Robert (Brasseur) Brashears (bef. 1600 - abt. 1663)

Born before 1600 in France

Husband of Florence (Unknown) Brashears — married about 1619 in France

Descendants

Died about 25 May 1663 after about age 63 in Calvert, Maryland

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Robert (Brasseur) Brashears was a Huguenot emigrant. Join: Huguenot Migration Project Discuss: huguenot

Caution: This profile is in process of being revised with sources and theories being revisited. This profile represents Robert Brasseur. Benois/Benjamin Brasseur is not the same person though there is presently considerable conflation in WikiTree. At this time please make no changes to the profile...place suggestions, comments and concerns in Comments below the profile. Thank you. This notice will be removed when the re-work is completed. Thank you. ~T Stanton 28 Nov 2022.

Disputed Parentage It may be commonly seen that Robert is a part of the "de Jocas" family. This is disproved. The Allemand de Jocas family or "Pierre de Brassier de Jocas" family were Roman Catholics whereas Pierre Brasseur's family were French Huguenots (Protestants). They were NOT the same family although they may have been distant cousins. The parentage of Robert Brasseur/Brashears is unknown.

Biography

The Brasseur family were French Huguenots, dissidents against the Catholic Church, searching for freedom from religious persecution by immigration to Holland, England, then America before 1635. They eventually settled in Calvert County, Maryland, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Their surname has been spelled Brasseur, Brasher, Brashear (s), Boshears, Brashier, Brasier, Brazier, Basher, Bashier and even Bradshaw. The original is thought to have come from the French word "Bras" meaning arm (a part of the body) and "Sieur" meaning Lord or Knight. Another, less noble, interpretation of the name's origin is that a "brasseur" in France is someone who brews beer and ale.

Most American Brashears and variants of the name descend from Benois Brasseur's sons, Robert, Benjamin and John. However, there appears to be another branch that entered the American Colonies through the New England area.

During the 1630s, the Anglican Church was the dominant religion in colonial Virginia. That colony was hardly more tolerant of Puritan Dissenters or Calvinist Huguenots than had been the Roman Catholics in France (from which the Brasseur family fled, seeking religious freedom). So immigrant Robert moved his family, including son Benois, from Isle of Wight County, Virginia Colony, to less-populated Nansemond County and patented 600 acres in Nansemond Co. in 1636 and 1638. At least two of Robert's children became Quakers - John and Margaret. Eventually, in 1658, the family left Virginia for the much-more open and tolerant colony of Maryland.

On October 6, 1640, Robert acquired 100 acres in Upper Norfolk County, Virginia. Two others are mentioned in the transaction, Peter Besairdier and Reene Besairdier^[1].

Abstract of land patent for Robert Brasseur

There are generally two versions of the background of Benois Brasseur before coming to America. The Brasseur Family history has been most thoroughly researched in recent times and published by Charles Brashear in two volumes titled "A Brashear(s) Family History ". The origin and background of earlier versions of the origin of Benois Brasseur are thorougly discussed in the new family genealogy in a preface, entitled "The deBrassier Nonsense". Please read this discussion of Robert's possible origins at:^[2] before adding undocumented parents for him.

In some [older] genealogies, a Roman Catholic Frenchman from Carpentras: Allemand Brassier de Jocas, is listed as a possible ancestor of Benois Brasseur (the Huguenot emigrant ancestor to America), but we can now document that Benois’ father was named Robert Brasseur, who was born about the same time as Pierre Brassier de Jocas, Allemand’s son. Allemand de Brassier was not Robert Brasseur's father. Robert and his son Benois Brasseur arrived in Virginia in about 1635, when Robert already had seven children, the oldest being Benois. Some were born in France before 1628, when the family is thought to have fled to Kent, England; others were born at the Isle of Thanet, in Kent. The remainder were born in Virginia. Within a few generations their French surname "Brasseur" had been Anglicized to "Brashear" or "Brashears".

