French Royalist refugees fleeing France and the horrors of its Revolution, as well as the Revolution in San Domingo, settled here in 1793 and located and laid out the town of Asylum under the auspices of the Viscount de Noailles and Marquis Antoine Omer Talon. In 1796 Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, afterwards King of France, visited here. The Prince de Talleyrand, the Duke de Montpensier, Count Beaujolais, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld de Liancourt, and many other distinguished Frenchmen were visitors or residents for a short time at Asylum.