Louis De la Coste - French Huguenot

Louis De la Coste and his wife Rachel Chintrier were living in La Rochelle during the second half of the 17th century. Louis was a prosperous merchant whose family had originally come from the region of Provenance, but because of religious persecution had settled in La Rochelle which was designated as one of the ‘safe cities’ for Protestants. La Rochelle, being located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean was also a very prosperous merchandising city, known as the ‘Gateway to the Ocean’ Louis De la Coste was born on the 12 March 1641 to Jean De la Coste and Francoise Herpin. Louis was married for the first time on the 15 May 1667 to Maria Philbert, a year later Maria gave birth to a daughter, but sadly two years later both his daughter and wife passed away. In November of 1672 Louis was married for the second time, this time to Rachel Chintrier, daughter of a wood merchant called Jacques Chintrier and his wife Marie Papin. Rachel was born in June 1648 so was 24 at the time of her marriage and Louis was 31. Rachel and Louis had a total of 7 children, their oldest child was named after his father and was born on the 10 April 1674, he was christened in the Reformed Church of La Rochelle by Mr. De Laireman and his Godmother was his cousin Olive De la Coste, daughter of his uncle Charles. This Louis was later called Ludovicus and is the 6th great grandfather of Leen Arie. The other children of Louis and Rachel were David, born 1675, Charles, born 1677, who died as an infant, Jean born 1678, Maria born 1680, Susanna born in 1681 and another David in 1684.

In the autumn of 1681, seven year old Ludovicus and six year old David were sent by sea to Bristol in England so that they could be educated in the Reformed Protestants religion. They spent two years in Bristol and returned to La Rochelle in the autumn of 1683. Sadly young David became sick and died during the sea voyage and had to be buried at sea, how traumatic this must have been for Ludovicus and so sad for his parents when they heard the news. In October 1685, Louis XIV renounced the Edict of Nantes, this Edict had been signed in 1598 by King Henry IV, granting the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in a predominantly Catholic country.

The year before the renunciation Louis and Rachel decided to send all of their surviving children to safety in the Netherlands, at the time Rachel was in the last term of pregnancy of her youngest child whom they would name David after their son who was lost at sea. For this reason 10 year old Ludovicus, 6 year old Jean, 4 year old Maria and 3 year old Susanna where accompanied by their Aunt, Elizabeth Burtel née Chintrier and her daughter. They left from St. Martin on the Ile de Re and after a sea voyage of around 12 days arrived in Rotterdam on the 9 October 1684. Louis and Rachel joined their children several months later after fleeing from La Rochelle as did thousands of other Huguenots at this time, sadly their new born baby died in infancy. On the 14 May 1686 Louis and his family where granted Citizen Rights to the city of Rotterdam. Young Ludovicus had already continued with his education after arriving in the Netherlands. On the 10 December 1684 he began to study the Dutch language in Overschie by Mr. de Crocq, he studied here for 9 months.

After living in Rotterdam for a few months Louis and Rachel and their family took up residence in Dordrecht and Ludovicus was enrolled in the Latin school where he studied Latin and Greek, Geometry under Abel de Vries, Philosophy and Astronomy under Mr. Drucker and later after his graduation at this school in 1690 he continued his education at the Illustre School Dordrecht where he studied the languages Hebrew, Syrisch and Chaldean under the French preacher Olivier Loquet. Whilst Ludovicus was busy with his studies in Dordrecht his parents and siblings decided in the Spring of 1687 to carry on their journey to Zurich in Switzerland. After residing here for only a few months, sadly on the evening of 18 November 1687 Rachel passed away, she was only 39 years old. She left her husband Louis with three young children to look after, Jean aged 9, Maria aged 7 and Susanna aged 6. For this reason, before her death she encouraged her husband to take as a new wife her recently widowed cousin Marguerite Thomeur. According to Ludovicus, his step mother Marguerite “raised them with much tenderness and love, God bless her.” Rachel was buried at the Protestant Church of Grosmuster in Zurich.

Louis probably returned to the Netherlands with his children, he married Marguerite Thomeur in 1688. Marguerite’s brother or father Pieter Thomeur was a merchant in Amsterdam. Possibly around this time his youngest son Jean was also sent to school, possibly also in Dordrecht. In 1694 eldest son Ludovicus continued his education at the ‘Leidsche Hoogeschool’ in Leiden which he left in 1695 to go into the Church. In 1698 he took up his first appointment as Preacher of the church in Simonshaven. (More about Ludovicus and his family in a future article)

During this time his father had decided to move on with his new wife and two daughters to London in England. They settled in a house on Petticoat Lane which is in an area of London where many French Huguenots resided. He was able to continue here successfully with his merchandising business as can be seen by a Notary Act made between him and Pieter Thomeur on the 25 March 1695 in Amsterdam, in which his son Ludovicus is acting as his representative. In this Act he transports four Obligations which he owned which where from the hand of Holland and West Vriesland, over to Pieter Thomeur. These four Obligations where worth all together more than 5,000 pounds sterling, which in today’s money would be about £1,400,000 an amazing amount of money! Louis’s two daughters both married in London, Maria in June of 1700 to Jean Arnaud, she had three children, a son and two daughters, her son died in infancy. Her husband died in 1707 so she then remarried Isaac Rivalland in 1708. Susanna was married in April 1709 to Allard Bellin, she didn’t have any surviving children. Louis’s youngest son Jean graduated as a doctor of medicine at the University of Utrecht on the 4 September 1704. After his graduation he joined his father in London and found work as a Physician. He got married around 1706 to Maria Susanna Assaily, they had around 7 children but only two daughters survived to adulthood. In a previous Blog you can read about Jean’s involvement in the Mughouse Riots.

On the 30 March 1706 Louis De la Coste made his Last Will and Testament, he passed away a month later and was buried on the 6 April at St Botolph’s Church at Bishopsgate in London he was 65 years old. In his Will he leaves a yearly payment of 28 pounds sterling to his dear wife Margaret, to his as yet unmarried youngest daughter Susanna he left £500, and to his eldest son Ludovicus in the Netherlands he also left £500 and £50 to Ludovicus’s eldest daughter Cornelia Louisa. His youngest son Jean received a yearly annuity of £24 as well as the sum of £120. His other daughter Maria is to receive his household estate and effects after the death of his wife and Maria’s husband Jean Arnaud is named as chief Executor.

Most of the information that I have written about here I was able to glean from an account written by Ludovicus De la Coste himself. About his father he wrote “ My Father was a very sensible man, a very honest man, a very good Father for his children and a very good Christian. As he lived, so he died in the Lord. His main virtues were humbleness, thriftiness, sincerity, moderation and alertness. He was an enemy to pomp and excess and wastefulness, not out of the principle of greediness, but of Godliness. An enemy to hypocrisy, and of all lies. God give that my children and descendants will follow him in all of these virtues.”