Members brought their chairs and formed an outdoor congregation by the granite monument on the high bluff above the Santee River. It was a beautiful morning. Rev. Jenkins included in his sermon: “They stood against the tide and walked toward an uncertain future with the certainty of God’s providence.”

On Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 10:00am members of the Society gathered at the French Santee cross site in Jamestown and held a French Service to remember ancestors of the settlement and the Edict of Nantes issued in April 1598.

**The Monument at French Santee**

“On April 13, 1931, a pilgramage of Huguenot descendants set forth from Charleston to Jamestown to hold the annual meeting of the Society and to unveil the monument marking the spot where once stood the French Protestant Church in French Santee. which was built prior to 1701. The settlement was on the picturesque bluff now known as Mount Moriah on the Santee River. This “God’s Acre” was a gift of Mr. E. Pringle Pipkin in 1922.”
*The Huguenot Crosses of SC, 2001*

This was indeed a special occasion for the membership in attendance and all were greeted with “welcome home” at the opening of the gathering. To stand where our ancestors first arrived in Jamestown on the high bluff above the Santee River was very meaningful. Here we gathered as descendants of those first settlers and many of our families have been friends all these many years. “It really does bring up a lot of emotions for us. I am here with my cousin and friend since first grade, Julie Gaillard Miles Walters, and our direct ancestors were not living that far apart when they first settled here all those many years ago. When Julie was delivering her reading from Matthew in French, I was so moved thinking here we are friends to this very day after our ancestors endured such hardships to arrive here. Would they even believe it if they could join us here today?” said Elizabeth Gay, Executive Director. The Society worked for months to plan the service and prepare the participants and it could not have been achieved without the direction of Rev. Charles Jenkins and member, Park Dougherty who were instrumental in order of the French service and selection of readings.

Officiated by the Society’s Chaplain, Rev. Charles Jenkins, the service began as it would have prior to 1701 at the site as Huguenots worshiped upon arrival at Jamestown in the “Genevan way.” One reason for Huguenots’ love for this form of worship was its music. Inspired by the Lutheran hymns Calvin had heard when in Strasbourg, he hired the former French royal court poet, Clement Marot, to translate the entire book of Psalms into metrical verse and found gifted composers to set those verses to popular dance tunes of the day. When the Genevan (or Huguenot) Psalter was completed, the Genevan Liturgy was included in it, 25,000 copies were printed and it became a powerful force for reform in France and far beyond. To assist the congregation with the singing, there was only a cantor. There was no organ, no instrumental music of any kind, no choir and no polyphonic music. Society member Park Dougherty served as the Cantor for the service leading the congregation in the singing of several psalms and the Ten Commandments.

"In March I687, fifty French men left Charles Towne, leaving the women and children behind, ‘being unsuited to the difficulties one had to endure.’ The site chosen for the town, which the French named Jamestown after the English king, was a 20- to 25-foot-high limestone bluff rising almost perpendicular from the river. One of the highest on the river it stretches for over a mile, gradually descending in height, and affords a commanding view of the Santee River in both directions. It would have provided a secure location for newly arriving colonists uncertain of their surroundings and unsure of the friendliness of the native population. Limestone, though soil and porous and riddled with holes, is the only native rock found along the coastline of South Carolina. It provided the settlers with foundation stone for their first homes until they could manufacture bricks from clay found in the area.

By 1690 the French settlers had spread out along the south bank of the Santee Ricer to the east and west of Jamestown, but a few applied for warrants or grants before 1696. This was probably partly due to the uncertainty concerning land ownership and inheritance rights of the French settlers.

Jamestown was the center for arrivals to French Santee. At a public meeting in 1706, the inhabitants of French Santee agreed to a plan for their town, and they voted to sell an inland portion of the site for the best price offered. By 1714 the population had spread down the Santee River and a new Chapel of Ease was authorized at Echaw.

The community was abandoned in the mid-1700s, and no visible traces remain.” (French Santee, Second Edition, Bates/Leland)

L’ECRITURE SAINTE

Julie Gaillard Miles Walters reading Matthieu 5:10-16.

**The Monument in 1921**

“Among this group were descendants of Rev. Pierre Robert, first pastor of the church, and of the following original lot holders in Jamestown; Alexander Chastaigner Philippe Gendron, Pierre Gaillard, John Gaillard, Rene Ravenel and Andre Rembert. It is also of interest that the Surveyor, chosen to lay out the town, was Bartholomew Gaillard, and, after more than two hundred years' another of the name, John Palmer Gaillard, generously gave of his services in locating and surveying the site of the church...
Miss Eleanor Ball Gaillard, daughter of Mr. Palmer Gaillard, was chosen by the Society for the honor of the unveiling ceremony as being thoroughly representative of the Huguenot element of French Santee, she descends from the lines of Gaillard, Cordes, LeSurrurier, St. Julien, LeNoble, Chastaigner, Mazyck, Peyre and the beloved ‘Monsieur Gendron.”
*Transactions, No. 36, 1921*

Participating in the service as readers were: Tanneguy Frain de la Gaulayrie, a Ravenel descendant visiting from France, Harriott Cheves Leland and Julie Gaillard Miles Walters. They each delivered readings in French. The Congregation participated both in English and French as indicated in the program.

“It is our plan to host a service at each of our cross sites in the coming years as we work to preserve the memory of our Huguenot ancestors” stated Elizabeth F. Gay, Executive Director of the Society. She added: “In attendance today we have many direct descendants of the Jamestown settlers which is so meaningful for them and their families.”

The service was the beginning of the Fête des Huguenots French Santee Ramble during which members visited various historic sties in French Santee throughout the day and concluded with an early supper on the lawn of Hampton Plantation.

Below we share images of various descendants with the granite monument. It was very special to see generations of families in attendance.