Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, with a deep sense of noblesse oblige, stands
out among men as a true example of one in high rank and social position who
knew his obligation to behave nobly, responsibly, and kindly toward others.
Born in France of nobility in the last half of the 1600s, Claude Phillipe de
Richebourg was richly endowed with the love of liberty, the hardy spirit of
independence, and the religious wisdom that service to the Heavenly Kings is
most often revealed through respect for other people.
Because the story of Claude Phillipe de Richebourg completely exemplifies the immigrants who came to America in the late 1600s and early 1700s seeking
religious freedom, one listens to his story with reverence. His philosophy of the freedom of the individual, both within a church and among denominations, is the story of the beginning of religious freedom as it is known today in America.
At least a century before Claude Phillipe was born, the de Richebourg family were people of strong Christian convictions. For example, John Calvin, the great theologian, was a friend of the de Richebourg family. In April, 1541, at the time that Calvin was in attendance at Ratisbon, the pestilence carried away, among other of his friends, Louis de Richebourg who, together with his older brother, Charles, lived in Calvin’s house at Strassburg as a student and pensionniare under the tutorship of Claude Feray, Calvin’s assistant. Hearing the sad news of the death of Louis de Richebourg, the Reverend John Calvin wrote to the father of Louis and Charles de Richebourg, a gentleman from Normandy, the lord of the village of Richebourg between Rouen and Beauvais, a long letter of condolence. Reverend Calvin also mentioned that his wife, Madame Calvin, and his brother, as well as Charles de Richebourg, were together and that all three were safe from the pestilence. But a peril far greater than pestilence existed for the New-Testament believers, called Huguenots, in the 1500s as well as in the 1600s. The danger was the persecution of all Huguenots, especially noblemen by the extremist of the Catholic Church.
The de Richebourg family was of the nobility. And while Protestantism
scarcely touched the French peasantry, the believers were strong among the
nobility and among the rising classes of intellectuals and artisans. The
employer class was more likely to be Protestant; whereas the workers were more likely to be Catholic. The less-educated were more inclined to rely on a dictatorship both within their church and within their government.
Independence and education among the nobles encouraged resistance to the
centralized Catholic monarchy which did not allow for individual thought,
either politically or religiously.
The extremists of the Catholics continued the persecution of all persons who did not proclaim to be affiliated with their organization. One of the most sadistic of the persecutions was the Massacre of the New Testament Believers, called the Huguenots, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day which began in Paris at daybreak on Sunday, August 24, 1572, spread throughout France, and continued until September 17, 1572. During this period of three weeks, at least 50,000 Huguenots were slain, both in Paris and throughout the provinces. In spite of Saint Bartholomew’s Day and subsequent reverses, the Huguenots remained strong.
But in 1593, threatened by a loss of the French Crown to a Catholic Heir and the loss of fanatically Catholic Paris, Henry of Navarre, a protestant who became Henry IV of France, recanted his own faith and thereby rallied the moderate Catholics to his support. When Paris surrendered because of his objurgation, Henry IV remarked that Paris was “well worth a Mass”. In 1598, Henry IV supported by a group of moderates who were known as the “polotiques”, granted the Edict of Nantes which permitted a limited amount of religious freedom. The Huguenots were granted substantial civil liberties, although they were only permitted to exercise their religion in two hundred designated towns and in the chateaus of Huguenot nobles.
Less than a century later, On October 17, 1685, Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes and stopped at once worship not approved by the Hierarchy. All churches not Catholic were destroyed as well as the records concerning membership and activities. Within a few weeks, 800 protestant churches were demolished and all corporate property was lost.
Then, emigration was forbidden. The refugees, men or women, if they were
caught, were sent respectively to the galleys or to prison and then their
property was confiscated. Though every frontier was patrolled, the exodus was general. The number of Huguenots who made it to safety and freedom at this time alone exceeded 300,000 or some 50,000 families where the intellectual gifts and the practical skills of the refugees strengthened the lands which received them.
