François Le Sueur (abt. 1590 - abt. 1640)

Born about 1590 in Jersey

Ancestors

Husband of Thomasse (Binet) Le Sueur — married about 1620 in France

Died about 1640 at about age 50 in Nieuw Amsterdam, Nieuw Nederland (New York, New York)

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Biography

François Le Sueur was a Huguenot emigrant (1540-1790).

Francois Le Sueur was born around 1590, most-likely on the French-speaking-but-English-ruled Island of Jersey, one of the Anglo-Norman Channel Islands. Le Sueur was an old Norman French surname that derived from a Latin word, Sutor, meaning "cobbler" or "shoemaker". The Le Sueur family were a large group, living both on the Normandie mainland, in France, and also on the English-ruled Norman island of Jersey. By the late 16th Century, the Jersey branch of the family, at least, had converted to the Reformed (Protestant) faith of Jean Calvin, making them French Huguenots.

Jersey sources indicate that Francois was the son of Benjamin Le Sueur, born about 1568 at Trinity, Isle of Jersey, England, and his wife Sarah (Gruchy) Le Sueur, b: 1561 on the Isle of Jersey, England. It's possible (not proven) that the family had lands in Normandy (now the Seine-maritime departement), near the port of Dieppe, as some genealogies say he and possibly his younger brother, Jean Le Sueur were born in France. The family were of "gentry-level" landowner social status, a class that was particularly attracted to Jean Calvin's theological ideas as they stressed education and self-determination.

Although no primary sources have been located to "prove" this thesis, it would seem that Francois Le Sueur married a French woman named Thomasse Binet, either from Picardy (another "seat" of the Le Sueur family) or Jersey, around 1620. Faced with mounting anti-Huguenot persecution in France, they apparently exiled themselves to the Protestant-led United Netherlands, a few hundred miles north of Dieppe and easily reached via the North Sea.

There, again apparently, Francois changed his name to "Mockers" or "Moojers" (spellings vary), roughly meaning "the prettiest" or "the nicest". The couple had at least one daughter, Clara, aka "Claaretje," Mockers / Moojers, in the Netherlands. She is said to have married an Adriaen Post, in the Netherlands, and emigrated with him to the short-lived Dutch colony of Recife, Brazil, where they had a daughter, Maria, born in 1649. ^[1]

Francois "Moojers" (aka "Moockers") and his wife are said to have emigrated from the Netherlands to Nieuw Amsterdam in the Nieuw Nederland (New Netherland) colony in the 1640s. That colony became New York when captured by the English in 1664. It's not known when Francois and Thomasse (Binet) Le Sueur, aka Mockers, passed away.

More research on this Huguenot emigrant couple is required in the Nieuw Nederland or New York colonial archives.

Sources

1. ↑ Debunking Post Family Genealogy on Olive Tree Genealogy, cites Dutch records.

• Ancestry Family Trees http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=28064322&pid=1790

Acknowledgments

• WikiTree profile Leseur-1 was created on 02 November 2010 through the import of MacEntee_Richard_2010-11-01.ged.
• WikiTree profile Mockers-3 was created by Deneze Lujanen, Jun 15, 2013 from first-hand knowledge.
• WikiTree profile LeSueur-20 was created by Sheldon Sickler through the import of Nelson Rodney Sickler.ged on Apr 17, 2014.