HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-L Archives

From: "Andrea Vogel" <>
Subject: [HWE] Huguenots/Walloons in UK
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 11:51:52 -0700

Hi to all on this list -- I hope the following short general history of
Huguenot/Walloon settlement in the UK will be of interest to listers. This
information has been adapted from Leaflet No. 24 of the London Metropolitan
Archives, and also from information sheets obtained from the Huguenot
Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Protestant refugees first arrived in Britain in the mid-1500's, escaping
from religious persecution in their native countries, and continued to come
for the next two hundred years. They were mainly from France, particularly
the later arrivals, but also included Walloons and other French-speaking
refugees from the Southern Low Countries (now Belgium and northern France).
Major groups of refugees came in 1572, after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew
and in 1685, after Louis XIV's Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which had
originally granted French Protestants religious and political freedom in
1598). The biggest influx of refugees, some forty or fifty thousand, came
from France between the late 1670's and the first decade of the eighteenth
century.

The main centres of Huguenot settlement in Britain were in London,
Canterbury (in Kent), Southampton (in Hampshire), and Norwich (in Norfolk),
where they formed distinct communities, creating their own churches and work
environments. Later communities were established at Colchester (Essex),
Bristol & Stonehouse (Gloucestershire), Thorney (Cambridgeshire), Plymouth,
Bideford & Barnstaple (Devon), and elsewhere. There were probably no
communities in the British Midlands or the North of England. Some, however,
went to Scotland, and many to Ireland, particularly Dublin.
Wealthier members of the community provided work and relief for later
refugees and for those who had become destitute. Huguenots who had brought
over their money and other assets invested in technological or commercial
ventures, and the artisans who formed the bulk of the refugee population
provided cheap skilled labour. They provided a major economic impetus to
Britain, often introducing new techniques and ideas in crafts such as silk
and cloth weaving. Other major Huguenot industries were the manufacture of
glassware and paper, and metalworking.

London was the heart of the Huguenot settlement in England. The
immigrants tended to congregate on the outskirts of the metropolis, where
food and housing were cheaper, and guild control less effective. By around
1700, two distinct communities had evolved, one being based in
Spitalfields -- which was the centre of the Huguenot weaving industry -- and
the other in Leicester Fields/Soho on the western outskirts. The first
French Church in London was in Threadneedle Street in the City, but as the
communities grew, more churches were established so that, by 1700, there
were around fourteen churches in the western area and nine in the eastern.

The refugees gradually began being assimilated into English society
during the late 1700's and on into the 1800's, no longer forming a distinct
religious, economic, and cultural unit. However, records of their
communities have survived in the form of Church registers, charity and poor
relief records, acts of denization and naturalisation, etc. (Denization was
a cheaper and less complicated method of obtaining the status of a British
subject, but without obtaining the full rights of a natural born subject.)
Many of these records have been collected by the Huguenot Society of London
(now called the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland), which also
coordinates and publishes the results of research into Huguenot history and
genealogy.

That's all for now. Andrea

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• [HWE] Huguenots/Walloons in UK by "Andrea Vogel" <>