Among the French nobles who fled into exile after the revocation was Claude Phillip de Richebourg who denounced his loyalty to the King of France and his position in the nobility of that country that he might serve God according to the dictates of his own heart. As a minister, he served his Heavenly Father with a sense of noblesse oblige that included an interpretation of the Bible with sagacity and love and compassion toward his fellow-man. He firmly believed that God gave wisdom to those individual Christians who sought to know the truth through His Holy Word. The axe, the stake, the prison, and the galley were not in his armory or argument. As a Christian, he desired freedom even to those from whom he had received persecution.
THE PROMISED LAND
In 1700, Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, along with his wife Ann
Chastain Richbourg and other seekers of religious freedom, set sail from
Grandsend, England, on the ship “Mary Ann” that was destined for “the promised land” on a new continent. “Mary Ann” the first convoy of three ships, reached the James River on October 20, 1700. The French refugees embarked at Jamestown, Virginia, then traveled up the river to Manakin Town, located in Powhatan County, about twenty miles from the present city of Richmond.
The approximate 200 settlers of Manakin Town were granted ten thousand
acres of land which had previously been occupied by the extinct Nanakin tribe
of Indians. The land grants, exempted from payment of taxes for several years, were divided into farms, all running down to the river in narrow strips. A portion of the land grant, considered the most valuable, was set apart for the minister and was thus possessed and used while he resided in the parish.
SETTLEMENT ON THE TRENT RIVER
The Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourg and his wife Anne resided in
Virginia for about twelve years while they ministered to the church at
ManninkinTown in Powhaten County. From all accounts of the pastor and the
congregation, it was a typical church body made up at times of saints and at
times of sinners who were at time in harmony and were at times in disharmony.
In 1712, The Reverend Claude Phillipe and his charming wife Anne lead a
group, which consisted mostly of the members of the Manninkin Town Church,
southward to North Carolina to pioneer that part of the country. While they
were living on the Trent River in North Carolina, the settlers were attacked by the Tuscarora and Coree Indians. One hundred and eleven of the settlers were massacred by the Indian Braves. After this tragedy, the Reverend de
Richebourg, his family, and the compatriots continued their journey southward and settled at Jamestown on the Santee River in South Carolina.
INDIAN WAR OF 1715
On April 15, 1715, the conflict known as the Indian War began in South
Carolina. The Yamasee Indian Tribe and their allies, enticed by the Spaniards began a series of raids on the America Colonies and Their Indian Allies. The remotest parish of the French Huguenot Church and therefore the most exposed of the conflict was St. James on the Santee River with the Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourg pastor, assisted by his wife, Anne. On May 6, 1715, the parishioner of St. James were forced to evacuate, but the following week they returned to fortify themselves.
On the 16th of October, 1715, a letter was sent to London, addressed to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreigh Parts, the S.P.G., a
Missionary Society, which was signed by eleven clergymen, including the
Reverend de Richebourg stating that the southern parts or one-fifth of the
province was entirely depopulated because of the war. Of greatest concern to
the ministers were the spiritual needs of their people. The Letter stated:
“Att the beginning of this bloody war, we had butt little prospect of Success, and when several of the Indian inhabitants with most of the Dissenting Teachers retired for safety to the neighboring Colonies, we thought it our Duty to improve this Opportunity and convince our several Congregations that we Sought not theirs but Them, & regarded not our bodyes and temporal concerns, if we might contribute somewhat towards the savings their Souls and promoting their spiritual welfare.”
Included among the ministers, who, though often in the midst of danger,
never left their fields of ministry, was the Reverend de Richebourg. The de Richebourg home and parsonage was not only used as a garrison which to say
the least was an “uncomfortable way of life”, but the de Richebourg’s orchards, gardens and outhouses were destroyed. The Reverend de Richebourg, as well as the other clergymen of the area, were under such uncommon expense due to the war that they were literally insolvent. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in London sent to the clergymen a substantial love-offering. The Reverend de Richebourg, in acknowledging his appreciation to the missionary society, described the want that he and his wife, Anne, and their five children had experienced on account of the war.
