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Holland had become one of the havens of refuge in Europe for political and religious refugees. Among the religious groups were the Protestants or "Reformed". They organized their own church in Holland which became known as the Walloon Church from the Dutch people referring to these people as "Walloons" or "foreign ones" or "the people who speak French". This group was made up of the "Walloons" from the Belgian section and the "Huguenots" from France. Later, the English took the use of the word Walloon to refer to foreigners. From this, one can see that the Mabilles would be classified as Huguenots.

On July 16, 1621, many of the members of the Walloon Church in Leyden addressed a petition to the English Ambassador to France, for permission from the English Government to go to Virginia in America. There was a delay in granting the permission. Evidently, conditions among the refugees was deplorable, hunger and sickness taking their toll. In the meantime, the Walloons applied to the Dutch Government for assistance to enable them to get to America. As a result of this Dutch assistance, the ship "New Netherland" set sail in March 1623 with thirty families of these Walloons ands Huguenots on board.

The Rev. Dr. Baird says in his "History of the Huguenot Emigration to America":- "There were then only a trading post and a few huts at the southern end of Manhattan Island. The first permanent occupation of the site of New York City dates from the arrival of the ship "New Netherland" in May 1623. Historians consider this as the first colonization of the island as it is the first arrival of families, which of course would indicate a permanent settlement and not a transcient occupation of hunters and trappers." A fac-simile is in this book showing Walloon Petition and its signatures as made in Leyden in 1621. On this there is the signature of a Pierre Gaspar. Mr. Marshall goes on to say that there can scarcely be any doubt that the signature was that of Pierre Gaspar Mabille, the son of Gaspar and the grandson of Seigneur Pierre.

Families are mentioned for most of the petitioners, wives with the number of children, but nothing is mentioned for Pierre Gaspar. The inference is that he was a young man and unmarried. No trade is given for him as is given for most of the others. After careful examination of the authorities which bear on this question, Mr. Marshall was prepared to say that Pierre Gaspard Mabille landed on Manhattan Island from the ship "New Netherland" in May 1623. The Mabies are therefor descended from one of the Founders of New York City. Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to say they are one of the oldest, if not the oldest family in New York. The Rapelyes are an old family but their ancestors came in the record ship in June 1623. (Further search would be of interest to see what relationship this Rapelye family has to the George Rapelye mentioned as the grandfather of Seigneur Pierre Mabille back in Nevy.) Thus the poor, penniless refugees of France that were not wanted in Holland or England arrived in America.

It is said that the family name Mabille was dropped for three generations. This means the time from 1572 when they left France to the time when the name is resumed in America by the children of Pieter Casparzen (son of Pierre Gaspar). The story has come down that Caspar, one of the sons of Pieter and Aechtje Jans resumed the use of the name Mabille. Because of its prinunciation, it has been spelled in several different ways. As the English took over this section of the country and changed New Amsterdam to New York, they evidently introduced scribes for their records who did not understand too much of the French and the Dutch as found on the island from the earlier settlers. They wrote the names as they thought they sounded with the result that several branches of the same family have the name which sounds the same but varies a little in the spelling. Thus we have Mabie, Mabee, Maybee, Maibi, Mebie, Maby, and a question whether those found in the record as Mabe are of the same family. The French name Mabille takes the pronunciation of May - bee, the "ille" in french taking the sound of the long English "E".

Thank you for your subscription. If you have any comments about this or other Newsletter articles, email us at admin@baylite.ca In future issues look for research from Mary Blair, descendant of Catherine (Kate) Maybee and Jake Terry, a request from Anne Mabille, and Newsletter FAQs.

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