La Rochelle, in France.^ This favorite asylum of the French Protestants was, at a very early period, a place of some resort not only for the acquirement of the French language, but on account of the hospitality and polit&ness of its inhabitvnE^s^ Here some of the most distinguished men in the country have received the elemen-ts of their education (under the charge of the French clergy ;) among them may be enumerated the Hon. John Jay, (the grandson of a Huguenot,) " who made the celebrated treaty of Paris, for the independence of oiu' country, and exerted a powerful in§uence in extending the limits of the United States to the Mississippi !"« Also General Philip Schuyler, so

» Spafford's N. Y. Gazetteer.

b La Rochelle, the capital of the department of Lower Charente, called Rupella by the ancient Romans.

= " At the early age of eight years, John Jay was sent to a grammar school at New Rochelle. His instructor was the Rev. Mr. Stouppe, a native of Switzerland, and pastor of the French Church." See Life of John Jay.

396 HISTORY OF THE

conspicnons for his services and successes in the revolutionary war,a luid Washington Irving.

For two generatioi]s 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 souie falure period.

The first dwelling houses were erected on each side of the hiah street. b 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.