house of worship on Demarest's land called "The French Church," which is believed to have been used from 1682 to 1696 although the building and its records have not survived.^16,20

Nicolas de Vaux married Margaret Jans in 1706.^21,14

Nicolas de Vaux died before 1717.¹⁴ He was probably buried in the French Burying Ground, New Milford, Bergen County, New Jersey.⁹ This cemetery is located on Patrolman Ray Woods Drive, and in 2004 was reported to be surrounded by a chain-link fence and locked up.²² When the gravestone inscriptions were copied in 1902, the oldest date that might be a death was 1734; so no stone remains intact for Nicholas or Maria.¹⁸