Charlotte Ann Layssard

(d. 1856)

At a Glance

A little French Huguenot lady, Mrs. Vasseur was fondly known in Hillsborough as the owner of a confectionery shop often patronized by Burwell School Students.

Story

Mrs. Vasseur kept a candy shop in downtown Hillsborough until nearly the time of her death in 1856. She was described by various persons as an attractive old lady who wore frilled and fluted white caps in her confectionery shop.

Charlotte Ann Layssard (1789-1856) married Toussaint Vasseur (died ca. 1815). Very little could be found about him and it is unclear where they met. One source indicates he immigrated to the Louisiana Territory from the Caribbean area about 1795 and later settled in the Petersburg, Va area. According to Ancestry.com Charlotte Ann Layssard was born in the West Indies and immigrated to the Petersburg,Dinwiddie County, VA area. The 1830 US Federal Census lists a Charlotte Vasseur living in Halifax County, NC. It is in Halifax, Halifax County, NC where her daughter Mary Louisa Vasseur (1813-1868) married William Henry Brown (1809-1865), parents of Burwell School students Charlotte Ann Brown and Laura H. Brown. In the Book of Burwell students by Mary Claire Engstrom, Charlotte Ann Layssard Vasseur is described as a French Huguenot. In her obituary, copied from the newspaper The Petersburg Intelligencer, she is described as having grown up in the Catholic Church but in 1830 joining the Methodist Episcopal Church. She moved to Hillsborough but it is not known when. The researcher speculates she may have moved in 1840 when her daughter Mary Louisa Vasseur Brown and her husband William Henry Brown moved to Hillsborough. Charlotte Ann Layssard Vasseur kept a candy shop in downtown Hillsborough where some Burwell School students patronized. She  "has been described by various persons as an attractive...lady who wore frilled and fluted white caps in her ...shop."  She died in Hillsborough on September 8, 1856.

Biographical Data

Important Dates

Charlotte died on September 8, 1856.

Relatives

• Spouse: Toussaint Vasseur (d. 1815). They had one daughter, Mary Louisa Vasseur (1813-1868).
• Other children: one daughter (Mary Louisa Vasseur [1] (1813-1868)).
• Others: Charlotte Ann Brown  (granddaughter, 1838-1880), Laura H. Brown  (granddaughter, 1840-1915), William Henry Brown (son-in-law, 1809-1865), Morry J Brown (grandson, b. 1835), Louisa Brown (granddaughter, b. 1834), William Pearmain Brown (grandson, 1836-1837), Julia Frances Brown (granddaughter, 1842-1925), Lucy Rebecca Brown (granddaughter, 1844-1907), Olivia Bosanquit Brown (granddaughter, 1845-1911), Ferdinand Brown (grandson, 1833-1836), Mary Jane Brown (granddaughter, 1834-1906), Oliver B. Brown (grandson, 1846-1870), Arabella William Brown (granddaughter, 1848-1880), Edwin Lewis Brown, [Sr.] (grandson, 1850-1919), Leigh Olin Brown (grandson, 1856-1932) and Henry Nicholas Brown, [Sr.] (grandson, 1831-1908).

References

1. Mary Claire Engstrom. The Book of Burwell Students: Lives of Educated Women in the Antebellum South. (Hillsborough: Hillsborough Historic Commission, 2007).