Stephen Grellet

Stephen Grellet (28 October 1772 – 16 November 1855) was a prominent French-American Quaker missionary.

Life

Grellet was born Étienne de Grellet du Mabillier in Limoges, France, the son of Antoine Gabriel Grellet, a counsellor of King Louis XVI who was also director of the first chinaware factory in Limoges. His family had some interest in iron making. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he was educated at the Military College of Lyons, now the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon, and at the age of 17 he entered the personal guard of the king. During the French Revolution he was sentenced to be executed, but escaped and eventually fled Europe to Demerara in South America with his brother Joseph in 1793, then to New York in 1795.

While in New York he met Deborah Darby, an English Quaker minister who had been in the U.S. since August 1793. and Russia in 1819.

In 1804 Grellet married Rebecca Collins, the daughter of the publisher Isaac Collins. The family home, the Isaac Collins House, in Burlington, New Jersey, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Grellet died in Burlington on 16 November 1855 and his body was buried there, behind the Quaker Meeting House at 340 High Street.

Family Grellet was married to Rebecca and they had one daughter, Rachel.