Talk:Herbert du Parcq, Baron du Parcq

Henry David Thoreau

According to Edwin Clarence Guillet’s _The Guillet-Thoreau Genealogy_ (Toronto: E.C. Guillet, 1971. 247 pages, illustrated, genealogical tables, 29cm. A bound typescript available in the British Library under call number X.802/2433), to the best of the information available to this author, the closest relative to Henry David Thoreau at the date of publication of his typescript was a 2d cousin once removed who had died in 1949, Sir Herbert Du Parcq, Lord Du Parcq of Grouville, a member of the House of Lords and the Lord Justice of Appeal for England, or perhaps this lord’s mother Sophia Thoreau Du Parcq in the remote possibility that at that point she still survived. It has not been ascertained whether this man ever had been contacted in regard to his family relationship with the American author Henry David Thoreau. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomasomuir (talk • contribs) 09:24, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Herbert du Parcq's mother Sophia (née Thoreau) was a second cousin of Henry David Thoreau. their mutual great-grandfather having been Philippe Thoreau (1718-1781) whose father Pierre had come to Jersey (probably from Poitou) as a Huguenot refugee in the late 17th century. Henry David was descended from Philippe's son Jean who emigrated to America in the 1770s. Yes, the du Parcq family have always been aware of the Henry David Thoreau connection. The family still has an 1896 cutting from the Boston Transcript written by a M B Wright who had visited Sophia and her son Herbert in St Helier. There was correspondence in the 1940s between Herbert du Parcq and some quite different American descendents of the Jersey Thoreau family, and correspondence in the 1960s and 1970s between John du Parcq and the then President of the Thoreau Society. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lduparcq (talk • contribs) 20:04, 14 August 2009 (UTC)