Born: Abt. 1592

Died: After 1643

CHILDREN

David de Marets

Jean de Marets
by Susan Brooke
Feb 2021

The record of the membership list for the Walloon & Huguenot Church, Middleburg, Walcheren, Zeeland, The Netherlands, says, "Jean de Marts and his family from Calais, 27 January, 1643." When his son David married Marie Sohier on 24 Jul 1643 in Middleburg, the witnesses to the marriage were Jean des Marets, Francois Sohier, Marguerite de Herville, and Marguerite Sohier. (1)  These records infer that Jean Des Marets was the father of David Demarest.  Marguerite de Herville was probably his wife.  She may or may not be the mother of David Demarest.
The Demarest Family book published in 1964 accepts Jean De Marets as a son of Francois De Marets.  Francois did have a son named Jean as is recorded in a deed of 1605 n Norwich, Norfolk, England.  This land was in the fief of Cauroit, near Cambray, and had been  inherited by him from his father, Jacques de Mares, in 1604.(2) This land was transferred to a Jean de Marets, a Roman Catholic cousin, son of Nicholas, who resided in Calais. This places Francois De Marets connected to Calais, which is where Jean de Marets, the father of Davis Demarest, the American immigrant, had come from when he joined the Huguenot Church in Middleburg in 1643.
However, as the book  David Des Marest of the French Patent on the Hackensack and His Descendants, published in 1938 goes on to explain, Francois had moved to Norwich, Norfolk, England.  Their daughter Esther was baptized there on 24 May 1600 as were all the subsequent children. Then the author goes on to say, "the eldest two children of Francois, children of his first wife, Elizabeth Herecq, born about 1590 and 1592, after 1605 disappear from the records of England, their brothers and sisters remaining in the records of Norwich and later in London." (3) There appears to be no record showing that they had moved back to Calais.  However, this Jean de Maret is the most likely candidate to be the father of the David de Maret born about 1620 who emigrated to America.

Sources

(1) David Des Marest of the French Patent on the Hackensack and His Descendants by Mary A Demarest and William H. S. Demarest, 1938

David des Marets, son of Jean, born in 1620 at Beauchamp, twenty-two miles west of Amiens in the district of Cambray, apparently lived there or in that vicinity with his family until the removal to Middleburg in 1642 or a little earlier.  At that time, after a period of toleration given by the Edict of Nantes, persecution of the Protestants was again active and was driving thousands of the Reformed faith from their home in France to lands nearby that welcomed them.  In 1641 several Reformed churches in the land of Calais were destroyed.  At Middleburg, on the island of Walcheren in Zeeland, the family joined friends who had preceded them, finding there many Walloons also and a flourishing Walloon church.  The record of the church's membership says: Jean de Marts and his family from Calais, 27 January, 1643.
At Middleburg July 24, 1643, David, grown to manhood, married Marie Sohier, daughter of Francois Sohier. The witness to the marriage were Jean des Marets, Francois Sohier, Marguerite de Herville, and Marguerite Sohier; Jean's wife may have died; or, possibly Marguerite de Herville may have been his wife.  Two children were born at Middleburg and were baptized in the Walloon church.  A few years later, however, in 1651, David removed to Mannheim on the Rhine, drawn with others of the refugees at Middleburg by privileges offered by the Elector Charles Louis of the Lower Palatinate.----

(2) The Demarest Family , compiled by the Demarest Family, 1964, pg. xx

Francois de Marets, or de Mares, as his name appears, was born about the year 1555. At Norwich he was a lieutenant of the Walloon Militia, a body to which the colonists were entitled.  He probably lived the last years of his life at London, where most of his children are found registered in the French Church.
Francois de Mares married twice.  His first wife, Elisabeth Herbecq, died between 1601 and 1604.  On December 24, 1604, he remarried at Norwich with Phebe du Riue.
Of the first marriage there were five, of the second, six children.  Only the last child of the first and all of the children of the second marriage were baptized in the Walloon Church of Norwich.
On September 10, 1605, François de Mares transferred for himself and for his minor children, named Jacques, Jean, Elisabeth, Anne and Esther, represented by their guardians, Nicholas de Mares and Philip Carlier, to Jean de Mares, son of Nicolas, residing in the Land of Cambray, the fief of Cauroit, near Cambray, inherited by him from his father, Jacques de Mares, in 1604.  Witnesses to this transaction were Nicolas de Mares and Louis de Mares, brothers.
The children of François de Mares were:

1. Jacques, born about 1590
2. Jean, born about 1592
3. Elisabeth, born about 1595
4. Anna, born about 1598
5. Esther, born at Norwich and baptized there, May 24, 1600

Those of the second marriage were:
6. Daniel, baptized Dec 8, 1605
7. Judith, baptized Jan 4, 1607
8. Simon, baptized Aug 28, 1608
9. Janne, baptized Aug 26, 1610
10. Marie, baptized Aug 11, 1612
11. Phebe, baptized Dec 19, 1613

Jean desMarest m., possibly at or near Beauchamps, France, Margrieta deHerville,
their son David was born about 1620 at or near Beauchamps, France.

 (3) David Des Marest of the French Patent on the Hackensack and His Descendants by Mary A Demarest and William H. S. Demarest, 1938

The two brothers, Jean and Jacques des Marets, faithful to their Protestant confession in the face of Persecution, left their homes in the land of Cambray about 1567. Jean made his permanent home in Holland and became the father of the well known des Marets family of that country. --- It is quite plain that David des Marest of the migration to America was not descended from the Jean who went to Holland.
Jacques the brother of this Jean went to England, settled at Norwich and, with his family, joined the Walloon church there.  He died there in 1604 at the age of 85.  His wife was Antoinette de Succur.  They had three sons, Francois, Pierre, and Jean.  Other families of the Demarest name may also have gone to England.  --
Jacques des Marest had retained land at Cauroit or Cauroy near Cambray and at his death his son Francois inherited it.  On September 10, 1605, Francois in the presence of his minor children Jacques, Jean, Elizabeth, Hester and Anna, through their guardians, Nicholas des Marets and Philip Cartier, also of Norwich, transferred his fief of Cauroit, no doubt to conserve it, to his Roman Catholic cousin, Jean des Marets, son of Nicholas, residing in the land of Cambray - which is in the region of Calais. The eldest two children of Francois, children of his first wife, Elizabeth Herecq, born about 1590 and 1592 , after 1605 disappear from the records of England, their brothers and sisters remaining in the records of Norwich and later in London.  It seems probable that they returned to France to regain if possible the family land. It is fairly to be argued that this Jean was the father of David of the migration to America, for David, born at Beauchamp in the Cambray and Calis regions, and a son of a Jean, was married at the Walloon church in Middleburg, Zeeland, July 24, 1643; and a Jean des Marets with his family joined the Middleburg church, "from Calais," January 27, 1643.  The argument that this Jean was the Jean, son of Francois, from England is interesting but not wholly convincing.  Well sustained by dates and vicinities and religious movements, it lack for one thing the sustaining evidence which would be afforded by finding the names Jacques and Francois in the generations succeeding David; these names do not maintain.

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