Bill’s Family - Person Sheet
Bill’s Family - Person Sheet
NameFrancis Gerneaux 
, G652, 3000, M
, G652, 3000, MBirthabt 1620, Isle of Guernsey, UK227
Memo(AFN:1SFP-THB)
Deathabt 1723, New Rochelle, New York Colony Age: 103
ReligionFrench Heugonaut
FlagsLived in UK, Lived in US
Misc. Notes
New Jersey Biographical Sketches, 1665-1800
Francis Gerneaux was a Huguenot on the Isle of Guernsey, in the British Channel, according to family tradition, and was marked out for assassination, getting word of which the night before the day set for his death, he secured a vessel and got out of the harbor with his family before morning. (As Guernsey had long been a stronghold of Protestantism, it is probable that Gerneaux fled to that island, from the French mainland.) He came thence to America, and settled at New Rochelle, New York, where he survived to the great age of 103 years. The family name was transformed in time to its present form.
He brought to this country his son Stephen, then a child, who. m. Ann Walton, it is believed, and had nine children who grew up and married.
The first was Daniel, who m. Sarah, dau. of Nathaniel Britton, of Staten Island. They had two children b. there, and then removed to Hopewell, N. J., where six more children were born to them, among them John Gano, b. July 22, 1727.
He was ordained to the ministry May 29, 1754, at Hopewell, entering immediately upon the charge of the infant Baptist church at Morristown, which he served for two years, with considerable intervals of missionary tours in the South. In 1756 he accepted an urgent call to Yadkin, N. C., where he remained two years and a half, when he returned to New Jersey, taking up his residence at Elizabethtown. He preached alternately at Philadelphia and New York, but in 1761 accepted a call to the latter place, where he continued until 1776. He now acted as chalpain of a Connecticut regiment, through the battles in and about New York, the retreat across New Jersey, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He was subsequently chaplain of Gen. Clinton's brigade, composed of New York, New England and New Jersey regiments. He accompanied Gen. Sullivan's expedition against the Indians, in 1779, and continued in the service until the close of the war. He then gathered his scattered congregation together again, and the church flourished greatly. In 1787 he accepted a call to Kentucky, where he arrived with his family in June. He remained a year at Lexington, and then removed to Frankfort. He preached continually, frequently going on extensive missionary tours, until afflicted with a paralytic stroke, in the latter part of 1798. He d. Aug. 10, 1804, at Frankfort, Mr. Gano m. 1st, Sarah, dau. of John Stites, Mayor of the Borough of Elizabethtown, in 1756; she d. at Frankfort, Ky., about 1788; he m. 2d., about a year later, in North Carolina, a dau. of Jonathan Hunt, and wid. of Capt. Thomas Bryant. Issue: 1. John Stites, b. cir. 1757; d. 1765; 2. Daniel, b. Nov. 11, 1758, at Yadkin, N. C.; 3. Peggy, b. Dec. 23, 1760, at Philadelphia; 4. Stephen, b. Dec. 25, 1762, in New York, afterwards a distinguished Baptist clergyman in Rhode Island; 5. Sarah, b. Feb. 24, 1764, in New York; 6. John Stites, b. July 14, 1766, in New York; 7. A dau., b. Aug. 15, 1768; d. in her 3d yr.; 8. Isaac Eaton, b. 1770; 9. Richard Montgomery, b. 1776, in New York; 10. Susannah, b. Nov. 8, 1777, at New Fairfield, Conn.; 11. William, b. 1781 or 1782; d. cir. 1799.--Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev. John Gano, N. Y., 1806; Edwards's Hist. of the Baptists of N. J., 74.
Francis Gerneaux was a Huguenot on the Isle of Guernsey, in the British Channel, according to family tradition, and was marked out for assassination, getting word of which the night before the day set for his death, he secured a vessel and got out of the harbor with his family before morning. (As Guernsey had long been a stronghold of Protestantism, it is probable that Gerneaux fled to that island, from the French mainland.) He came thence to America, and settled at New Rochelle, New York, where he survived to the great age of 103 years. The family name was transformed in time to its present form.
