SECOND GENERATION

2. Benjamin L'HOMMEDIEU was born in 1657 in La Rochelle, France. He died on 4 Jan 1748/49 in Southold, Suffolk, NY. He was buried in Sylvestor Manor, Shelter Island, , NY. He has reference number L1A1C6. SOURCE:
L'Hommedieu Genealogy, V.1 and V.2, Arthur W. L'Hommedieu, La Grange, IL, 1951.
2 Volume set in possession of Sara Leslie Griffith
Cites: Record compiled from numerous accounts in family bibles, some in
Benjamin's own hand; Cemetery records and inscriptions; Newspaper accounts and
notices; Public records on file; Historical records of England, France and the
French Huegenot emigration: France-Holland-England-America.

Reference: God's Man by George Bronson Howard "Introductory Note"

The Name L'Hommedieu originated nearly a thousand years ago on a field at
Ascalon, where there was conferred upon the crusader, Sir Lucas, a Knight of
St. John, the Norman-French title "Le Homme de Dieu" meaning "the man of God."

Reference: American Ancestry, Vol. III, page 89.

The name L'Hommedieu derived from the French "The Man of God" given anciently
to one of the clerical order especially devoted and revered.

Reference: Baird's History of the Huguenots Immigration to America. Vol. 1,
pages 210, 231, 293, and 294.

Several members of the L'Hommedieu family fled from La Rochelle, France, either
in apprehension of, or after the Revocation of the "Edict of Nantes" (November
22, 1685).

Pierre and Osee (Hosea) were the sons of Pierre L'Hommedieu and Martha Peron,
his wife. The husband died before the year 1665. Martha accompanied her
children to England and came to America with Pierre who settled in Kingston,
Ulster County, New York.

NOTE: page 293

Martha Peron veuve (widow) de Pierre 29 September, 1685. Osee L'Hommedieu, 4
fevrier (February) 1685. Pieter L'Hommedieu late of Kingston, New York, will
signed February 10, 1691/2. Will proved March 30, 1692, mentions mother
Martha.

Hosea went to London with Pierre. He was a goldsmith in London in 1702.

Large numbers of the Huguenots settled on the Island of St. Christopher in the
Antillies. Here as early as the year 1607 among other names appears that of
L'Hommedieu.

Still pursued by religious intolerance on the Islands, a number of the French
inhabitants came to New York in the month of November 1686. Among them is
mentioned Benjamin L'Hommedieu.

Benjamin and John L'Hommedieu, born at La Rochelle, France, were naturalized in
New York, September 27, 1687. Benjamin had obtained Letters of Denization some
months before. He settled on the east end of Long Island in the village of
Southold and married the daughter of Nathaniel Sylvester of Shelter Island.

NOTE 1:

Hosea L'Hommedieu fled from La Rochelle several months previous to the flight
of his brother Pierre and their mother Martha. Perhaps he was accompanied by
Benjamin and Jean (John) who may have been his brothers. The interesting
tradition among the descendants of Benjamin L'Hommedieu agrees perfectly with
these facts.

"Benjamin and a brother left France together. Their widowed mother went with
them to the shore of La Rochelle, France, and as a parting gift confided to one
a Bible and to the other a Silver Watch. They fled to Holland and then came to
America. The watch was in the possession of Professor Eben Norton Horsford of
Harvard University" (communicated by the Rev. A.S. Gardiner, a descendant of
Benjamin L'H.)

Reference: Whittemore's Founders of the Oranges

Benjamin was born in Rochelle, France, 1665, son of ______. The Bible which he
brought with him to this country says: "The first temps that I came to this
country I lande at Rod Island the first february 1686"

Reference: Whitaker's History of Southold, page 11.

"Among the people of our country two centuries since were some Huguenot
families of great excellence...The most notable family of this superior French
stock are the L'Hommedieus..."

The founder of the family, Benjamin L'Hommedieu, settled in Southold soon after
the formation of the county. It is believed that he came from Rochelle,
France, immediately after the renewal of the persecution of the French
Protestants under Louis XIV in 1685. He was a merchant who became prominent in
the place of his American home. He doubtless came to Southold through
acquaintanceship with Captain Sylvester, the owner and occupant of Shelter
Island, which was then called Sylvester Island.

Here Benjamin L'Hommedieu met, wooed, won and married Captain Sylvester's
daughter Patience. They had a large family and he lived to be ninety-two years
of age.

Benjamin was a merchant in Southold; his home and his store were upon the
corner of the Town Street and Harbor Lane.

