1885: French Protestantism and Huguenot Identity in Victorian Britain

1885 : FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN1 Andrew Spicer he bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1885 was marked by a series of public events and special services. In Paris, the commemorations solemnly recalled the persecution of the Huguenots and the signiicant loss to the French state caused by their exodus. In contrast to this sombre atmosphere, the events in London and Berlin celebrated the hospitality and tolerance aforded the Huguenot refugees and the contribution that they had made to their host nations2. he commemorations were widely reported in the British press, to the extent that one newspaper attributed their actual success to their coverage3. he Edict of Nantes was revoked on 18 October 1685 but the measure was not promulgated until the 22 October, as a result the bicentennial events took place over several days. As the Daily News recorded, the commemorations started with a service on Sunday 18 October 1885 : Yesterday morning special services in commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (18th October 1685) were held 1 2 3 I would like to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions provided in the discussion of my original paper and by Dr Tom Crook. I am also grateful for the assistance of Miss Lucy Gwynn at the Huguenot Library, University College London and Mrs. Christiane Gould-Krieger at the French Protestant Church Library, Soho Square, London. he Times 19 February 1885, p. 5, 23 October 1885, p. 5, 30 October 1885, p. 5. According to Baron Ferdnand de Schickler, president of the Société de l’histoire du Protestantisme Français : « Our commemoration is to wear a rather serious character, we can not rejoice like you and the other refuge descendants ; it must be something like the ‘jour d’humiliation et de prières’ of bygone days ». HSL, HH2a.7 Letter to Arthur Giraud Browning, 6 March 1885. See also HSL, HS A1, p. 22 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 65. he Morning Post, 20 October 1885. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 391 13.05.13 16:48 392 ANDREW SPICER in the French Protestant Church, St Martin’s-le-Grand. In response to the invitation of the general committee of the Confederate Churches of the Huguenots of London, Canterbury and Brighton, an unusually large congregation assembled, amongst them being several descendants of those who were compelled to leave France for conscience sake towards the close of the 17th century. he service was conducted by the Rev. G.G. Daugars, pasteur of the Church and Moderateur, who afterwards gave a fervid extempore address with special reference to the event4. his was one of a number of religious gatherings to mark the bicentenary. A special service was held at Canterbury cathedral, where the French congregation had worshipped in the crypt since the sixteenth century. he Dean preached on how « the coming of the refugees to England was one of the truest blessings to this country that ever happened »5. Less well-reported by the press was the sermon to mark the occasion at the French Protestant Episcopal Church of the Savoy in Bloomsbury Street (now Shaftesbury Avenue)6. Later in the week on the 22 October, another service was organised by the Directors of the French Protestant Hospital and the Council of the newly-founded Huguenot Society of London7. Besides the services associated with the French Protestant churches and the descendants of the Huguenots, special sermons were delivered and services held in « many of the Established and Nonconformist places of worship in the metropolis » and across the country8. St Martin-le-Grand was one of the two surviving French Protestant Churches in the capital. Although the actual building only dated from the mid-nineteenth century, the congregation of St Martin-le-Grand traced its origins back to the French church formed in the mid-sixteenth century. Together with the Dutch church of Austin Friars, it was established by 4 5 6 7 8 Daily News, 19 October 1885. Ibid. Morning Post, 17 October 1885, p. 5 ; he Manchester Guardian, 18 October 1885, 4 ; Daily News, 22 October 1885. he Times, 23 September 1885, p. 8, 23 October 1885, p. 12. Daily News, 19 October 1885 ; he Belfast News-Letter, 23 October 1885, 24 October 1885, 26 October 1885 ; Charles A. Heurtley, he Children’s Teeth Set on Edge by the Sour Grapes Eaten by their Fathers : A Sermon Preached in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, October 11, 1885, being the Bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Oxford, 1885 ; John de Soyres, he Huguenots and the Church of England. A Sermon Preached before the University of Cambridge, October 4, 1885, Cambridge, 1885. See also Anne Dunan-Page, « Introduction », in Anne Dunan-Page ed., he Religious Culture of the Huguenots, 1660–1750, Aldershot, 2006, p. 1–5 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 392 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 393 letters patent granted by Edward VI to John a Lasco in 1550 and after the hiatus during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor, it was reconstituted following the accession of Elizabeth I. he French church had worshipped in a church in hreadneedle Street until it was destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. Within three years the community had erected a new church and continued to worship there until the nineteenth century. he redevelopment of the area resulted in the compulsory purchase of the site in 1841 and the erection of the new church of St Martin-le-Grand ; symbolically the foundation stone for the new church was laid on the anniversary of the granting of their charter9. he Reverend Daugars drew attention to the fact that they were gathered to mark the bicentenary « with feelings of prayer, humiliation and thanksgiving […] in that venerable church founded considerably more than 300 years ago (in 1550) by the young and amiable King Edward VI for the persecuted Protestants of France »10. he other surviving church in the capital was the French Protestant Episcopal Church of the Savoy. his church traced its origins back to the mid-seventeenth century and had been granted the use of Savoy chapel by Charles II. In contrast to the hreadneedle Street congregation which retained its own liturgy, this was a conforming church which worshipped according to a French translation of the Anglican Prayer Book11. his congregation had also erected a new place of worship during the 1840s12. Although the church marked the bicentenary, there is no reference to the occasion in the vestry minutes which were mainly concerned with the appointment of a new minister. his omission was in spite of the election of Arthur Giraud Browning to the vestry in April 1885 ; he was a key igure in the founding of the Huguenot Society and the commemoration of the bicentenary at the French Protestant Hospital13. 9 10 11 12 13 Andrew Spicer, « A Place of Refuge and Sanctuary of a Holy Temple : Exile Communities and the Stranger Churches », in Nigel Goose and Lien Luu eds., Immigrants in Tudor and Early Stuart England, Brighton, 2005, p. 93–94, 98–99, 104 ; John Southerden Burn, he History of the French, Walloon, Dutch and other Foreign Protestant Refugees Settled in England from the Reign of Henry VIII to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, London, 1846, p. 24–27. Daily News, 19 October 1885. Robin Gwynn, « he Distribution of Huguenot Refugees in England, II : London and its Environs », PHS 22 (1970–76), p. 524, 548. HSL, Savoy Church Archive K3, p. 119–134 ; he Times, 4 January 1845, p. 3. HSL, Savoy Church Archive, K3, p. 196. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 393 13.05.13 16:48 394 ANDREW SPICER he celebrations of 1885 were in marked contrast to a century earlier where the remembrance and commemoration of the Edict of Nantes appears to have been largely overlooked. here is no reference to the anniversary in the contemporary literature or newspapers, even the consistory and vestry minutes of the French Protestant Church and French Protestant Episcopal Church of London, respectively, are silent on the matter. Furthermore during the course of the eighteenth century, the descendants of the Huguenot refugees who had settled in England and Ireland following the Revocation had become assimilated and integrated into their host society. While some of the churches that had been established in London to serve the needs of the diaspora such as Le Quarré and St Martin Orgars were still holding services in 1785, others had either folded or merged with surviving congregations during the course of the century14. In the wake of the French Revolution, the immigrants seeking shelter in London were more likely to be Catholic émigrés who settled in Soho and other districts which had been inhabited several generations earlier by the Huguenots15. By the early nineteenth century, the combination of assimilation and a new French diaspora had combined to erode the distinctive identity of the Huguenots in Britain16. he focus of this essay is the rediscovery and forging of a « Huguenot identity » in Victorian Britain, which culminated in the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. As the events of 1885 demonstrated, there were two dimensions to this new identity. A strongly confessional stance which upheld the principles of French Protestantism was adopted by Daugars and the congregation of St Martinle-Grand, while the French Protestant Hospital focused on the religious toleration aforded the Huguenots in late seventeenth-century Britain and the contribution that they in return had made to their host nation. heoretically these were not mutually exclusive perspectives, but in practice the commemoration of the bicentenary demonstrated that there was a 14 15 16 Gwynn, « he Distribution of Huguenot Refugees », p. 517–518, 546–547. Kirsty Carpenter, « French Emigré Society in London in the 1790s », Franco-British Studies 19 (1995), p. 7, 14–15 ; Kirsty Carpenter, Refugees from the French Revolution. Emigrés in London, 1789–1802, Basingstoke, 1999, p. 51, 66 ; Kirsty Carpenter, « London : Capital of the Emigration », in Kirsty Carpenter and Philip Mansel eds., he French Emigrés in Europe and the Struggle against Revolution, 1789–1814, Basingstoke, 1999, p. 43, 49–50. See also Dom Aidan Bellenger, « Another French Community in England : Refugees of the French Revolution », PHS 28 (2003–7), p. 473–480. Susanne Lachenicht, « Huguenot Immigrants and the Formation of National Identities, 1548–1787 », Historical Journal 50 (2007), p. 326. