Dutilh family

Family history

What the press reports about the family’s history, without citing its sources:

• a Protestant family rooted in Clairac, which chose trade [D];
• a common ancestor, Moïse Dutilh, a tailor in Clairac, born in 1600 and died aged 53 [E];
• a family of Protestant merchants flourishing on the banks of the Lot, to the point that around 1700 a tenth of the people of Clairac were reportedly related to it. [E]

These elements come from press articles: an archival record or a documented genealogy may confirm or correct them.

What the family’s magazine says

The family foundation, the Familiestichting Dutilh, publishes a magazine, Dutilhiteiten. Its January 2025 issue, a private document, gives dated details, summarised here:

• Pierre Dutilh, born in Clairac in 1674, died in Amsterdam in 1748; his son Abel Pierre was born there in 1717 and became a merchant there. [H, p. 37]
• A Nérac branch: Mathieu, Hyacinthe and Jacques Dutilh, sons of Mathieu Dutilh (1675-1734) and Suzanne Baylin. [H, p. 36]
• Marie Dutilh, daughter of Abel Dutilh and Marie Cazaux, born in Clairac in 1785, whom the Nederlands Patriciaat said had died young: Clair Morizet found her death certificate, in Clairac, at the place called Marsac, in June 1865, aged eighty, unmarried. The authors consider the identification almost certain. [H, p. 38]

The magazine does not state the family relationship between Pierre, Mathieu, Marie and Moïse Dutilh: none is assumed here.

Étienne (Stephen) Dutilh, born in 1751

Confirmed

Étienne Dutilh was born on 17 November 1751; record in the parish register of Clairac (AD 47). He was the son of Pierre Dutilh and Marie Perrier [J, p. 40]; the record is difficult to read (“Perier” or “Persiet”). His parents lived in “le bourg de Massac (?)”: uncertain reading, to be checked. Two sources for the birth: the Nederlands Patriciaat (Dutilh genealogy), according to Chris Dutilh, and the register: Departmental Archives of Lot-et-Garonne, Clairac, Baptêmes-Sépultures 1750-1764, image 11/37 (AD 47 online archives, accessed 9 November 2026). A merchant, he arrived in Amsterdam in 1768, then in Philadelphia in 1783. [J, p. 40]

Connection with Clairac

The exhibition panel devoted to Claude Martin names the Dutilh family among the families that emigrated from Clairac, together with the Saffin, Darné and Cobet families. [A]

Links that are still alive

According to Dutilhiteiten, the links between the family and Clairac continue today:

• members of the family stay in Clairac and meet the Amis de Clairac there [H, p. 35];
• a first series of fourteen heritage plaques, made with the support of the Dutilh family, was installed in Clairac in 2022; a second series of six (plums, hat factories, half-timbered houses, the mill, dovecotes, the church of Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens), decided by the Amis de Clairac with members of the family, was ready at the end of 2024 to be installed in 2025 [H, p. 37 and 56];
• in 2024, a subscription launched by the Amis de Clairac, in which members of the family took part, together with a contribution from the Departmental Archives, made it possible to acquire more than 3,000 manuscripts by François de Labat, known as the chevalier de Vivens (1697-1780), presented at the château de Vivens on 21 November 2024. [H, p. 36 and 37]

In these papers, the chevalier writes in 1750 that his Amsterdam commission agent is “Mr Dutilh”, son of Pierre Dutilh; the Dutilh brothers of Nérac are associated with his experiments on electricity and the lightning rod in the 1750s. [H, p. 36 and 37]

Migrations

Both Sud Ouest articles place the family’s departure after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. [D] [E]

• According to the first, the family left France for England and Holland, then opened trading posts around the world, as far as Turkey and the United States. [D]
• According to the second, some members converted under duress, but most went into exile in Holland, in England or across the Atlantic, where Étienne Dutilh is said to have named plots of land Clairac, Marsac and Maison Neuve. [E]
• Both articles report that the family kept up its trade with Clairac — wines and prunes, carried by gabarre (river barge) down to Bordeaux. [D] [E]

In 2017, the descendants live in France, Holland, England, the United States, Spain, Turkey and Brazil [E]; the Amis de Clairac newsletter mentions Holland, England, Switzerland, Spain and Turkey. [B] According to the newspaper, they have kept their attachment to the French language and to Clairac. [E]

One departure is dated more precisely: Pierre Dutilh, born in Clairac in 1674, saw his son born in Amsterdam in 1717. [H, p. 37] The research lab found his marriage notice in Amsterdam, in 1698: “Pierre Dutilh van Clairac, koopman” (research lab record).

