Marquis Cossart d'Espie

Noel of Cossairt D'Espies

The most prominent Noble family of the name was that of Cossart d'Espies, Noel's branch of the family was Enobled under this name.

"The present head of the family is the Marquis Cossart d'Espie".

History

JACQUES COSSART: "He was born in 1595 died (?) is the first known ancestor of the American branch of this name. He married Rachelle Gelton, both of Liege, now in Belgium, settled in Leyden, Holland. Birth records of their daughter show that they were living there in 1632.

The Cossarts of Leyden came to that city from Liege in Belgium about the beginning of 1600, and that these Cossarts were apparently wholly distinct from those of the name who fled from Rouen to Amsterdam and Rotterdam at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685).

As the Leyden Cossarts came from Liege, it is difficult to predicate any consanguinity between them and the Cossart families who had their abode in western and central France.

An impression prevails, however, in the Leyden family, that Rouen was the birth place of the father of the above Jacques. As he was born in 1595 it is evident that the father whose first name is not known, could not have been born much later than 1575, and might well have came in the world some 20 or 25 years sooner. In any case his birth must have occurred about the era of the Reformation.

The records, however, of the Cossart family of Rouen during that period, which are very complete, do not show that any of its members established themselves in foreign parts, there having been no emigration on account of religious persecution, all of which upsets the above tradition.

Another story which has been handed down among the Leyden Cossarts ascribes their place of origin to Picardy. Jacques was the father of the following known children: Rachel Cossart, baptized at Amsterdam, Holland, June 24, 1632. No further record of her. Jacques Cossart, baptized at Leyden, Holland May 29, 1639.

He died in Brooklyn, New York in 1685. The progenitor of the American Branch of the family of the name."

From the notes of Joseph Cossairt: Book: COSSART

By: Dee Ann Buck