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It has always been assumed that John Largent was a huguenaut who came directly from somewhere in France and settled directly in Orange County, Virginia. Altough it is not impossible that a French person could have settled, particularly in Maryland prior to the revolution or could have entered the colonies from one of the North American French territories, the time and place the Largents appeared (Not to mention the ease with which they dealt with Lord Fairfax in Land transactions in the Northern Neck of Virg) is more suggestive of an English origin.
There are numerous Huguenaut families who settled in British America between the Edict of Nantes (1695) and about the 1750's and most of them in the South appear to have come either through England (eg the Fugates, possibly the Martins and some others) or Germany (where what was later called a Huguenaut was often a genuine Huguenaut but was equally often a protestant German living in the German speaking eastern border areas of France or catholic Western Switzerland).
The Largent name clearly appears to be French in origin but it should be noted that the name is very numerous on the Suffolk Cambridge border (near Bury St Edmunds, Sufflk England) back as far as the first decade or two of the 1500's when that area began to follow London and Kent in recording surnames in the Parish registers.
Notably (a quick survey of the IGI is instructive) the Largent family names from the St James, Bury St Edmund parish parallel very closely the distribution of names in the early Largent generations in America. Since these are generally common names it is hard to say anything for sure but since the names the Largent family preferred varied from town to town, it might just be significant.
So far as I can tell from IGI, the family appears definitely in that town in the 1650's with James (Jacobi) Largent who married Anne Lilly, possibly a local woman. He had at least two sons, James and Robert (and three daughters). His sons both had numerous progeny and there was a John Largent born there in 1687 about whom as far as I know nothing (such as marriage) is later recorded. (There was another John Largent born a few miles away in Cambridge County but his father was a Matthew, a name that does not show up in our US branch early on).
I am not at a place I would suggest with any confidence that this John is the John Largent of Orange County but I think it may be time to start looking at the extensive Largent community in Sussex and Cambridge for origins of the American clan. I am aware of our origin story. I have heard a couple of versions (1) John Largent was a hugunaut who left France (2) John Largent married Rachel deMoss who was of Hugunaut parentage and so on. It is not the case that the American Largent family foundation story has to be entirely wrong but it may be misunderstood as many such early storie are (A branch of the nearby Martin family which was either part Scotch Irish and part Hugunaut via Britain or entirely Scotch Irish went through Louisiana after the Revolution and became Catholic. Some of their descendants in Texas came to imagine that the clan was always Catholic and migrated direct from Galway in a far more recent generation. They may well have been in Galway at one time but if so they were almost certainly part of the protestant movement there) In a like sense I think it possible the Largents may have married into Huguenauts. There were a lot of post Nantes Huguenauts among English refugees to Maryland, among the Dutch in New York and New Jersey and among the Germans who were just then approaching Frederick and Orange Counties from the North. But I think we should at least consider the possibility that the Largents were English and that their migration from France may have occurred up to 300 or 400 years earlier than we have heretofore suspected.
Best Regards
Grady Loy
from
Richard Loy
Edward Loy
William Loy
Samuel Loy
Mary Slane
Margaret Largent
James Largent
John Largent
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