Bourgon
Broucard was born at
Bungary, near La Rochelle, France, which is on the very Western
seacoast on
the Bay of Biscay. He evidently grew up there. In the years following
1500,
criticism of the church developed, in Europe, which movement later
developed
into open warfare. This criticism was developed by Calvin, in France,
and
by Luther, in Germany. Those led by Calvin became known as Calvinists
and
his followers, in France, as Huguenots. The "Register of Ancestors " of
the
Huguenot Society of New Jersey states that the family of the name of
Broucard
lived in La Rochelle, France, and that Broucard was at one time an
honored
and most noted name, in France. The insignia of the Huguenot Society,
was
worn by the Huguenot ancestors as an emblem of their faith. The eight
corners
of the four arms of the Cross of Malta were regarded as signifying the
Eight
Beatitudes, and the Fleur--de--lis the Mother Country of France, and
the
suspended Dove, the Church under the Cross.
It was in La Rochelle, France in this setting we
first
find Bourgon Broucard when he married Marie du May they had one child
Marie
born on November 1, 1665 in Manheim, France. After Marie's death he
married
Catherine Lefevre on December 18, 1666 in Manheim, France. She was the
daughter
of Abraham Lefevre and Antoinette Jerrian. Some time between 1672 and
March
1675 they removed to Amsterdam, Holland, where they were for a short
time.
During the year 1675 the Broucards and the Durie (Duryea) families and
others
of the Huguenot Faith, left Holland and came to America where they
settled
at what is now Brooklyn, New York. In Riker's " "Annals of Newtown, "
"Long
Island, he lists Magdalena Le Febre, wife of Joost Durie and Catherine
Le
Febre, wife of Bourgon Broucard as possibly sisters, who came to
America
on the same boat the ""Gilded Otter. " "And in the "Duryee Family", by
Gustave
Anjou, he lists the parentage of Magdalena Le Febre (or Le Fevre) as of
Abraham
and Antoinette (Jerrian) Le Fevre. Others list her as daughter of Isaac
and
Fannetje (Borderick) Le Fevre, or of Abraham and Antoinette. Mr. Harold
Duryee
of Canton, Ohio, who has done much research on the Duryee-Duryea
family,
says that he is of the opinion that the parents were Abraham and
Antoinette,
as in old Dutch family manner the parents named their children a lot
after
their parents. The name Isaac appears only in the Broucard family, but
Abraham
appears in both the Broucard and Duryee families, and Antoinette in the
Duryee
family and Fannetje in neither. He also says that Magdalena and
Catherine
Le Fevre were sisters.
In 1676 Bourgan Broucard, living in Brooklyn, was
assessed
as owning 11-1/2 morgens (about 23 acres) of land and valley and two
cows.
Then in the year following he was in Midwout, at which time his wife
was
transferred from the Dutch Reformed Church of Brooklyn, to the French
Church
in Manhattan, by certificate, but her name does not appear in the early
French
records of that church. ''(NYG & B Rec., v. 86, p. 6-revised.)"
In 1684 he moved to Cripplebush in Bushwick, Long
Island,
where he bought a farm. Four years later he sold this farm and moved to
Dutch
Kills, now a part of Long Island City, and there in 1692 he bought a
large
estate, a part of which was the plantation originally owned by Burger
Jorizz.
In a deed dated, June 21, 1690, it shows that he and Hans Tunis Couert
(Covert)
of Bedford in Kings County, yeoman, bought land in Maspeth Kills,
Newtown,
and on July 16, 1643, he bought 19 morgens and 400 rods of land there,
called
the Mill Land. (Queens Co.County Deeds, B. 2,pp. 352-53. ) A morgen was
an
old Dutch measure of 2-1/2 acres.
On Oct. 30, 1700, a bill was brought before the
Assembly
for the quieting of title to the lands of "ancient freeholders,"
including
those of Bergoon Bragan, who were inhabitants of Hellgate Neck, within
the
bounds of Newtown, Long Island. This bill was rejected and when
again
brought before the Assembly, in May 1703, his name does not appear as
by
that time he had moved to Somerset Co.County, New Jersey. (Annals of
Newtown,
pp. 131-33 and NYG & B Rec., v. 86, p. 6. )
In 1702 Bourgon sold his land in Newtown to William
Post,
which land was later bought back by Bourgon's son Isaac. On May 9,
1702,
Bourgon and his son in-law, Jan (John) Coverson (Covert) bought for L
400,
of William Dockwra, a merchant of London, two thousand acres of land in
Somerset
Co.County, N.J.New Jersey, bounded on the north and northwest by the
Rarity
and Millstone Rivers. (Deed Bk. Lib. C. -2, p. 447, in Off. of State,
Trenton,
N. J.New Jersey ), and there after we have no record of him unless he
was
the Bourgon Brokaw appearing as a witness, June 2, 1717, at the baptism
of
Johannes, son of Thomas and Antie Cosyn at the Dutch Church in Jamaica,
Long
Island. It is possible this was his grandson, Bourgon, who could not
have
been over twenty at that date. His wife appears at the Raritan Dutch
Church,
Aug. 6, 1712, at the baptism-n o£ her grandchild, Catalyntie,
daughter
of Abraham. She is then called "wife of Beugon" not widow. (NYG
&.
B Rec., 86, p.6.)
An excellent Broucard
Page can be found at - MY
BROKAW FAMILY LINE, by Deborah
E. Kroll
Huguenot
History
Who were the
Huguenots
Important
dates
in Huguenot history
Presentation
on
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