568. Ambroise (de Sicar) SECORD* Sr was born in
1631 in Mormac, France. He died about 1712 in New Rochelle. He was Huguenot.
Secord is not a name that you hear of in the Gaspé. There was only one
lady with this name but she was the matriarch of the Beebe/Chatterton lineage
which connects to many Gaspé families.
The earlist know ancestor was Ambroise de Sicar. Most of the following information
about him comes from "Biographical Sketches and Index of Huguenot Settlers
of New Rochelle 1687-1776" by Morgan H. Secord.
Amboise de Sicar was a native of La Rochelle, France. He owned a small vineyard
which to supplimented his income as a "saunier'' or salt maker. La Rochelle
was a city where France's Protestants could practice their religion under the
protection of the King and the Edict of Nantes. The revocation of the Edict made
La Rochelle a target for anti-Protestant forces. How and when Ambroise and his
5 children left France is not known. A distant cousin in Norway wrote me of stories
she had heard that Huguenots had to sneak out of France hidden under the floor
boards of he boats that loaded the large ocean going ships. Others hid in barrels
mixed amongst shipments of wine.
The French soldiers knew of the plans to sneak out of the country in wine barrels.
If wine poured out a stopper was used to plug the hole, If blood poured out the
top was ripped of the barrel and the poor soul finished off. I have no way of
knowing if this is grue or the product of someone's vivid imagination.
The de Sicars eventually arrived in New York. The eldest son, Amboise de Sicar
Jr., was in New York by the fall of 1688 and in New Rochelle by 1692. So many
settled in the area immediately north of New York that the settlement took the
name of their old home, New Rochelle. A church was built and for the next 50
years records and I suppose services were performed in French. The first entry
in the church records is for the marriage of Amboise de Sicar to Jeanne Perron.
The story goes that the de Sicars got tired of Americans mispronoucing their
name and anglised it to Secord by moving the 'd' from the front of their name
to the rear. Another story is that the Secords who lived on the east side of
the Hudson river remained loyal to the King when the American Revolution started.
Family members on the west side of the Hudson were called Secor and joined the
rebels in fighting the King.
THE SECORDS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Ambroise Secord Sr. died about 1712. He left behind his 5 children. His son Daniel
married a Dutch woman by the name of Catherine Woertman and they had several
children including Daniel Jr.
Daniel Jr. married a woman of Huguenot extraction by the name of Catherine Mabie.
They had 12 children including a girl name Marie or Mary. Mary may have been
a twin. Birth records are non-existant but Mary is belived to have been forn
in 1736 in Cortlandt Manor, Westchester county, New York. She is said to have
been raised in New Rochelle.
Girls married young in those days and Mary was no exception. Sometime around
1755-1760 she married a Capt John Krookston or Crookston. She may have had on
son John Jr. Nothing more is known about the captain except that ''he died in
the Indian Wars''. I take this to mean that he died between 1756-1763 during
the French & Indian War or the 7 Years War.
Mary met and married next, Joshua Beebe. This is the union that produced the
Beebes of the Gaspé and southern Ontario. Joshua was born in 1738 in East
Haddam, Connecticut. There is some confusion as to whether they married in eastern
Connecticut or in present day Pennsylvania. Connecticut at this time included
Pennsylvania.
Six children were born in Ashford, and Susquehanna Valley that we know of; Adin,
Amasa, Asa, Charlotte, Sarah and a son Secord.
Mary's brothers all fought on the side of the King. Joshua joined Col. Butler's
Rangers, part of the Indian department of the British army. Adin, their eldest
son also joined Butler's Rangers. Nothing is known about his military career
except that he died in 1779. Mary's testament for Loyalist claims states that
Joshua died while taking urgent dispatches to New York City. He died of small
pox. Mary, a widow with 6 children, is believed to have fled to Niagara. Members
of the Secord family were there. She then removed to Yamachiche near 3 Rivers
(Trois Rivieres) Quebec. A refugee camp was established there for the women and
children of soldiers fighting in the war. Mary met Christopher Pierson there.
Mr. Pierson was an Englishman who had lived in New York for years. His wife had
died leaving him with two daughters. He had been released from military service
and worked as a rations officer at the camp for this reason. In 1781, Mary and
Christopher wer married in the Garrison church. Mary took this opportunity to
have her children baptised. The records are written in French. The chaplin at
the Garrison was a Swiss Protestant. He had been brought over by the British
with the hopes of converting the French Canadian population to the Protestant
sect.
He was married to Jeanne PERRON?.
569. Jeanne PERRON?
. Children were:
i.
Ambroise (de Sicar) SECORD Jr was born in 1666 in Mormac, Charente-Maritine,
France. He died in 1733 in New Rochelle, NY.
284 ii.
Daniel SECORD* Sr.
iii.
Jacques SECORD was born about 1675 in Mormac, Charente-Maritine, France.
iv.
Marie SECORD was born about 1676 in Mormac, Charente-Maritine, France.
v.
Silvie SECORD was born about 1678 in Mormac, Charente-Maritine, France.
vi.
Isaac SECORD.
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