The London Huguenots
Monday's post on Paul de Lamerie included the fact he was a Huguenot. Most people find the combination of history and religion as appealing as used dishwater, but wait, don't go! The Huguenots are defined as a people by their religion, but their faith is only the smallest part of what made them a force to be reckoned with: they were soldiers, artists, thinkers, writers, artisans and craftsmen and women. Britain owes a great, but barely acknowledged debt to the Huguenots, particularly in art, science and industry.
They were Calvinists, but from the first mention of the name (from the Calvinist Besançon Hugues) around 1540, they were already different, coming predominantly from the middle ranks of France, including the lower nobility. They banded together in communities that appear to be based on similar interests and friendship. Louis XIV didn't like the Huguenots, and neither did Madame de Maintenon. They operated outside the 'One King, One Law, One Faith' ideal Louis used to consolidate his power base. He'd been needling them for years, and in 1681 began the dragonnades which forced Huguenot families to support cavalry regiments who were actively encouraged by the state to despoil Huguenot homes. Charles II got wind of this and set up a Royal Bounty (charity), issuing a welcome from the English to the Huguenots and the numbers of London French began to grow. In 1685, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes (passed to allow Huguenots to live and worship peaceably in 1589 by Henri IV, who had abandoned the Huguenot faith to take the throne of France as a Catholic). Louis ordered them to convert, destroyed their churches and condemned the men to naval galleys. They were forbidden to leave France, but if they did they were not allowed to remove any of their money or possessions. The Huguenots were having none of that, and promptly fled France in huge numbers. The estimates are anywhere up to 700,000 in the years between 1685 and 1688. They called their flight Le Refuge, and themselves the refugees.
Approximately forty thousand Huguenots arrived in England. They arrived in motley groups, and their stories are extraordinary: a fourteen year-old boy in charge of three siblings including a baby too young to walk, a seventeen year-old girl who had stayed behind to ensure her family had escaped without detection then then disguised herself as a man and walked half the length of France to take ship for England's South Coast. They walked through the mountains into Germany trusting Huguenot guides, some of whom were later executed. Two teenage boys made it out of France using a combination of scrawled safe routes pressed into their hands by fellow Huguenots and Catholic sympathizers. Babies, children and pregnant wives were entrusted to other members of the Huguenot faith, often complete strangers who had managed to get passage on a ship.
The French community in London before 1681 is estimated to be around 5,000. The Catholics were based around the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields in Soho, and the Strand where they sold French texts and news-sheets and kept close to court. There was a Huguenot settlement around the City where a Huguenot church had been established in 1550 on Threadneedle Street. It was rich; the congregation was stuffed with bankers, brokers and gentlemen. They had seen the l'écriture sur le mur and they were ready for the influx of desperate refugees. They set up a relief fund, where the refugees could come and apply for a cash hand out. It was also the hub of a knowledge network. Posts were put up seeking information about family members, and jobs and accommodation with like-minded people were advertised. Detailed ledgers on the distribution of aid were kept, and offer a fascinating insight into the situations and attitudes of the people, and often records their desperate situations.
The Threadneedle Church was a powerful organisation, but it had made mistakes. They had split themselves almost down the middle by declaring for Cromwell during the Civil War. The Royalist half the church left and were forced to find somewhere else to worship. Some Huguenot booksellers had already set up in the Strand (London's 'bookshop'), selling the bibles and religious texts people had been forced to abandon in their flight. They also sold news from the Continent, where many had family members who had fled to Calvin's Geneva, or remained in Amsterdam. Someone with sharp eyes spied the disused chapel in the old Savoy Palace and there amongst scaffolding, broken buckets and detritus, they began to meet. On his Restoration Charles II was glad of their support and allowed them to establish a new church there as long as they conducted their services with the Anglican liturgy, although they were allowed to give the sermons in French. The Huguenots pitched up in the heart of a chaotic and changing London. The City offered them charity and faith, the Strand and St Martin's offered them familiar voices, familiar food (furren sausages and garlick), books, and a church. Unsurprisingly, many of them decamped to Soho, which became a 'Petty France', where French was the language on the street, so much so that William Maitland declared 'Many parts of this parish so greatly abound with French that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France'. The poorest went to Spitalfields to labour for the weavers, and to take sustenance from La Soupe, the Huguenot charity kitchen.
By 1700, there were 23 Huguenot churches in London: 14 in the West End and 9 around the Eastern edge of the City. The congregations were making a significant contribution to London life, as will be explored in further posts. The gallery today consists of random things around London connected with the Huguenots, and one crazy person.
