Cyprian Prou (or Proulx) (1663 - 1712)

My eighth great-grandfather.

Born:  c.1663 in Poitou, France
Died:  5 November 1712 in Richmond, Virginia Colony, Colonial America (buried in family plot)

Father: ?
Mother: ?

Married:  Margaret Vensanden (or Vensauden) 15 July 1682 at St. Katherines by the Tower, London, England

Children:
   Frances Prou, 1689
   Sarah Prou, 1688
   Susana Prou, 1682
   Margaret Prou, 1692
   Mary Prou, 1700
   Elizabeth Prou, 1700  (They were supposed to have five daughters; maybe Mary and Elizabeth are the   same person.)


Margaret Vansauden

Born: 1666 in London, Middlesex, England
Died:  7 November 1757 in Richmond, Virginia (buried in family plot)

Father:  James Phillips *
Mother: Mary Simpson **

* My notes say that James' father was John Phillips, the first clerk of Lancaster, Virginia, but I cannot find the source of that information again.

** At some time, I also found a source that said Mary's parents were John and Sarah Simpson, but I can't find this source again, either.


Cyprian Prou and Margaret Vansauden were Huguenots who were said to have fled France before they were married. However, that doesn't work if she was born in London. Maybe it was just him. Two years after their marriage, they came to America. They signed indentured servant papers in Middlesex County, England, in August of 1684, in exchange for payment of passage to America.  They were both to serve Richard Bray for a period of four years. The indenture papers say they did not have to work in the fields. Also, the period of indenture was only four years instead of the standard seven.

The Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia lists Cyprian Prou as a Huguenot ancestor. There is quite a bit of interesting information here.