Person:Jacent Fargo (1)

No one knows the European origins of the Fargo family, though widely separated branches have said the family came to America from Wales. The name Jacent may be French for Jason. It would be the male equivalent of Jacinthe, the French word for hyacinth. References to any of Moses' or earlier generations have no proof to back them up.

According to the History of Montville, CT book, Moses's father was Jacent (Jason) Fargo... believed to have been spelled Fargeau. Jacent was believed to have moved his family from France to Wales about 1661.

According to the record of the Fargo family that was compiled for James Francis Fargo in 1907 by John J. Giblin of New York, Jacent or Jason Fargo (Fargeau) sailed from Lyons, France, probably in 1661, with his wife, four sons and two daughters. They landed in Sydney, Wales, in the same year. Apparently this family maintained its residence in Wales for some time. Undoubtedly the family as a unit did not emigrate to America for we find no record of such an event.

From Jeff Fargo

I am a descendant of Moses Fargo through his son Aaron. I have seen numerous references to Sydney, Wales as the place that Moses' father Jacent and his family sailed to from France. As far as I know there is not now nor has there ever been a city in Wales called Sydney. However, as almost all of the early records of that time were [hand]written, I offer the following suggestion. Adjacent to Wales there exists the bustling seaport city of Lydney, England. That city dates back well before Jacent's birth and was one place that many French Hugenots fled to escaping persecution in France. If you look at the written "L" and "S" of the day they are very similar. I am convinced that it is Lydney, England that Jacent and his family sailed to from France. They subsequently kept moving west and finally settled in Wales.

Jeff's notes give Jacent the birthdate 1622; his unknown wife would have been born 1627. Douces, Maine-Et-Loire is given as their home in France. The information provided for the children, other than Moses, come from him. His information uses the ship Armenia and a date of 4 Jun 1668.

The children, other than Moses, are added according to gheller@@talismantech.com with the notes below

From the notes of J.C. Fargo (October 1894):

About the year 1662, Jacent Fargo sailed from Lyons, France with his wife, four sons and two daughters and landed at Sydney, in Wales, England the same year. His sons' names were Robert, Jacent, Aaron, Moses; daughters' names were Anna, Eunice.

In 1668, Aaron and Moses came to America in a vessel called "Armenia", and landed in what is now called Norwich, Conn., where they soon came in possession of a large tract of land. They were men of energy, thrift and foresight, and in consequence amassed wealth and secured to themselves an extensive influence in business and social circles.

Aaron, the elder of the brothers that came from Wales, died after having been in the country about thirty years, leaving a family of two boys and one girl, who inherited their father's estate.

from The Rev. Isaac Fargo's Genealogy of Princeton, IL Feb. 1887

Much speculation has been indulged as to the original of our branch of the Fargo Family. So far as I know, no excavations have been made either in England, France, or New England to find the historic beginning of the tribe. For some reasons not now remembered by myself, Father Deacon Isaac was inclined to believe from family tradition that we are of Welsh origin. That two or three brothers came over from Wales and settled on the border line of Massachusetts and Connecticut and that all the Fargoes in America have sprung or descended from that parent stock. I have been inclined to believe it from the striking resemblance between all the Fargoes I have ever met, yet there are those who trace our ancestry to French sources.

One writes me "There was, and still is living, for aught I know, a Count Fargeau who is thought worthy of mention as a naturalist, in "Figuiers Insect World." If of French descent, the family may have settled in England during the persecution which arose after the revocation of the Edict of Mantes. If so, they were Hugonots." It is pretty evident that they were sturdy Protestants whether Hugonots or Puritans, or both. There seems to have been a direct importation of French to New London, among others, the Deshons. Doubtless sometime the antiquarian of the name will fathom the mystery in some of the old, neglected and forgotten burying grounds of Mass. or Conn. Of one thing, I am sure, I have the proud distinction of bearing the Forename of our branch to my Grandfather and to my Great Great Grand Father, and legend sayd beyond - "Robert". by Robert Fargo, son of the aforesaid Isaac.

From the Autobiography of Robert Fargo (the abovementioned Robert)

If generations of ancestors affect the child, I ought to have been a devoted member of some deeply religious sect, for my mother was by lineal descent a Puritan, and my father was a descendant of the French Huguenots who fled to Wales, and from there to New England "for conscience's sake".

1. ↑ Researcher.

   Tibby Torhorst (citing research by The Rev. Isaac Fargo, 1887 and Mary Wilson, 1980), Elaine Tillquist Pavone

2. ↑ Matt Bushnell Jones. History of the Town of Waitsfield, Vermont. (Boston, Mass, George E. Littlefield, 1909)
   p. 304.