Pierre (Boudet) Gautier (abt. 1729 - 1791)

Descendants

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Pierre (Boudet) Gautier was a Huguenot emigrant (1540-1790).

Biography

Pierre was born about 1729. He passed away in 1791.

Pierre Boudet, we are told, was born in Arles, France. He was a French Huguenot Pastor who studied some time in Switzerland. He married Anne Manson and together they left France, for safety, trading the name Boudet for Gautier. They headed to Bristol, England where he led the French Church in that city and Anne ran a school. - ch

They had four children: Joseph Richard Gautier, Thomas Nicholas Gautier (Find A Grave Memorial# 42883048), Anne Gautier - Hort and Peter William Gautier (Find A Grave Memorial# 54264252). The three boys ended up in North Carolina while Anne stayed in England, though several of her descendants made it to the US both in the North (NY,NJ) and the South ( a daughter in SC, and a son who is recorded to be in FL, LA, NC). There is some correspondence between Anne's descendants and Thomas Nicholas' daughter Lucy available through the University of North Carolina. - ch

Sources

• Secret Worship:

French: "Pierre Boudet dit Gautier, puis Jean Godefroy, le sieur Michel et Gential dit La Sagne, Jean-François Descours poursuivent dans la clandestinité la reconstitution des églises du Bocage."

English: "Pierre Boudet known as Gautier, and Jean Godefroy, Mr. Michel and Gential known as La Sagne, Jean-François Descours continue clandestinely rebuilding secret churches."

Source: Histoire des églises protestantes de Frênes (Orne), jacky@delafontenelle, 15 sept. 2004, website: http://genealogie.delafontenelle.net/histoiref.htm -ch19o17

• 1750:

French: Morin eût été plus fort contre les <( intrus », si sa vo- cation avait été plus régulière. Son œuvre fut achevée par son successeur Pierre Boudet, dit Gautier^ un des plus chers élèves d'Antoine Court. Le 26 décembre 1750, Gautier réunit au Bocage un uouveau colloque.

English: Morin may have been stronger against "intruders" if his work had been more regular. His work was completed by his successor Pierre Boudet, known as Gautier, one of the dearest students of Antoine Court. On December 26, 1750, Gautier convened a new colloquium in the Bocage... "

Source: Bulletin by Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français (France) Publication date 1912, Topics Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français (France), Protestants, genealogy, Publisher Paris : Au Siège de la Société : Librairie Fischbacher, Collection allen_county; americana, Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive, Contributor Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Language French, Volume 61, Page # . Website: https://archive.org/stream/bulletin61soci/bulletin61soci_djvu.txt -ch19o17

• "The Lausanne Seminary, founded by Antoine Court in 1729 provided theological training to those who covertly went to France. Antoine Court had the Desert Churches accepted. At the 1744 synod he took over Benjamin du Plan’s charge as representative of Desert Churches to European countries."

Source: https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/le-refuge-huguenot-en-suisse/. (Desert Churches = Secret / Clandestine Churches). -ch19o17

• 1749: Named Pastor Preneuf in Normandy, France as per letter written to Jaques Serces held at University of North Carolina.

• 1985: Details about Pierre Boudet dit Gautier and Anne Manson married Gautier found in The Huguenots in Bristol by Dr. Ronald Mayo in Bristol, England, published in 1985 by the Bristol Branch of the Historical Association of The University Bristol.

1758 Pierre and Anne Gautier Arrive from Jersey: “The final phase in the church's history began in 1758 with the arrival of Pastor Pierre Gautier from Jersey where he had fled from Normandy. His coming brought a measure of stability as he made great efforts to revive the community, using his many contacts in France in an attempt to encourage Huguenot immigration. His efforts met with no great success and, in spite of his own cheerful nature which won for him the friendship and respect of the Bristolians, the thirty or more years of his ministry were marked by disappointment and frustration. Disappointment came from the continual diminution of his flock - they were mostly old people now and death took a steady toll - and frustration with every reduction in his stipend in a period when the financial status of the Anglican clergy was steadily improving. Frustrating, too, was the failure of a grandiose immigration scheme conccerted in 1763 at the end of the Seven Years' War with his friend Court de Gebelin at Lausanne and a certain impetuous French pastor called Gibert and known as the Apostle of Saintonge. (Page 15)

