Hello
I realise that this thread is quite old now, but came across it researching the Huguenot VENDOME family, as two of the families they intermarried with namely BUCK & FORECAST, are mentioned here. I was suprised to see the Grandshaws mentioned as I researched these in quite some detail back in 2009 as part of my own ongoing researches into the Spitalfields Silk Weaving families.
I have also posted this to your Ancestry 'Granshaw' Group, but duplicate here in the hope it will be seeen and prove useful to GRANDSHAW decendants and researchers.
The name was original spelt variously as GRANSART/GRANDSART/GRASSART in France, (and occasionaly in England too) and came to London's Huguenot community with Jean Jacques GRASSART a refugee in June of 1762. He was then a few weeks shy of his 48th birthday, and was a native of Quievy, in Northern France. His sister had already been in the refuge since 1750 so he was joining relations here. I have traced his ancestry back to his great grandparents Andrieu Gransart and Marie De Mons, Protestants who married in Quievy 28 November 1642.
Jean Jacques himself was born as Jean Jacques GRASSART on 6 Sep 1717, in Quievy, France, the son of Andre GRASSART (1683-1741) & Sainte MOREAU (1678-1742).
Jean Jacques was the fifth of seven children to his parents, and as an adult worked as a Linen Weaver.
On 10 April 1742 he married Marie Rose Lengrand also of Quievy. They had the following children:
GRASSART Jacques Antoine (1743 Quiévy - 1748 Quiévy)
GRASSART Marie Reine (1744 Quiévy - 1746 Quiévy)
GRASSART Marie Paques (1749 Quiévy - 1753 Quiévy)
GRASSART Anne Reine (1751 Quiévy)
GRASSART Constance (1755 Quiévy - 1762 Quiévy)
Marie died in childbirth 1755, and he began a relationship with Mary Elizabeth (Isabeau) Cartigny of St Hiliare. They crossed the border to marry in the Huguenot Temple at Tournoi on 14 January 1759, and their existing child (likely their son Thomas) was legitimized on the marriage.
One more child was born to them in France, Marie Joseph GRASSART b 15 march 1760 Quievy, baptised there the next day.
Increasing pressure had been placed on the Protestant enclave of Quievy by the local Catholic authorities. As mentioned above, in 1750 Jean Jacques sister Marie Barbe GRASSASRT (B.1720) had already fled to London with her husband Jean Philipe Delporte, joining the Huguenot congregation of Threadneedle Street London, via public abjuration of Catholicism, on 30 September that year.
Jean Jacques himself, was certainly still in Quievy as late as early June 1762, his daughter Constance dying and being buried there age 7 on the third of that month.
His wife Elizabeth CARTIGNY/GRASSART was heavily pregnant at that time giving birth to the couples third child Ann Elizabeth on 16th of that month. Whether it was the particular circumstances surrounding Constance's death and Ann Elizabeth's birth that influenced their decision to flee is unknown, but within eleven days of his new daughter birth, the whole family (Jacques, his wife, and his four surviving children Ann Reine, Thomas, Marie Joseph, Ann Elizabeth), had fled to England, Lo, along with his nephew Louis Bantigny, Louis joining the Threadneedle Street Church on 27 June that year.
The baby Ann Elizabeth was baptised in London a week later, (Surname spelt on the record as GRANSAR) 4 July 1672, at The Artillery Huguenot Church, Spitalfields.
One further child Elizabeth (Surname spelt as GRANSART) was also baptised to them privately at the home of Monsieur Jacob Bourdillon, Minister of the same Artillery Huguenot Church, Spitalfields in November 1764, but sadly did not survive.
Clearly the family was in dire straits in England as in 1765 Jean Jacques was one of fifty eight petitioners to the Board of Trade informing them :
[that the subscribed twenty families of destitute French Protestants were in London, that relief had been sought from the French churches in the city, "which already swarmed with poor", but without avail; and that unless they be transported to some colony they "would starve for want in this land of plenty".]
He appeared on the petition as follows:
["Jean Jacques GRANSAR, sa femme & quatres Enfans Tisserand & Ouvrier de Terre - 6 persons"]
i.e "Jean Jacques GRANSAR, his wife and four infants, Weaver & Worker on the Land - 6 persons"
The petitioners collectively expressed a desire to go to South Carolina and to join a British Huguenot colony under the care of John Pierre Gibert and Mr. Boutiton, but were not succesful in this wish.
......................... (cont)
