The Allaman Heritage, Durward B. Allaman / Richard J. Henry
All Rights Reserved, © 1997 Richard J. Henry

Our Huguenot forebears in Europe did not escape the persecuting hands of the oppressors. Johann Jacob Balliet in 1708 had settled in Lixheim, Lorraine, without the permission of the ruler, Lord d Affincourt, who on being informed of Johann’s presence, gave him 24 hours in which to leave Lixheim. In the 1699 records of the Waldesian Church at Raunhein-Neuhof in Hesse Darmstadt is a list of refugees who settled there. One of whom was Eteine Balliet, that is Stephen Balliet. This Stephen Balliet, the Waldesian or Huguenot, was most likely a kinsman, and possibly the father of Paulus Balliet. The fact is, the father of Paulus was indeed a Stephen Balliet, who was a refugee in the company of his father after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On the long roll of Huguenot martyrs who died for their faith, the names of several members of the Balliet family have been recorded.

Claude Balliet was killed in the massacre of Neaux, the birthplace of Protestantism in 1562 and his body thrown from a bridge into the river, Marne.

John Balliet was murdered in the massacre of Troyes in 1562. Troyes was in the province of Champagne, which adjoined Eranche Conte, and may have been the home of some of the ancestors of the Balliets of Schalbach.

Dennis Balliet was condemned by the Parliament of Bordeaux in 1562. Anne and Moyse Balliet were condemned by the Parliament of Toulouse, ancient capital of Languedoc, where the Inquisition consigned so many Huguenots to the flames.

Among the refugees, whose departure impoverished France and enriched the hospitable lands that welcomed them, were also members of the Balliet clan.

Isaac Balliet of Pugen in ancient Guinne fled to Geneva, Switzerland in 1698, where he was provided with means to take him to Germany.

Louis Balliet of Vendome, a surgeon with his wife and children escaped to Wesel in Renish, Prussia 1698, subsequently removing to London in 1702.

Pierre Balliet Durand, a Huguenot pastor was hanged at Montpeiler Languedoc in 1732 for preaching the Gospel. He may have been a relative of Margaritha Durand, wife of Johan Nicolas Balliet 1680-1745.

Marguerite Balliet du Challieu, a widow of 80 years, fled to London where she was assisted.

The Huguenot families on the Lorraine side of the border, in the villages of Finstigen, Hellergen, Schalbach, Pistorf and Lixheim, among them Baillets and their kin, had neither churches nor pastors of their own. They were visited by pastors of the "Desert" as they called the caves, valleys, woods and old quarries in which they met and worshipped.

At the present time, located between Mainllet and Anduze is a "Museum of the Desert" with a unique collection of Huguenot momentos. The museum is housed in a magnificent farmhouse, whose rebel owner according to tradition, was betrayed and killed.

French names abound in silent letters and lost their form entirely by phonetic transition as: Vautrin became Wotring and Woodring; Michlet became Nickley; Soltre became Solt; Beauchamp became Bushong; Baudemon became Boatman; and Chateau became Shadow. In many French names the la, le and de or du was discarded or joined to the name. DeSaussier became Sausser; LeChar became Lesher; De la Champ became Dilcamp; Du Mont became Dumont. Also may French names are now written in their English or German equivalent; Tonneler is Kieffer in German and Copper in English; Pierre is Steb in German and Stone in English and so on.

Also it is a fact that many of our Lehigh kinsmen bearing the German and Swiss surnames are of French Huguenot stock through their maternal lines. Many of these Huguenots married their German and Swiss neighbors, both in Europe and later in Pennsylvania.

Except where noted, this section for the most part was taken from Laux's Col. Stephen Balliet, Stapelton's Memorials of the Huguenot Emigration to America.

The earliest known record of the family name was that of Jean Balliet and his daughter Poncette who in 1312 were residents of Besancon, capitol of the Old Province of France Comte, located on the eastern border of France, south of Lorraine and Alsace. Its adoption as a surname cannot be traced. Surnames when they first began to be assumed were based upon some physical peculiarities, personal achievement, occupation possessions, as well as territorial distinctions, and were not in common usage before the 12th century. The surname Balliet is no doubt a corrupted form of the French "Balliet," meaning sorrel or light colored when the word is used in referring to a horse of that color. The name may well have been given to some French knight who rode a horse of that color and who became known as Chevalier de Balliet, "the Knight of the Sorrel Horse," which finally became his family or surname.

In the French tongue, Balliet, as the name is spelled in America, and Baillet as it is mostly written in France, has practically the same pronunciation, Ba-yea and will account for some of the vagaries of its origin in the early French and Alsace-Lorraine records. Intercourse with German in Alsace and Lorraine eventually gave the name a German sound, the double "L" losing its characteristics French sound and the name pronounced Ball-yet or Bal-yet at the present time in Alsace Lorraine and Pennsylvania.

