The Fulkerson Family Pages
What is a Walloon?
Saying the Vignes were Walloons is not to place them in a simple category. Walloons were not only a type of Huguenot, the French term for a Calvinist Protestant (adhering to the teachings of John Calvin), but a distinct anthropological identity of people joined by a common language and region, that of Wallonia.
Nearly all genealogies regarding the Dutch settlers of Manhattan positively identify them as having been Walloons. What a Walloon of the time was, then, begs further explanation, and could be a worthy topic for further historical research.
Though citizens of Belgium, modern Walloons have anthropological connections to the French people. Vallencienes itself is not a part of Wallonia, but about one-half hour's drive by car away from its western-most city, which is Mons, Belgium. Many, but not all, of the Walloons in the Vigne's time would have become Huguenots (Much of their story can be read in History of the Huguenot Emigration to America, Volume 1, by Charles Baird.)
Within the Sillon, synonymous with the region of the Sambre and Meuse River valley in Belgium, and what was once that nation's industrial backbone, live about two-thirds of the modern people one would consider "Walloon," although the distinctive language of Wallonia is quickly fading because of declining population and being overshadowed by international influence through immigration.
Many genealogies depict the Vignes departing from the County of Hainaut, a historical lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire, with its capital at Mons, which seems odd given that the area is actually far from the coast. Perhaps that area had been their final home, and their journey to Texel was made solely for the purpose of boarding the ship to New Netherlands.
What is definitely known is that the baptismal records of the Vigne daughters place the family at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) in Leiden, in the early 1620's. A formerly Roman Catholic Church, it had been built as a chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary in 1300.
Nearly destroyed by canon fire during a siege by the Spaniards in 1574, the church was rebuilt through the patronage of a wealthy female citizen of Leiden, who insisted, when she sold it back to the Directors of Leiden, that it be made available exclusively a place of worship for the Walloon Huguenots in the city. It is because of the baptismal records for the daughters of Guillame and Adrienne Vigne found at this Church that genealogists have assumed the Vignes were, in fact, Walloon Huguenots, but, given that they were born and married in Valenciennes, the couple may have merely been Huguenots, not associated with Wallonia at all. However, given their involvement with the church specifically dedicated to Walloon Huguenots, they were certainly very closely associated with Huguenot Walloons.
The Walloon Reformed Church was a type of the Dutch Reformed Church. Founded in the 1571 at the Synod of Emden by a group of adherents of John Calvin, the Dutch Reformed Church essentially ceased to exist in 2004, when it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (except for some denominations reassimilated into Roman Catholicism in the 1950's) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, except for a few hold outs which consider themselves the Restored Reformed Church.
It is quite likely the Vignes, after it was established in the New Netherlands, continued in their Reformed Dutch worship by attending services led by Jonas Michel. As soon as Michel arrived in New Amsterdam on April 7, 1628, he celebrated services in French as well as in Dutch, soon conducting regular services in a room above the village's grist mill on what is now William Street near Pearl Street.
Many Walloons attended this once Roman Catholic Church in Leiden. Only one wall remains today, but on that wall is a memorial dedicated to the Walloon families who left the area to emigrate to America.
Preserved by a Miracle?
Prior to the 1500's all Christians in Western Europe were Roman Catholic. In 1008, a terrible famine weakened the people and a plague ensued. According to the local tradition, thousands of the peoples' children in the region rapidly died. The panicked citizens of Valenciennes fell to their knees within the town churches. A hermit known for his austere life and holiness was called upon to intercede, offering prayers and sacrifices and imploring assistance from the Blessed Virgin Mary, assisted by angels, laid a mystical red cord around the city, protecting its people from the disease.
Registered at Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Leiden, Holland:
2 Sep 1618: Baptism of Rachel, daughter of Ghilain Vignier and his wife. Witnesses: Antoine Hardewin and his wife, Ghilain Hardewin, and Gertrude Quinze.
October 1618: Ghileyn Vignier and his wife were received as members of the church "by confession."
26 Sep 1619: Baptism of twins Abraham and Sara, children of Gileyn Vinoist and Adrienne Cuvelier. Witnesses: None mentioned. (Neither child is known to have survived.)
26 Sep 1621: Baptism of Abraham, son of Guillain Vivier and Adrienne Cuvelier. Witnesses: Charlie Bailieu and Jean Collas and the wife of Jean Adam. (This child is not known to have survived.)
Easter, 1622: Guilleine Vignier was received by confession.
19 Mar 1623: Baptism of Rachel, daughter of Guillain Vigne. Witnesses: Henri Lambert, Pierre de Fache and Marguerite Vigne.
[SOURCE: Article by William Parry in New Netherland Connections Quarterly, Vol 3 No. 1, Jan-Feb-Mar 1998. Dorothy A. Koenig, Editor. Please note that the article indecisively called him "Guillaume or Ghislain."]
Family Baptisms
in the Church of Our Lady
This statue represents the miracle of Our Lady of the Cord. Angels are assisting the Blessed Virgin in her task. According to the legend, everyone enclosed within the boundary of the cord was preserved from and protected against the plague.
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The gratitude of the people of Valenciennes to God for the favor of protection granted them through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary has never waned. A neo-gothic minor basilica, Notre Dame du Saint Cordon, was completed in 1864 and still stands today. The Old Bell Tower Porch of the basilica reinterprets the renowned, magnificent Cathedral of Chartres. The parishioners of the basilica now belong to the Roman Catholic Archidiocèse de Cambrai, founded in 1559. From 1094 until that time, Cambrai had been a part of one of three Catholic dioceses of Lower Lorraine.
