John Jay, (the grandson of a Huguenot), " who made the celebrated treaty of Paris, for the independence of our country, and exerted a powerful influence in extending the limits of the United States to the Mississippi." Also General Philip Schuyler, so conspicuous for his sen-ices and successes in the Revolutionary war, and Washington Irving, the world-renowned author. It is a little remarkable, " that three of the nine presidents of the old Congress who conducted the United States through the Revolutionary war, were descendents of French Protestant refugees, who had emigrated to America in consequence of the edict of Nantes -- Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, John Jay, of New York, and Elias Boudinet, of New Jersey."

For two generations the Huguenots of New Rochelle preserved in its purity the French language, thus testifying their attachment to their native land, the sepulchre of their forefathers, and to which, perhaps, they cherished the hope of a return at some future period.

The first dwelling-houses were erected on each side of the high street," in the vicinity of the old stone church. At a very early date of the settlement, this appears to have been a flourishing place; for Madame Knight, who travelled through the village in 1704, thus describes it:

" On the 22d of December we set out for New Rochelle, where being come, we had good entertainment, and recruited ourselves venr well. This is a very pretty place, well compact, and good, handsome houses, clean, good, and passable roads, and situated on a navagable river, abundance of land, well fenced and cleared all along as we passed, which caused in me a love to the place, which I could have been content to live in it. Here we rid over a bridge made of one entire stone, of such a breadth that a cart might pass with safety, and to spare.