In 1722, according to a letter from his brother Abraham, John was living in Cock Lane, in the suburb Bishopsgate near York Street, London
From David Ballance....
Jean was sent by his father to London, where he perhaps already had friends and business connections in the Hayne family, who were also from Saint Quentin.
On 15 February 1691, the French Church of La Patente in Spitalfields recorded:
Mariage "Le Sieur Jean Descarriere de Saint Quentin, fils de Jean Descarrieres et d'Anne Joncourt: et Damlle Rachel Hayne, fille de Daniel Hayne et Marie le Grand, aussi de Saint Quentin."
Presumably Jean was working as a silk weaver, but it is not entirely clear from the scanty references how the Descarrieres made a living in London until much later in the next century, when they are usually called "merchants", although they maintained links with the Weavers' Company.
In 1693, when his father Jean was still in France, they come suddenly to life through the chance survival of a short series of six letters. David Ballance has copies of these, but the script is very hard to read. Luckily, they were translated and published in The Pedigree Register of March and June 1914.
The first, dated 3 January 1693, is addressed by Jean to his "children", but seems in fact designed for his son Jean and his daughter-in-law, for whose special benefit he adds a long postscript. It contains family news about his other children and about friends. There is a mysterious reference to a "M. Le Grand", who has attempted to interfere with his correspondence; this might be a cover-name for one of the ecclesiastical or civil authorities in Saint Quentin. He complains of the cost of living and of increasing civil disorder. In a pleasant little postscript, he sympathises with Rachel for the problems she has had with her son, who, he says, is only repaying his father for the trouble that he gave to his father:
"For instance, he has made me get up more than 500 times from my bed, winter and summer, to take
him a walk along the house and to sing with him songs which did not much please me......."
Jean and Rachel received a letter from Jean's father that must have given them a shock, informing them that he had re-married, at Paris a week earlier. His new wife, Elizabeth Harle, was only 20, but a literate Protestant with a portion of 1,500 livres. He defends his action with some desperation:
"It is not that I have not worked as much as ever, but other thoughts have prevailed and I have had to work with grief." There is no reason for his son to fear a visit to France, as persecution has eased: "provided that no assembling takes place they say nothing to you."
This letter was directed to his son in York Street , near Spital Square.
The third letter is mysterious. When it was published, the translator guessed that it was written by Jean senior's new wife to her stepson. It refers to a wealth of relatives at Saint Quentin and in London, deplores the spiritual deprivation of Saint Quentin, and begs Jean not to forget his good fortune in being able to hear the Word in his own language, whereas "we are unknown in a place where we understand nothing." The key passage is:
"I pray the good God to bless you--to give you grace to behave towards us like a Joseph, that you may receive your poor Father and the poor afflicted one" (who is female) "together with your brother and sister whom I recommend to you that you may act towards them as towards your Father in case we should die, as trouble certainly shortens our days. I never expect to see you again, we commend ourselves to your prayers...."
This reads as though it was written to prepare Jean to receive his family in London following some final disaster in Saint Quentin, and if so, it was probably written in the late 1690s, since the father died in London in July 1701, the Administration of his estate being granted to his son.
By 1722 Jean was living in Cock Lane , a short move from York Street. He died there in 1726, and his wife Rachel in 1734. Her Will was proved in the London Commissary Court, and the original is in the Guildhall Library. I have reproduced its text opposite, as it gives something of the flavour of the language she spoke.
weaver, elder of st jean, spitalfields 1703
in england since 1691
will pcc |
