Louis Marie de Noailles (no-ay), was the second son of Marshal de Mouchy, born at Paris the 17th of April, 1756. He was brother-in-law and cousin of La Fayette, and a great friend of his. They had formed the project of starting together for America, but their parents, having discovered their plans, prevented them. La Fayette, thanks to his fortune, was able to carry out his project.

When the count of Noailles and the count of Ségur, two of the most important names in the French kingdom, wanted to leave with the young Marquis de La Fayette. It was feared that these young men would compromise the neutral position of France. Noailles and Ségur bowed to the pressure, but La Fayette stole onto the boat La Victoire which sailed first to Bordeaux, then to Spain, and finally on to Georgetown, where he arrived in June 1777.

The Viscount was a Captain on the 7th of March, 1773 and colonel of the Soissonnais the 28th of February, 1778.  His friend La Fayette who had returned to France requested an expeditionary force to the New World, but being too young was not given the command. Leaving Brest without La Fayette and with with Rochambeau in Command, the convoy sighted land at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 11, 1780.  Among the officers, were some of the most important names in France:  Montmorency, Custine, Chartres, Noailles, Lauzun and others. The Régiment de Soissonnais  was Commanded by Comte de Saint Maisme while the Viscount was Second in Command and one of the four line regiments that arrived at Newport, RI .

Col. John Laurens-a former aide-de-camp to General Washington, a successful battlefield commander, and an exchanged prisoner of war was appointed envoy extraordinary to France and set sail on the frigate Alliance February 11th 1781. On the 9th of March the ship anchored in Groix Roads and disembarked her important passenger and his three companions: Thomas Paine, whose writings had exerted great influence in persuading the colonies to seek independence, Major William Jackson, a Continental Army officer from South Carolina, and the Viscount de Noailles.

Vicomte de Noailles participated in the Yorktown campaign of September - October 1781 and led the 16th of  October charge at  that recaptured two French redoubts. He was intrusted with arranging the terms of surrender of Yorktown with Colonel Laurens and de Granchain by Washington who several times praises his courage and intelligence.

He returned to France and in June of 1790 he proposed the abolition of titles and liveries. When the French Revolution became more pronounced, he emigrated to the United States and became a partner in Bingham's Bank at  Philadelphia. Although he was very successful he left the bank to accept a command against the English in San Domingo, under Rochambeau. General Noailles died of a bullet wound in Havana, Cuba on the 5th of January, 1804, six days after his triumph over a English ship on the high seas.

Lafayette, who married Adrienne de Noailles ( Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles, a cousin), landed first in Charleston, SC in June 1777 with a group of 12 French officers, all of whom had been granted commissions with the American Army by Silas Deane, the Congressional  representative in Paris. Lafayette later was given command of American troops at Yorktown.

Almost half of the troops at Yorktown were under French Command. These were the French Regulars which also included about 1,000 Germans of the Royal Deux-Ponts who were an integral part of the Comte de Rochambeau's expeditionary corps of almost 6,000 men, some accompanied by their wives and children,  La Fayette's Franco-American Corps while the others were General Washington's troops and the troops under the command of the Prussian General von Steuben. It is not clear if La Fayette's troops were mixed French and American. The important European military advisers and commanders, Lafayette, von Steuben, Kosciuszko, Pulaski, de Grasse and Rochambeau,  played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War.

One of the ships that debarked from Brest in April 1780 and set sail for the New World on May 2, around 2 PM was the Comtesse de Noailles of about 300 tons and about  95 feet long carrying some of the German troops which included close to 350 men, 12 naval and 10 army officers and their domestics, plus a crew of about 45. The Comtesse sailed into Narragansett Bay on July 11 and cast anchor at the city of Newport, RI.

Rochambeau's contingent was the four regiments from Newport RI. These were the infantry regiments of Bourbonnais, Royal Deux-Ponts, Soissonais and the Saintonge, with 900 men each. The De Grasse regiments from the West Indies included 600 artillery-men under d'Aboville, Lauzun's Legion of 600 horse and foot  and 800 marines detatched for operations against Gloucester. The regiments were the Agenais, Gatinais and the Touraine with 1,000 men each. Some of these were European mercenaries from Germany and other countries in the French service.

There were three Noailles's and forty Noëls with the Regiment de Soissonnais  in the American Revolution at Yorktown.  There were also at least two Noels from Pennsylvania one being my gg-grandfather. It is not know, at this time, how many Noëls were in the other Regiments.
 

Colonels en second

Le vicomte de Noailles (Louis-Marie), ne a Paris, le 17 avril 1756, second fils du marechal de Mouchy.  Colonel en second du mars 1780, nomme colonel des dragons en 1782 pour sa bonne conduite a York-town.

