Ann Bessonet's Family History

Information below comes from The Cabeen Family, The Bessonet Family & Ann Bessonet Cabeen by Mrs. Thomas McKeen Chidsey

“This family is of Huguenot extraction and probably descended from Claude de Besonet, sieur de Gatuzieres, Dauphiny, now the Department de la Lozere.  At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, the family fled from France to England, supposed to consist of a father and three sons, Claude, Alexander and John.  Claude Bessonet, presumably the father, was naturalized in London in 1700.

The Claude Bessonet branch settled in Ireland, where the family held a high social position in Waterford, and where Francis Bessonet was minister of the French Church in Dublin, 1765.

Alexander Bessonet went to Batavia, Java, where he died.

John Bessonet came to America, settled first in Bensalem Township, and afterwards in Bristol, where he died in 1778.  His name appears as one of the vestrymen in the earliest remaining records of St. James’ Church.”

“He married Sarah Dye.

Their children were:

Elizabeth, born January 13, 1721

Mary, born, December 7, 1723

John, born October 21, 1725

Sarah, born May 10, 1728

James, born October 21, 1730

Catharine, born October 7, 1732

Charles, born October 5, 1734

Ann, born January 28, 1736

Margaret, born September 18, 1739

Martha, born January 25, 1742

Daniel, born February 25, 1743

Daniel married Sarah Johnson, May 31, 1764

The children of Daniel and Sarah Johnson Bessonet were:

James, born May 14, 1765             died October 26, 1766

Margaret, born August 1, 1766      died November 7, 1769

Samuel, born October 26, 1768    died September 4, 1769

Sarah, born November 4, 1769      died July 9, 1811

Mary, born July 15, 1771                died 1796

Elizabeth, born April 6, 1773          died March 7, 1796

Ann, born April 15, 1775                 died January 10, 1832

Daniel, born July 8, 1779                died December 1806”

New Jersey Volunteers - Bessonett's Coy – Muster roll shows Daniel Bessonet as the Captain of the 4^th Battalion

“At the end of the Revolutionary War, Captain Daniel Bessonet of the British Army, being loyal to the Mother Country whose cause he ad espoused, emigrated from Philadelphia to Halifax, with other refugees, accompanied by his wife, Sarah Johnson Bessonet, his three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth and Ann, and his son Daniel.  He died December 1, 1783, aged 40 years.  His wife, Sarah Bessonet, died December 3, 1790, aged 42.  These three daughters were remarkable for their beauty and their grace of manner.  Halifax being a garrison town, they probably led a life of gaiety and excitement, resulting in the early death of Mary and Elizabeth.  Consumption, the disease of which they died, was probably induced by exposure to the night air in thin ball dresses, as well as by the unhealthiness of the climate.”