THE LATER YEARS
Claude Phillipe de Richebourg’s will, dated January 15, 1719, breathes “the true spirit of the Christian, resigned under the dispensation of Province, steadfast in the faith, and triumphant at this approaching death”. His wife Ann Chastain de Richebourg and his six children who survived were Charles,Rene, John, James, Claudius, and Elizabeth.
Both Charles and John, planters of Berkeley County in South Carolina, were either bachelor or widower at their deaths. Neither had children. Rene was married to Catherine Peyre and they and their family resided on a plantation on the Santee River in Berkeley County, known as Sandy Hill. James and Elizabeth are both mentioned in the will of their father and in the will of their brothers, John and James, but no further information is available concerning them. Claudius married Unity Fox, a descendant of Thomas West, known as Lord de la Ware. The plantation of Claudius and Unity Richebourg was located on Jack’s Creek and the Santee River in that portion of Craven County which subsequently became Clarendon County in South Carolina.
A SENSE OF NOBLESSE OBLIGE
The life of Claude Phillipe de Richebourg has been described as follows:
The character which has been transmitted to us of this persecuted minister of
the gospel, exhibits as its peculiar trait a devotedness to the cause of
Christ. He appears to have been a man of unobtrusive manners, of deep and
fervent piety, and of a serious temper of mind.
Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, a nobleman and a minister, died a
half-century before the American Revolution, a true symbol of the men and women who laid the foundation for those four great freedoms: Freedom of speech and of worship and freedom from want and from fear. He had a great since of Noblesse Oblige. He was a great and powerful spiritual leader who understood his responsibility to behave nobly and kindly toward others.
(There are 24 footnotes which I have not listed.)
Published in the “Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine” November 1979
—-
“CLAUDE PHILLIPE DE RICHEBOURGE: A Sense of Noblesse Oblige” by Bobbie Morrow
Dietrich, D.ED., Blinn College, Brenham, Texas
Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, with a deep sense of noblesse oblige, stands
out among men as a true example of one in high rank and social position who
knew his obligation to behave nobly, responsibly, and kindly toward others.
Born in France of nobility in the last half of the 1600s, Claude Phillipe de
Richebourg was richly endowed with the love of liberty, the hardy spirit of
independence, and the religious wisdom that service to the Heavenly Kings is
most often revealed through respect for other people.
Because the story of Claude Phillipe de Richebourg completely exemplifies the immigrants who came to America in the late 1600s and early 1700s seeking
religious freedom, one listens to his story with reverence. His philosophy of the freedom of the individual, both within a church and among denominations, is the story of the beginning of religious freedom as it is known today in America.
At least a century before Claude Phillipe was born, the de Richebourg family were people of strong Christian convictions. For example, John Calvin, the great theologian, was a friend of the de Richebourg family. In April, 1541, at the time that Calvin was in attendance at Ratisbon, the pestilence carried away, among other of his friends, Louis de Richebourg who, together with his older brother, Charles, lived in Calvin’s house at Strassburg as a student and pensionniare under the tutorship of Claude Feray, Calvin’s assistant. Hearing the sad news of the death of Louis de Richebourg, the Reverend John Calvin wrote to the father of Louis and Charles de Richebourg, a gentleman from Normandy, the lord of the village of Richebourg between Rouen and Beauvais, a long letter of condolence. Reverend Calvin also mentioned that his wife, Madame Calvin, and his brother, as well as Charles de Richebourg, were together and that all three were safe from the pestilence. But a peril far greater than pestilence existed for the New-Testament believers, called Huguenots, in the 1500s as well as in the 1600s. The danger was the persecution of all Huguenots, especially noblemen by the extremist of the Catholic Church.
The de Richebourg family was of the nobility. And while Protestantism
scarcely touched the French peasantry, the believers were strong among the
nobility and among the rising classes of intellectuals and aritisans. The
employer class was more likely to be Protestant; whereas the workers were more likely to be Catholic. The less-educated were more inclined to rely on a dictatorship both within their church and within their government.