TRANSLATION: Dictionary of the French Nobility by Mailhol

The House of L'Homme Dieu from which is descended the Lords of Tranchant and of
Lignerolles, enjoys the honorable distinction of ranking with the ancient
families of the nobility of France, and for several centuries has provided to
the armies of our kings many distinguished officers, who have all signalized
their valor and have sacrificed their lives to the military service, as is
certified by many titles, documents and letters-patent in due form from our
kings.

The alliance of this family with houses of de Doynes, de Cocuebonne, de
Cauville, du Buat de Nancy, etc., give the House of L'Homme Dieu even more
advantages as well as with de Coetquen, de Rosmolec, de Budes, Sevignes, etc.
and attests again its importance, most of these families having provided
knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. The uninterrupted lineage of
this family goes back to Jacques-Nicholas L'Homme Dieu, living in 1417.

In the sixth generation we find Francois L'Homme Dieu, knight, Lord of
Tranchant and of Lignerolles, one of the King's Guards, who served in the
Roussillon campaign and had a horse killed under him, nearing Collioure. He
was confirmed in his nobility of ancient extraction and was provided with the
post of Nobleman of the Court of Louis XIV, by letters-patent signed by the
king and the queen-mother, given in Paris on March 30th, 1646.

He served with the greatest distinction as a captain, officer of the King's
Guard, under Field-Marshall de la Meillerays, assisting in the siege of Arras,
his sixth, wherein he repulsed the enemy and was wounded in the leg by a musket
shot.

He married first Madelaine de Campaignon, November 23, 1631, and second Anne Le
Marechal. He had issue from the first marriage.

COAT OF ARMS: OF AZURE, WITH CHEVRON OF GOLD, AND, IN THE UPPER PART OF
ESCUTCHEON, TWO STARS OF GOLD. AT THE POINT, A PASCHAL LAMB OF SILVER.
MARQUIS CORONET. THE MANTLES SAME COLORS AS THE ESCUTCHEON.

From the "County Review" - Riverhead, N.Y, May 20, 1636
L'HOMMEDIEU FAMILY SETTLED HERE IN 1690
by David M. Griswold (genealogist)

Benjamin L'Hommedieu was born at La Rochelle, France in the year 1657. He was
the son of Pierre and Martha (Peron) L'Hommedieu. Coming to America with his
step-brother, John Bouchard, they landed at Newport, R.I., the first February,
1690.

Taking boat to New York City they got their first sight of Long Island.
Something about the Island made them desire to make it their future home. The
Bluffs along the north side of the Island reminds one of those along the coast
of France at certain places.

Benjamin became a merchant in New York and when he had become established, made
trips the length of the Island. It was at Shelter Island that he met the
charming Patience Sylvester, daughter of Nathaniel Sylvester, the proprietor of
Shelter Island. They were soon married and he settled at that place. Seven
children came to this union.

From the "Babylon (N.Y.) Leader" - May 1, 1931
NAMES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED
by Harry D. Sleight

Benjamin L'Hommedieu founded the Huguenot family of that name on Long Island.
Benjamin was a young man who knew what he wanted. What he wanted he got.
Sometimes he got more than he wanted. This happened in 1686 after the Edict
of Nantes. Benjamin had found solace in religion; he now sought safety in
flight. His emigration took him to Holland. He then came to America. He
located in Southold, in the year 1690. Benjamin was a gentlemanly and
Chesterfieldian character. He possessed pulchritude and perseverance. The
catch of the colony, at that time, in beauty and wealth was Patience, daughter
of Nathaniel Sylvester, who owned the "Manor House" and all of Shelter Island.
Benjamin romantically courted Patience. They were married. They were blessed
with numerous progeny.

From Mrs. Cornelia L'Hommedieu, Nantucket, Mass.

The meeting of Benjamin and Patience is thus told by Mrs. Martha Lamb in her
article entitled "The Manor of Shelter Island" and reproduced on page 53 of
Rev. Jacob E. Mallman's "Historical Papers on Shelter Island and its
Presbyterian Church," published by the author, the pastor of the church, in
1899.

"The Marriage of Patience Sylvester, the sister of Mrs. Lloyd was an
exceptionally romantic affair. Among the exiled Huguenots of the period was
Benjamin L'Hommedieu, who settled at Southold.

One pleasant Sunday morning soon after his arrival, L'Hommedieu was attracted
by an extremely novel object moving over the sparkling waters of the bay. As
it came nearer he observed two remarkably handsome young women in a barge with
a canopy over it, and six Negro slaves rowing it. The vision haunted him. He
went to church that morning, and, despite Puritanical customs, permitted his
eyes to remain open during prayer.

The story is like every other story that it is hardly necessary to say that the
French heart was hopelessly lost before the preacher had reached "Amen" in his
benediction. The sequel was a beautiful wedding; Miss Patience Sylvester was
henceforth Mrs. L'Hommedieu.

