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From: "Andrea Vogel" <>
Subject: [H-W-E] Temple at Quevilly, Rouen, FRA (Part 2)
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 00:55:08 -0800


Hello, everybody. Here is the next installment of the history of the Temple
of Quevilly by our fellow lister, Chris Shelley < >. I am
posting it on his behalf and with his permission.

SURNAMES in the following post are (alphabetically) -- DUMOUCHEL, HARDY,
MAURICE, SIMON

Temple at Quevilly, Rouen, FRA (Part 2)

Examining the records of the Quevilly Temple statistically it is
possible to see trends and to see how the congregation declined over the
years. In the 1630's (1631-1640) for instance there were an average of 249
births per year, and a steady decline can be seen as follows:

1631-1640, Averaged - 249 Baptisms per year, 59 Marriages per year
1641-1650, Averaged - 233 Baptisms per year, 50 Marriages per year
1651-1660, Averaged - 220 Baptisms per year, 44 Marriages per year
1661-1670, Averaged - 197 Baptisms per year, 37 Marriages per year
1671-1680, Averaged - 170 Baptisms per year, 34 Marriages per year
1681-1684, Averaged - 153 Baptisms per year, 32 Marriages per year
(1684 being the last complete year of records.)

Despite the shrinking Protestant population of Rouen, it can be seen
that with 153 baptisms and 31 marriages in 1684, the community at the time
of the revocation was still substantial, demographically it can be assumed
that the mid 1600's `the Huguenot population averaged around 5000, though I
have seen estimated ranging from 4,000 to 10,000.

As stated in the Introduction to this topic, the transcription of the
deaths and burials is
continuing, but as we complete this process it will be possible to see how
death and disease affected the community. For the records we have so far it
is still possible to see how their numbers might have increased had it not
been for the plague that swept through the city on a frequent basis. For the
years we have where no "contagion" is mentioned, 1631-1633 for instance,
deaths for the three years total 570, compared with 726 births(baptisms) for
the same period, baring emigration an increase in the population of 156
persons an average of 52 per year. However for the years subsequent from
1634-1639 when the dreaded disease layed waste the city, 1503 persons were
born, and 1511 perished, these were years in which the population obviously
failed to increase. Some years like 1635 a mere 187 died, some obviously of
old age and other natural infirmities but many of the plague, in 1637
however 303 died with a much higher percentage succumbing to the fearful
disease. It should be noted that what we refer to as the "plague" or the
"Black death" is referred to by the scribes of the records from Rouen as;
"le contagion" in Le Havre it is always "la peste" but the two are
synonymous.

There is a sadness that purveys the records of these years as families
are devastated by the disease, a sadness that is almost tangible. Often one
member of a family will be recorded as dying and on subsequent pages other
children and their parents will follow their loved ones down to the grave.
Such is the case with the family of Guillaume SIMON, who died aged 52, in
October 1635, being buried on the 22nd of that month. Three days later, on
the 25th October, his daughter Marion was buried, aged 22 years of age. On
the 28th October, just three days after, Jeanne aged 10, and Elizabeth aged
18 were both buried, and finally, on November 1st, Marguerite, aged 19,
joins her father and her sisters in the grave. The girls' mother, Louise
DUMOUCHEL, evidently survives and another daughter Anne, probably the only
surviving child, gets married 19th February 1651, to Tobie HARDY. So some
memory of the family did live on, though in what circumstances we can only
imagine. Sometimes one feels as sorry for those who survive as they that
died. Children may suddenly find themselves bereft of parents, orphans at an
age when they cannot fend for themselves, or a mother like Louise DUMOUCHEL,
whose husband is lost and who must be grief stricken at losing him and
several of their children has to stir herself to look after those few
children who survive. So it is always important to remember that what we are
looking at are not names, and records of events but we are privy to the
lives of a people whose sufferings and struggles the statistics merely
attest to, and it is the testimony of their lives that I wish to devote the
remainder of this article to. It is after all their example and their faith
that we should remember not just a few of the dates, and events, important
as they may have been, that touched but lives but briefly. Sometime it seems
almost miraculous that a family survived at all, such an instance being one
line of the family "MAURICE":

End of Part 2
Tomorrow: Part 3, Temple at Quevilly, Rouen, FRA.

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