This is the BIOGRAPHY
of Dr. Pierre Chastain. Dr. Chastain is our gggggg- grandfather.
This biography is taken from the Pierre Chastain Family Association (PFCA)
website. There are many interesting
articles and genealogy tips on this site – that are free for the using and we
encourage you to visit.
The Wilson Sisters are
proud to be lifetime members of the PCFA.
The year was 1659 when
Pierre Chastain was born in the ancient Province of Berry, in or near the
village of Charost, which is almost the geographic center of France. Pierre
Chastain was the son of Estienne Chastain and Jeanne Laurent. Pierre's father,
Estienne and this grandfather, Jacques Chastain, had both served as notaire
royal at Charost. Estienne was born circa 1625, the son of Jacques and Jeanne
Audet Chastain. It is thought that Jacques, born circa 1598-1600, was either the
son or grandson of the Estienne Chastain who fled the city of Bourges at the
time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572. Proof of Pierre's first
wife comes from the registers of Vevey in cantonal archives in Lausanne,
Switzerland. This proof also corrects the assumption that Magdalaine de la
Rochefaucald was Pierre's first wife. Pierre Chastain married Susanne Reynaud,
daughter of Pierre Reynaud, from the village of Issoudun. By 1696, the Pierre
Chastain family had fled from Charost across the Jura Mountains to Vevey, Canton
Vaud, Switzerland to escape religious persecution. Sometime after September
1698, the family departed Vevey and was found at The Haque in The Netherlands
(Holland). From there, the family moved to London, England where they remained a
short time while Pierre became active in gathering together a group of French
Huguenot refugees for colonization in Virginia. Pierre Chastain, his wife
Susanne Reynaud Chastain and five children were among the group of 207
passengers who embarked from Gravesend, England on April 19, 1700 aboard the
ship Mary and Ann of London. This ship arrived at the mouth of the James River
on July 12, 1700. The group settled in Manakin, Virginia about twenty miles up
the James River. The group was given a 10,000 acre tract of land south of the
James in an area once occupied by the Monacan Tribe of Indians.
Pierre's wife, Susanne,
died after February 1701 and before November 1701, two of the children also had
died. Pierre then married Anne Soblet. Ann was the daughter of Abraham Soblet
and Susanne Brian. The marriage to Anne Soblet produced eight children. Anne
Soblet Chastain died on April 3, 1723. Pierre married a third time to Mary
Magdaline (Verrueil) Trabue, daughter of Moise and Madelene Verrueil and widow
of Antoine Trabue. Pierre Chastain died in Goochland County, Virginia in the
fall of 1728. He had made his will on October 3, 1728 and this will was probated
on November 20, 1728. He was buried in the family cemetery near his home.
Magdeline Chastain died in late Spring of 1731, she and Pierre did not have
children.
The family cemetery
where Pierre Chastain was buried is located near Manakin Episcopal church. The
Cemetery was located a few yards from the family home and contained several
field stones and as many as 30 graves. A brick wall surrounding the family plot
was torn down in 1929 by a farmer who used the bricks to build a house. In 1982,
Lowell Chastain, then President of the Association, erected a grave marker for
Pierre Chastain and constructed a chain-link fence around his grave.