Reference:
Southold and Its People in the Revolutionary Days by Wayland
Jefferson

....Washington in the spring of 1756 had ridden to Boston to put a Captain
Dagworthy in his place. On that journey he had stopped and called on the
family of Benjamin L'Hommedieu. A sad errand brought him to the out of the way
town on the east end of Long Island. He came as a bearer of sad tidings and it
is necessary to go back to the days of Braddock's disastrous campaign to bring
meaning to Griffing's account of "Washington's visit to Sterling" (Greenport);
as given on page 227 et seq., in Griffing's Journal.

Beginning on page 168 of Rupert Hughes' Washington, there is quoted at length a
letter to Col. George Washington and signed "Le Chevalier de Peroney." He has
written to thank Washington who had secured a promotion for him, and the tone
of the letter indicates that the writer was on the most intimate terms with the
Virginian, whose name at that time was far from a household word. This
Peyroney, actually William Chevalier de Peyron, was a Huguenot who had settled
in Virginia and had taken up arms against his native land. Aside from the fact
that he was called "the dancing master," we know nothing of him and he makes a
lonely figure on the canvas of Washington panorama. That he was alone in
Virginia is indicated by the fact that, after being wounded at Fort Necessity,
he had to apply to the Virginia Assembly for new clothes.

As their friendship ripened, he must have told Washington of his family and of
his relatives in an obscure village on the tip of Long Island. Benjamin
L'Hommdieu 1st, had married a daughter of the Sylvester clan; his father,
Pierre, had married Martha Peyron. There is little duplication of French noble
names; hence we are justified in supposing that Martha Peyron, wife of Pierre
L'Hommedieu, and William Chevalier de Peyron were closely connected. From our
knowledge of Washington, we know it is quite possible that he made this visit
to bear, perhaps, the last words of the gallant Chevalier to his kin. The
second Benjamin L'Hommedieu had died, and the young Ezra, two years out of Yale
and now twenty-two, was head of the house. Washington had celebrated his
twenty-fourth birthday but a week before. That the aristocrat of Virginia
should feel drawn to the high-born Huguenot was no more than natural.
Washington passed from view, but Ezra L'Hommedieu was grateful to a gentleman
who, in dead of winter, would take a journey of some hundred miles off his
course to convey a message from the dead.

Reference: Joshua Hempstead's Diary by Joshua Hempstead.

1756 Mon. March 8. Coln. Washington is returned from Boston and gone to Long
Island.

Reference: Letter dated Southold, L.I., November 23, 1932, Wayland Jefferson
writes:

....Jared Landon was Ezra L'H's closest friend in Southold. They were
schoolmates at Yale and read law at Tappen Reeves at Litchfield.

As Miss Horton told me, Cyrus, a slave of Daniel Osborn married Zipporah, a
slave of Samuel and later Jared Landon. One of their children, Keturah by
name, was the nurse of Miss Horton and of her sister, Mrs. G.W. Dayton. It was
this Keturah's proud boast that her father, Cyrus, had received a coin from
George Washington in payment for holding the horses of Washington and his
escort when they paid a visit to Ezra L'Hommedieu. This coin was treasured by
his children, who looked upon it as a lucky piece. Cyrus was lost with many
others in the Christmas storm of 1811 and it was found that he had failed to
take the coin with him when he went on his ill-fated trip to New York. This
coin passed to the hands of a daughter, who bestowed it on a friend who married
a man by the name of Silone. Silone's daughter, if I am not mistaken is still
living in St. Louis. A Mrs. Josephine Silone Yates. Mr. Charles Gildersleeve
of Mattituck corroborated this story and on the occasion of a visit to St.
Louis called on Mrs. Yates and she showed him the coin and repeated the story
substantially as I heard it.

He was married to Patience SYLVESTER (daughter of Nathaniel SYLVESTER and Grisell BRINLEY) in 1694 in New Amsterdam, Ulster, NY. Patience SYLVESTER was born on 1 Nov 1664 in Shelter Island, , NY. She died on 2 Nov 1719 in New Amsterdam, Ulster, NY. She has reference number L1A1C7. SOURCE: L'Hommedieu Genealogy, V.1 & V.2 Benjamin L'HOMMEDIEU and Patience SYLVESTER had the following children:

+6 i. Benjamin L'HOMMEDIEU.
+7 ii. Hosea L'HOMMEDIEU.
+8 iii. Peter L'HOMMEDIEU.
+9 iv. Grissell L'HOMMEDIEU.
+10 v. Sylvester L'HOMMEDIEU.
+11 vi. Susannah L'HOMMEDIEU.
+12 vii. John L'HOMMEDIEU Sr..