Independence and education among the nobles encouraged resistance to the
centralized Catholic monarchy which did not allow for individual thought,
either politically or religiously.
The extremists of the Catholics continued the persecution of all persons who did not proclaim to be affiliated with their organization. One of the most sadistic of the persecutions was the Massacre of the New Testament Believers, called the Huguenots, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day which began in Paris at daybreak on Sunday, August 24, 1572, spread throughout France, and continued until September 17, 1572. During this period of three weeks, at least 50,000 Huguenots were slain, both in Paris and throughout the provinces. In spite of Saint Bartholomew’s Day and subsequent reverses, the Huguenots remained strong. But in 1593, threatened by a loss of the French Crown to a Catholic Heir and the loss of fanatically Catholic Paris, Henry of Navarre, a protestant who became Henry IV of France, recanted his own faith and thereby rallied the moderate Catholics to his support. When Paris surrendered because of his objurgation, Henry IV remarked that Paris was “well worth a Mass”. In 1598, Henry IV supported by a group of moderates who were known as the “polotiques”, granted the Edict of Nantes which permitted a limited amount of religious freedom. The Huguenots were granted substantial civil liberties, although they were only permitted to exercise their religion in two hundred designated towns and in the chateaus of Huguenot nobles.
Less than a century later, On October 17, 1685, Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes and stopped at once worship not approved by the Hierarchy. All churches not Catholic were destroyed as well as the records concerning membership and activities. Within a few weeks, 800 protestant churches were demolished and all corporate property was lost.
Then, emigration was forbidden. The refugees, men or women, if they were
caught, were sent respectively to the galleys or to prison and then their
property was confiscated. Though every frontier was patrolled, the exodus was general. The number of Huguenots who made it to safety and freedom at this time alone exceeded 300,000 or some 50,000 families where the intellectual gifts and the practical skills of the refugees strengthened the lands which received them.
Among the French nobles who fled into exile after the revocation was Claude Phillip de Richebourg who denounced his loyalty to the King of France and his position in the nobility of that country that he might serve God according to the dictates of his own heart. As a minister, he served his Heavenly Father with a sense of noblesse oblige that included an interpretation of the Bible with sagacity and love and compassion toward his fellow-man. He firmly believed that God gave wisdom to those individual Christians who sought to know the truth through His Holy Word. The axe, the stake, the prison, and the galley were not in his armory or argument. As a Christian, he desired freedom even to those from whom he had received persecution.
THE PROMISED LAND
In 1700, Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, along with his wife Ann
Chastain Richbourg and other seekers of religious freedom, set sail from
Grandsend, England, on the ship “Mary Ann” that was destined for “the promised land” on a new continent. “Mary Ann” the first convoy of three ships, reached the James River on October 20, 1700. The French refugees embarked at Jamestown, Virginia, then traveled up the river to Manakin Town, located in Powhatan County, about twenty miles from the present city of Richmond.
The approximate 200 settlers of Manakin Town were granted ten thousand
acres of land which had previously been occupied by the extinct Nanakin tribe
of Indians. The land grants, exempted from payment of taxes for several years, were divided into farms, all running down to the river in narrow strips. A portion of the land grant, considered the most valuable, was set apart for the minister and was thus possessed and used while he resided in the parish.SETTLEMENT ON THE TRENT RIVER
The Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourg and his wife Anne resided in
Virginia for about twelve years while they ministered to the church at
ManninkinTown in Powhaten County. From all accounts of the pastor and the
congregation, it was a typical church body made up at times of saints and at
times of sinners who were at time in harmony and were at times in disharmony.
In 1712, The Reverend Claude Phillipe and his charming wife Anne lead a
group, which consisted mostly of the members of the Manninkin Town Church,
southward to North Carolina to pioneer that part of the country. While they
were living on the Trent River in North Carolina, the settlers were attacked by the Tuscarora and Coree Indians. One hundred and eleven of the settlers were massacred by the Indian Braves. After this tragedy, the Reverend de
Richebourg, his family, and the compatriots continued their journey southward and settled at Jamestown on the Santee River in South Carolina.