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 394 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 395 distinct « French Protestant identity » as well as a « Huguenot identity » in late nineteenth-century Britain. hrough the background and context of the bicentennial commemorations, this essay will examine the emergence and reasons for these separate identities. his development needs to be considered in the wider context of the Victorian era, although this can not be explored in depth within the constraints of this essay. he interest in the Huguenots accorded with the Victorian sense of the past, through which history and events were studied and memorialised. his provided a contrast to « the burgeoning sense of rapid change », during this period as well as contributing to a sense of Britishness17. Furthermore, there was a resurgent national consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century ; it was shaped by a positive assessment of the British political system and its place in the world order, which was measured positively against other European states, particularly France18. As part of this perception, nineteenth-century politicians portrayed the Huguenot settlers of the 1680s in positive terms as the beneiciaries of British freedoms denied to them in their own country, and who in return for asylum « brought their wealth where they had any, and they brought what perhaps was more valuable, their industry and skill »19. here was not the same degree of sympathy for the political refugees of the midnineteenth century, but they were nonetheless tolerated20. It was therefore against this complex background that the nineteenth-century perception of French Protestantism and the Huguenots developed. 17 18 19 20 Martin Hewitt, « Why the Notion of Victorian Britain Does Make Sense ? », Victorian Studies 48 (2006), p. 406, 429–430. Ibid., p. 405–406 ; Peter Mandler, « “Race” and “Nation” in Mid-Victorian hought », in Stefan Collini, Richard Whatmore and Brian Young eds., History, Religion and Culture. British Intellectual History, 1750–1950, Cambridge, 2000, p. 224–244 ; J.P. Parry, « he Impact of Napoleon III on British Politics, 1851–1880 », Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, 11 (2001), p. 147–175 ; Peter Mandler, « Review », Journal of Victorian Culture 8 (2003), p. 151–158 ; H. S. Jones, « he Idea of the National in Victorian Political hought », European Journal of Political hought 5 (2006), 12–21 ; J. Parry, he Politics of Patriotism. English Liberalism, National Identity and Europe, 1830–1886, Cambridge, 2006, p. 20–26. he Parliamentary Debates from the year 1803 to the Present Time, 41 vols, London, 1812–1820, XXXIV, c. 437 ; John A. Garrard, he English and Immigration 1880– 1910, Oxford, 1971, p. 92–93 ; Bernard Porter, he Refugee Question in Mid-Victorian Politics, Cambridge, 1979, p. 5–6, 12. Ibid. ; Bernard Porter, « he Asylum of Nations : Britain and the Refugees of 1848 » and Fabrice Bensimon, « he French Exiles and British », in Sabine Freitag, Exiles from European Revolution. Refugees in Mid-Victorian England, Oxford, 2003, p. 43–56, 88–102. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 395 13.05.13 16:48 396 ANDREW SPICER Relecting on the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he Times observed : « he diiculty in determining the point from which to honour it [bicentenary] is that it is so essentially secular while it claims in its external features to be a chapter in Church history »21. hese tensions were evident from the very outset of the plans to mark the occasion. he minister of the French Protestant church of St Martin-le-Grand, Rev. Guillaume Gustav Daugars, formed a general management committee for the occasion, which was presided over by the Lord Mayor of London and with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London and ive other bishops as Vice-Presidents. Although there is no complete of record of the membership of this committee, it did include Sir Henry Austen Layard and Sir Henry Peek, respectively the President and Vice-President of the newly-founded Huguenot Society and directors of the French Protestant Hospital22. In spite of their presence, the bicentennial events organised by this committee appear to have been completely separate from those which were organised by the French Protestant Hospital and the Huguenot Society. heir commemoration represented a diferent approach towards remembering the Revocation and was based on the belief that the French Protestant Hospital « as the representative body of English Huguenot descendants, should take the lead in the célébration »23. hese events are not mentioned in the consistory minutes of St Martin-le-Grand and their timing clashed with those organised on 22 October by Daugars. hese separate commemorations were also probably in part due to the longstanding diferences between Daugars and the trustees of the French Protestant church. Daugars had been appointed as minister of the French church in 1842 and held the post until his death in 1889. A particularly confrontational, contentious and litigious igure, he initially became embroiled in a protracted dispute with the consistory of the French church during the 1850s and 1860s, which had led to a radical reorganisation of its government and in particular its inancial management. In 1867, the Charity Commissioners appointed a body of trustees to oversee the church’s inancial resources who then became the focus of attack for Daugars and his consistory in the subsequent years. he trustees included some of the directors of the French Protestant Hospital and founder members of the 21 22 23 he Times, 23 October 1885, p. 9. FPCL, MS 283, p. 305. Arthur Giraud Browning, Bibliothèque de La Providence. Catalogue of the Library of the French Protestant Hospital, Victoria Park, London, London, 1887, p. ix. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 396 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 397 Huguenot Society24. It is perhaps a relection of these divisions that a census of congregations in London in May 1881 revealed that there were only 79 people present although the church had the estimated capacity for 24025. Relations between the Daugars and the trustees appear to have been particularly acrimonious at the time of the bicentenary commemoration. In a lengthy and vitriolic letter to the Charity Commissioners in January 1886, Daugars attacked the trustees on a number of issues including negotiating the sale of the site of the French church for the construction of the General Post Oice, plans to transfer the library to the Guildhall Library and for suspending his salary between August and November 188526. he letter also reveals what was probably the fundamental cause for the tension between the consistory and the trustees. Daugars wrote : « he whole of them are perfect strangers to us, they have never attended or befriended our Church. hey belong to another communion, they have no interest, no sympathy in faith, no ecclesiastical work in common with us, they are as aliens to us, as if they were Chinamen »27. He went on to emphasise further the confessional distinction between the church and the trustees : hey are all members of the Church of England and we are a Presbyterian Church. hey are all seeking the aggrandisement of the institution to which they belong, by the destruction of our Church and the division among them of its property. What business has Mr Hansard the Rector of Bethnal Green with our Huguenot Presbyterian Church ? He would exclude me form the pulpit or ministration of the afairs of his own Church : why should he be allowed to meddle with the church of which I am the Pastor ?28 his assault therefore emphasised the historical distinction between those French Protestants who had attended the hreadneedle Street church which retained its traditional liturgy and those who were members of the conformist congregations which had adopted a French translation of the 24 25 26 27 28 Randolph Vigne, « Victorian Integration and Near-Disintegration : the Daugars Case and the French Church of London, 1857–89 », PHS 26 (1994–97), p. 289–304 ; Raymond Smith, he Archives of the FPCL. A Handlist, Huguenot Society Quarto Series 50 (1972), p. 4–5, 10–11. « Census of Congregations of the City Churches and Chapels », Journal of the Statistical Society of London 44 (1881), p. 600–601. FPCL, MS283, p. 294–303. Ibid., p. 296. Ibid., p. 299. