DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In France in 1572 the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre had resulted in the death of tens of thousands of French Protestants and many of these Huguenots fled for safety to more Protestant friendly lands. “The Wars of Religion” of which this period is part, is considered to have lasted from 1562-1598, but its influence on American emigration was felt for at least a century afterwards.

Family oral history and genealogical research confirms that this is what set another ancestor – Peter La Foucate - fleeing with his family to religious freedom (Fouquet is a Norman name meaning “little squirrel of the woods,” apparently originating in Northern France in the 10th century. They must have been Catholic before they became Huguenots). Like other Huguenots, his family may II

have gone to Holland first before they found their way to London where their names are recorded in the Huguenot St. Martin’s Church, in Spittalfields, in the late 1500s.

By the time Peter La Foucate (b. 1630, d. approx. 1695) landed in the good ship King David in Lord Calvert’s supposedly Catholic colony of Maryland in 1662, it was apparent that both Peter and Lord Calvert were willing to make some concessions to settlement. Again, family oral history identifies Peter as French, which is also supported by his identified profession (vintner), his naturalization in 1681, and by the name he gave his farm in Maryland: “French Plantation.” It is possible he was the son of Richard and Hestor Fucat of St. Martin’s parish, Westminster, London, England.