For many years researchers tried to determine who were the 
parents of Jean Jacques Bonnet and where did they come 
from?   Because there was so much conflicting data on this 
family and so much similar data, it proved to be a mystery for
family researchers.

The data is being presented for you here and after reading 
through it you will be able to see how the mystery was 
finally solved.  If you have additional information on the 
Bonnet/Bonet family we would really like to hear 
from you and we would love to be able to add your data to 
this page.  To contribute your data or comments e-mail 

>Tom and Joan.

Around 1671, the religious persecution and intolerance of the 
Protestant religion forced the migration of many families from the 
Baden area into the Alsace area of France.  Years more of 
persecution followed and in the early 16th century these families 
again fled their homes and ended up scattered across Central 
Europe; with many of them going to Holland, Switzerland, 
England and then on to the  William Penn colonies of the 
Pennsylvania Dutch area of  Pennsylvania. The Bonnet family was 
a part of this movement of thousands of families known as the 
French Huguenots and the Swiss Mennonites.

Ref: Stapleton (1901), "Memorials of the Huguenots in America" page 131.

"One of the earliest of this name in Pennsylvania was Jean 
Jacques Bonnet and wife Marie, who arrived in 1733 with 
a considerable family."

The list of foreigners imported in the ship Elizabeth, Edward 
Lee, Master, from Rotterdam and those qualified Aug. 27, 
1733 includes Jacues Bonet and his family.

Jean Jacques Bonet,   age 32
Mary Bunett, age 32
Susanna Bunett, dead  age 4
Christina Bunett, dead  age 2
Margret Bunett, age 8
Johan Simon Bunett, age 3/4

To see the list

An old family tradition gives the following story of Daniel Bonnet 
and his wife,  Christine Cousine:
 
"Twelve miles southeast of Niort, lies the village of Thorigne. 
It was the home of Daniel Bonnet�"

"Daniel and his wife attempted to reach the coast, some 45 to 50 
miles distant �. with their two small children , concealed in the 
panniers of a donkey, and covered with the fresh vegetables.  The 
mother having enjoined upon the children to keep perfect silence, 
no matter what might occur, they had scarcely commenced their 
journey when they were overtaken by a trooper, who demanded 
to know what the panniers contained.  The mother replied, "Fresh 
vegetables for the market".  As if doubting her words, the rough 
soldier rode up to the side of the donkey, and thrust his sword 
into the nearest pannier, exclaiming, as he rode by, "Bon voyage, 
mes amies!"  The agony of the parents may be conceived until the 
soldier was well out of sight, when the pannier was immediately 
opened, and the child was found to have been wounded, the 
sword having pierced through the calf of the leg.  Fortunately 
nothing more occurred to interrupt their journey to the coast.

The fugitive succeeded in reaching Bristol, England.  Daniel 
Bonnet and his wife, Jeanne Couturier, were members of the 
French church in Bristol, from 1690 to 1700.  Their children, 
baptized in that church were, Pierre born 2 Jun 1693; Daniel 
born 29 Jan 1695; and Marie born 9 May 1697 (she md Jean 
Soulice).  This Huguenot family removed to America in the 
winter of 1700." 

Ref: Baird, 1966, "Huguenot Emigration to America", p. 56-7
Ref: "History of the County of Westchester, N.Y., by Rev. 
Robert Bolton, Rev. Ed. Vol. I, p. 595-6

Another reference to the family tradition of Daniel Bonnett 
follows:

"The Bonnett family were a French family of noble birth.  
They were Huguenots, which later necessitated their fleeing 
from France to Holland, upon the revocation of the Edict of 
Nances. 

(I)	Louis Bonnett was born in 1630 and lived in the 
village of Throngue, in the province of Pointon, France, 
now Deux Leon.  He had a son, Daniel, (Ida Belle Gaither, 
"The Ancestry of Jessie Gaither Fownes")

(II)	Daniel Bonnett, son of Louis Bonnett, was born in 
1655.  He and his wife had two children and made their 
escape from France during the persecution of the 
Huguenots by the Catholics.  Upon the Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes they fled to the coast and found a temporary 
home, first in Holland and later in Switzerland.  The story 
of their escape is interesting.

