Genealogy Thomas » Pierre Robert (1656-1715)

Personal data Pierre Robert 

• He was born on February 3, 1656 in Bern, St. Imier, Switzerland.
• He died in the year 1715 in French Santee, South Carolina, he was 58 years old.
• A child of Daniel Robert and Marie Petremand DeSonviuer

Household of Pierre Robert

He is married to Jeanne Braye.

They got married in the year 1674 at Basle, Switzerland, he was 17 years old.Source 2

Child(ren):

1. Pierre Robert  1675-1731 
2. Jean Robert  1680-1760 
3. ??  
4. ??  
5. ??  

Notes about Pierre Robert

Born at St. Imier in 1656. Pierre Robert was pastor of a Waldensian Church in the Piedmont Valley in Switzerland. It is said that the Waldenses were the ancestors of the present day Baptists. Pierre Robert married Jeanne Braye in 1674. She was the daughter of Jehu and Susanne Braye. Jeanne was born at Basle, Switzerland, in 1660. He was nineteen and she was not quite fifteen. They were happy in that beautiful Piedmont Valley until Louis XIV, King of France, revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685), and subjected these poor innocents to the bitter attacks of their enemies. There was no hope except immigration to the New World, across the ocean. In 1686, Captain Phillip Gendron, under the direction of their beloved pastor, Rev. Pierre Robert, led a large group of Huguenots to the friendly shores of South Carolina where they found peace and security in the wilderness among the savages. In September, 1705, the Lords Proprietors ceded a large tract of land on the Santee River to the French-Swiss inhabitants for a town or plantation. The following January, a town called Jamestown was established, some 60 miles north of Charleston. Jamestown never prospered as the river overflowed and the climate was not salubrious. This settlement was known as "French Santee" to distinguish it from English Santee, nearby. By 1712, the people of French Santee began to migrate to other parts of the colony, and the site where Jamestown stood was eventually abandoned. Today it is but a memory, and the section where it was located is almost a wilderness. Here and there an old ruin marks the spot where a plantation home once stood, and the river flows on through miles of waste area, desolate and lonely.
Rev. Pierre Robert continued at the head of the church at French Santee until 1715, when he resigned because of infirmities of age. He died later that year and was buried in the Santee locality. There is no record of his wife’s death.
The earliest Huguenot church in Charleston is in a good state of preservation today, though more than two centuries old, and on one of its inner walls may be seen a tablet placed there by some of the descendants of Pierre Robert with the following inscription:

Pasteur Pierre Robert
French Santee, So. Ca.
1656 1715

Pierre Robert and Jeanne Braye had three children: Pierre, Jr., Jean (John) and Elias.
RIN: MH:N283

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Pierre Robert?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Pierre Robert

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children