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 397 13.05.13 16:48 398 ANDREW SPICER Anglican Book of Common Prayer29. Like the conformist churches, the statutes of the French Protestant Hospital required the chaplain to « perform divine service according to the Rites of the Church of England »30. Daugars saw the commemoration of the bicentenary in strongly confessional terms, which was relected in the events that he organised to mark the occasion. Given the circumstances which had led to the Huguenot diaspora, there was inevitably a degree of tension between the French Protestant churches and Catholicism. In 1813, the minister and congregation of the French church of Le Quarré welcomed « all the blessings of […] religious toleration » that had been aforded to the Catholic immigrants from France but regarded « with an equal degree of alarm and anxiety, their unwitting endeavours to get possession of political power and legislative authority »31. Catholic emancipation aroused popular opposition and led a number of British evangelical societies to adopt a hostile position towards the faith. hey sought to emphasise the principles of the Reformation and the spiritual freedoms of Protestantism, which they contrasted with the clerical and despotic structures of Roman Catholicism32. he French Protestant Church adopted a similar position, relecting the remarkable evangelical zeal of Daugars. One of the Protestant evangelical pamphlets praised the preaching of Protestant doctrines at the French church, which had had « the blessed efect of converting many unenlightened Romanist from the errors of Popery ». Daugars himself had presided over the public recantation of the tenets of the Roman faith by a young lady at St Martin-le-Grand in 185033. 29 30 31 32 33 Robin Gwynn, « Conformity, Non-conformity and Huguenot Settlement in England in the Later Seventeenth Century », in Dunan-Page ed., he Religious Culture of the Huguenots, p. 27–39. he Statutes and By-Laws of the Corporation of Governor and Directors of the Hospital for Poor French Protestants and their Descendants Residing in Great Britain, London, 1741, p. lxvii. Parliamentary Debates, XXIV, c. 556–557, 16 February 1813. John Wolffe, « Evangelicalism in mid-nineteenth century », in Raphael Samuel ed., Patriotism. he Making and Unmaking of British National Identity 3 vols, London, 1989, I, p. 189–191 ; John Wolffe, « Change and Continuity in British Anti-Catholicism, 1829–1982 », in Frank Tallett and Nicholas Atkin eds, Catholicism in Britain and France since 1789, London, 1996, p. 70–73 ; Marjulie Anne Drury, « Anti-Catholicism in Germany, Britain and the United States : A Review and Critique of Recent Scholarship », Church History 70 (2001), p. 102–107 ; Stewart J. Brown, Providence and Empire. Religion, Politics and Society in the United Kingdom 1815–1914, Harlow, 2008, p. 60–62. he Penny Protestant Operative, 8 (1847), p. 28–29 ; he Times, 8 April 1850, p. 8. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 398 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 399 Furthermore the minister was also the secretary for the interdenominational Society for the Evangelization of Foreigners in London. he aim of the Society was « the conversion and ediication of souls » and in 1862, it prided itself on having educated over the previous decade « 500 destitute children, born of Foreign Roman Catholic parents » in « Bible truths and prepared for usefulness and virtue »34. With this background, it is clear that Daugars saw the commemoration of the bicentenary as an opportunity to recall the excesses of Catholic persecution and to assert an evangelical French Protestant identity. In May 1885, he called upon the consistory to begin preparations « for celebrating it in a suitable manner by a banquet to the poor Huguenots, and by expressing our thanksgiving to God by a public assembly and social gathering »35. It was important for Daugars that the occasion should have lasting results and leave « a worthy memorial of the wholesale proscription of the French Protestants from their country »36. hrough « the solemnities of our Bicentenary », Daugars was able to portray French Protestantism as the antithesis of Roman Catholicism. his was particularly evident in the sermon he delivered marking the occasion, which can be reconstructed from the newspaper reports. According to he Times : … the preacher said that in laying a crown upon the tomb of the Huguenot fathers who were 200 years ago expelled from their native France, he felt that their descendants were celebrating the triumph of their glorious faith over all worldly obstacles, and even over death. he martyred heroes of Christianity – whether at the stake in Smithield or in their homes in Paris on the eve of St Bartholomew – had died but to live again, and they were ever living ; and the precious gifts of their success in struggling for liberty to worship God in their own way and their pious example were for the acceptance of the whole of humanity37. Daugars also « dwelt at length upon the suferings which the Huguenots had to endure, and warned his hearers that if Roman Catholicism ever again obtained the power it would again become as intolerant as it was in the days of Louis XIV » and produced a copy of the Revocation which he described as « evidence of the greatest crime committed by that monarch »38. 34 35 36 37 38 FPCL, Misc. Papers 92. FPCL, MS283, p. 268 he Times, 12 September 1885, p. 8. he Times, 19 October 1885, p. 10. he Standard, 19 October 1885. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 399 13.05.13 16:48 400 ANDREW SPICER Although popular agitation against Catholicism was in decline from the 1870s, the subject still remained controversial and a subject of debate. A similar antipathy towards Catholicism had been expressed by some of the British press in 1880, although this was combined with calls for religious freedom and tolerance in the face of the excesses of the French government in the expulsion of the Jesuits39. he forthcoming bicentenary of Revocation of the Edict of Nantes provided the opportunity for one Scottish minister to show that where the « so-called papal system prevailed […] it persecuted, with terrible and unrelenting cruelty, the saints of God ». His treatise argued that these events should serve as a warning for present times, where « the grand aim of the Romanists, in England and Scotland and Ireland, acting under their head the Pope, will be to induce the legislature to recognise and acknowledge the papal power and dominion, and ultimately to seize the throne of Great Britain »40. Closer to home, the anti-Catholic sentiments expressed by Daugars appealed to the elders and deacons of the French church. hey later thanked their minister for « his noble conception of the bicentenary commemoration of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by which all Huguenot descendants, rich and poor, could assemble together to celebrate the glorious faith, fortitude, and martyrdom of the forefathers and to unitedly record their abhorrence of the conduct of their Jesuitical persecutors after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes on October 22nd 1685 »41. his polemical dimension to the commemoration of the bicentenary was relected in the medal designed by Daugars to mark the occasion (see igures 4 and 5). he medal symbolised « the persecution of our forefathers by the Jesuits, and the faith of the Huguenots in God’s most holy word and their hope in the Church »42. he obverse of the medal depicted Catholic persecution, with a tonsured Catholic cleric, presumably intended to represent a Jesuit, armed with a short knife or dagger in the one hand and in the other a laming torch. Around him are instruments of imprisonment and torture : the stocks, a stake with brushwood, shackles and the rack on which a hapless victim is being stretched, while in the background is a building in lames, 39 40 41 42 Milorad N. Vuckovic, « he Suppression of Religious Houses in France 1880, and the Attitudes of Representative British Press », Canadian Catholic Historical Association 28 (1961), p. 22–24. E.M. Rate, he Revocation of the Edict of Nantes on October 18th, 1685, Edinburgh, 1880, p. 1, 27. FPCL, MS283, p. 304 Ibid., p. 306. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 400 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 401 perhaps representing a Huguenot temple. his face of the medal bears the legend « Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 1685 : Mort aux Huguenots : Miserere mei Deus ». he reverse symbolised freedom of religion with two cherubim, one holding an olive branch, bearing up an open volume of the Scriptures, while above there is an open-winged eagle holding a cross. It bears the inscription : « In commemoration of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Huguenot Churches London. 1885 : In Christo vita et libertas : Deus noster refugium. Venite exultemus ». At the end of his sermon at St Martin-le-Grand, Daugars expressed : … a hope that his coreligionists would not allow this commemoration to remain a barren manifestation of feeling, but would co-operate with the committee, and found a worthy and suitable memorial of the wholesale prescription of the Huguenots from their beloved country, and of the piety and heroic deeds which not only characterised them under dire persecution but followed them to this land, where they received such a kindly and generous reception, and which in turn derived so much beneit to its trade and commerce from their industry, frugality, and skill43. Besides the medal, this lasting form of commemoration was to be the foundation of two scholarships at the heological Faculty of Montauban in France. hese were intended for « two eligible young men of Huguenot parentage or lineage, to be trained for the ministry in France and the dissemination of evangelical teaching in that country »44. he fund for this purpose was established at a meeting held at the Mansion House on the anniversary of the Revocation. Although the Egyptian Hall was « illed to overlowing », « most of the distinguished patrons of the Huguenots » were absent ; the Lord Mayor, however, was in attendance and chaired the meeting45. he speeches delivered on this occasion again relected the importance of the contribution made by the Huguenots, contrasting favourably British tolerance with French persecution. In addressing the meeting, the Lord Mayor, compared « the free course » that the Reformation had taken in England, with events in other nations before relecting on how « Louis XIV, under the inluence of the Jesuits, unhappily revoked » the Edict of Nantes. 