The landscape of Artois and of St Omer in Flanders, near the city of Lille( it was known as Ryssel). In 1440CE Jeanne Beauprez (pretty field!) gave birth to Pierre Bloedel in Hesdin, Artois.  His daughter Margrite Bloedel was born in 1585. The Bloedels lived in St Omer and later moved to Lille. Margrite was adventurous, her father agreeable, or he was happy to see she might have freedom from Spanish Catholic persecution and allowed or encouraged her marriage to an Englishman named Alexander Shapleigh, who was a) a soldier? b) a Protestant rebel and preacher or refugee helper, or c) a merchant from across the channel in Kingsweare, Devon. Alexander's brother Robert also seemed to like French women, because he married Marie Blabon, daughter of Jeanne Breman from St Omer. I hope the girls were friends. Robert Shapleigh may have been the eldest because he remained in Devon the remainder of his life, whereas Alexander and Margrite immigrated to Kittery, Maine. They had four children. Her daughter Catherine Shapleigh-who would come to America with her English husband from Brixham Devon, named James Treworge(an anglicized French name?) was born in 1608 in Lille.

Here is a painting by Avenkcamp of skaters in a landscape of Flanders in 1500's. The pair of French-English lovers might have played such games together in winter.

 

 Shapleigh's home of Brixham Harbor, Devon UK

 and Kingsweare, Devon UK

The journey was always by sea……….

in the 1600's crossings to the US were plentiful. Dutch, French Hugenots and English Protestant groups especially of younger sons, sought to make their way in the new world. This group head for the Maine coast.

 Kittery, Maine US

Old Blockhouse Fort McCleary, Kittery, Maine

Meanwhile on the western coast of France on the tiny island of Ile de Re, lived the Valleau and Descard and Dumas families. They were Protestant rebels, allied with the Duc de Soubise and had to flee France either before or after the  Siege of St Martin de Re that happened during the reign of Louis XIII.

 St Martin Ile de Re

 Before all this happened over in Tours in the Loire Valley, lived another family named Fauconnier (Falconers)- one of whom was royal falconer to Phillip of Burgundy. A lovely Frenchwoman(is there really any other?) named Madeleine Fauconnier married Pierre Valleau from Ile de Re. 

The main square of Tours is complete with buildings of the period still extant. Surely this square held the bon marche where Mlle Fauconnier would shop from an array of Loire cheese. 

Both the Valleaus and the Fauconniers emigrated to England first for a short period, and then to Dutchess County and New Rochelle, NY.  A theme or pattern: spiritual freedom fighters and refugees.