Antoine II Hecquet

Biography

Antoine Hecquet was born at Abbeville, in Picardy in northern France, on January 14, 1615, the son of Antoine Hecquet and Marie Anne Monchaux. He became a merchant and rope-maker, carrying forward an occupation already associated with his grandfather's establishment.

He married Marguerite Gomart, whose name also appears as Degomart, on October 28, 1642. Their son Charles was born in the 1640s. Antoine's business life was accompanied by civic standing: the family history identifies him as a consul. In this commercial setting the title concerns local mercantile office, rather than a diplomatic posting abroad.

Antoine lived until December 17, 1688. His recorded life spans more than seventy years in which the Hecquet family remained established in Abbeville's trades, even as the next generation began to appear farther east.

The inherited family chronology dates his Abbeville consulship to 1667.