INDIAN WAR OF 1715
On April 15, 1715, the conflict known as the Indian War began in South
Carolina. The Yamasee Indian Tribe and their allies, enticed by the Spaniards began a series of raids on the America Colonies and Their Indian Allies. The remotest parish of the French Huguenot Church and therefore the most exposed of the conflict was St. James on the Santee River with the Reverend Claude Phillipe de Richebourgas pastor, assisted by his wife, Anne. On May 6, 1715, the parishioner of St. James were forced to evacuate, but the following week they returned to fortify themselves.
On the 16th of October, 1715, a letter was sent to London, addressed to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreigh Parts, the S.P.G., a
Missionary Society, which was signed by eleven clergymen, including the
Reverend de Richebourg stating that the southern parts or one-fifth of the
province was entirely depopulated because of the war. Of greatest concern to
the ministers were the spiritual needs of their people. The Letter stated:
“Att the beginning of this bloody warr, we had butt little prospect of Success, and when several of the Indian inhabitants with most of the Dissenting Teachers retired for safety to the neighboring Colonies, we thought it our Duty to improve this Opportunity and convince our several Congregations that we Sought not theirs but Them, & regarded not our bodyes and temporal concerns, if we might contribute somewhat towards the savings their Souls and promoting their spiritual welfare.”
Included among the ministers, who, though often in the midst of danger,
never left their fields of ministry, was the Reverend de Richebourg. The de Richebourg home and parsonage was not only used as a garrison which to say
the least was an “uncomfortable way of life”, but the de Richebourg’s orchards, gardens and outhouses were destroyed. The Reverend de Richebourg, as well as the other clergymen of the area, were under such uncommon expense due to the war that they were literally insolvent. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in London sent to the clergymen a substantial love-offering. The Reverend de Richebourg, in acknowledging his appreciation to the missionary society, described the want that he and his wife, Anne, and their five children had experienced on account of the war.
THE LATER YEARS
Claude Phillipe de Richebourg’s will, dated January 15, 1719, breathes “the true spirit of the Christian, resigned under the dispensation of Province, steadfast in the faith, and triumphant at this approaching death”. His wife Ann Chastain de Richebourg and his six children who survived were Charles,Rene, John, James, Claudius, and Elizabeth.
Both Charles and John, planters of Berkeley County in South Carolina, were either bachelor or widower at their deaths. Neither had children. Rene was married to Catherine Peyre and they and their family resided on a plantation on the Santee River in Berkeley County, known as Sandy Hill. James and Elizabeth are both mentioned in the will of their father and in the will of their brothers, John and James, but no further information is available concerning them. Claudius married Unity Fox, a descendant of Thomas West, known as Lord de la Ware. The plantation of Claudius and Unity Richebourg was located on Jack’s Creek and the Santee River in that portion of Craven County which subsequently became Clarendon County in South Carolina.
A SENSE OF NOBLESSE OBLIGE
The life of Claude Phillipe de Richebourg has been described as follows:
The character which has been transmitted to us of this persecuted minister of
the gospel, exhibits as its peculiar trait a devotedness to the cause of
Christ. He appears to have been a man of unobtrusive manners, of deep and
fervent piety, and of a serious temper of mind.
Claude Phillipe de Richebourg, a nobleman and a minister, died a
half-century before the American Revolution, a true symbol of the men and women who laid the foundation for those four great freedoms: Freedom of speech and of worship and freedom from want and from fear. He had a great since of Noblesse Oblige. He was a great and powerful spiritual leader who understood his responsibility to behave nobly and kindly toward others.
(There are 24 footnotes which I have not listed.)