A meeting in Clairac in 2017

In July 2017, 70 members of the Dutilh family, from Holland, England, Switzerland, Spain and Turkey, gathered in Clairac. [B]

The letter from the Société des amis de Clairac reports this meeting without saying who organised it.

According to Sud Ouest, this “cousinade” (family reunion) was held on the initiative of Chris Dutilh, who lives in Amsterdam; a first family reunion had brought together 40 of its members in Philadelphia in 2014, and this one is the first on the trail of the common ancestor, in Clairac. [E] The announced programme includes the unveiling of a plaque on Moïse Dutilh’s ancestral house in rue Gambetta, a reception at the town hall and a service at the Protestant church. [E] The first article mentions a “Lux Clareat” plaque bearing the family’s arms and a Protestant service dedicated to the family. [D]

The July 2017 reunion and its sources (in French)

The plaque in rue Gambetta

On Saturday 22 July 2017, the descendants of the Dutilh family placed a commemorative plaque in rue Gambetta, Clairac, on the façade of the house where Abel Dutilh (1664-1744) lived in 1699. [J, p. III] The street was then called rue du Temple; according to Claude Martin, the house very probably hosted the consistory for a time. [J, p. 46]

The programme in the booklet provides for the plaque to be unveiled at 9.30 a.m. by the mayor of Clairac and by Claude Martin, described as the town’s historian. [J, p. 3]

The text of the plaque (its English version)

In the 17th and 18th centuries, hundreds of people from Clairac left their country because they could no longer freely practice their Protestant religion. Nevertheless Clairac has always kept a special place in the hearts of those who have left, as well as in that of their descendants, scattered throughout the world. Since their departure they returned to the land of their ancestors, and they will continue to do so, in order to remain in touch with their roots.

On the Place Aristide Briand, only steps away from here, stood the first Protestant Church of Clairac, which was completely destroyed on November 8, 1685.

Inset on the plaque (in French only; translation): “The descendants of the Dutilh family placed this commemorative plaque on Saturday 22 July 2017 on the façade of this house, which was that of their ancestors.”

The plaque also bears the coat of arms of Clairac, with the motto Lux Clareat; the Dutilh family coat of arms, with the motto Lux Clarescet; a Huguenot cross; and the link Dutilh.com/Clairac.

Documents

Documents on the site that mention this family, available in their original version:

• Exhibition panel “Claude Martin” (PDF, original document in French) [A]
• Société des amis de Clairac, Newsletter no. 1, May 2018 (PDF, original document in French) [B]

Press articles telling the family’s story (not reproduced on this site, newspaper’s rights):

• [D] Catherine Darbord and Jean Escodo, “Une passionnante histoire de famille” (A fascinating family story), Sud Ouest (sudouest.fr, Tonneins section), 20 July 2017 — online article (article not reproduced on this site) — record in the archives
• [E] Jérôme Souffrice, “Les Dutilh de retour aux sources” (The Dutilhs back to their roots), Sud Ouest (print edition, Lot-et-Garonne page), 22 July 2017 — no known online version (article not reproduced on this site) — record in the archives

The family’s magazine, a private document, available for consultation on request (not reproduced on this site):

• [H] Familiestichting Dutilh, Dutilhiteiten no. 57, January 2025, pp. 35-38, 50 and 56 (private document, not reproduced on this site — consultation on request) — record in the archives

Booklet for the family reunion of July 2017 (cited as a source):

• [J] Chris Dutilh and Clair Morizet (eds), De retour à Clairac – Return to Clairac, Dutilhities vol. 49-2, Familiestichting Dutilh, 22 July 2017

This booklet brings together articles on Clairac, the Huguenots and the Dutilh family, in French and English.

Download the booklet (PDF)

Booklet produced by Chris Dutilh and Clair Morizet for the reunion of the Dutilh family in Clairac (July 2017). Published with the permission of Chris Dutilh (e-mail of 09/11/2026).