43 44 45 Daily News, 19 October 1885. FPCL, MS283, p. 305 ; Daily News, 19 October 1885. he Times, 23 October 1885, p. 9, 12. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 401 13.05.13 16:48 402 ANDREW SPICER Figure 6: Commemorative Medal of the Bicentenary produced by the French Protestant Church and designed by Rev. G.G. Daugars (Obverse). (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). Figure 7: Commemorative Medal of the Bicentenary produced by the French Protestant Church and designed by Rev. G.G. Daugars (Reverse). (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 402 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 403 he consequences of this measure for France had been disastrous, he argued, while Britain « had much to rejoice at in the results she had received from the expulsion of the Protestants from France ». He inally expressed the hope « that true religion might progress in both countries, that on both sides of the Channel those great doctrines of the Bible might be gloriied »46. Other speeches were more overtly confessional in their stance. Relecting the midVictorian ecclesiastical divisions over religious ritualism, one clergyman declared that « the National Church of England was nothing if it was not a Protestant Church and expressed his opinion that the reason why the Church of England was now in danger was that sacerdotalism and sacramentalism were eating the core out of it. hey ought to pour the Gospel into France … ». Another cleric spoke in support of the establishment of the scholarships at Montauban, expressing his abhorrence at the French king’s attempt « to crush the reformed faith within his dominion » and that « it seemed to him a noble revenge on the part of the scattered sons of intelligent refugees to commemorate for the 200th time the sorrow and sufering of their fathers »47. Similar sentiments were expressed at the special dinner that held that evening. In proposing the toast « he Prosperity of France and its Evangelisation », Daugars observed that « the members of the Huguenot Church did not wish to retaliate on their persecutors except by doing them good. France had exiled them, and they wished in return to send to France the best thing possible – namely the Word of God. For this purpose they were desirous of originating a great movement for propagating the Word of God in France »48. For Daugars and his church, the bicentennial commemoration was an opportunity to remember the persecution of their forebears and the contribution that the Huguenots had made to a number of aspects of British life. However, this was portrayed in starkly confessional terms and an opportunity to express anti-Catholic sentiments that relected contemporary concerns and anxieties. he remembrance of the past suferings of the Huguenots was more than a memorial, it was an opportunity for the contemporary advancement of Reformed Protestantism and the evangelisation of France. 46 47 48 he Times, 23 October 1885, p. 12. Ibid. Ibid. ; Daily News, 23 October 1885. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 403 13.05.13 16:48 404 ANDREW SPICER he signiicance of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the diaspora was not seen in solely confessional terms. here had been a growing public interest in the Huguenots from the mid-nineteenth century. his was aided by artistic representations, such as performances of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Les Huguenots at Covent Garden from 1842 onwards and Sir John Everett Millais’s painting he Huguenot which was exhibited at the Royal Academy a decade later, with an engraving produced in 185649. here was also a steady stream of ictional versions of the Huguenot story recounted in historical novels. While a number of these novels focused on the persecutions in France and adventurous escapes across the Channel, some were based on the experience of the refugee Huguenots in England50. Francisca Ingram Ouvry, a Huguenot descendant, wrote three such novels between 1863 and 1873 ; the preface to her irst book, « an imaginary biography » of a minister, noted that « the principal circumstances in which he was placed, and the incidents grouped around him are matters of real history ». She went on to list the contemporary histories of the Huguenot diaspora and more recent scholarship which she had relied upon for writing the story51. hese included Elie Benoit’s Histoire de l’Edit de Nantes, Claude’s Les Plaintes des protestants cruellement opprimés dans le royaume de France, and Saint-Simon’s Mémoires together with Charles-Augustin Coquerel’s Histoire des églises du désert chez les protestants de France (1841), Napoléon Peyrat’s Histoire de pasteurs du désert, 1685-1789 (1842), and Charles Weiss’s Histoire des refugies protestants de France (1853). his growing interest in the Huguenots led some enthusiasts to ind out more for themselves, for which one Mrs Amelia Marsh might serve as an example. Of Huguenot descent, she had visited the Cévennes where she had heard songs and tales about the young leader of the Camisards, « Jean Anthoine Chevallier » who had eventually died in London. Mrs Marsh was prompted to write to he Times in August 1885 as she believed that she had located his last resting place in Chelsea. Although 49 50 51 Robin Gwynn, « Patterns in the Study of Huguenot Refugees in Britain : Past and Present » in Irene Scouloudi ed., Huguenots in Britain and their French Background, 1550–1800, Basingstoke, 1987, p. 225, 233–234 ; Tessa Murdoch, he Quiet Conquest. he Huguenots 1685–1985, London, 1985, p. 313–315. Millais was elected a fellow of the Huguenot Society in May 1888, PHS 2 (1886–88), p. xci. Charles F.A. Marmoy, « he Historical Novel and the Huguenots », PHS 23 (1977–82), p. 69–78. Francisca I. Ouvry, Arnold Delahaize ; or, the Huguenot Pastor. (An Imaginary Biography), London, 1863, preface. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 404 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 405 her assertion was swiftly dismissed by other correspondents, this example is nonetheless indicative of the enthusiasm for Huguenot history52. Besides this popular interest, scholarly research into the Huguenot diaspora and its impact on Britain was undertaken by antiquarians and academics from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. hese were men who made no claims of being of Huguenot descent or had any association with the surviving French churches. he earliest of these publications was he History of the French, Walloon, Dutch and other Foreign Protestant Refugees settled in England by John Southerden Burn, who was described by another historian around the time of the bicentenary as « Our Huguenot Father ». he book, which was published in 1846, drew extensively on the registers of the exile communities, including extracts of baptisms, marriages and anecdotes from the archives. Burn’s focus is perhaps not surprising as he had a particular interest in parish registers, publishing a book on their history in 182953. Following the introduction of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1837, Burn had been appointed as secretary to a royal commission for collecting together non-parochial registers, which were then deposited in the Public Record Oice54. His rather anecdotal book examined the history of refugee settlement in England from the time of Henry VIII and included an appendix with the charter granted by Edward VI establishing the stranger churches in London in 1550. Although the Huguenot disapora was an important element within this volume, it was explored in the wider context of alien immigration to England. William Durrant Cooper acknowledged the contribution made by Burn and a series of articles on the Huguenot settlements in Ireland that had been published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology between 1853 and 1862. However, he bewailed the limited extent of the scholarship on the subject when the Camden Society published his Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens Resident in England 1618-1688 (1862). In Durrant Cooper’s opinion, these earlier publications could not compare with Erman and 52 53 54 he Times, 8 August 1885, p. 10, 10 August 1885, p. 7, 15 August 1885, p. 4 John Southerden Burn, Registrum Ecclesiæ Parochialis. he History of Parish Registers in England, also of the Registers of Scotland, Ireland, the East and West Indies …, London, 1829 ; 2nd edition 1862. Burn, he History of the French, Walloon, Dutch and other Foreign Protestant Refugees, p. vi ; ODNB, VIII, p. 878-879. