Peter Fontaine

The Reverend Peter (born Pierre) Fontaine (Taunton, Somerset, England, 1691 – Williamsburg, Virginia,^[1] 1757/1759)^[2] was a Clergyman at Westover Church (listed in the National Register of Historic Places listings in Virginia), Westover Parish, Charles City County, Virginia, best known for his endorsement of African American slavery.

Background and Family

His parents, of Noble French Huguenot extraction, were forced to leave for England, later Great Britain, and then Ireland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes with the Edict of Fontainebleau in October 1685. His father was also a Reverend, the Rev. Jacques de la Fontaine, later James Fontaine (Jenouille, France, 7 April 1658 – Dublin, Leinster, Ireland, 1728, bur. there), and he married already in England, to where they both had fled, at Barnstaple, Devon, on 8 February 1686 to his mother Anne Elizabeth Boursiquot (France, c. 1660 – Dublin, Leinster, Ireland, 29 January 1720, bur. there). He had three older siblings, James Fontaine (b. Barnstaple, 1686), Arron Fontaine (1688 – Cork, Cork, Munster, Ireland, 1699) and Mary Anne Fontaine (Taunton, 12 April 1690 – Westover Parish, Charles City County, Virginia, 30 December 1755), married in Dublin on 20 October 1716 to Matthew Maury (Castle Mauron, Gascony, France, 18 September 1686 – King William County, Virginia, 1752), who landed in Virginia in 1718^[3] and by whom she had issue, and five younger siblings, Captain John Fontaine (Taunton, 1693 – Wales, 1767), Moses Fontaine (Taunton, 1694 – aft. 20 June 1764), Rev. Francis Fontaine (Cork, 16 September 1697 – York, Virginia, 1749) and Elizabeth Fontaine (Bear Haven, Ireland, 3 August 1701 – Wales, 1764).

Quote

"...for many base wretches amongst us take up with negro women, by which means the country swarms with mulatto bastards, and these mulattoes, if but three generations removed from the black father or mother, may, by the indulgence of the laws of the country, intermarry with the white people, and actually do every day so marry. Now, if instead of this abominable practice which hath polluted the blood of many amongst us, we had taken Indian wives in the first place, it would have made them some compensation for their lands.... We should become rightful heirs to their lands and should not have smutted our blood...." (The Reverend Peter Fontaine of Virginia, 1757 – quoted in Tilton, 1995)^[4]

References

External links

• Defense of slavery

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