1763 Drama Filled Easter Sunday: "Wearying too were the continual quarrels he had with his senior deacon, the rich, arrogant and half-mad apothecary Isaac Piguenit. The worst of these occurred on Easter Sunday 1763 when Gautier omitted to read in his church the Athanasian Creed. Piguenit abused him and told him he would have to answer for his omission to the Bishop. (Page 15) … Then he had 500 handbills printed exposing his own pastor. In a letter to a friend in London Gautier says that he counted up to forty of these bills stuck on the walls and posts of King's Square where he lived28 and that others had been pushed through letterboxes. The effect of this on his wife was such that the doctor had to be fetched at midnight to let the poor lady's blood. (Page 16)

1791 Pierre Gautier's death: The last entry in the register of the French church is the one recording Gautier's death in 1791. With his passing the religious community ceased virtually to exist. It is true that two more pastors succeeded him but, as the wife of one of them writes, the congregation was now composed almost entirely of English people 'fond of French or those wishing to improve' . The official dissolution took place in 1814. (Page 16). “

Gautier never mastered English: "Their psychological resistance found its final expression in the efforts of Pastor Gautier to preserve the French identity of his fading flock. He never succeeded in mastering the English language himself and wrote all his letters, even to his English friends, in French. He was always in very close touch with events in France. His numerous correspondents wrote from London, Paris, Lausanne, Geneva, Normandy, the Channel Islands and America. The most eminent of them exchanged 74 letters with him. This man was Court de Gebelin, for many years secret agent of the French underground Church, 'l'Eglise du desert' and later a member of the Court at Versailles where he was a Royal Censor. He was the friend of Dalembert and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The correspondence which passed between Pierre Gautier and Court de Gebelin should be better known for its historical value." (page 18, footnote references "The Gautier Papers" at Dr Williams Library which is shuttering it's doors in 2023, the papers will be placed in storage and re-homed eventually)

St. Mark's Chapel did not offer a cemetery: “…St. Mark's Chapel, not being a parish church, possessed no burial ground of its own. Had it done so, this would have reinforced the immigrants' sense of identity. “ (page 18)

Gautier contributed to the intellectual life of the city of Bristol: "I should also have liked to describe in detail Pastor Gautier's contribution to the intellectual life of the city and of the way the mentality of the refugees and their descendants slowly evolved to become finally that of the indigenous population for, in spite of the obstacles I have mentioned, complete integration was eventually achieved, thanks largely to the curious mental affinity which, in spite also of different origins and traditions, united the Huguenots with the men and women of Bristol. Like their hosts they were practical, sturdy, enterprising, hardworking, proud and independent and this mentality expressed itself most readily in the practical spheres of commerce and politics. After a difficult start, the cause of a second emigration to Ireland and America, the Huguenots finally merged with the local population. This they undoubtedly enriched by their presence for even today their descendants take a special pride in belonging to what is, to them, a kind of Protestant, nobility.” (pages 22 and 23)

Source: THE HUGUENOTS IN BRISTOL by DR. RONALD MAYO, Published in 1985 by the BRISTOL BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE UNIVERSITY BRISTOL, ISBN O 901388 44 0,

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/bha061.pdf c/o https://www.bristol.ac.uk/ . - ch6my23

• 1791: Died.

Name Reverend Pierre Gautier Event Type Burial Death Date 6 May 1791 Burial Date 11 May 1791 Burial Place Bristol, Gloucestershire, England Piece Title Piece 4619: Bristol, formerly the Mayor's Chapel St Mark the Gaunt, 1715-1807 England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970. - ch

Note about BRISTOL from Barry New regarding my confusion about Bristol: "....Bristol, Somerset, or Bristol, Gloucestershire. Today it is its own county (Unitary Authority) on the border between the Unitary Authorities of North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Over time county boundaries have been adjusted and thus there were periods when Bristol was in Somerset and others when it was in Gloucestershire." - ch