Guide to the Pierre Garcelon Papers, 1747-1773, undated

Pierre Garcelon was born in May 1685 in Mauriac, France to Pierre Garcelon and Marie La Garige. He became a Catholic priest in the diocese of Clermont, France. During the persecution of the Huguenots (French Protestants), Pierre became disillusioned with his faith and country and fled around 1721, at age 35, to London, England.

On January 14, 1722, Pierre married Anne La Rue, with whom he would later have one son, Pierre. A few months later, he renounced the Catholic faith to join the Church of England. From 1739 to 1772, he served as first curate and then rector of the Episcopal Church at St. Pierre du Bois on the Isle of Guernsey in the English Channel. He was an acquaintance of Apollos Rivoire, who emigrated from Guernsey to Boston and was the father of Paul Revere.

Shortly after the death of his first wife in June 1734, he married Jeanne Bedat, and the couple had four children: Peter, Jeanne, Louise, and James. Born in 1739, James came to the United States as a cabin boy on a ship in 1752, and was the great grandfather of Maine Governor (1879) Alonzo Garcelon (1813-1906, Bowdoin 1836).

Pierre's second wife died in 1742, and the following year he married Anne Le Large, with whom he had six children: Martha, Anne, William, Marie, Susanne, and Judith. Pierre died in 1772, at the age of 87, in Guernsey.

The collection contains twelve letters (1750-1773), eleven from Pierre Garcelon to his son, James, and one from rector Jean Godfrey to James concerning his late father's estate; one poem by Pierre Garcelon entitled "Mon adieu a mes chers enfans"; and fourteen sermons also by Pierre Garcelon. All of these materials are in French, although English translations are provided for the letters and poem.