Wife

There is no evidence to suggest that his wife was a Fowke. Elizabeth Fowke, daughter of Chandler Fowke, and granddaughter of Gerard Fowke, married Zachariah Brazier/Brasseur in 1759 in Virginia. This Zachariah is not provably related to Robert, the Huguenot immigrant to Virginia c. 1635. Note the names of this Elizabeth's father and grandfather; the unknown wife of Robert Brasseur/Brashear has been given an identical false pedigree with the dates shifted back a century.

Children

Under Reconstruction

1. John Brasseur - b abt 1624, probably France
2. Thomas Brasseur - b abt 1626, probably France, identified as son of his father 1649 Isle of Wight Records^[3]
3. Margaret Brasseur - b Jul 1642, Virginia^[4][5]

Will

Brashieur, Robert Sr. 4th Dec., 1665; 16th Dec. 1665; Will Book 1, page 240
To Thomas Tovey, Thomas Frost, and Thomas Smith, land on which testator lived.
To Robert Jarvis, Mary Brashieur, personalty.
To John Cobreth, house and land.
Test: John Cobreth, Mark Clear, John Bennett. ^[6]

Research Notes

CHILDREN:

1. Benois "Bennet" Brasseur ; Born: BEF 1620 at: Rennes [??], France; Married: ABT 1645 at: ,Virginia. Died: ABT 25 MAY 1663 at: Near Chesapeake Bch, Calvert Co., Maryland. Spouses: Mary Rickford
2. Mary Brasseur. Born: ABT 1622 at: Isle of Thanet, Kent Co., England. Married: ? at: ? Died: Yes - young; at: ? Spouses: [Unmarried]
3. Persie Brasseur . Born: ABT 1628 at: Isle of Thanet, Kent Co., England. Married: ? at: ? Died: BEF 1687 at: ? Spouse: John Cobreath
4. Robert Brasseur. Born: ABT 1630 at: England. Married: ? at: ? Died: 5 DEC 1665 at: ? Spouse: Florence Rey
5. Katherine "Cabell" Brasseur . Born: ABT 1632 at: Isle of Thanet, Kent Co., England. Married: 30 JAN 1666 at: ? Died: AFT 1696 at: ? Spouse: Mark Clare.
6. Martha Brasseur . Born: ABT 1636 at: Isle of Wight Co., Virginia. Married: BEF 21 JAN 1659 at: ? Died: Y at: ? Spouses: William Moseley; Captain George Taylor.
7. Mary Brassieur . Born: 3 JAN 1646 at: Isle of Wight Co., Virginia. Married: BEF 1664 at: Nansemond Co., Virginia. Died: ABT 1713 at: Farnham Parish, Richmond Co., Virginia. Spouses: James Biddlecombe; Samuel Peachey.

Notes About Brasseurs who became Quakers

Source: http://users.ticnet.com/shmartonak/j1bk15.htm

History of Perquimans County. As Compiled from Records Found There and Elsewhere. Mrs Watson Winslow. Regional Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1974. Originally Published in Raleigh, NC: 1931. LC #74-1515; ISBN #0-8063-7996-0

Excursus Brasseur. Robert Brasseur, French Huguenot, was granted 1200a of land in Nansemond Co, Va. April 12, 1653, at the head of Nansemond River, for transporting, himself, his wife Florence, children Mary, Persid, Kathe, Bennet Brasseur, William Wooten, Tho. Parker, Jno. Sutton, Jno. Stephens, -- Barefield, Elizabeth Paleman, Nicho. Moroise (Morris), Tho Russell, and Ra, Ellis. This grant was located on Southern branch of Nansemond River.

Margaret Jordan (daughter of Robert Brashare) b --, 7mo 1642, "united with the truth in her 16th year, who about 63 years of age was taken with an Indisposition of Body, which continued for three years, came to the end 7, 10 mo 1708. She was an Elder in Friends meeting at Chuckatuck, and had taken from her by the high Sheriff of Isle of Wight Co, 120 lbs of Tob, 25, 1 mo. 1701, she being a widow 11, 7mo 1700. (Sufferings of Quakers.)

