John Fontaine
John Fontain's father and grandfather were Huguenots who suffered official persecution by the Catholics in France. In 1693 John was born in England, to which his father had fled as a refugee. His father then migrated to Ireland, and succeeded in getting John a commission in an Irish regiment in 1710. John Fontaine served briefly in Spain, then investigated Virginia in 1715-19 before returning to England.
Other Fontaines chose to settle in Virginia, including two brothers. His sister Mary Ann married Matthew Maury. Their son, Rev. James Maury, was the parson in the Parson's Cause case that made Patrick Henry famous.
- Maury had sued for his parish to pay him the market value of the tobacco that was dedicated to support of the Anglican ministers, rather than accept a cash payment that did not reflect the short-term spike in prices. Maury clearly had colonial law on his side, but Henry first displayed his powerful oratorical skills in the case and the jury awarded Maury only a token amount.
Rev. James Maury's grandson was Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, "Pathfinder of the Seas." He published The Physical Geography of the Sea, a seminal work in the science of oceanography. There's monument to Commodore Maury on Monument Avenue in Richmond - primarily because of his services to the Confederacy rather than to oceanography. John Fontaine, the great-great uncle of Mathew Fontaine Maury, was observant enough to notice the Gulf Stream. He wrote in his journal on the way to Virginia in 1715:
- May 5, 1715 Thursday. Wind from NW to NW by N, very little wind and sometimes calm. We steered our course SW and made by our reckoning 19 miles, southing 13 miles westing 13 miles. We had a good observation and found ourselves in the latitude 37°17´. By our observationwe find that there is a great current that hales [hauls] us insensibly away to the northward. For this last 24 hours it hath halled [hauled] us away about 23 miles.1
Links
References
1 Alexander, Edward Porter (editor), The Journal of John Fontaine, and Irish Huguenot Son in Spain and Virginia 1710-1719, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1972, p.77
Exploring Across the Blue Ridge
Exploring Land, Settling Frontiers
Geography of Virginia