Manuscript Group 1019, Jouet Family Papers, 1711 – 1905 (Bulk dates: 1820 – 1890)

Archives Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs

Manuscript Group 1019, Jouet Family

Papers, 1711-1905 (Bulk dates: 1820-1890), 0.5 linear feet / 1 box

Call Number: MG 1019 + Folder number

• Summary

• Biographical
  Note

• Provenance
  Note

• Scope
  and Content Note

• Related
  Collections

• FolderList

Summary:

Correspondence, certificates, and legal documents of the Jouet family, particularly Cavalier Hamilton Jouet (1792-1854) and Xenophon Jouet (1823-1890).

Biographical Note:

The Jouet family, French Huguenots who fled their home country after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, eventually settled in Elizabethtown, New Jersey around 1695.  Soon after their marriage, Daniel Jouet (d. 1744) and his young bride Frances Hargrave (d. ca. 1740) relocated to the island of Jamaica, where they had both inherited property.  Their son, Cavalier Jouet was born around 1738, about five years before both of his parents died and he was left an orphan.  Cavalier was brought to his grandparents, Daniel and Mary Jouet in Elizabethtown, and it was there he grew up.  Having inherited land and money from his parents, he built the historic mansion now know as “The Chateau” in Elizabethtown, where he settled with his growing family.  In 1757, he married Abigail Hatfield (1740-1770) with whom he had seven children, and after her death, married Mary Hampton (1743-1827) who gave him four more children.

Unlike his wife Mary’s family, Cavalier Jouet was a Loyalist during the American Revolution.  He was imprisoned and then confined to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, after which he evacuated to safety behind the British lines in New York.  His property and estates were confiscated in 1779, and at the end of the war, Cavalier Jouet left America for Great Britain.  At the age of 49, he was ordained a clergyman of the Church of England and made curate of Tolles Hunt Major in Essex.  Although he returned to America in 1792 in an effort to regain his confiscated property, he died in Rawreth in Essex on November 6, 1810.

Cavalier and Abigail (Hatfield) Jouet’s son Xenophon Jouet (1760-1843), also a Loyalist, fought as an ensign in the First New Jersey Volunteers during the Revolution.  At the end of the war, he moved to Canada, where he was appointed high sheriff of York County in 1789, lieutenant in the King’s New Brunswick Regiment in 1793, and for nearly fifty years was a Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to the Provincial House Assembly.  He married Gertrude Garrison (1763-ca.1840) on August 30, 1783, with whom he had five children.

Xenophon and Gertrude’s son Cavalier Hamilton Jouet (1792-1854) was probably born in New Brunswick, Canada.  He was appointed principal waiter of His Majesty’s Customs in 1820, made a free-man of the city of St. John in 1821, and in 1824 was appointed preventive officer for the Port of St. Andrew’s customs, the deputy treasurer for the Port or District of West Isles and Campo Bello in the District of Charlotte, and deputy naval officer for West Isles and Campo Bello.  He was appointed deputy treasurer for the Port or District of West Isles and Campo Bello in the County of Charlotte in 1828, the provost marshall of the Court for the trial of piracy and other offenses committed on the high seas in New Brunswick in 1847, and the landing surveyor at the Port of St. John in 1848.  Cavalier H. Jouet married Mary Buchanan King (1794-1847), with whom he had seven children.

In 1854, Mary and Cavalier H. Jouet’s son Xenophon Jouet (1823-1890) was appointed waiter and searcher of the Port of St. John, a post he soon left when he moved from Canada to New Jersey, the home of his ancestors, around 1859.  He spent much of his time researching heraldry and Jouet genealogy, and soon became interested in the question of the inheritance rights of Cavalier Jouet’s (ca. 1738-1810) descendants to the Jouet property confiscated during the Revolution.  Xenophon Jouet married Henrietta Hearn (1821-1907), with whom he had at least three children: Cavalier Hargrave Jouet (1860-1929), Belinda Hearn Jouet (1864-1935), and Henrietta Arnold Jouet (1866-1912).

Sources:

Jones, Alfred E. “The Loyalists of New Jersey,” New Jersey History (New Series: Vol. 11, pgs. 329-333).

Jouet Family File, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Manuscript Group 1436, Jouet Family Genealogical Collection, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Provenance Note:

The source of this collection is unknown.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers consist of the correspondence, work papers, legal documents, financial records, and literary and research materials of the Jouet family, particularly Cavalier Hamilton Jouet (1792-1854) and his son, Xenophon Jouet (1823-1890).  The papers date from 1711-1905, with bulk dates of 1820-1890, and are arranged by type.

The correspondence largely documents Xenophon Jouet’s (1823-1890) research into the Jouet genealogy and heraldry.  Correspondents include Cavalier Hamilton Jouet (1792-1854), John Chaffey Jouet, Henrietta Hearn Jouet, Abigail Jouet (Williamson) McGavock, Marie Masson, Anne G. Taylor, Count Edward de V. Vermont, Walter Calder, James Edward Jouett, Galena (Stockett) Jouett, Charles W. Baird, George Robert Gleig, and A. S. V. Laporte.  There are also letters regarding a dispute over the surveying and selling of land on Deer Island in Canada and Xenophon’s unhappiness at being supported by his father in Canada.

The work papers include certificates of both Cavalier Hamilton Jouet (1792-1854) and Xenophon Jouet (1823-1890) and document their appointments and service in the Queen’s government in Canada.  Other work-related items in the collection include petitions, notes, and instructions.

The papers also contain a large number of legal and financial documents, particularly powers of attorney, copies of wills, and a smaller number of receipts and Deer Island land deeds and surveys.  There is also a small amount of literary material including sermons of the Rev. Cavalier Jouet, printed matter relating to James Edward Jouett, and some poetry.

Related Materials:

Manuscript Group 903, Hatfield/Hetfield Family  (Elizabethtown, NJ) Papers 

Manuscript Group 1436, Jouet Family Genealogical Collection

Folder List:

Processed by Kim Charlton, February 2000 as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

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