The ancestral home of the forefathers of the pioneer immigrants was undoubtedly the old French province of Burgundy, the cradle of the family, located in the east central part of France. The usual French spelling of the name is Baillet, but as in the early records of this country, the name is found as Balliet, Balliet, Ballyet, Baillyet, Baliot, Bailet, Baillett, etc.

In their palmy days before religious persecution impoverished them and drove them into exile, the Balliets were members of the lesser nobility, corresponding with the English landed gentry. Branches of the Balliet family were established at an early day in the old French provinces of Perigold, Limousin. During the religious wars of France these provinces were Huguenot strongholds. The Balliets of Perigold were allied by marriage with a number of ancient noble houses. In 1735 a Catherine de Balliet de Ja Dournac married Jean Baptiste de Beaupolil, Conte de Saint Aulaire and Seigneur du Pavilion. Branches of the family were also in Brussels while it was part of the ancient Burgundy.

The eldest Balliet families in the area.

According to a short note found in an appendix on the origins of families of Sarrewerden county in the county history by Gustav Natthie, the first record mentioned a Balliet is in Burbach in 1625. Burbach in Sarrewerden county (in order to distinguish it from a couple of places bearing the same name in present-day Germany) is one of the seven settlements founded in 1559 with permission of the counts of Nassau on empty village sites in their territory for French-speaking Calvinists, also called Huguenots. The other settlements of 1559 are Altweiler, Tiedendorf, Fyweiler, Goerlingen, Kirberg, Rauweiler. An eighth settlement founded later or perhaps at the same time is Hinsingen. The people liked to speak of the "seven French-speaking villages," for the number seven was intriguing.

Our knowledge of names of the time from 1559 to 1600 is very limited. The Reformed church records for Burbach of that time are not preserved. It formed a Reformed parish of its own from 1560-1629. Neither the names of the first settlers nor their origins are known. Only after 1600 are some names of individuals found in court records, tax lists and deeds.

It can be said, however, that the time from 1559 to 1625 was a time of peace and prosperity for the county, completely unlike the horrible Thirty Year War (1618-1697). In 1625 the Thirty Year War started to effect this area and in 1629 Sarrewerden county was occupied by the Duchy of Lorraine, standing them at the culmination point of its power. The Lorraine (Catholic) occupation led, in 1629, to the immediate expulsion of the Reformed pastor in Burbach, Pierre Joly. (Nattern, Die reformation Fremdengemeinden, page-22): the same happened to all his colleagues in Sarrewerden county and it is reported that some had to leave in slippers and nightgown, for the soldiers did not allow them to dress.

Exactly in that year when the Thirty Year War first affected the area, 1625, the first record mentioning Balliet in Burbach is reported. I am unaware of the exact nature of this record and must hence rely to the historical exactness of Gustav Natthis, the county historian who reports that date in his history of Sarrewerden county.

Among the Walloon records of Norwich England, to which city many of the members of the Reformed church of Flanders fled, mention is made of Robert Baliot, a Seignior of a place near Ypres. Seignior Baliot was wrecked with forty soldiers on the coast of England, near Scarborough, No 1589, where they were cared for in a hospitable fashion by the English fisher folk.

In the baptismal records of the Huguenot Church, Threadneedle Street, London is the baptism on Dec 18, 1687 of Paul Balliet, and on Nov 1, 1691 of Caterina Balliet, children of Paul and his wife Martha Merlie Balliet is recorded. The presence here of the baptismal name suggests a possible relationship to Paulus Balliet of Whitehall. In the same record Nov 11, 1705, Abraham Balliet and Esther Beauje were sponsors for Marie Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Lecompe.

Three places to be mentioned frequently in the present report where Balliet families lived in the 1600's and 1700's are Burbach (old and modern spellings coincide) three miles southwest of Sarre-Union, Schalbach (old and new Spellings coincide), seven miles east of Fenetrange and finally Kibberg (now Kirrberg) seven miles south of Sarre-Union. The three villages are in walking-distance of each other about thirty miles south of Saarbrucken and 45 miles northwest of Strasbourg.

In historical times, being the subject of the present report, Burbach and Kirrberg lay in the county of Nassau-Sarrewerden. This county was annexed to Alsace, i.e. to the French department 67 Bas-Rhin on 23 November 1793 and since then has shared the political history of Alsace.

Schalbach on the other hand lay in the lordship of Vinstigen (Fenetrange). This lordship came under Lorraine influence, and finally fell to Lorraine in 1751. Since then Schalbach has shared the history of Lorraine and is now in the French department 57 Noselle.

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