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[12] constituted a loss for France. They caused to be sent, by correspondents whom they had at Lyons and in the principal towns of Dauphiny, articles of daily consumption. In the space of two years the three brothers, Jean, Jacques, and Louis Mallet, thus succeeded in drawing from the kingdom manufactured articles to the value of more than a million livres.

Among the Huguenots who settled in Oxford, Mass., was Jean Mallet, in whom we of Somerville are more particularly interested. Bolbec, France, in the province of Normandy, was believed to be the home of this man. He sailed from England together with thirty families in 1685 or ‘86. Gabriel Bernon, a man of considerable wealth and a Huguenot of some notability, was the original owner of some 25,000 acres in what is now a part of the town of Oxford, having received a grant of the same by purchase from Governor Dudley. This little company first landed at Fort Hill, Boston, and were cared for by friends, and probably Jean and his children were received by relatives, as there were then Mallets living in Boston. And just here I would like to say that I believe this Jean to have been a brother of the David before mentioned, who fled to England. This little company of Huguenots, among whom we find the names of Faneuil, Bowdoin, Sigourney, etc., which have since become so familiar in the history of old Boston, proceeded to Oxford and established a settlement which bid fair to become a flourishing, prosperous town. After a few years, however, the Indians, who had been represented as peaceful, became troublesome, and at length a massacre took place. There was also some trouble over the title deeds, which never became straightened, and the families, becoming disheartened, finally returned, some to Boston and others to New Rochelle, N. Y. Traces of these French homes are still to be seen in the town of Oxford, but, unfortunately, the church records of that time are lost. The descendants of Gabriel Bernon, however, still have many papers relating to that time, and in the list appended to one of those papers we find the name of Jean Mallet, Ancien or Elder of the church. Jean Mallet returned to Boston in 1696, and probably practiced his trade of shipwright. He had at this time six children, all of whom were grown and had

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