Coutant, however, in his sketches of Huguenot New Rochelle, a.sserts that the total number of inhabitants at this time was three hundred and twenty-five.
The same gentleman, who, in all that relates to the early liistory of this town is peculiarly well-informed, observes that " the two oldest individuals living in the town at that date, Mary Badeau and Frederick Schureman, were each eighty years old. The family name having the greatest number of representatives (sixteen) was that of Schureman. There were eleven
'Sec reminiscences of New Rocliclle by Rev. AVm. Hague at the end of the chapter on " Pelham."
-'See Bolton's Hist. vol. i. p. 670.
of the name of Le Doof. The next most numerous family names were those of Guion, Bonnett, Sycard, Frederick, Neff'veillc and Angovine. Of the fifty-four family names existing in the town of New Rochelle when this census of 1710 was taken, only six at the present time survive. These are the Le Counts, Seacords, Badeaus, Rcnouds, Bonnetts and Coutants. The rest, forty-eight in number, have all disappeared from the town, either by death or removal, or have been merged by marriage into other family names.'' Many portions of the Huguenot stock came to New Rochelle at a later period.
There is a distinct and unbroken tradition, dating back much more than a hundred years, and handed down through several separate families, notably the Guions and Coutants, that the first settlers of the town landed at Bonnefoy's Point. The fact is perhaps as well established as any other not a matter of written record. An excavation existed, and perhaps still exists, upon that jioint, which from time immemorial has been designated l)y those who should know, as the cellar of the first house ever built in New Rochelle.