GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

From: John Lerwill <>
Subject: DEVON HUGUENOTS
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 09:34:07

I thought a really fresh start might be the order of the day now we're into
the New Year, and it occurred to me that I had not yet seen anything posted
about Huguenots! Well, here goes - and I hope that the following, a result
of some of my researches, may be of interest. Please note that London
(where I live) has numerous access points to the publications of the
Huguenot Society. These publications include extensive lists of refugees.

I am also posting this to the Medieval List, but had to think twice before
doing this as, strictly speaking, the Huguenot affair seems only to have
come about at the end of the medieval period - but, there again, there is a
debate as to when the medieval era did actually end. The word "Huguenot" is
said to have originated sometime after 1520.

At St. Peter's parish church, Barnstaple, on 8th February 1686, Jacques
Fontaine married Mlle. Boursiquot (except that her name was entered in the
register as Buzzacott!). M. Fontaine took her surname, and according to
that (one would think) she was a lady of substance - but not, apparently.
This couple arrived not long before together with other Huguenot refugees
(M. Fontaine was their minister and leader). He later wrote his "Memoires
d'une Famille" which records their arrival and early times in Devon. It
transpires that the party landed at Appledore having sailed from La
Rochelle in western France. The Huguenots then went on to Barnstaple.
It was a Sunday and people were just returning from church. One man stopped
and offered hospitality to one of them; others followed suit until all were
accommodated. M. Fontaine states:
"....the good people of Barnstaple were full of compassion, they
took us into their houses and treated us with the greatest kindness.
Thus God raised up for us fathers and mothers in a strange land......I
was taken to the house of a most kind and charitable gentleman, a Mr.
Downe...aged about 40...He had a sister aged 33 or 34. They were
kindness itself, and I was as completely domesticated with them as
if I had been a brother."
M. Fontaine, however, was quickly to become the target for Mr. Downe's
sister - this resulted in an urgent parle du coeur with his fiancée, and
their hastened marriage! Mr. Downe, incidentally, was delighted, and
arranged their Wedding Breakfast! The couple were later to migrate to
Ireland and then on to America, but, in the meantime, M. Fontaine had
already earned himself a reputation as a businessman, as he was able to
discern that the price of certain foodstuffs would earn a market in France.

Just down the lane and not more than 50 yards from St. Peters is the
Chapel of St. Anne's. Dating, probably, from the early 14th c., this Chapel
(now a Museum) remains one of the oldest buildings in the town, and its
use has included that of containing a grammar school (where Gay, of
Beggar's Opera fame, was educated). This Chapel was given over to the
Huguenots, and they continued services there until 1760 - still in French.
The refugees proved a benefit to the town, for in connection with the
woollen trade, they introduced and perfected different branches of
manufacture and dyeing processes for which the town became famous. One of
the party (and her family, the St. Michels) moved to London where she
married Samuel Pepys. In around 1900, an old lady of the Servante family
died aged about 100. Mounier Roche (original founder of the Barnstaple
Bank) lived to a great age, and said "If my grandfather had not been
drowned at 111, he might have been alive now!" One of the actual refugees,
M. Daney, lived to be 100. Many of the Barnstaple Huguenots lived to a
great age, it is said.
It is important to note that the Huguenots were present mainly in the
Plymouth area as far as Devon was concerned, but the major migration was to
London and Norfolk. It is recorded that many escaped to England in vessels
where they were hidden in bales of goods and heaps of coal and in empty
casks, where they had only the bung-hole through which to breathe. Those
caught were often sent to slave-galleys. A celebrated Huguenot
'cavalier' was Isaac Dumont, who was involved in skirmishes with the King's
men on the way to the coast from Rouen, then saw his family off to
Plymouth. He then made his way to join William Of Orange, by whom he was
made a captain, and joined with William in his 'invasion' of England via
Devon in 1688. Isaac Dumont died at Portarlington in 1709, where his
tombstone states "......Isaac Dumont, escuyer, sieur de Bostaquet,
capitaine à la pension de sa Majesté Britannique.........". ('Bostaquet'
was his family home near Rouen).

John Lerwill
London, England
***********************************************
Skills in Family History. Have easy
access to major Records Offices in U.K.
Please e-mail for a quote to solve YOUR
particular problem - WITHOUT OBLIGATION!
Advantageous rates! Sympathetic attention!
***************************************************

This thread:

• DEVON HUGUENOTS by John Lerwill <>