Computer translation:  The Viscount of Noailles (Louis-Marie), born Paris, April 17, 1756, the second son to the Marshal de Mouchy. Colonel as of the second of March 1780, named Colonel of the dragons in1782 for his good conduct at York-town.

Capitaines en second

Jean-Baptiste Noël, ne a Floyon [Flandre] (1762      ), S. 23 fevr. 1778, passe aux grenadiers le 9 Sept. 1783.

Computer translation:  Jean-Baptiste Noël, born Floyon [ Flanders ] (1762), S. 23 fevr. 1778, pass to grenadiers the 9 Sept.. 1783.

The Troops

Jean Noaille
Louis-Marie de Noailles
Noailles; Le Roux dit

Andre Noël
Anterne Noël
Bernard Noël
Claude Noël
Etienne-Thomas Noël
Felix Noël
Francois Noël (2)
Francois-Pierre Noël
Guillaume Noël
Hamon Noël
Henry Noël
Jacques Noël
Jean Noël (8)
Jean-Baptiste Noël
Joseph Noël
Julien Noël
Louis Noël (3)
Louis-Joseph Noël
Michel Noël (2)
Michel-Louis Noël
Nicolas Noël (2)
Pierre Noël (6)
Pierre-Francois Noël

The  Frenchtown Colony    and the    Azilum Story

"Refugees of the revolution in France had organized a company and a town site was selected at Schufeldt Flats, later called Frenchtown, in the township of Asylum or Azilum, in present Bradford County. Some of the refugees, because of their loyalty to the King, had left France to escape imprisonment or death  at the hands of the Revolution. Others had fled the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti) to escape the uprisings inspired by the declaration of equality of the radical French Assembly. In the fall of 1793, the plan of settlement of Azilum was determined and the town surveyed into lots. The tract consisted of 2,400 acres and in addition the Asylum (Azilum) Company had secured title to a large number of undefined tracts of wild land as it was termed, in the present counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Lycoming and Luzerne. These were sold on liberal terms to actual settlers. The town contained, besides an open square and wide, fine streets, 413 house lots of an acre each. The houses were two stories high, built of hewn logs, roofed with pine shingles, and all houses had a good cellar. In 1796 the town consisted of about 50 log buildings, occupied by about 40 families and the population was between 150 and 200. The life of the Azilum settlement was less than ten years. When Napoleon assumed power in France, all Frenchmen were invited to return to their native land. In the late 1790's many of the émigrés drifted away to the southern cities of Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans; some returned to France and Santo Domingo. A few families including the LaPortes, Homets, LeFevres, Brevosts, and D'Autremonts, remained in Pennsylvania, and in later years their progeny helped to settle Wysox, Wyalusing, Athens, Towanda, and other communities."

Note! Guy Noailles was listed on the assessment rolls of Bradford Co. (then Luzerne Co.) Taxable Inhabitants 1796.

Some of this was taken from the "Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical & Geological Society Vol VIII, 1902-1903"

Another reference is:

Thomas Balch, Esq., of Philadelphia, "The French in America During the War of Independence of the United States, 1777-1783,"

OR

Les francais en Amérique pendant la Guerre de l'Indépendance des Etats-Unis 1777-1783.  By Thomas Balch .  Philadelphis: J. B. Lippincott.  1872.

Charlotte de Noyelles was born  20 Feb 1793 Of, Ramapo, Rockland, New York. She married John Coe.  There were
de Noyelles in 1755  at Boucherville, Chambly, Quebec.
 

Louis Marie Noailles married Louise de Noailles, born 1757, in 1773  in Pennsylvania
      Son born 1775 in Pennsylvania
      Daughter Born 1777 in Pennsylvania
See:     FHC Film Number: 1760780

Adrienne Noailles  (1741-1814)
Emmanuel Marie Louis Noailles,  marquis de (1743-1822)
Louis Marie Noailles, vicomte de (1756-1804)
Louise Noailles, Vicomtesse
Adrienne (de Noailles) de Tessé, comtesse de
Adrienne (de Noailles)  Lafayette,  marquise de (1759-1807)
Louis Joseph Alexis Noailles  (1785-1835)
Louise Noailles, duchesse de  (d.1791)
Victor Noailles, comte de
Pauline Noailles

I'm searching for the lineage of my Maria D'Ayen Noailles.  Here is what I have on her:

Marie D'Ayen Noaliles was born in France in the mid-1700s and lived to be almost 100 years of age. She married David Lee.
Marie's great great granddaughter Evaline Kane (born circa 1856) wrote, in 1945:

". . . and his mother's name was Marrie Deaa.  She was French and a Catholic and claimed Laffaett was her cousin and it was through his persuasions that they came to America.  Now I remember when she died.  It was in the late 60ies and she was only a few months from being a hundred years old.