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 405 13.05.13 16:48 406 ANDREW SPICER Reclam’s magisterial history of the Huguenots in Prussia : Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des Refugies François dans les Etats du Roi55. Although lacking this degree of academic rigour, a slightly diferent approach to the subject was taken by Samuel Smiles in his he Huguenots. heir Settlements, Churches and Industries in England and Ireland. his examined the political and religious situation of late sixteenth century northern Europe, largely from a French perspective, contextualising the Elizabethan and later seventeenth century Huguenot migration. Smiles is better-known for his book Self-Help (1859), which encouraged personal improvement and advancement through virtues of hard work, diligence, frugality etc. In particular he focused on engineers and technical innovators, providing examples of those who had rose from humble origins employing their skills for development56. Although Self-Help does not refer to the Huguenots, there was clearly a parallel that could be drawn. In his preface, Smiles explained that he was interested in not only the circumstances that had led to the diaspora but also its impact on English industry as well as history57. he Huguenots was irst published in 1867 and went through a number editions ; the last was described as a popular edition with plates, which appeared in 1905. he book contributed to « a sharply awakened interest » into the history and traditions of the Huguenots ; it was according Arthur Giraud Browning « an interesting surface history, which was immediately calculated to popularize the subject with English readers »58. In 55 56 57 58 Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens Resident in England 1618–1688, ed. W. Durrant Cooper (Camden Society, Series 1, 82 (1862)), p. iii, iv ; Charles Nicholas de la Cherois Purdon et al., « French Settlers in Ireland », Ulster Journal of Archaeology 1 (1853), p. 209–220, 286–294, 2 (1854), p. 167–181, 223–229, 3 (1855), p. 56–67, 213–231, 4 (1856), p. 198–221, 6 (1858), p. 327–346, 9 (1861–62), p. 142–144. ODNB, L, p. 1003 ; Kenneth Fielden, « Samuel Smiles and Self-Help », Victorian Studies 12 (1968), p. 155–176 ; T.H. Travers, « Samuel Smiles and the Origins of “Self-Help” : Reform and the New Enlightenment », Albion 9 (1977), p. 161–187 ; R.J. Morris, « Samuel Smiles and the Genesis of Self-Help : the Retreat to a Petit Bourgeois Utopia », Historical Journal 24 (1981), p. 89–109 ; Earl H. Kinmouth, « Nakamura Keiu and Samuel Smiles : A Victorian Confucian and a Confucian Victorian », American Historical Review, 85 (1980), p. 536–541. See also Garrard, he English and Immigration, p. 93–102. Samuel Smiles, he Huguenots. heir Settlements, Churches and Industries in England and Ireland, London, 1867, p. vii. Giraud Browning, Bibliothèque de La Providence, p. v. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 406 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 407 spite of its popularity, the book was dismissed by Reginald Lane Poole as « a meritorious spécimen » of « the books of anecdote »59. Poole was the author of A History of the Huguenots of the Dispersion at the Recall of the Edict of Nantes, published in 188060. An Oxford academic, later keeper of the archives and editor of the English Historical Review, Poole’s monograph was the winner of the Marquess of Lothian’s historical prize61. It is a relection of the interest in the Huguenots, that in 1879 the judges set as the subject for the competition, « he Emigration Consequent on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes »62. Poole considered that this need for a fresh review of the matter was an indication of the deiciencies of earlier studies. In the past, « the history of the banished huguenots has been written in polemic and anecdote, homiletically, statistically, genealogically »63. Instead of the studies of Burn and Smiles, Poole built upon the work of both French and German academics who had studied immigration. In particular his essay looked back to Charles Weiss’s Histoire des Refugies Protestants de France depuis la Révocation de l’Edit de Nantes jusqu’à nos jours of 1853 which had been published in English translation the following year64. Weiss had examined the English refuge as part of the wider Huguenot diaspora of the late seventeenth century, and this was the method adopted by Poole. Weiss’s academic analysis of the Huguenot diaspora was criticised by one reviewer for not making « a living gallery of historical portraits », an approach closer to that of the earlier historians. Poole’s monograph brought academic rigour to the history of the Huguenots, with, as he noted, « a fairly exhaustive apparatus of reference to the special text-books of each department of the subject »65. he bicentenary was marked with two further publications on the Huguenot diaspora by directors of the French Protestant Hospital. After a short article on the « Huguenots in Spitalields », homas Archer produced 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Reginald Lane Poole, A History of the Huguenots of the Dispersion at the Recall of the Edict of Nantes, London, 1880, p. vi. Ibid. ODNB, XLIV, p. 846. Oxford University Calendar for the Year 1880, Oxford, 1880, p. 80–81. Poole, A History of the Huguenots, p. v. Charles Weiss, Histoire des réfugiés protestants de France depuis la révocation de l’Edit de Nantes 2 vols, Paris, 1853 ; Charles Weiss, A History of the French Protestant Refugees from the Edict of Nantes to our own days, Edinburgh and London, 1854. A separate American translation was published in New York in 1854. Poole, A History of the Huguenots, p. vi–viii. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 407 13.05.13 16:48 408 ANDREW SPICER a ive-page illustrated supplement to he Graphic. his gave an account of the sixteenth-century refugee communities, the Revocation and subsequent exodus from France and the institutions that were established in England, such as the French Hospital66. A more academic examination was provided by Samuel Wayland Kershaw’s Protestants from France in their English Home. he preface is dated 22 October 1885, the anniversary of the Revocation, and in it Kershaw expressed the hope that « this volume may serve as a itting tribute to the interesting commemoration in England and other countries »67. Kershaw drew on the work of earlier historians, but sought to give an account of « a people who nobly sacriiced all for conscience’ sake » through the « actions and correspondence of famous men »68. he study concluded with a chapter looking at the « present state of French Protestantism » which included references to the bicentennial commemorations69. Nonetheless, in spite of this growing body of research into the diaspora, the author of a short pamphlet on the Revocation published in 1885 expressed the view that « the history of the Huguenots in England has yet to be written »70. Besides academic research into this diaspora, there was also increasing interest in the preservation of the archives and other artefacts documenting the Huguenot presence in Britain. However, it was the French Protestant Hospital rather than the French Protestant Church that played a signiicant part in this developing interest in what might be termed the Huguenot heritage. According he Standard, this was « an institution which has long been regarded by the descendants of the Refugees as the centre of Huguenot 66 67 68 69 70 T.A., « Huguenots in Spitalields », he Graphic, 2 May 1885 ; homas Archer, « he Huguenots in England. A Narrative commemorating the Bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 22nd, 1685 », he Graphic, 24 October 1885, p. 458, 461–464. he directors of the French Protestant Hospital commended Archer for his articles on the Huguenots, HSL, French Protestant Hospital (hereafter FPH), A3/4, p. 329. He was also the author of the novel, By Fire and Sword : A Story of the Huguenots, London, 1885. Samuel Wayland Kershaw, Protestants from France in their English Home, London, 1885, p. vi–vii. Ibid., p. vi. Ibid., p. 151–164. Mansel Gwynne Griffith, 1685–1985 In Memory of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 24th October 1685, London, 1885, p. 1. he only works listed in the bibliography relating to the Huguenots in Britain were by Charles Weiss and William Durrant Cooper. Ibid., p. 14–15. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 408 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 409 interest »71. he French Protestant Hospital had supplanted the church of St Martin-le-Grand, which appears to have lost touch with the descendants of the French Protestant refugees as a result of their assimilation into British society. his was despite the abortive attempt by Daugars to restore the connection with the church through the formation of « he Huguenot Bond » by which every descendant of French Protestant refugees would be admitted as a certiicated member of the French Protestant Church of London72. Incorporated in 1718 to care for the needs of poor Huguenots who had been settled in England for longer than six months and their descendants, the French Protestant Hospital like the refugee churches, had been afected by the increasing assimilation of the Huguenots into English society by the late eighteenth century with dwindling funds and declining demand, but by 1867 had reconstituted itself with a new purpose-built hospital for sixty inmates with state-of-the-art facilities in Victoria Park, Hackney73. It had long been an important repository for memorabilia relating to the Huguenot past in England, including church plate, having received two communion cups and a paten for use in the chapel as early as 1790, following the closure of the church at Hoxton74. he statutes of the new hospital relected this renewed awareness of the Huguenot presence, stating that the hospital was to be maintained as « a standing memorial of the practical piety of the early French refugees »75. he statutes had also established an anniversary sermon, which by the nineteenth century had become the focus of an annual commemoration of the Huguenot diaspora, to which the directors invited distinguished guests76. Although the Lord Mayor of London and the French ambassador, the former French President William Waddington were unable to attend in 1884, there was still « a large party of 71 72 73 74 75 76 he Standard, 23 October 1885. FPCL, Misc. Papers 92, « he Huguenot Bond ». his paragraph is based on Tessa Murdoch and Randolph Vigne, he French Hospital in England. Its Huguenot History and Collections, Cambridge, 2009. Murdoch and Vigne, he French Hospital, p. 38. Ibid., p. 54 ; Arthur Giraud Browning, ‘Preface’, he Charter and By-Laws of the Corporation of the Governor and Directors of the Hospital for Poor French Protestants and their Descendants Residing in Great Britain, London, 1876, p. xxiii. he Statutes and By-Laws of the Corporation of the Governor and Directors of the Hospital for Poor French Protestants, p. xlvi–xlvii. