Minister at Assens in 1602, where he lobbied for a vote to be held to ban the Catholic church in that commune, according to the terms of the agreements approved in the 1530's by Bern and Fribourg, which shared administration of this area in the district of Echallens. For this request, he was dismissed from his post, but by 1604 he had found another position as pastor at Oron, where he died in 1613.
While an Abraham Demierre is known to have been the "oncle à la mode de Brétagne" (in other words, first cousin once removed) of the minister and historian Abraham Ruchat, the statement that the same person, justicier and conseiller de Moudon, was killed at the second battle of Villmergen, 1712, at the head of a company of troops, could be questioned. The soldier may have been a younger man of the same name. We found a few references to him in terms such as "Monsieur Abraham Demierre conseiller et justicier de Moudon et Mayor de Villard-Mendraz" (05 feb 1695, witness to a testament recorded by Isaac Dutoit, notary at Moudon, ACV DL 37/11), as well as a great number that mentioned only one or the other of these offices. On the authority of Maxime Reymond, in the venerable Lexikon, we identify the Abraham Demierre who served as justicier and conseiller de Moudon at the end of the 17th Century with the son of Daniel Demierre born in 1657, and with the "oncle à la mode de Brétagne" of Abraham Ruchat.
The same Abraham is credited by Reymond and others with having organized the archives of Moudon, and through this activity, helping to develop Abraham Ruchat's interest in history. Grenus (Documens relatifs à l'histoire du Pays de Vaud, p. xxxvii, 1817) notes that this Abraham Demierre was elected to the city council of Moudon 13 nov 1684, and compiled an inventory of the archives of Moudon about 1700. Grenus also gives (p. 492) an extract from the Registre du Conseil de Moudon, 28 jul 1712:
Le 25 du mois de juillet s'étant donné un combat entre l'armée de LL. EE. de Berne nos souverains seigneurs et celle des cinq cantons catholiques, dans lequel ces derniers ayant perdu le champ de bataille avec sept pièces de canon et huit drapeaux et leurs munitions de guerre, ayant laissé 2000 morts sur la place, outre une grande quantité noyés dans une rivière, qu'on assure avoit été au nombre d'environ 1200 hommes ; noble et généreux Pierre Gabriel Cerjat, seigneur de Feschi, capitaine de la compagnie d'élection de cette ville, et vertueux et prudent Abraham Demière, lieutenant de ladite compagnie, et membre de ce Vénérable corps, y ont été tués, et sont morts sur le champ de bataille.
Elsewhere, apparently the same Abraham Demierre is cited as a cousin of Esther Tacheron, who was the wife of Jacob Samuel Jayet.
Not mentioned in the settlements between the sons of the late Humbert Demierre and Humbert's ward, Guillaume Demierre, in the 1592 and 1610, so probably died before 1592.
On 01 aug 1562, he sold property on behalf of his children by his first wife, the late Matthée daughter of the late Claude Creaturaz aultrement Michiel (Jean Jaquier, notary, ACV DL 53/1 fol 86v). The name of his second wife is given in a marriage contract of 31 jan 1560 recorded by Jean Jaquier, notary at Moudon (ACV DL 53/2 fol. 93, but recorded out of order and the date thus perhaps in error—however, the transactions in this register are generally only in rough chronological order). His second wife is probably related to Françoise de Veyrie (or Veyrier, evidently from a noble family of Geneva), wife of Humbert Demierre.
Baptised after the death of his father. He is probably the Daniel Demierre who married Susanne Dutoit. However, the husband of Susanne Dutoit is once called Daniel François Demierre in 1651 when she appears as a sponsor for a baptism, possibly indicating we do not have the correct baptism for this man. All other citations so far identified call him simply Daniel. He was dead by 26 dec 1668, when Gaspard son of the late Daniel son of the late André Dutoit and unnamed others acknowledged a debt to the heirs of the late Daniel Demierre (Benoit Giraudet, notary at Moudon, ACV DL 50/14).
His widow appeared 06 apr 1668, with her brother-in-law the minister Philippe Demierre (studied at Geneva, 1646, pastor at Thierrens 1648-1664, pastor at Curtilles 1664-1683), regarding property of her son Daniel (David de Treytorrens, notary at Moudon, DL 88). The baptism of Philippe has not been located, but from the dates cited for him, it seems likely he was born about 1630-1632, again suggesting that the parentage given here for the Daniel Demierre who married Susanne Dutoit is incorrect.
The contract for his first marriage was recorded 05 apr 1610 by Denis Pivard, notary at Moudon (ACV DL 72, fol. 11), naming his late father, his brothers Abraham, Jaques, and Isaac, and his other "relatives and in-laws" Pierre Frossard, Pierre Richard, Jean son of Egrège Balthazard Dutoit, and François Bel. Most of these relationships have not been explained. His bride, daughter to the late Egrège Claude Panchaud of Moudon, was assisted by her mother Evaz Goudard, her brother Egrège Pierre Panchaud, her maternal uncle Jean Goudard of Yverdon, her brother-in-law the notary Antoine Richard of Moudon, and her other "relatives and in-laws" Noble David Real, minister at Poliez-le-Grand, Benoist and Jean Panchaud, father and son, of Poliez-le-Grand, and Egrèges Antoine and Jaques Dutoit, notaries of Moudon. (Her sister Dorothée was the wife of Egrège Antoine Richard.)
(ID #I21521)