Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel

Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel (7 August 1795 – 1868) was a French Protestant theologian, born in Paris, elected deputy of the Constituent Assembly after the revolution of February 1848.

[1] He received his early education from his aunt, Helen Maria Williams, an Englishwoman, who at the close of the 18th century gained a reputation by various translations and by her Letters from France.

[2] During the course of 1833 he was chosen a member of the consistory, and rapidly acquired the reputation of a great pulpit orator, but his liberal views brought him into antagonism with the rigid Calvinists.

He took a warm interest in all matters of education, and distinguished himself so much by his defence of the University of Paris against a sharp attack, that in 1835 he was chosen a member of the consistory of the Legion of Honor.

In his second marriage (Amsterdam, 25 October 1827) he married Sophie Mollet (1802 - 1891) and had 3 children: Etienne Jean (9 November 1829 - 15 June 1901), Henri (8 September 1828 - 28 June 1841) and Paul Augustin (20 November 1831 - 1909) His brother, Charles Augustin Coquerel (1797–1851), was the author of a work on English literature (1828), an Essai sur l'histoire genérale du christianisme (1828) and a Histoire des églises du desert, depuis la revocation de l'edit de Nantes (1841).