Ann Bessonet Boyd Cabeen's Family

Information below comes from "The Cabeen Family, The Bessonet Family and Ann Bessonet Cabeen" by Mrs. Thomas McKeen Chidsey


"This family is of Huguenot extraction and probably descended from Claude de Besonet, sieur de Gatuzieres, Dauphiny, now the Department de la Lozere. At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, the family fled from France to England, supposed to consist of a father and three sons, Claude, Alexander and John. Claude Bessonet, presumable the father, was naturalized in London in 1700.


The Claude Bessonet branch settled in Ireland, where the family held a high social position in Waterford, and where Francis Bessonet was minister of the French Church in Dublin, 1765.


Alexander Bessonet went to Batavia, Java, where he died.

John Bessonet came to America, settled first in Bensalem Township, and afterwards in Bristol, where he died in 1778. His name appears as one of the vestrymen in the earliest remaining records of St. James' Church."


"He married Sarah Dye. Their children were:

Elizabeth, born January 13, 1721
Mary, born December 7, 1723
John, born October 21, 1725
Sarah, born May 10, 1728
James, born October 21, 1730
Catharine, born October 7, 1732
Charles, born October 5, 1734
Ann, born January 28, 1736
Margaret, born September 18, 1739
Martha, born January 25, 1742  m. Richard Johnson Oct. 12, 1783
Daniel, born February 25, 1743  m. Sarah Johnson, May 31, 1764


The children of Daniel and Sarah Johnson Bessonet were:

James, born May 14, 1765 d. October 26, 1766
Margaret, born August 1, 1766 d. November 7, 1769
Samuel, born October 26, 1768 d. September 4, 1769
Sarah, born November 4, 1769 d. July 9, 1811
Mary, born July 15, 1771 d. 1796
Elizabeth, born April 6, 1773 d. March 7, 1796
Ann, born April 15, 1775 d. January 10, 1832
Daniel, born July 8, 1779 d. December 1806

New Jersey Volunteers - Bessonett's Coy - Muster Roll shows Daniel Bessonet as the Captain of the 4th Battalion
"At the end of the Revolutionary War, Captain Daniel Bessonet of the British Army, being loyal to the Mother Country whose cause he had espoused, emigrated from Philadelphia to Halifax, with other refugees, accompanied by his wife, Sarah Johnson Bessonet, his three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth and Ann, and his son Daniel. He died December 1, 1783, aged 40 years. His wife, Sarah Bessonet, died December 3, 1790, aged 42. These three daughters were remarkable for their beauty and their grace of manner. Halifax being a garrison town, they probably led a life of gaiety and excitement, resulting in the early death of Mary and Elizabeth. Consumption, the disease of which they died, was probably induced by exposure to the night air in thin ball dresses, as well as by the unhealthiness of the climate."