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Huguenots and you


Swissie
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Huguenots have been discussed elsewhere - but perhaps it deserves to have its own thread.

Are you of Huguenots descent like me? My ancestors came over to the Swiss Jura, and my maiden surname is closely linked. Here in Switzerland, as in the UK, Huguenots brought excellent skills, talent and experience. The Swiss and London watch and clock making tradition comes from them.

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My wife's maternal grandfather was descended from the (weaver) Huguenots that settled in the east end of London.  They migrated from La Rochelle so maybe choosing France to buy a holiday home was appropriate? (Though we are not in the Charente Maritime.) 

Then again her maternal grandmother was Irish (an aristocrat!) so we could equally have ended up in Galway!

(Edit - you can guess who wears the trousers [;-)])

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One of my husbands Huguenot descendents was thought to be a Linen merchant, some were directors of the French hospital but quite a lot seem to have had military or naval careers, some quite distinguished.  One of them has a street in Budapest named after him and his medals and sword are on dispay there....

One married into another family of Huguenots who were silk merchants, one girl married a military man and they lived in Reading, she is buried in a church yard not a mile from here...there are lots of them !

There is a family vault at a church in Hampstead

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BTW the most famous Huguenot Church is underneath Canterbury Cathedral- and is still active today.

My ancestors were by definition Protestants when they escaped to Switzerland, and persecuted for their beliefs. But they ended up in a Catholic area of Switzerland, and within 3 generations, became Catholics. Nobody knows why exactly, but I can imagine it was in order to integrate and in order to do well in their trade and business. My grandfather moved to my native Canton (Neuchatel) in the 19C- and joined the Catholic congregation there, which was very much a minority at the time. My father was brought up in the darkest and fiercest Catholic tradition, hell and fire. When he met my mother, daughter of a mill owner, protestant, divorced with a young son- hell and damnation certainly ensued, from both families, and they suffered greatly. I seemed so ridiculous when I found out later that we were of Huguenot stock.

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I'm descended from a Huguenot family from Nismes and still seem to spend all my spare time researching and writing about Huguenot families, have three research papers on the go atm and have just been asked to write more articles for UK genealogical mags on Huguenots and French research.  Just joined a local Protestante research group - like I really need to belong to another one - and I'm organising a visit for my WDYTYA group to their library later this year.

And that's the Huguenot Cross on my id on the left btw :)

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[quote user="Swissie"]BTW the most famous Huguenot Church is underneath Canterbury Cathedral- and is still active today. [/quote]

Sorry Swissie that's only half right - the Church in Canterbury was originally a Walloon Church which moved over to Protestante/Huguenot but it's not the most famous tho it is still used today.  The mother Church in the UK was in Threadneedle Street, where the Bank of England is located (founded originally by Huguenots and their families) and was always the major French Church in England until the centre moved to Soho, where the main French Church is today in Soho Square.

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We visited it last year- and of course our guide told us it is the most famous in England - as they always do. All Protestants here in Switzerland wear the Huguenot cross - I was given one by my Godmother, who came from Alsace, but I have to admit I lost it a long time ago.

Strange that I never noticed the Huguenot Church near Leicester Square, as I often use the short cut by the side of the National Gallery. Will look out for it next time I am there.

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Tony F. Are you sure. I thought the French church was in Prince Charles street, Leicester Sq. It is tucked away in this small street but is exceptional inside being round with an unusal tapestry behind the alter. I was baptised there, and went to the Kindergarden attached to the church.

JFB

Edit Got confused now called Leicester Place, Price Charles cinema is next to the curch.

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I can only speak from experience.  I've been to services at the French Church in Soho Square where they also have a very private Library and Archive and which is the direct descendant church of the mother Church in Threadneedle Street, like Canterbury French Pasteur, and in all the Hug Soc of GB material that we get circulated, it's the Soho Square Church and Canterbury Chapels that are mentioned, never seen the other Church mentioned at all.
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Fascinating topic! My father's family were Huguenots  who settled in the Norfolk/Lincoln area.  They eventually made their fortune in farming by buying a threshing machine at a time when one harvested by hand and then renting the machine out to his neighbours.  And I was raised in the Plymouth Brethren [:-))] 
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I too have direct Huguenot ancestry, traced back to my 9x great grandfather who we think was a Walloon. His son married (in Canterbury) another Huguenot, believed to be from around Amiens and like many of their contemporaries they worked as silk weavers. My great-grandmother from the Huguenot line married my great-grandfather, who was an Irish protestant (an army paymaster) in Dover. I suppose that explains my mistrust of Roman Catholics, which is probably not far-off equal to Gluestick's dislike of Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Muslims etc.[;-)]

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[quote user="Will"]I suppose that explains my mistrust of Roman Catholics, which is probably not far-off equal to Gluestick's dislike of Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Muslims etc.[;-)]

[/quote]

Oy, can't you just lay off us Catholics?  Haven't we got enough trouble with paedophile priests and a Pope with a shady background without people on the Forum heaping more grief on our heads? 

