JEAN NICOL CHATEAU

Jean Nicol Chateau was a French Huguenot from Charleviille, Champagne, France, born in 1715. He married  Maria Eva Molitor, at age 17, who was a little older than Jean. They emigrated to Philadelphia, arriving on September the 3rd, 1739, with a young daughter. Their ship was called Loyal Judith.

Looking at the birthplaces and christenings of their children, it appears that this family lived in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, but perhaps in a few different counties. However, since the county borderlines were in a state of constant change in the early years of Pennsylvania, it is difficult to determine if the family was moving around, or merely that the counties were changing around. The children were born and christened in these counties: York, Berks, Lancaster, and Adam. The eldest child was born in France. The third child was christened on the 7th of August in 1744 at St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Goshenhoppen, in Berks, PA, pictured above. The church is set in an idyllic rural landscape in a community typical of a small town.

"In 1743, Fr. Schneider established St. Aloysius Academy, a fledgling educational institution that marked the beginnings of Catholic primary education in Pennsylvania. Now known as St. Francis Academy, the school is reportedly the oldest continuously operated Catholic school in Pennsylvania, and one of the three oldest in the original thirteen colonies. Protestants and Catholics lived in harmony, and the former seemed to offer a welcoming spirit that ran against the deep religious divisions that sometimes flared up in the British colonies." a quote from Wikipedia. This spirit of ecumenism and mutuality would, in my opinion, suit the Chateau family, because of the fact that Jean was a Huguenot. So, I like to think that the two older children may have attended this school.

By the fall of 1753, the Chateau family settled at Dover, York, PA.  Jean died there in 1797.