Peter Lechevalier, 1742-1806

In this family history, I will attempt to record the research I have done over the past eight years and tell the story of this family.

Lechevalier, as a surname, was relatively scarce in England in the 1700s. I was told by a professional genealogist (Apryl Cox) that the Lechevaliers were Protestants who came from France in the late 1600s, probably 1680, to escape persecution by the Catholics. They settled in London and moved out from there. They were textile workers. Some moved to Wiltshire for this reason.

We know that Peter Lechevalier (1742-1806) was a brewer in Avening, Gloucestershire. Further research needs to be done to find where in London Peter came from.

I do not know where Peter was born or when, but unsourced family records have estimated his birth year as 1742. His parents may have been Noel Lechevalier and Louise Fetsure. More research needs to be done to find them.

The first source I have found for Peter is in 1766. In the Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, I found that Peter bought a mill in Avening in 1766 through Edmund Clutterbuck, a lawyer. We have found a denization record that Peter brought with him from London in 1769. This document names his as a maltster of Avening. The denization gave Peter the right to own property even though he was considered an “alien”.

So Peter had moved from London to Avening, Gloucestershire in 1769. He was married to Anne (marriage record yet to be found) and had perhaps at least one child by this time. This may be the Peter le Chevalier who married Anne Gibbs 12 March 1761 at St. Marylebone, London. If so, he had a daughter baptized at St. Marylebone 16 Feb 1762. Was it Catherine?

In 1773 Peter bought a pew in the parish church. The pew seat was located in the west end of the parish church of Avening, the third pew on the right hand as you enter the church. Peter signed the parish register that recorded this sale. In April 2008 when Eileen visited this church in England, she was disappointed to see that the pews had been moved.

It appears that Peter carried on a baking and malting business at the mill, apparently converting it to a corn-mill from the original cloth mill. He owned this mill for over 30 years. Peter was evidently a maltster, a manufacturer of malt. Malting was a trade in its own right, and maltsters generally were independent from either the farmers who produced the barley or the brewers who consumed the malt, though some of the larger breweries conducted their own malting operations, especially from the nineteenth century onwards.

Three of Peter and Anne’s children were christened in the parish church of Avening. Jane in 1768, Thomas in 1771, and Anne in 1773. I have not found the christening records for two other sons, Peter and Francis, but they are linked into this family by family wills. There may have been another daughter also, Catherine, birth date unknown. And perhaps another daughter Margaret born in London.

So during the 1770s and 1780s Peter and Anne were raising their children in the small parish of Avening. Eileen visited Avening in April 2008. The town is built on a hillside with the stream running through the valley. Most of the buildings in the town were of Cotswold stone and have been there at least 200 years.

In 1790 two major events happened. Catherine was married on 8 April to Thomas Matthews in Avening. Then on 2 May Peter’s wife Anne was buried.

Catherine and Thomas seem to have had no children. Catherine seems to have died and was buried 22 Jan 1796 in Avening. Three years later her husband Thomas died and was buried 22 Aug 1799 in Avening.

In 1800 Peter sold his mill to John Blackwell of Nailsworth, clothier, who reconverted it for fulling.

In 1802 Peter’s daughter Jane was married 30 March to John Howman in the parish of Crudwell, Wiltshire. Crudwell is 6 miles southeast of Avening. Why did Jane so there to be married? She must have moved to Winchcomb with her husband. There doesn’t seem to have been any children. Winchcomb is at least twenty several miles to the north from Avening, farther north than Cheltenham and Cirencester.

Also in 1802 or thereabouts, Peter’s son Thomas married (spouse yet unknown) and in 1828 was a brewer in Wotton-under-Edge, 9 miles southwest of Avening. There seems to have been only one daughter. More research needs to be done on this family.

Then in 1803 Peter’s son Peter and a daughter Anne who both married in Crudwell, Wiltshire. Anne married David Harvey of Winchcomb 16 May 1803. David was a butcher and Anne moved with him to Winchcomb where her sister Jane was living with her husband of one year.
Peter married Martha Saunders 28 Aug 1803 in Crudwell. They already had a daughter when they married. Martha was born and christened 11 Apr 1801 in Stratton-St. Margaret, Wiltshire. It was not uncommon then to have a child before the couple was married.

Martha Saunders, Peter’s wife, was born and christened in Stratton-St. Margaret to Robert Saunders and Elizabeth Humphreys. A separate history will be written of her.

Peter and Martha had two more children in Stratton-St. Margaret. They might have been living there after their marriage. Anne was born in 1805 and Jane was born in 1806. Peter’s occupation is unknown and why he did not remain in Avening.

Sometime about 1805 Peter’s son Francis married an Anne. We don’t yet have the marriage record and Anne’s surname. In 1828 they were living in Minchinhampton where Francis was a yeoman (owned land). More research needs to be done on this family.

More research needs to be done on Peter’s apparently oldest daughter Margaret, born in London in 1764.

There is an excellent map of Gloucestershire in 1805 online. Here is the link. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nmfa/Maps/gloucestershire1805/gloucestershire1805.html

That is all I have time to write about today.

IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RESEARCHING THIS FAMILY FURTHER, please contact me. I would love to help you get started. When we do this research, it is very important to record the sources.