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From: "Sara Haw" <>
Subject: [HWE] Early English Huguenot/Walloon Question and SENESCHAL
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 18:00:15 +0100


Lawrence Ollier and Andrew Sellon wrote:

" would you know of any event that might make some one come from France or
maybe the Low Countries to England around 1570.... I too would dearly like
to know of any event at the end of the C16th that may have induced such a
movement".

In researching SENESCHAL / SENESCALL in Lincolnshire I found records of Sir
William Cecil's invitation in the 1560s to twenty skilled artisan families
from France / Flanders to come to Stamford in Lincolnshire to help revive
the local economy. Perhaps this was replicated in other towns at the same
time? What would have happened to the economies of cities such as Norwich
and Canterbury without the 'strangers' and the skills they brought?

The Seneschal / Senescalls appear in the Stamford parish registers from the
1560s to 1640, but there is no indication of what their occupations were.

However there were also London, Southampton and Canterbury Seneschals and
some of them were certainly skilled artisans. The earliest record I've found
is of Honore Seneschal, a silkweaver, who is variously described as being
from Burgundy or 'Vallauncy' (Valenciennes?). He and his wife Philipine
moved up in the world, from Southwark in 1552 to Fleet, then Castle Baynard
and Queenhithe. Other Seneschal silkweavers in London included Michael,
Philippe and Abraham who was a master of the Weavers Company in 1582 and a
foreign brother. The name appears in the registers of St Botolph without
Bishopsgate and Threadneedle Street from 1583 to 1639 (and continued at
London French Huguenot churches in the eighteenth century). Seneschals were
then recorded at Sandtoft from where they travelled to Thorney- the last
French Huguenot church record for them at Thorney is in 1719- and I'm
guessing that the Sandtoft and Thorney Seneschals had originally come from
London along with other members of the Threadneedle Street community.

Meanwhile in 1567 Jean Seneschal of Armentieres was banished in his absence
(he had fought at the Battle of Lannoy), and in 1569 he and his sister Jane
arrived in Southampton via Sandwich and were admitted to the Walloon Church.
Jean died in the plague year 1604. The surname also appears in the
Canterbury Walloon Church records in the seventeenth century.

So it seems that some of them may have been invited because of the skills
they had to offer, and others were fleeing for their lives. What I don't
know is whether they were related, or which of them were the ancestors of
the ones who ended up farming in the hills between Stamford and Grantham in
the eighteenth century... any information on this gratefully received.

Kind regards

Sara



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