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 409 13.05.13 16:48 410 ANDREW SPICER ladies, clergy and gentlemen many of whom were of Huguenot descent or especially interested in the Huguenots and their History »77. his interest in the heritage of the Huguenots was taken up by the Arthur Giraud Browning who became the Secretary to the Directors of the French Protestant Hospital in 1875 ; he encouraged further donations of books, records and memorabilia78. he Hospital minutes record a number of gifts to the library, including an eighteenth-century portrait of Pierre Ogier, a former director, and church records which had been in the possession of John Southerden Burn79. An indication of the extent to which the institution had become a repository of Huguenot memory is provided by the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian shortly before the commemoration of the Revocation of the edict of Nantes : We are in full French Huguenot history when we pass the threshold of the hospital. French coats of arms and mottoes adorn the walls where hang the portraits of all the Huguenot worthies, engravings or paintings recording episodes of Huguenot persecutions and Huguenot heroism. he library contains the history of the early French Protestant Church and of the settlement of the Huguenot refugees in England80. he French Protestant Hospital also contributed to the growing interest in Huguenot genealogy during the nineteenth century. Research in this ield had been led by the publication in 1866 by the Scottish minister, David Agnew of his Protestant Exiles from France in the reign of Louis XIV with the subtitle title, he Huguenot Refugees and their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland. A three volume second edition was published between 1871 and 1874. his massive work had provided a series of biographies of some of the prominent leading Huguenot families and their descendants. In his own research into the past directors of the French Protestant Hospital and their coats of arms, Giraud Browning discovered the institutions archives were relatively limited. herefore together with another director, Henry Wagner, he began collecting family pedigrees and other related material. Giraud Browning and Wagner intended to produce a history of the Hospital as well 77 78 79 80 HSL, FPH A3/4 113–114, 127–128. HSL, FPH A3/2, p. 269, 283 ; Giraud Browning, Bibliothèque de La Providence, p. ix–x ; Murdoch and Vigne, he French Hospital, p. 54–58. HSL, FPH A3/4 p. 86, 145, 483. See Raymond Smith, Records of the Royal Bounty and Connected Funds, the Burn Donation, and the Savoy Church in the Huguenot Library, University College, London, Huguenot Society Quarto Series 51 (1974), p. 57–67. he Manchester Guardian, 29 September 1885, p. 5. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 410 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 411 as a complete list of its directors. Wagner was also to work with Agnew on a third edition of his Protestant Exiles81. his interest in family history also relected a more pressing concern for the directors of the French Hospital. Charitable relief and admission was restricted to French Protestants and their descendants. he gradual integration of the refugees and their descendants into English society meant that it became more diicult for those who were in real need of charity to demonstrate that they were of Huguenot descent. Some petitioners as the descendants of former inmates found establishing their Huguenot ancestry relatively straightforward, but other applications were either referred back or rejected on the grounds of insuicient proof82. his strict adherence to the regulations meant that some individuals who were in need and of Huguenot descent were rejected, such as a French governess from Brighton who « though certain of her descent from French Protestants has been unable to obtain the required proofs and most of her relations being dead she now despairs of obtaining them »83. In some instances, Giraud Browning worked with the poorer applicants to establish their eligibility for admission to the French Protestant Hospital. For this purpose, he established a network of correspondents, archivists and librarians willing to respond to enquiries and undertake further archival research. hese included the Samuel Wayland Kershaw, the librarian at Lambeth Palace, who prior to his election as a director compiled and presented a catalogue of the manuscripts and books relating to French Protestants in the library84. To an extent the culmination of this reawakening or rediscovery of a Huguenot identity was the foundation of a new society which emerged out of growing academic research into the diaspora, the interests of the French Protestant Hospital as well as the approaching bicentenary of the Revocation. An inaugural meeting was held « to form a bond of fellowship among those who inherit or admire the characteristic Huguenot virtues and the interchange and publication of knowledge, relating to the history, settlement, genealogy, heraldry, and registers of the Huguenots »85. he 81 82 83 84 85 Jean Tsushima, « he Founding Fathers », PHS 26 (1983–88), p. 180–181. HSL, FPH A3/3, p. 64, 119, 187, 479, A3/4, p. 131–132, 170, 181, 189, 191, 219, 223, 300, 387, 437–438. HSL, FPH A3/3, p. 96, 119. HSL, FPH A3/3, p. 33–34, 69, A3/4, p. 366, 387 ; Tsushima, « he Founding Fathers », p. 178, 188. he Standard, 1 April 1885, p. 1. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 411 13.05.13 16:48 412 ANDREW SPICER Huguenot Society of London was established and the irst oicers and council elected at a meeting held at the Criterion Restaurant in Picadilly on 15 April 188586. he foundation of the Society was comparatively late ; the Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français had been established in 1852, the Commission de l’Eglise wallonne and the Huguenot Society of America in 1883. In his opening speech, the President of the new society, Sir Henry Layard, expressed surprise and regret that a similar society had not been formed in England long ago87. He went on to comment that Even in the present generation many oicial documents of the highest interest relating to the French churches had disappeared, family records had been destroyed or lost, and it was daily becoming more diicult for the descendants of the Huguenot refugees to into this country to trace their pedigrees back their pedigrees, or to acquire an accurate knowledge of the lives and pursuits of their ancestors88. In its byelaws the objectives of the new society were expressed as being the interchange and publication of knowledge concerning the history of the Huguenots in France, Huguenot migration, their settlements around the world but especially in the British Isles and « the resulting efects of those settlements upon the professions, manufactures, commerce and social life of the several places in which they were made », and inally Huguenot genealogy and heraldry, as well as church registers and other archives89. he focus on the Huguenot diaspora and its contribution can be seen in the certiicate issued to the early Fellows (see igure 6). he certiicate juxtaposes the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre with the Huguenots being welcomed below the white clifs of Dover as they arrive in England. he depiction of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes is linked with the names of Huguenot families who made signiicant contributions to the Church, Army, Law, Arts and Sciences, Literature and Commerce in Britain90. he close association between the Society’s objectives and the interests of the French Protestant Hospital are perhaps not surprising, as Giraud Browning was the leading igure in its establishment and a number of the other directors were founder members. 86 87 88 89 90 HSL, HS A1, p. 2 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 8 ; he Standard, 16 April 1885. HSL, HS A1, p. 4 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 8. HSL, HS A1, p. 4 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 8. HSL, HS A1, p. 9 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 1. HSL, Archives O1. See also Murdoch, he Quiet Conquest, p. 317 ; Murdoch and Vigne, he French Hospital, p. 55. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 412 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 413 Figure 8: Membership Certiicate of the Huguenot Society presented to its irst President, Sir Austen Henry Layard. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 413 13.05.13 16:48 414 ANDREW SPICER From the 46 individuals who attended the inaugural meeting, the number rapidly increased to 170 irst or founding fellows of the Society. Amongst them were representatives of refugee families – Boileau, Cazalet, Chamier, Jourdain, Minet, Portal, Shoppee (Chapuis), de Soyres – as well as other Huguenot descendants who were prominent in the late nineteenth century, such as the civil engineer John Frederic La Trobe Bateman, the prison reformer Colonel Sir Edmund du Cane, the archaeologist and diplomat Sir Henry Austen Layard, and John James Stewart Perowne, Dean of Peterborough and later Bishop of Worcester91. Daugars and the members of the consistory of the French Protestant Church were not, however, amongst the founding fellows or those who initially joined the Society. From the outset, the academic aspirations of the new society were apparent ; a number of the founding fellows were members of other learned associations such as the Society of Antiquaries and Royal Historical Society92. he establishment and objectives of the new Society were even reported in the irst issue of he English Historical Review93. he Society sought to associate itself with academic research and wider interest in Huguenot history. Reginald Poole had been one of the founding fellows but David Agnew had declined the invitation to join the new society in April 1885 on grounds of ill-health94. Nonetheless, he was made an honorary fellow at the second meeting of the Society together with Henry Baird (the author of he History of the Rise of the Huguenots) and his brother Charles Washington Baird, the author of he History of Huguenot Emigration to America. Links were also forged with the sister societies abroad, through electing the Presidents, secretaries and librarians of Commission pour l’histoire des Eglises Wallonnes, he Huguenot Society of America, Société de l’histoire du Protestantisme Français as honorary fellows95. Curiously although Samuel Smiles used the library of the French Protestant Hospital in 1876, when working on the second edition of his History of the Huguenots and later donated some of his 91 92 93 94 95 HSL, HS A1, p. 2–3 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 11–14 ; Tsushima, « he Founding Fathers », p. 183–188 ; ODNB, IV, p. 305–307, XVII, p. 23–25, XXXII, p. 915–919, XLIII, p. 790–791. Ibid., p. 183. « Miscellaneous Notes », he English Historical Review 1 (1896), p. 187. Agnew wrote that he was « well enough for a little reading & writing, but otherwise am quite on the shelf ». Letter dated 20 April 1885. HSL, Bound in D.A. Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France, chiely in the Reign of Louis XIV, 3rd edition, 2 vols, London, 1886, I. HSL, HS A1, p. 13 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 15–16. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 414 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 415 books, he neither became a member of the Society nor an honorary fellow96. Mention should also be made of one other honorary fellow, Joseph Auguste Martin who was the energetic pastor of the French church in Canterbury and the author of a brief history of his church97. his aspiration to embrace the wider interest in Huguenot history that had emerged in the late nineteenth century, prompted the President to comment at a later meeting that « it is not actually necessary to be of Huguenot descent to become a full Fellow of the Society ; we are prepared to welcome others interested in historical and antiquarian research ». he paper contributed by one Mr Squire on the « Huguenots of Wandsworth » was held up as an example, of someone who had become interested in their history after considering the old French burial ground as a suitable location for amateur photography98. Furthermore as he Standard also noted in reporting on the irst meeting, « it is understood that ladies may be admitted as members »99. Although perhaps the most prominent expression of the rediscovery of Huguenot identity to emerge from the late nineteenth century, the Huguenot Society was not the only organisation founded in 1885. At a meeting in early October 1885, the directors of the French Protestant Hospital also resolved : « hat a lodge of freemasons be founded to commemorate the revocation of the Edict of Nantes but more particularly the celebration of the bi-centenary of the same to take place on the 22nd October 1885 at the French Protestant Hospital, Victoria Park, South Hackney, London »100. In the eighteenth century, there had been three French lodges in the capital and several Huguenots – most notably the natural philosopher Jean heophilius Desaguliers – had played a signiicant role in the development of English freemasonry101. Initially it was intended that the lodge would be 96 97 98 99 100 101 HSL, FPH A3/3, p. 437, T8/7/1 ; Tsushima, « he Founding Fathers », p. 179. HSL, HS A1, p. 14 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 16 ; Joseph Auguste Martin, Christian Firmness of the Huguenots and A Sketch of the History of the French Refugee Church of Canterbury, Canterbury, 1881. See also my forthcoming essay, « Archbishop Tait, Huguenots and the French Church of Canterbury ». HSL, HS A1, 135–36, 181 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), 256–57, 2 (1887–88), p. xxiii. he Standard, 16 April 1885, p. 3. C.R. Dunn, Notes on the History of the Huguenot Lodge, No. 2140, London, 1986, unpaginated. ODNB, XV, p. 890–893 ; M.E. Rowbottom, « John heophilius Desaguliers (1683– 1744) », PHS 21(1965–70), p. 207–209 ; Duncan Campbell Lee, Desaguliers of No. 4 and his Services to Freemasonry, London, 1932 ; Murdoch, he Quiet Conquest, p. 112 ; Pierre Boutin, « Jean-héophile Desaguliers : d’une integration réussie à l’Europe des 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 415 13.05.13 16:48 416 ANDREW SPICER named after Henri Massue de Ruvigny, Earl of Galway : French diplomat, commander-in-chief of the English forces in Ireland as well as founding Governor and benefactor of the French Hospital102. he decision to call it the Huguenot Lodge instead, not to mention procedural errors with the petition to the Grand Lodge, meant that it was not consecrated until 10 May 1886103. According to the petition to found the lodge, all the signatories are Huguenots by descent and directors of the French Protestant Hospital104. his was also true of the irst lodge oicers. After considering several locations, it was decided that their meetings would be held at the Criterion as this was where the Huguenot Society met105. he jewel or badge adopted by the lodge, however, evoked not the Huguenots but the Waldensians with the use of a lit candle surrounded by seven stars and the motto « Lux licet in tenebris » (Light shines in darkness ; see igure 7)106. Reporting on its foundation, he Freemason expressed surprise that no such lodge had been founded earlier and the view that through their settlement in England, the descendants of the Huguenot refugees « have preserved many of the national characteristics, and have always been held, in the highest respect by their countrymen. hus the Huguenots are the embodiment of the most complete system of toleration in religion and that is one of the features belonging to the system of freemasonry »107. he commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes at the French Protestant Hospital represented in many ways the culmination of the rediscovery of a Huguenot identity in Victorian 102 103 104 105 106 107 savoirs », in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton eds., From Strangers to Citizens. he Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550– 1750, Brighton, 2001, p. 223, 225. Dunn, Notes on the History of the Huguenot Lodge ; ODNB, XXXVII, p. 242–246. LMF, Petition of Huguenot Lodge No. 2140, Annual Return 1890 ; Dunn, Notes on the History of the Huguenot Lodge. LMF, Petition, 12 January 1886. LMF, Annual Return 1890 ; HSL, HS A1, p. 94 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 205. Dunn, Notes on the History of the Huguenot Lodge ; G. audisio, he Waldensian Dissent : Persecution and Survival, c. 1170–1570, Cambridge, 1999, 204. his may have been due to the inluence of Richard Hervé Giraud, one of the founders and the irst Master of the Lodge ; the Giraud family had settled in the Vaudois valleys in the early eighteenth century, later migrating to Kent. ODNB, XXII, p. 343 ; Tsushima, « he Founding Fathers », p. 186. he Freemason, 22 May 1886, p. 304. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 416 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 417 Figure 9: he Badge or Jewel of the Huguenot Lodge. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). England. Unlike the more confessionally focused service at St Martin-leGrand, according to the Manchester Guardian this was to be a « Huguenot festival » that was « semi-social and religious in character »108. A service led by the Rev. Septimus Hansard was held at St Matthew’s church, Bethnal Green : « a church of peculiar interest to many of the Huguenot descendants who were present, from its association with the principal events in the lives of their ancestors, and from the Huguenot memorials it contains »109. Large numbers of Huguenots had settled in Spitalields and the western part of Bethnal Green following the Revocation, which is still relected in some of the street names, while those attending the service in 1885 would have seen the memorials at St Matthew’s to some of their descendants, such as the local politician Joseph Merceron and the churchwarden Peter Renvoize110. 