Daniel Bonnett, his wife and their two children, lived in the 
village of  Throngue, France in 1686.  They were Huguenots 
& their children were deeply impressed of the glory of 
holding by their faith, if need be, of dying for it.  The troops 
were sent into the village to convert the Huguenots to 
Catholicism at the sword's point.  Daniel Bonnett and his wife 
then made the effort to reach the coast.  They loaded the 
donkey as if for market and hid their children in the panniers, 
charging, "As we value our lives, do not speak."

Monsieur Bonnet, with a basket of vegetables, trudged on 
before and his wife drove the donkey.  Just outside the village 
they met a trooper.  He called in French:  "Who goes there?"  
The father answered, "We are humble people taking to the 
market our vegetables."  "Well, I will try if your carrots are 
tender."  He plunged his sword into one of the panniers.  Not 
a motion, not a sound was heard.  "Wherever you go, Bon 
voyage, mes Amies."  He shouted and galloped off.  The 
wretched parents waited till the trooper was out of sight before 
they opened the slashed pannier.  They found their five-year-old 
boy with his thigh slightly stabbed with the point of the sword.  
"Father, I did not speak", he said, then fainted from loss of blood.  
Without another adventure the Bonnetts escaped to Holland 
and thence to Switzerland. The blood of that little boy still runs 
in the veins of many good men and women in America.  Daniel 
Bonnett md Jeanne Coliver, from the province Charente � 
Inferieure,  France.  They had two children, of whom one was 
Jean Jacques. 

(III)      Jean Jacques Bonnett, son of Daniel and Jeanne 
(Coliver) Bonnett was the hero of his parents' escape in 
Switzerland.  In 1733, Jean Jacques and his wife came 
from Switzerland to Pennsylvania, settling in Paoli, Chester 
County.  He md Marie, and they had a son, John.

(III)	John Bonnett, son of Jean Jacques and Marie Bonnett, 
was born in 1728.  He lived on the Old Forbes Road, near 
where Captain Ankeny owned a large tract of land.  He was a 
squire at Paoli and the first schoolhouse was called "Bonnett".  
His will is dated 30 Apr 1793, and is recorded in Bedford 
County, PA. .. He md (1) in 1751, Mary Bickley (Bicolet); 
he md (2) Dorothy �"

"The Bonnetts were Dutch and their forebears were Hollanders, 
but the name is purely French.  It is quite possible the Bonnetts 
were originally French, but because of religious wars that raged 
there for over a hundred years, many sought asylum in Holland, 
the first country in continental Europe to tolerate protestantism.  
The Bonnets were protestants and from their first inception into 
the Hacker's Creek Colony took a leading part in religious 
worship."

1. Both stories named a similar town in France as the home
   of Daniel Bonnet: Thorigne/Throngue.
2. Both stories are basically the same.
3. Both stories show Jean Jacques as the child

1. Story #1 says Daniel & family went to England
2. Story #2 says Daniel & family came from Switzerland
3. At the time of escape, Jean Jacques was 5 years of age,
   giving him a birth year of 1681. This would make him 52
   years of age in 1733
4. The ship's list shows Jean Jacques as 32 years old
   in 1733, therefore his birth year would have been 1701

The John Bonnett mentioned in Story #2, IV above, son of 
Jean Jacques and Marie Bonnett, was born in 1728.  There 
was not a son of that age with the Jean Jacques Bonet who 
arrived in 1733.

This would indicate that the John Bonnett born 1728 who 
married Mary Bickley was not the son of Jean 
Jacques and Maria Bonnett.

Ref: Don Yoder, Editor, "Rhineland Emigrants - Lists
of German Settlers in Colonial America: (1981), page 89

"Friedrichstal in Baden is a town founded in the year 1699
by the margrave of Baden-Durlach specifically for Huguenot
refugees.  The town history by Oskar Hornung, "Friedrichstal:
Geschichte einer Hugenottengemminde zur 250-Jahrfeier, 
(Karlsruhe: C. F. Miller, 1949) contains detailed information
on most of the founding families... there came to America in
the 18th century ... (3) Jacques Bonnet, farmer and family,
1734, to the "New Land" ..... Detailed information on several
of these is available in the Strassburger-Hinks ship lists, which
began in 1727.  For example, Jacques (Jacob) Bonnet, spelled
"Bonet" and "Bunett" in the lists, appears in list 30 A-C, on
the ship Elizabeth, arriving at Philadelphia on 27 Aug 1733......."