RAPIN DE THOYRAS, rd-pan de toi-ri, Paul, French historian : b. Castres, Languedoc, 1661 ; d. Wesel, Duchy of Cleves, 1725. He studied at the Protestant Academy of Saumur, and was admitted an advocate in 1679. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, however, drove him to England in 1686 and subsequently to Holland, where he entered a company of French cadets. In 1689 he followed the Prince of Orange and distinguished himself at the battle of the Boyne. In 1707 he settled at Wesel and devoted himself to historical com position. His great work. terve) (1724), was very animated, but impartial, and contains much solid information.. The style is,•clear, the facts are methodically arranged, and he is always careful to cite his.authorities. It embraces the period from the invasion Of the Romans to the accession of William and Mary, but continuations by other pens were afterward added. , RAPPi rap (Johann) George, German sec tary, fciunder of the•commumsuc society called Harmonites: b. Women, Wirtemberg, 1 Nov.
1757; d. Economy, Pa., 7 Aug. 1847. He studied in the •village:school, became.a linen• weaver, and seems very early to- have had religi. one doubts and visions, and dated his °com plete surrender') from the year me. His pe culiar religious ideas were so tinged with polit ical. socialism . that his followers were perse cuted by the German gcrtrernment; and in -1803 he emigrated. In the next year ha founded it Harmony, near Pittsburgh, a communistic col ony, where work, unity,. equality and celibacy were the rule. A new colony, called New Har mony, was founded on the Wabash. in Posey County,. Ind., in 1815 and was sold to Robert Owen. (q.v.) in 1824 when Rapp and his •ol lowers returned to Peannylvaina, founding on the Ohio River the -town of Economy (q.v.). Consult Nordhoff, 'Communistic Societies of the United States' (1875); Knortz,, Christlich-kommunistiche Kolonie der Rappis ten' (1892).