THE HUGUENOTS

Huguenots had started emigrating to Britain during the 16^thC. Following the St Bartholomew's Eve Massacre of 1572, many were expelled from France by Catherine de Medici. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 led to a wave of immigration. It is estimated that 50,000 Huguenots crossed the Channel northwards. At one point, there were over twenty Huguenot churches in London.

In 1718 The French Hospital was founded. In 1885 the hospital's directors set up The Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland.

Website: https://huguenotmuseum.org

The French Protestant Church

Location: The Eglise Protestante Francaise de Londres, 8-9 Soho Square, W1D 3QD. A French Protestant church. (red, purple)

Website: www.egliseprotestantelondres.org.uk

Sir Theodore de Mayerne

Sir Theodore de Mayerne was a Geneva-born Huguenot, who studied at the University of Montpellier, which was a stronghold of Protestantism. He became interested in the ideas of Paracelsus (d.1541). These contended that the body was a chemical system. This attacked the traditional Galenic approach that was espoused by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris, which was firmly Catholic in its character.

In 1611 de Mayerne settled at the court of King James I. Through the Huguenot diaspora, he had a range of contacts across Europe. The monarch used him for a number of diplomatic missions. He had good relationship with the sovereign. In 1625 King Charles I succeeded to the throne. He maintained de Mayerne at court but kept him and his strain of Protestantism at a political distance. He banned the physician from travelling overseas.

De Mayerne wrote a study of the technological aspects of painting. This was based on interviews that he conducted with painters such as Van Dyck and Rubens, and experiments that he carried out with enamels, pigments, and varnishes.

At the start of the Civil Wars Charles summoned de Mayerne to join him at York; the physician chose to stay in London, where he pursued his own private practice. The legislature indicated that it was going to tax him; he responded by indicating that, if it tried to do so, he would move to The Netherlands; Parliament backed down. He was allowed to treat various members of the royal family both in London and elsewhere.

De Mayerne wrote a cookery book. In his final years he grew so corpulent that he became immobile.

Location: 100 Cheyne Walk, SW10 0DQ (orange, brown)

Huguenots and Business

Some Huguenot surnames have become so much part of the fabric of British life, that it can take a stretch of the imagination to think of them as being French in origin. John Courage was an Aberdonian of Huguenot descent who moved to London, where he founded the Courage brewing business. The Dollonds of Dollond & Aitchison the opticians were Huguenots.¹ Asprey, Cazenove, Courtauld, and Maxim are other examples of Huguenot families that became prominent in British business.

¹. In 1750 John Dollond established an optical workshop in Vine Street, Spitalfields.

The Huguenot Hospital

The James de Gastigny had been William III's Master of the Buckhounds from 1689 to 1698. He died in 1708. He left 1000 for a hospital that would cater to the medical needs of Poor Huguenots. In 1716 the institution opened in Bath Street, St Luke s.

See Also: HOSPITALS, CLOSED

Website: https://frenchhospital.org.uk

The Huguenot Society

The Huguenot Society held its inaugural meeting at the Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly in 1885. Sir Henry Austen Layard M.P. (1817-1894) was the organisation's first president. The Directors of the French Hospital became Members of the Council and Officers of the Society.

Layard is best remembered for his involvement in the Nineveh excavations.

Website: www.huguenotsociety.org.uk

Silk

The Spitalfields silk industry sprung up in the early 17^thC. It went into decline in the early 19^thC. The houses of Spitalfields's Huguenot silk weavers had weaving attics. These had deep rear windows so as to admit as much light as possible. Fournier Street is a surviving example. In the second half of the 19^thC the industry began to decline. There were still silk weavers working in Bethnal Green during the 1930s.

James Leman

James Leman was a renowned silk manufacturer and designer. In the years 1706-12 James Leman produced silk designs that incorporated oriental imagery. He lived in Steward Street, Old Artillery Ground.

Location: Leman Street, E1 8AJ (orange, grey)

Wandsworth

Wandsworth's coat of arms include gold tears within squares in commemoration of the Huguenots' presence.

Huguenot Parade - between Battersea and Wandsworth. There was a Huguenot graveyard nearby. / Trinity Road:

The Church nearest to Wandsworth Bridge has a grave that refers to the Huguenots persecution.

Huguenot burial ground in Wandsworth.

The Westminster French Protestant School Foundation

The French Protestant Charity School in Westminster was founded in 1747. It closed in the 1924. It metamorphosed into being Westminster French Protestant School Foundation, a charity that aids the educational needs of people of Huguenot descent.

Location: 233 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8EE. The school's final premises. (red, yellow)

Website: www.wfpsf.org.uk

David Backhouse 2024