Phineas Johnson Bresee Ancestors
THE BRESEE FAMILY
Bresee/Bresie DNA study: Family Tree DNA, Y-DNA 37 marker wanted, Haplogroup = I1 new I-M253
Bresees in France
The name Bresee has not always been spelled as it is today. The family was originally French and their name was spelled de Bressoc. They were a large family and lived in France as Protestant Huguenots.
There is a Brissac Chateau, in the town of Brissac, France, which may represent the early members of our family. It was built in 1455 by Pierre de Breze, minister to Charles VII and Louis XI. The castle was bought by Rene de Cosse, Count of Brissac, who was one of the leaders of the League, the Catholic party which supported the Guises in the 16th Century. In 1594, as Governor of Paris, he handed the keys of the city to Henry IV, who had just converted to the Roman Church and was encamped outside the city. In gratitude the king raised him to a dukedom.
The Huguenot revolt against the established Catholic Church began in 1520 when the people began to read the Bible for the first time. The Bible was printed in French and secretly circulated. It was then a capital offense to read the Bible as this was reserved exclusively for the Clergy who must in turn explain it to the parishioners. To read the Bible meant decapitation or burning at the stake and the prisoners property confiscated. However, when the people began to read the Bible for themselves they were shaken by the difference between the practices of the Church and doctrine expounded in the New Testament. Calvin fed the revolt by printing the Bibles in Switzerland and smuggling them into France. The de Bressocs, who as Huguenots, were of the new class as self-reliant burgers, businessmen and artisans who had education, money and their own new creed. The mass of the people were illiterate peasants, brutalized and jealous.
At the death of her husband, Henry II, in 1559 Catherine deMedici became the power behind the throne of France for 40 years. It was she who began the persecution of the Huguenots aided by the Clergy and the armed aristocracy.
The Huguenots first fought with their faith and then with their armies. In 1598 Henry IV guaranteed their rights by the Edict of Nantes. However the effect was only temporary and the persecution began again. When the Edict of Nantes was finally revoked by Louis XIV in 1685 the persecution was intensified and 50,000 Huguenots fled the country under penalty of death to Belgium, England and Holland. It is believed that the main body of the de Bressoc family fled at this time to both England and Holland. The name of the family then began to change because of the many phonetic spellings that took place.
The Immigrant Ancestor
The immigrant ancestor, Christopher Bresee, already had moved to America prior to the revoking of the Edict of Nantes, probably during the 1660s or may have been born here. Where Christopher Bresee and Styntje Claasz (aka Christina Claeszen) were married is not known. However five of their children were born in Albany County, New York prior to the year of 1685.
By the time Christopher and Christina and their families were settled in America, other Bresees from Holland and England began to arrive and settle in the New York area. The de Bressoc name and its variations continued to change. It appears that many of the early families were illiterate and were forced to rely on Clerks of the Courts and Churches to record their name. These Clerks spelled the name phonetically which accounts for the different spellings that occurred within an immediate family. This is most noticeable in the family of Christopher Bresee and Christina Claeszen in the late 1600's where the following spellings occur for their children's family name: Bresie, Breis, Brusey, Bressie. As time went on Brazie and Brase were added. However, as the years went by the family learned to write and the name was finally spelled Bresee. This was noticed in the estate settlement of Christopher Bresee of West Stockbridge, Mass. in 1789. The Clerk spelled his name Brase in the document whereas the heirs signed their names Bresee in acknowledgment.
Christopher and Christina first came to Albany County, New York. Later they moved to Ruephian Kill near Livingston Manor, Columbia Co., New York, on the Hudson River.
If the Bresee family had been wealthy in their native France, it is evident that their money was gone when they reached America, for Christopher Bresee made an agreement with Jan Van Loon for the lease of a farm called Loonenburgh (now Athens, New York) on March 11, 1684. This probably was not renewed, for Jan VanLoon sold some property (600 acres) to Robert Livingston and the section became known as Livingston Manor. The property was expanded and ultimately contained 160,240 acres. It extended about twelve miles along the Hudson River from what is now Trivoli, to the southern line of Rensaelaerwyck.
Our branch of the family lived for nearly a hundred years in and near Livingston Manor, N.Y. as tenant farmers, a system resembling the old feudal system in England. Finally, after a fight, members of the family went over to Berkshire County, Mass. and bought land from the Indians.
Links
Contact
Melvin A. Bresee II2226 Benecia Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Email: JbmHAeInl0n.JYbRHr4heqRs7ReQ9eMG@p1gG9mPua6piMFlTI.RjcQ0oW6m