Hugo Freer & Jannetje Wibou

---

Hugo was born in Herly, France and was a refugee who became one of the original founders and Twelve Patentees of New Paltz, New York, all of whom were fleeing France (via what is now Germany) due to prosecution based on their religious beliefs. 

At the time of Hugo’s birth in 1630’s France, Protestants had no hope of peace: they had been persecuted by Catholics nearly continuously for the past 100 years, with the worst of it being between 1562 and 1598 (French Wars of Religion). In August 1572, Roman Catholic mobs turned on them. They slaughtered up to 70,000 Protestants across France in what was known as the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. This horrific event resulted in the first wave of Huguenots fleeing France. 

There was a brief peace starting in 1598 when King Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, which allowed the Huguenots to worship, build churches and hold public office. However, after he was assassinated 12 years later, their rights quickly eroded and were revoked entirely by King Louis XIV in 1685.

During Hugo’s childhood, things were relatively peaceful, mainly due to France being heavily involved in the Thirty Years’ War, where the Huguenots fought as soldiers and officers as part of the Catholic French Royal Army and supported the war efforts through their taxes. However, they were still repressed and feared that their rights would be further eroded. They could no longer hold office, build churches in most areas, were forced to pay tithes to support local Catholic churches and forbidden to hold any public religious ceremonies (e.g. preaching at a gravesite of a loved one). 

Hugo’s family, like many others in his region, fled France around 1651 during the chaos of the war between Spain and France, and settled in Mannheim (located in the Protestant Palatinate region of what is now Germany). The residents in the area were very welcoming of the Huguenots, since they were typically highly skilled workers and they were much needed to boost a sagging economy.  We're not sure of Hugo's profession prior to his arrival in America, but chances are he was likely a weaver, worked in the textile industry, or farmed. Documents of his were signed with his mark “x”, indicating very little formal education.

On Oct 2, 1660, Hugo married Marie de la Haye, a native of Douaya, France, in Mannheim. This fact contradicts the official Freer biography by Ruth P Heidgerd that was published in 1968, but she didn’t have the Mannheim church ledger that was discovered nearly a decade later. Hugo and Marie had three children: daughters Marie and Sarah, and son Hugo Jr. Sadly, both of his daughters and wife died in 1666 (it is assumed from the bubonic plague but typhus and dysentery also were common). 

Since Hugo was now a widower with a very young son to care for, he did something very common in that time period and quickly found another mate. His married second wife, Jeanne (or Jannetje), in the same Mannheim congregation on January 22, 1667. Jannetje and Hugo would become Herman Wolf’s 5th great-grandparents.  I was unable to find their marriage record but believe a hard copy is located in the Historic Huguenot Street archives; they have it translated on their web site.

Not much is known about Jeanne Wibou from her childhood other than she was originally from Dauoi (northern France) and is the daughter of a man named Toussant Wibou. The first records that exist are from church records in Mannheim; they show that she first married a man named Simon Floquet. Jeanne is often shown in records using the Dutch variant of her name, Jannetje.

Sometime in the 1675-1676 timeframe, Hugo and Jannetje sailed to America with their children Hugo Jr, Abraham, and Isaac. They joined other Dutch settlers in Hurly, New York, before obtaining a permanent residence about 14 miles away on Huguenot St in New Paltz on the land where the Freer-Louw House still stands. Four more children were born: Jacob, Jan (Jean), Marie (Mary) and Sarah.

Hugo, now a farmer,  grew wheat, corn and other crops on expansive outlying fields near the Wallkill River collectively with the other settlers. Over time, the council of the Duzine divided these massive rural tracts of wilderness and meadow so that each family owned separate, larger plots of farmland away from the village center. (The Duzine was a powerful local council of twelve men, including Hugo, that served as the unique governing body of early New Paltz).  In addition, when the New Paltz Church was organized in 1683, he was appointed as a Deacon, a highly respected role in the deeply religious community. Hugo's children and grandchildren used their inherited wealth to dramatically expand the family's farming kingdom further south. 

For a more in-depth biography with historical references, check out this link:  https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/1793053.   Many people including the author of the aforementioned website believe Hugo and his family came to America on a ship called the Spotted Cow. This is not correct; the last known voyage of that ship was in 1663 and Hugo was still in Mannheim as late as 1773, when the church records show that his son Isaac was baptized. He likely arrived between 1675 and 1677, which is when the land contract with the Esopus tribal chiefs to purchase the land that became New Paltz was signed .