| How Frenchtown Got Its Name We now come to a part of our story which savors strongly of romance, and yet we are assured it is strictly true. At the time of the breaking out of the French Revolution, there was in the Royal Army a commissary named Paul Henry Mallet Prevost. Somehow connected with him was Nicholas Louis Fontaine De Ville Fresnaye. Prevost held some funds belonging to the government. To pay them over to the revolutionary party would subject him to the penalties of treason. To retain them and remain in France would expose him to the fury of the mob. He decided to do neither. We have two accounts of this affair, one from Capt. J. Ronsavell, now living in Frenchtown, and the other from Mr. Duckworth, related to both of these gentlemen by Mr. Prevost and Mr. Fresnaye. We put both together, and make it in this way: Mr. Prevost�s son procured a vessel and conveyed the money on board. He then stationed boats at different points alongside. Prevost and Fresnaye remained quiet, to avoid suspicion. When all things were in readiness they mounted their horses and fled toward the coast. They were hotly pursued. Turning a bend in the road, they were hid by a forest. Here was a steep declivity, down which the pursuing party thought the pursued party dared not ride, so they halted, thinking their game was in their hands. But the intrepid Prevost, and his companion spurred their steeds and went flying down the precipice, to the consternation of those who were after them. Shots were fired, but the balls went hissing harmlessly in the water, while the fugitives abandoned their horses, took to a boat and were soon on board the ship. One account says that Prevost was headed off and driven towards a canal, and that, giving his mare the spur, she cleared it at one bound. Prevost Also a Sharp Trader Lowrey sold Prevost 1000 acres of the Frenchtown tract for 8,000 pounds. The purchse money was to be paid in three equal payments. Prevost made the first, and Lowrey thought he had him. But Prevost then said, �Mr. Lowrey, if you deducts de enterest, I pays de second.� To this Lowrey reluctantly agreed. Prevost then said, �Now, Mr. Lowrey, if you deducts de interest I pay de third.� This struck �Old Quicksilver� like a clap ofthunder, as Mr. Duckworth said. The shock was so severe that he took his bed. He never expected the Frenchtown man would ever be able to pay for the land. From p. 20 of John Lequear�s �Traditions of Hunterdon,� originally published 1869-70 in the Hunterdon Republican. Incidental mention on p. 17: �Henry Lott remembers when the village was composed of a tavern, where Warman & Reading�s store now is, the store, kept by the Prevosts at the present Hotel site, in Bridge St., the Lowrey house on Main St., a part of which is now standing, the mill, and perhaps one or two others. The mill was built by Mr. Prevost. On pp. 21-2 a letter from Henry Prevost�s son is reproduced from the Hunterdon Republican: Pottstown, Pa., March 14, 1870. Editors Hunterdon Republican:--I have recently received a copy of your paper, dated 20th of January, in which a short history of the early settlers of Frenchtown is given, my father being the most conspicuous. I feel it my duty to correct a portion of the account.�During the French Revolution, my father, being a Swiss, was a republican, and joined that army at Alsace, as Commissary General; but not approving of the extremists, he became one of the proscribed, and escaped into Germany on horseback, with his Secretary, Mr. Treney. He then employed a trusty messenger to convey to my mother at Epinal the tidings of her husband�s escape and safety. She immediately left with her three boys, the oldest not more than twelve years, with the avowed intention of visiting my grandmother, who resided on the confines of France. From hence she escaped in a boat, at night, across the lake to the city of Geneva, where my father joined us; but deciding to emigrate to America, he again left us, taking with a portion of my mother�s property, with which he purchased us a home in New Jersey. I thus prove the story of the French funds being in his possession entirely fabulous, and would like to have it refuted in your paper, for the honor of my deceased parent. Yours respectfully, L. M. PREVOST |
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