Histories

Henry Mershon (1685 France - 1738 New Jersey), son of Henri Marchant

Henry was a Huguenot who migrated to America about 1685 with his family in order to escape religious intolerance in France. This was the year in which the Edict of Nantes, which had allowed religious tolerance for Protestants, was revoked. On June 25, 1685 the temple of the Huguenots in Henry's hometown of Caen, which had been erected in 1612, was destroyed with great fanfare to the sound of trumpets and the shouts of the rabble. Louis XIV ordered every Hueguenot who refused to embrace the Catholic faith to be outlawed and every Protestant church closed. The war between Protestants and Catholics had become a war involving four of France's neighboring countries simultaneously and there was no tolerance for religious minorities who were perceived as allied with the enemy.

Henri Marchand (the original form of the name) decided to take his eldest son and heir, Henry (who in this country became 'Mershon') to safety in America where many of his co-religionists had already found haven in South Carolina. Henri decided to investigate the location around New York where some Huguenots had also settled. And so it was that Henri and his 13 year old son found themselves on American soil in 1685. Apparently Henri was satisfied with the state of things as he found them here because he returned almost immediately to bring the rest of his family. Young Henry was left with friends and apparently left with substantial resources. What exacty happened next will never be known. Henri Sr. never got back to America. There is a family tradition that when Henry's father returned to France to bring back more family members he died at sea (shipwreck) on the return to America. They may never have made it that far. There are stories that in 1687 Huguenots were arrested on the coast of Normandy as they tried to escape by sea. Henry grew up in Newtown, Long Island and became a weaver. He married Ann Houghton there. He appears as Henry "Marshan" in the 1698 census there, listed as a family of 3 (probable wife Ann and one child).

About 1700, Henry moved his family to Maidenhead, New Jersey. He bought land in 1708 in Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville), west of Princeton. Henry was appointed constable for Maidenhead in 1708, served on the Grand Jury in 1714, served on other juries, and in 1720 was appointed one of the overseers of the highways.

Henry was naturalized a British citizen in August 1733.

He died in 1738 and is buried in what is now the Lawrenceville Cemetery on the Hill. He leaves the homestead plantation to his youngest son Houghton, his other children having already been provided for and made his wife Ann executor of his will. An inventory of his estate done 15 days after his death (5 October 1738) lists 1 servant man, one negro girl, 12 swarms of bees, 3 looms and harness, and books.