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[:)] [:)] [:)]

I

am sure it is all done to test your faith...

We Anglicans have the ultra-conservatives (anti-gay, anti-feminist) to deal with of course as well as the ultra-liberals.

But few of us are really quite as suspicious as the Huguenot equivalents from the much more recent past:

"We are saddened to find members, some of note in the

National

Established Church of England, have recently joined the Roman

Catholic

Church. We are equally saddened by the Ecumenical Movement

gaining

support when its domination will be Roman Catholic. Surely a

look at

history, even the history of the Huguenot as well as our Great

Reformers

of other note, should make the defectors of today have a change

of mind.

The Roman Church still say "Sempter Edem - we do not change".

We can, I believe be much encouraged by the steadfastness of

the

Huguenots. We may not suffer the persecutions which they

endured. We may

not be aware of the many Roman Catholics in parliament and other

high

places. We may not all be aware that the Royal Family with their

advisors and sometimes their confidantes, are surrounded by

Roman

Catholics at the present time. It came as something of a shock

to find a

defector amongst the less Royals in recent times. We do need to

be aware

that this iniquitous system with their blasphemous mass are out

to

convert the whole world before the year 2,000 A.D."

(http://www.orange-street-church.org/text/huguenot.htm)

Maybe they have a point - a faith that accepts Tony Blair with open arms might be asking for it?

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Will, they have a very interesting - if not badly skewed - version of religious history.  Nice to see that Catholic (historical it has to be said) bigotry against the Protestantes has been turned round, some of their material sounds like a 'No Popery' speech from the Blessed Dr Paisley, ah the understanding between the various branches of Christianity warms the heart.

Where the Orange Street Congregation meet was the old French Church - to be accurate there was never a Huguenot Church in London, they were all French Protestante in various guises (conformist, non-conformist) - of Leicester Fields, for which the French refugees records and their descendants have been transcribed and published by the Hug Soc of GB & I, previously of London.

For those with a particular interest in this Church's history whilst it was still a French/Huguenot Church you may want to look out for "Lux Benigna, a History of thé Orange Street Chapel " (R. W. Free, London, 1888) and " History of thé Orange Street Chapel " (Isaac Hartill, n.d. cir. 1917) both give considérable information and were both written by the Congragational Ministers in charge of the Chapel at the time.

A lot of information also in the records of the Chapel.

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Thanks Tony, that's very interesting. I'll have to delve deeper into the Huguenot connections some time when I'm back in England.

I guess some traditions die hard - Nov 5 remains on the calendar as very much an anti-Catholic festival in Sussex where I come from, they still parade through the streets with 'No popery' banners and burn effigies of former Popes, as well as other unpopular figures. Lewes is the best-known, and the biggest, example.

http://www.lewes.co.uk/bonfire

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Just been looking in my London tourist guide type books to see what is said about the different French churches in the centre of London (some of which I walked past on a regular basis - as you will see from my sig  I knew the area well).  So, (1) Church in Soho Sq (NW corner) is definitely French protestant (but whether Hugenot I don't know).  There is a church in (2) Orange Street, again protestant  and I another )vaguer memories here)  in Leicester St (?) , but which (if any) was the Hugenot church  - it deigns to say!.  Sorry, but I had always thought it was either Soho Sq or Orange St, with a preference for Soho Sq.

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My maternal grandmother was Dutch & her niece's husband traced a family tree right back to the early 17C. I've got a copy of it somewhere, but can't find it just now.

It seems that somebody back then was a Dutch soldier based in Orange, Vaucluse (at that time a Dutch enclave & strong Huguenot connections I believe) , who married (or maybe didn't!) a local French girl and took her back to Holland. 

My grandmother met my grandfather when he was a WW1 POW in Holland: after the war he took her back to the UK for marriage.

Full circle now: we live about 30kms from Orange and were there only yesterday.

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