The Bouneau family were Huguenots who came over from France.

For more information on who the Huguenots were, take a look at http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history.html.

I have been in touch with another descendant (see www.islandregister.com/simmons2.html) who lives in Canada.   He came over to London in 1990 to do some research at the Huguenot Society and told me the following:

Our ancestor Jaques Bouneau fled to London three years before Louis XIV in 1685 revoked the edict of Nantes, by which Henry IV, a Protestant turned Catholic for the sake of the crown, had granted the Huguenots religious and political freedom.  In the civil war of the 1620's the Huguenots were finally defeated and by the treaty of Alais in 1629 they lost their military and political advantages.  A declaration on behalf of the infant king Louis XIV in 1643 confirmed their remaining rights under the Edict of Nantes.  The Catholic clergy, however, manipulated the harassment and forcible conversion of thousands of Huguenots.  After the revocation, France lost a quarter of a million of its Protestant citizens to England, Prussia, Holland and the United States.

The Huguenots who came to London were of many professions and trades in varying numbers from these parts of France: Poitou (519), Normandie (362), Picardie (102), Ile de France (42), Beauce (31), Aunis (26) and Orléans (20).

The Threadneedle Street Church in London gave relief to French Protestant refugees between 1681 and 1687.  Jaques Bouneau, haberdasher (petit mercier) and silk merchant, and his wife and two children received 15 shillings 3 June 1682; 10s 6d on 4 July (including 4s 6d for a coverlet); 9s on 11 July (including 3s for shoes; 7s 6d on 17 September (including 4s 6d for shoes); and a pair of shoes in October [Reference: Huguenot Society Publications, vol. XLIX, London, 1971, page 37].

Many of the Huguenots settled at Spitalfields in East London.  Their church was called "la Patente" because James II granted a patent for it in August, 1688.  Its history extends over 97 years.  The name Bouneau and its variants are found on thirty-five pages of the register.  The variants include Boneau, Bonneau, Bounou, Bonhault, Baunau, Bounaud, Bounault, Bonau and Bonnau -- all having somewhat the same sound.

The Huguenot church La Patente was busy with "reconnaissances".  Adults who as children had been forced into the Roman Catholic faith could apply to be accepted into the Huguenot church.  For example, on 4 April 1713 "Étienne Mounier, âgé d’environ 21 ans, né de père et de mère protestants, mes la persécution estant venue, a esté baptisé en l`église Romaine; il s’est presenté a la Compagnie Consistoire et a déclaré qu'il souhaitait faire sa reconnaissance de ce qu'il avait esté a la messe. . ."

So Jaques Bouneau arrived in London in 1682 with his wife and two little children, whose names are not given in the register.