Abraham Salle

[1] In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, making it illegal for French citizens to practice the Protestant faith.

[1] Huguenots were persecuted and as a result there was a "mass exodus" from France to England, the Netherlands, Africa, Germany, and Colonial America.

[2] William Byrd II of Tuckahoe issued land patents totally 10,000 acres for Manakintown in 1711 and 1757.

[2] Salle became a clerk of the parish, a captain of the militia, and justice of Henrico County,[1] specifically chosen to handle cases of French Huguenots.

[1][5] He said, "our families which are pretty numerous and the place we occupy quite limited, we find ourselves in the impossibility of procuring any situation for our children or even to have them instructed or give them any education."

He asked King William of England to "withdraw us from a place where we suffer", due in large part to the lack of fertile soil.

[5][6] Salle obtained about 230 acres by Lower Manakin Creek and on the south side of James River in Henrico County in 1711.

[1][b] She may have been the daughter of Daniel Perrault, captain of the ship Peter and Anthony that sailed to Virginia with Huguenots.

[1] Before Salle moved to Manakintown, two sons were baptized in the French Church (L'Église française à la Nouvelle-Amsterdam) in New York.

The Edict of Nantes
Manakin Huguenot Church Built in 1700 by French Huguenots , Protestant refugees. Burned down in the Revolutionary War , it was later rebuilt with parts of the original building. It is in what is called the Carpenter Gothic style.
Hans Hysing, William Byrd II , circa 1724, Virginia Historical Society . William Byrd II, a wealthy and influential planter, offered French refugees 10,000 acres to settle at what became known as Manakintown , on land abandoned by the Monacan Indians about 20 miles (32 km) above the falls of the James River .