Published in the “Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine” November 1979
—-
The Huguenot Church
French Santee
Information and Article from
“Historic Ramblin’s Through Berkeley”
written by and used with permission of
Mr. J. Russell Cross
The French Church on the Santee is described as the strongest outside Charles Town. We have noticed that warrants to French for lands in Jamestown Precinct date from 1685. From the Ravenel List, we assume that 50 or more families were connected with this Huguenot congregation by 1696. Lawson’s account in 1700 is evidence of an active church life in the community and that the people uniformly conformed to the practices of the Calvinistic churches. An account to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel credits one hundred families as settled there, and a report to the Lords Proprietors dated March 16, 1689/9 estimates the population in the French Church on Santee at 111.
Some writers have assumed that the first church was lower down the river than the vicinity of Jamestown. Hirsch in his Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina states that this had 195 members in 1699 and that it was erected before the town of Jamestown was laid out. We find at page 220, Vol. 9 of the South Carolina Historical Magazine three maps accompanying an article on French Jamestown by Judge H. A. M. Smith. One of these maps shows the Church as located in the middle of the town common on the edge of the
Santee River.
As with all early “independent churches,” no definite date can be given for the erection of the first building, but in view of the number of French on the Santee and their practice of organizing a congregation in their settlements and the presence of the Rev. Pierre Robert in the Province in 1686, there is every reason to believe that the elders, elected by democratic procedure at the first of every year, too steps to have a functioning Church shortly after the settlement here. As early as 1692 Arnaud Bruneau was requesting burial according to the reformed Churches of France.
The Rev. Pierre Robert, who was ordained in Switzerland in 1682, came to the Province in 1686 along with Captain Philip Gendron, settled on the Santee, and is the first known minister of this congregation.
For various reasons to be mentioned in a later section, the members of this church requested to be constituted a parish of the Church of England. This was done in April, 1706. The people were permitted to use the French language Durel translation of the Book of Common Prayer. Outwardly they yielded to the form but kept their French language and traditions. They accepted what they could not change, at least most of the people did on the surface. This was accomplished before the death of Rev. Pierre Robert in 1715.
About this time part of the French settlers at Manikintown in Virginia became dissatisfied with the treatment they were receiving there. With their associate-pastor, the Rev. Phillippe De Richeboug, part of the group came to Santee in 1712. The Rev. De Richebourg served as pastor until his death, which Baird gives as 1718 and Lawton as 1719. In 1720, he was followed by Albert Pouderous who was sent out by the Missionary Society and died as minister of the Santee Church in 1731. In that year Stephen Coulet, another Frenchman, came to the church. He died in 1733 and in that same year Alexander Garden wrote the Bishop of London that he was having trouble getting Rev. Coulet to officiate in English, stating that he was using French by “inclination and adivise.” For a very short time a Rev. Mr. Colladon had charge of the church in 1733. After this, Joseph Bugnion came from Purrysburg to the Santee Church. He had been ordained in London in the Anglican Church but did not speak English well, although he tried. After some controversy, the English in the parish family ousted him in 1734. Some of the French withdrew with him, and while ministering to that group he became very wealthy farming.
It appears that for a time there were two vestries, representing the two groups. From existing letters, emphasis is placed on a strong separation between the French and English traditions in the parish. The English felt that Calvinism was not dead in the hearts of the French. What appears to have been the “official” parish was without a minister until the Rev. Mr. Du Plessis arrived in 1736. After this time, the French tradition began to lose control and those who were not happy with the English moved to the back country and the new lands of St. John’s, Berkeley and English Santee where the French influence lingered. In regard to St. Stephen’s (English Santee) Baird stated that there was no Huguenot Church there after 1706. Information is lacking on any such church there.
By deed of gift dated Dec. 11, 1922 the late Mr. E. Pringle Pipkin conveyed to Huguenot Society of South Carolina one acre at “mount Moriah” on the south side of Santee River about one mile below Lenud’s Ferry. A plat by J. P. Gaillard, dated Dec. 13, 1922 is on page 21, Vol. 28 of The Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. A map prepared by W. Lucas Gaillard and published on page 49, Vol. 71 of the Transaction, shows the location and farm roads leading to the site of the Highway No. 45 from point on that highway about two miles below the present Jamestown.