108 109 110 he Manchester Guardian, 29 September 1885, p. 5, 8 October 1885, p. 5. HSL, HS A1, p. 38 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 72–73. T.A., « Huguenots in Spitalields » ; Catherine Swindlehurst, « “An unruly and 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 417 13.05.13 16:48 418 ANDREW SPICER he liturgy for the service was based on the Anglican order for Evening Prayer, but it included the singing of metrical psalms to the music of Bourgeois and Goudinel recalling the proscribed assemblies of the Désert111. he sermon delivered by Rev. John Graves took as its text the motto of the French Hospital, Dominus providebit – « he Lord Will Provide ». It recalled the resolution of those who had remained steadfast in their religious beliefs but considered « it were better, perhaps, for us not to dwell too long upon the suferings of that awful time ». He went on to discuss how they were puriied through their suferings and in their exodus what was a « misfortune for France has been, by the Providence of God, an unspeakable blessing for us ». Although critical of Louis XIV and Mme de Maintenon, this was not a confessional attack ; Graves, in fact, prayed « that there may be forgiveness for those who did wrong ». he sermon celebrated the beneits of their settlement in « the freest country in the world ; a land where every man, whatever be his rank and station, is able to worship his Creator, how, when and where he will, according to the dictates of his conscience and the promptings of the faith that is in him »112. he service was followed by a gathering of some four hundred people at a « Huguenot festival » organised by the French Protestant Hospital and the Huguenot Society of London. he commemoration included the singing of Huguenot psalms and songs by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the girls of the French Protestant School ; the reading of contemporary French poems on the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre and the Edict of Nantes by A.A. Dupont, the newly-appointed minister of the French Protestant Episcopal Church113. here were also papers delivered on subjects such as the inluence of the Revocation on the Glorious Revolution and the history 111 112 113 presumptuous rabble” : the Reaction of the Spitalields Weaving Community to the Settlement of the Huguenots, 1660–90 », in Vigne and Littleton eds., From Strangers to Citizens, p. 366–374 ; St Matthew, Bethnal Green, Register of the Tombstones and Monuments in the Parish Churchyard, London, 1896 ; John Oldman, A History of the Parish and Church of St Matthew and St James Bethnal Green, London, 1989 ; T.F.T Baker, A History of the County of Middlesex : Volume 11 : Stepney, Bethnal Green, Oxford, 1998, p. 92, 94, 215 ; ODNB, XXXVII, p. 854. HSL, HS A1, p. 38–39, PL MAT (PAM) Celebration of the Bi-Centenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes […] Order of Divine Service at the Parish Church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 73. PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 73–78 ; John Graves, Jehovah-Jireh. « he Lord will provide », Gen. xxii., 14. (A Sermon preached … Oct. 22, 1885, on the Occasion of the Celebration of the Bi-centenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Lymington, 1886, p. 2–6. HSL, HS A1, p. 40 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 90. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 418 13.05.13 16:48 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 419 of the French churches in London, which were subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Huguenot Society114. Probably one of the most important parts of this event was an exhibition of « the really remarkable collection of Huguenot relics, books, pictures, documents, specimens of work and other objects » which had been lent by representatives of Huguenot families (see igures 8 and 9). hese included examples of silk weaving from the eighteenth century which lined the walls of the corridor ; family portraits and engravings ; French prayer books, psalters and Bibles ; examples of French embroidery, needlework, jewellery and goldsmith’s work115. he event served as much as a celebration of the Huguenot contribution to the socio-economic and cultural life of Britain, as a commemoration of the Revocation. his concern for the history and heritage of the Huguenots was re-emphasised by the President of the Society : Figure 10: Exhibition of ‘Huguenot relics’ at the French Protestant Hospital in October 1885. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). 114 115 Ibid., p. 79–90, 92–115. HSL, FPH A3/4, p. 316, HS A1, p. 41–42, HL 369.1, 372.1 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 90–91 ; he Standard, 23 October 1885. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 419 13.05.13 16:48 420 ANDREW SPICER Figure 11: Exhibits including documents, portraits, and examples of silverwork and silk weaving, displayed at the French Protestant Hospital in October 1885. (Reproduced by kind permission of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland). Whatever may be the thoughts of its individual members upon this subject, the Huguenot Society of London was founded and exists, as a purely historical and literary society ; and one lesson from the Commemoration of the 22nd October, is the obligation which rests upon every Huguenot descendant to collect, to cherish and to hand down to succeeding generations, all that tends to preserve the memory of his heroic ancestors, and to prove his honourable lineage116. Writing towards the end of 1885, the minister of the French congregation in Canterbury, Joseph Auguste Martin expressed his concern about the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He pointed out that much had been written recently on the history of the Huguenots which had aroused public interest in the subject : he history of their suferings under persecution, of their settlements in England and elsewhere, of their wholesome and fruitful inluence in the countries of their adoption, and other historical details in the form of essays, lectures, articles in periodicals, sermons &c have become 116 HSL, HS A1, p. 44 ; PHS 1 (1885–86), p. 92 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 420 13.05.13 16:49 FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND HUGUENOT IDENTITY 421 familiar to all […] But in the midst of this happy revival of interest and cherished reminiscences nothing has appeared yet on that most important subject of all, that of their religious views and principles […] irmly resting on God’s Truth alone. It was from this they derived all their strength and capacity to withstand with Christian irmness the wiles, conspiracies, threats, plots, prisons, gibbets, banishments, the sword and the ire of Rome117. In some senses, Martin straddled the two approaches to the commemorations as he was an honorary fellow of the Huguenot Society and an honorary elder of the French Protestant Church of St Martin-le-Grand118. He wrote on the history of the Huguenots, particularly in relation to the church at Canterbury and even lent their communion cup to the display at the French Hospital119. Like Daugars, Martin considered that there was a confessional dimension that must not be overlooked when relecting on the history of the Huguenots and their persecution. While perhaps not as virulently antiCatholic, Martin believed in the importance of the fundamental characteristics of French Protestant identity. He therefore published an exposition of « the Christian spirit and sentiments of the Huguenots, of their principles, doctrine and faith, presented in opposition to the false principles, wrong teaching, and spurious faith of the Roman or unfaithful Church »120. he confessional approach to the bicentenary taken by Daugars and his church grew not only out of his own antipathy towards Catholicism but also religious zeal. Remembering the persecution of the Huguenots was not therefore merely the commemoration of an historical event but the opportunity to bring about the Protestant evangelisation of France. his was in marked contrast to the attitudes of many Huguenot descendants who over several generations had become assimilated into British society and religiously conformed to the liturgy of the Church of England, either attending their parish churches or the French Protestant Episcopal Church. With this gradual process of assimilation the French Protestant Hospital had emerged as the repository of Huguenot memory and in 1885 those closely associated with the institution sought to develop this further in the 117 118 119 120 Joseph Auguste Martin, he Spirit, Principles, Faith, and Worship of the Huguenots in their day, as Opposed to the Spirit and Doctrines of Rome, London, 1885, p. x–xi. HSL, HS A1, p. 14 ; PHS, 1 (1885–86), p. 16 ; FPCL, MS283, p. 238. French Church of Canterbury Archives, Actes du Consistoire. 18 Février 1877 – 13 September 1946, p. 37–38 ; Joseph Auguste. Martin, Christian Firmness of the Huguenots and A Sketch of the History of the French Refugee Church of Canterbury Canterbury, 1881. Martin, he Spirit of the Huguenots, p. xii. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 421 13.05.13 16:49 422 ANDREW SPICER establishment of the Huguenot Society. For them the bicentenary was not merely a remembrance of the suferings of their own ancestors but an opportunity to celebrate the religious tolerance they had experienced in Britain and the signiicant contribution that they had made in return. hey were able to express pride in their family history and ancestry, linking themselves with a group who had remained steadfast in their faith but through their industriousness were able to advance themselves in their host society. Such principles had been enhanced by books such as those of Samuel Smiles but also itted with later nineteenth-century attitudes towards immigration and self-improvement. Furthermore, this understanding of the late seventeenthcentury Huguenot diaspora had already begun to be accepted and developed in Britain before the bicentenary through the curiosity of antiquarians, academics and members of the general public who were not of Huguenot descent. In some cases these were romantic notions of the Huguenot but others sought to celebrate and rediscover the importance of the diaspora for Britain. he bicentenary of the Revocation therefore highlighted the complex and divergent identity of French Protestantism and the Huguenots in Victorian Britain. 32_9_M1038_Texte.indd 422 13.05.13 16:49