François

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François is a French first (English: Francis) and last name that is also represented in Germany as a surname of Huguenot descent. As "von François", numerous members of the German line were raised to nobility.

French

Germany

Curt von Francois Monument in Windhoek, Namibia (2018)

In 1680, five years before the Edict of Nantes was repealed, a branch of the family under a certain Etienne le François (1633–1689) had to leave France because of their Reformed faith. It found asylum in Electoral Saxony (Kursachsen). Family von François came from a family that had its origins in Normandy and can be traced back to François en Bugey Nico François, Seigneur des Alimes, around 1354. The family members were Huguenots.

The cloth manufacturer (since 1686) Nicolas le François was the first family member to settle in Cölln on the Schloßfreiheit (today Berlin) in 1689; from 1699 he lived in Franfurt/Oder. He was the great-great-grandfather of Major General Bruno Hugo Karl Friedrich von François. Bruno's grandfather lord of the manor (Gut Niemegk) Captain August Karl von François (1736–1801) received renewal of the nobility in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation by Roman-German Emperor Joseph II on 21 March 1774. Beginning with Captain Etienne le François (1690–1747), the descendants of the German-based Francois family all, without exception, married German women of nobility.[1]

Germans

References

  1. Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen Häuser, Gotha 1907, pp. 185 ff.