"She came with her sister older than her, and they were floating over the ocean and into their third year (sic) when they landed in New York.  With only a little and had never did a days work but believe me mother said all of her children had to work.

"Of course Grandfather Lee was an Englishman and an Episcopalian and he said for her to do as she pleased and to go with him to the Methodist until she could go to her own. But Mother heard that she never tried to get any of her children to be Catholic but held to that faith until she died.

"But they claimed she was very bright.  The two sisters, her and Katie as Mother said G.mother called her, came to America to go in a theater and GrandFather Lee persuaded them to give it up.  And he was at the tavern when the two arrived there.  He had went to Washington D. C. on business.

"She had arrived from France and was very home sick. But he told her if she would marry him and go to the wilderness in Indiana they would go and her sister could go along.  So they were soon married but Katie would not go and tried to keep my g.Mother from going.

"And they had spent all their money and when they left France they had, besides their money to pay their fare, they had a lot of their silverware with the coat of arms stamped on it and mother said it was pitiful to see her fondle a few pieces that she had concealed so no one knew she had it for it was from her old home.

 "But she would always say Betty, Learn your girls to work. . ."

As a note of interest, Lafayette's wife's maiden title name was D'Ayen. Her family name was Noailles.

A published genealogy of M. C. Shuck (a brother of Angeline Kane) stated:

"The ancestors of the M. C. Shuck descendants came from England.  Marie D'Ay a Frenchwoman born 1867 (sic) and her older sister came with a colony by boat to New York.  On the way after many months of sailing, there came a bad storm and the Captain demanded all unnecessary baggage be thrown overboard.

"These sisters had two large trunks, one containing their money, jewels, and dresses, the other silverware and dishes.  The ship's crew mistakenly threw away the trunk of money, jewels and clothes, as the trunks were unmarked. When they arrived in New York, Marie and Katie had no money. They decided to earn money by singing and dancing on the stage in a theater.
Later they sold some of their silver and the family coat of arms."

The child of Marie D'Ayen Noailles and David Lee is listed under David Lee.

     June 24, 1974

     Dear Sargent Noel:   Our pastor, Father Joseph Weidmann ask me to answer your letter of May 5, 1974
     regarding your ancestors.  The enclosed zeroxed copies of the only records we have on the Noel and Stoltz
     families will aid you in your search, we hope.  There is a long tradition here that the Noel family is related to
     Vicomte de Noailles, brother-in-law of Lafayette, lieutenant Col. of Regiment Soissonais at Yorktown.  The
     American family shortened the name the name to Noel because the French pronunciation sounds like Noel in
     English. This family also wrote the name Noll.  Father Damien Noll, T.O.R. of St. Francis College may help you in
     this part of your search.  Noailles is a great French family that traces its decent to the 13th century. Louis-Marie
     Noailles and Lafayette married sisters. The Vicomte's name is found among the French settlers at Montrose, Pa.

     Another note of interest:  A skilled wagoner named Nicholas Noel brought Prince Gallitzin's possessions from
     Taneytown, Md. to McGuire's Settlement in the autumn of 1799 in a two-horse prairie-schooner in which were
     stored coffee, alter wine, flour, a bed, a bureau, an alter, vestments, sacred vessels, and about a hundred books.
     (Daniel Sargent: Mitri.)  You will find the book "Mitri" in the N.Y. Public Library.

     This as far as we can go in your search. I hope it will help you.

      Sincerely yours,

     signed - Grace Murphy

     SSgt Paul I Noel
     Box 1394  513 FMS
     APO New York, N.Y.  09127

He said that his ancestor was a count in France during the French Revolution.  He also said he dropped the little thing over the 'O' in Noel at some point.  He fled to England and then came to America.  He had gold that he brought with him that either he or one of his descendants kept in a stove on his farm in or near Cresson, Cambria County, Pennsylvania.  The gold was then handed down to his children and sent them all to college in California, Pennsylvania at what was then known as California State Teachers College.   All the girls, unsure of any names, became schoolteachers.  One of the descendants who lived on that farm was a Bernard Noel and was my great uncle.  My great-grandfather was Edward John Noel born 11-16-1897 in Hastings, Pennsylvania. He married Verna L. Powell b. 1897 d. 1962.  They resided in Coal Center, Pennsylvania in what was called by locals, Sally Town Dip. Edward's  father was Andrew J. Noel born in 1858 and died 5-18-1941.  He was married to Anna Elizabeth (Grove) born in 1871 and died 2-7-1921.  They are buried at the St. Bernard Cemetery, Hastings Borough, Elder Township.  They also have a son, George Noel, born 1899 and died abt. 1-27-1916.  They were of the Catholic faith.

 Donna Lee Noel Julian