Thomas Jordan her husband "Departed this Life, ye 8, 10mo 1699, on ye sixth day of the week." He also suffered persecution at the hands of authorities, being imprisoned six weeks for "being at a meeting at his own house" but was released by order of Kings Proclamation. Of the Jordan family too much can not be said, as they seem to be from beginning to end a family of great worth, true, strong, public spirited, every where holding places of honor, and public offices, they have blazed a way for their good name through all generations, since the first intrepid adventurer Samuel Jordan set foot on American soil, down to the present day. My own husbands mother being of this splendid family, I feel that I cannot say too much about them, she herself being a fine example of all that good womanhood stands for in this life.

Sources

1. ↑ Moseley, T. B., Jr. (1993). A Moseley Genealogy (Vol. II). Clifton, TX: Thomas B. Moseley, Jr., pags 5-6
2. ↑ The de Brassier Nonsense
3. ↑ Virkus Compendium of American Genealogy, p. 604
4. ↑ Haverford College; Haverford, Pennsylvania; Minutes, 1684-1717; Collection: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minutes; Call Number: 1116/167 (original document)
5. ↑ Haverford College; Haverford, Pennsylvania; Minutes, 1673-1756; Collection: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minutes; Call Number: 1116/HW-43 (transcription)
6. ↑ Baldwin, Jane. The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills from 1635 (Earliest Probated) to 1685. Vol. 1. Westminster, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1988. Page 33.

• Consolidated Update to the Register of Qualified Huguenot Ancestors of The National Huguenot Society. Fifth Edition. San Antonio, Texas: the National Huguenot Society, Inc., 2012. Page 16.
• The de Brassier Nonsense [1]
• [2]
• A Brashear(s) Family History, Vol. 1 The First 200 Years of Brashear(s) in America, by Charles Brashear and Shirley Brasher McCoy: "Contrary to Brasseur mythology, there is no proof that Elizabeth FOWKE was the wife of Robert BRASSEUR"
• Book 975.5 G864 Greer, Early Virginia Immigrants 1622-1666: Listing for Katherine, Bennet, Persie and Mary as 1653 immigrants by Robt. Brasseur of Nansemond Co.
• A Brashear(s) Family History, Vol. 1 The First 200 Years of Brashear(s) in America, by Charles Brashear and Shirley Brasher McCoy: pg 3; "Apparently to escape religious persecutions and seeing an opportunity, Robert Brasseur left his home in France, some time during the 1620s, possibly in 1629. Several family historians say he made his way to Isle of Thanet parish, Kent Co., England, where he was known as Robert Brashear, but we have no clear documentation." He immigrated to Virginia sometime after that with 7 children.
• Cavaliers and Pioneers, by Nugent, Nell Marion: Vol. 1, pg. 41; The first known record of Robert in Virginia is a renewal of a promissory note in Warrisquicke Co., VA on 1 June 1636. Same volume, pg. 124, regarding land patent for October 6, 1640.
• Moseley, T. B., Jr. (1993). A Moseley Genealogy (Vol. II). Clifton, TX: Thomas B. Moseley, Jr., pages 5-6
• The Brashear Story, a Family History, 1637-1963, by Troy Back and Leon Brashear: pg. 7: The earliest know deed to any Brashear was listed as being filed on 24 Feb. 1638.
• Virginia Land Patents, Book 1, pg. 6222: Robert Brassure and Peeter Rey bought 600 acres in Upper Co. of New Norfolk, "Lying N.E. & S.W. along the S. side of Warrisquicke Creeke, upon the head of same & butting upon Nanzemund river (Alias Matrevers River)" from Peter Johnson.

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of JDS_09_17_10.ged on 09 February 2011.