The Dutilhs and Claude Martin

Claude Martin was a point of reference for the descendants of the emigrant families Saffin, Dutilh, Darné and Cobet. From the 1960s onwards, they came to meet him, from Vienna, London, Frankfurt, Mauritius, Rotterdam or Philadelphia. He received them in his houses at La Pause, then at Cambes, and kept up a regular correspondence with them. [A]

The panel does not specify which city the descendants of the Dutilh family came from.

Claude Martin and the Huguenot descendants From Clairac to the world

In 2017, two Sud Ouest articles describe his work for the family, each in its own way:

• Chris Dutilh comes to Clairac looking for information, the family archives having burned in a bombing during the war; his meeting with Claude Martin seals a lasting bond between the two men. Claude Martin agrees to work for the family, with another man from Clairac, Clair Morizet; his accounts are to appear in a book published for the 2017 reunion. [D]
• Chris Dutilh traces his family’s history through his own research, with the help of the departmental archives and of “two local historians, Claude Martin and Clair Morizet”; it results in a book published for the occasion. [E]

Claude Martin tells the journalists that his exchanges with the family are conducted “in a literary French”. [D]

In his typed list of the “Émigrés de Clairac en Agenois, Province de Guyenne”, Claude Martin records several Dutilhs. The list does not say whether they are ancestors of the Dutilhs on this page: no link is made.

The booklet for the 2017 reunion draws on his work: for the history of those who left Clairac, its editors say they used the information gathered by Claude Martin. [J, p. 8] It also publishes, transcribed and revised by Claude Martin and Clair Morizet, the report by abbé Guillaume Grimard, parish priest of Clairac, to the intendant of Bordeaux (1700 or early 1701), from a copy kept at the library of the Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français. [J, p. 41]

The booklet recalls the gathering of 15, 16 and 17 September 1978: some thirty descendants of emigrants, from several countries, invited to Clairac by Claude Martin, then president of the Amis du musée de Clairac. The account it reprints does not mention the Dutilhs among the participants’ names. [J, p. 9]

The January 2025 issue of Dutilhiteiten does not mention Claude Martin, who died in 2018: the research and the 2024 acquisition it reports are the work of Clair Morizet, the Amis de Clairac and the family. [H, p. 36, 37 and 38]

Associated places

• Clairac: the house in rue Gambetta, formerly rue du Temple, where a plaque was placed in 2017 [E] [J, p. 46];
• countries of exile after 1685: England, Holland, America [D] [E];
• Bordeaux, where the wines and prunes of Clairac were carried by gabarre [D] [E];
• Philadelphia, where the 2014 family reunion took place [E];
• Amsterdam, where Pierre Dutilh, born in Clairac, died in 1748 [H, p. 37];
• Nérac, home of the Dutilh brothers associated with the chevalier de Vivens’s experiments [H, p. 36];
• Marsac, in Clairac, where Marie Dutilh died in 1865. [H, p. 38]

On the map, England and Holland are connected to Clairac (countries named without a town). America, where Étienne Dutilh went “outre-Atlantique” (across the Atlantic), is not placed on it for lack of a precise location; nor are Bordeaux and Philadelphia: they are not departures from Clairac.

From Clairac to the world

What the sources do not say in the same way

• The house in rue Gambetta: “ancestral house of Moïse Dutilh” [E]; house where Abel Dutilh (1664-1744) lived in 1699. [J, p. III and 46]
• American lands: “Indian lands” renamed after the family [D]; plots of land named Clairac, Marsac or Maison Neuve by Étienne Dutilh. [E]
• Who did the research: Claude Martin, for the family [D]; Chris Dutilh, helped by Claude Martin and Clair Morizet. [E]
• Number of participants in 2017: “about sixty” [D], 66 [E], 70. [B]
• “For the first time”: both articles present 2017 as the family’s first return to the land of its ancestors [D] [E], whereas Dutilh descendants came to see Claude Martin from the 1960s onwards. [A]
• Death of Marie Dutilh: the magazine dates it 26 June 1865, the day the certificate was drawn up; the certificate it quotes says she died “the day before”, that is, on 25 June. [H, p. 38]
• Étienne Dutilh: Sud Ouest has him leave for across the Atlantic after 1685 [E]; nothing shows whether he is the Étienne Dutilh who settled in Philadelphia in the 1770s mentioned by the family’s magazine. [H, p. 50]

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