Pierre Chastain

The year was 1659 when Pierre Chastain was born in the ancient Province of Berry, in or near the village of Charost, which is almost the geographic center of France. Pierre Chastain was the son of Estienne Chastain and Jeanne Laurent. Pierre's father, Estienne and his grandfather, Jacques Chastain, had both served as notaire royal at Charost. Estienne was born circa 1625, the son of Jacques and Jeanne Audet Chastain. It is thought that Jacques, born circa 1598-1600, was either the son or grandson of the Estienne Chastain who fled the city of Bourges at the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in 1572.

Proof of Pierre's first wife comes from the registers of Vevey in cantonal archives in Lausanne, Switzerland. This proof also corrects the assumption that Magdalaine de la Rochefaucald was Pierre's first wife. Pierre Chastain married Susanne Reynaud, daughter of Pierre Reynaud, from the village of Issoudun. By 1696, the Pierre Chastain family had fled from Charost across the Jura Mountains to Vevey, Canton Vaud, Switzerland to escape religious persecution. Sometime after September 1698, the family departed Vevey and was found at The Hague in The Netherlands (Holland).

From there, the family moved to London, England where they remained a short time while Pierre became active in gathering together a group of French Huguenot refugees for colonization in Virginia. Pierre Chastain, his wife Susanne Reynaud Chastain and five children were among the group of 207 passengers who embarked from Gravesend, England on April 19, 1700 aboard the ship Mary and Ann of London. This ship arrived at the mouth of the James River on July 12, 1700. The group settled in Manakin, Virginia about twenty miles up the James River. The group was given a 10,000 acre tract of land south of the James in an area once occupied by the Monacan Tribe of Indians.

Pierre's wife, Susanne, died after February 1701 and before November 1701, two of the children also had died. Pierre then married Anne Soblet. Ann was the daughter of Abraham Soblet and Susanne Brian. The marriage to Anne Soblet produced eight children. Anne Soblet Chastain died on April 3, 1723. Pierre married a third time to Mary Magdaline (Verrueil) Trabue, daughter of Moise and Madelene Verrueil and widow of Antoine Trabue.

Pierre Chastain died in Goochland County, Virginia in the fall of 1728. He had made his will on October 3, 1728 and this will was probated on November 20, 1728. He was buried in the family cemetery near his home. Magdeline Chastain died in late Spring of 1731, she and Pierre did not have children.

The family cemetery where Pierre Chastain was buried is located near Manakin Episcopal church. The Cemetery was located a few yards from the family home and contained several field stones and as many as 30 graves. A brick wall surrounding the family plot was torn down in 1929 by a farmer who used the bricks to build a house.

In 1982, Lowell Chastain, then President of the Association, erected a grave marker for Pierre Chastain and constructed a chain-link fence around his grave.