He brought to this country his son Stephen, then a child, who. m. Ann Walton, it is believed, and had nine children who grew up and married.
The first was Daniel, who m. Sarah, dau. of Nathaniel Britton, of Staten Island. They had two children b. there, and then removed to Hopewell, N. J., where six more children were born to them, among them John Gano, b. July 22, 1727.
He was ordained to the ministry May 29, 1754, at Hopewell, entering immediately upon the charge of the infant Baptist church at Morristown, which he served for two years, with considerable intervals of missionary tours in the South. In 1756 he accepted an urgent call to Yadkin, N. C., where he remained two years and a half, when he returned to New Jersey, taking up his residence at Elizabethtown. He preached alternately at Philadelphia and New York, but in 1761 accepted a call to the latter place, where he continued until 1776. He now acted as chalpain of a Connecticut regiment, through the battles in and about New York, the retreat across New Jersey, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He was subsequently chaplain of Gen. Clinton's brigade, composed of New York, New England and New Jersey regiments. He accompanied Gen. Sullivan's expedition against the Indians, in 1779, and continued in the service until the close of the war. He then gathered his scattered congregation together again, and the church flourished greatly. In 1787 he accepted a call to Kentucky, where he arrived with his family in June. He remained a year at Lexington, and then removed to Frankfort. He preached continually, frequently going on extensive missionary tours, until afflicted with a paralytic stroke, in the latter part of 1798. He d. Aug. 10, 1804, at Frankfort, Mr. Gano m. 1st, Sarah, dau. of John Stites, Mayor of the Borough of Elizabethtown, in 1756; she d. at Frankfort, Ky., about 1788; he m. 2d., about a year later, in North Carolina, a dau. of Jonathan Hunt, and wid. of Capt. Thomas Bryant. Issue: 1. John Stites, b. cir. 1757; d. 1765; 2. Daniel, b. Nov. 11, 1758, at Yadkin, N. C.; 3. Peggy, b. Dec. 23, 1760, at Philadelphia; 4. Stephen, b. Dec. 25, 1762, in New York, afterwards a distinguished Baptist clergyman in Rhode Island; 5. Sarah, b. Feb. 24, 1764, in New York; 6. John Stites, b. July 14, 1766, in New York; 7. A dau., b. Aug. 15, 1768; d. in her 3d yr.; 8. Isaac Eaton, b. 1770; 9. Richard Montgomery, b. 1776, in New York; 10. Susannah, b. Nov. 8, 1777, at New Fairfield, Conn.; 11. William, b. 1781 or 1782; d. cir. 1799.--Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev. John Gano, N. Y., 1806; Edwards's Hist. of the Baptists of N. J., 74.
Misc. Notes
"Francis Gerneaux escaped from (to ?) the island of Guernsey, during the bloody persecution that arose in consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantz. One of his neighbours having been martyred, a faithful servant of his deceased friend informed him that he himself had been doomed to the same fate, and that he was to suffer that very night, at twelve o'clock. Being a gentleman of wealth, and having trustworthy and influential friends around him, he at once secured a vessel, and, having caused his family to be placed on board, he was himself conveyed in a hogshead to the same retreat, and before morning, the vessel was not to be seen from the harbor. Mindful of the condition of other persons, at other Protestant settlements, he so managed as to send his boat ashore at several of those places and by this means his company of emigrants was much enlarged. They sailed for America, and arrived safely at New York. * * * Mr. Gerneau died at the extraordinary age of one hundred and three years." (Annals of the American Pulpit, by William B. Sprague, D.D., vol. VI., p. 62.) The name became corrupted to Gano. The Rev. John Gano, an eminent Baptist minister, (born 1727, died 1804,) was a great-grandson of this refugee.