ANDRE LAMOREAUX AND HIS DESCENDANTS
from information by Edith Ivans Lamoreaux, Louesa Topham,
Harold D. LAmoreaux and information from Sparrowhawk, via internet
Andre Lamoreaux, also spelled L'Amoreaux, was born about 1660 in the little costal town of Meschers, Santouge, near Bordeaux, France. He had become a successful ship builder and owner of sailing ships. Andr was also able to sail the ships, which required a knowledge of navigating with the wind and of geography.
A century earlier a Frenchman who moved to Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin, protested against the Catholic Church and had established a Reformed or Protestant church. His followers in France were known as Huguenots and the LAmoreauxs were considered Huguenots. (In England Calvins followers were known as Puritans.) There was considerable persecution of these Protestants and many were killed, but in 1598 the King of France issued the Edict of Nantes, which provided protection for these Huguenots. But things changed in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV and the persecution and killing started again.
Two years before the start of the French Revolution, Andr LAmoreaux married Suzanne LaTour, at Meschers, on December 16, 1687. Suzanne became pregnant with their first child.
Persecution was increasing against the Huguenots. According to family tradition, documented by several descendants, Andr and Suzanne, in order to save their lives, hurriedly embarked with a few relatives and friends one dark night in one of Andrs ships, reaching the shores of England the next day. They were allowed to cast anchor and came under the protection of Englands sovereign king, George III, for which they were forever grateful. By a special act of Parliament, the Lamoreauxs were able to become naturalized British citizens.
Their first son, Daniel, was born on November 29, 1695 at Bristol, Somerset, England, a British citizen. According to one historian, Daniel grew to be a fine, sturdy lad, imbued like his parents with the same ideals of loyalty to the British Crown.
Andr, having heard of the new land of America, many of whose colonists were subjects of King George III, decided to take his family and any friends who dared this venture in his own ship across the Great Atlantic, secure in the belief that they would be under the protection of King George. Bards History of the French Huguenots in America mentions their safe arrival and settlement in Dutchess County, New York.
Andr died in New Rochelle, Winchester County, New York in 1706, when Daniel was only eleven years old. His mother, Suzanne died in 1720, also in New Rochelle.
In America, Daniel, now a young man of 25, married Jeanne Masse on June 26, 1719. Jeanne was born in New York City, but her parents also came from France. Daniel and Jeanne, had a family of ten children, with our ancestor, Joshua, being the youngest.
Joshua was born on January 9, 1739 in Phillipsburg, Orange County, New York. When war was declared against England by the Colonists in America, these Lamoreauxs, still speaking French and loyal to King George, apparently did not know that he was sending his red coats over to whip in line his rebellious subjects. Joshuas father Daniel died in New York during October 1754, some twenty-two years before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Many of the younger generation of Lamoreauxs, who were born in America, joined the army of patriots, but Joshua, who still spoke French and was loyal to the tradition of his fathers, fled northward to Canada to escape imprisonment or even death as a Tory. In 1759, Joshua married Elizabeth Ogden, who was born in Dutchess County, New York. Joshua started a grocery business in Sacrborough, near Toronto, in Canada, which was very successful and he was a prominent citizen of his community.
Joshua and Elizabeth had a good size family, one being a son, who they named John McCord Lamoreaux. John McCord was born on July 19, 1779 and married Abigail Ann Losee on May 30, 1805, while living in New Brunswick in Nova Scotia. John McCord took over the flourishing grocery business from his father in Scarborough.
During 1832, two American missionaries without purse or script, Elders John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt, were serving in Upper Canada, as it was then called. John McCord opened up the attic, which served as an assembly room, of his big store and allowed them to preach their message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to his family and friends. Their inspired message changed the lives of the Lamoreaux family forever.