western portion of the undercroft of the cathedral. The local historian, Somner, said (in 1640), “Let me now leade you to the Undercroft, a place fit — and haply (as one cause) fitted — to keepe in memory the subterraneous Temples of the Primitives in the times of persecution. The West part thereof, being spatious and lightsome, for many years hath beene the Strangers Church.”[1] The silk weavers of the congregation plied their looms on the week days in this sanctuary; but as strangers, unresolved upon any final destination or settlement, they were content with toleration, indulgence, or connivance; they did not take legal steps for incorporation till 1567.
In that year their minister and schoolmaster drew up a Latin petition addressed to the Court of Burghmote, applying to be incorporated as manufacturers of “Florence serges, Bombasin, D. of Ascot serges, &c, of Orleance, Frotz, Silkwever, Mouquade, Mauntes, Bages, &c, Stofes Mouquades.” The Court received the petition on 15th July, 9th Elizabeth, and “agreed that there may be a company of the strangers received to inhabit within the Liberties of this city, by order from the Queen’s Council, and upon orders to be devised by this house.” These orders were issued in the year 1574, licensing their trade on the understanding “that they shall not make cloath or kersies, such as the English doe make at this present,” and that they “sell in gross and not by retaile.” The signatures to the petition of the year 1567 were Hector Hamon, minister; Vincent Primont, schoolmaster (institutor juventutis); Gilles Cousin, master of works (magister operum et conductor totius congregationis in opera); Michel Cousin, Jaques Guerin, Pierre Du Bosc, Jean de la Forterie, Noel Lestene, Nicolas Dubuisson, Antoine du Verdier, Philippe de Miez, Jean le Pelu, Pierre Desportes, Jaques Boudet, and tres viduae.
The pasteur, Hector Hamon, is supposed to have been of the same family as the writing-master and caligraphist (latterly secretary to Charles IX.) Pierre Hamon, who as a Protestant was strangled in the Place de Greve in Paris, 7th March 1569. He himself had been pasteur of Bacqueville in Normandy. He is reported as a settler in Rye in 1569 among Protestant strangers who “verie quietlie and orderlie use themselves.” The prayer of the Canterbury petitioners was not formally and finally granted until after an interval of seven years, and meanwhile Monsieur Hamon through chagrin may have left that city. But though the minutes of the Court of Burghmote do not record it, it is possible that the petition signed by him may have been presented in 1574; and if so we may suppose that his first appearance as a refugee was at Rye, and that he settled at Canterbury thereafter. He probably founded a refugee family; for in December 1735 we meet with Hector Hamon, Esq., Major in Howard’s Foot, and Colonel Isaac Hamon is in the Irish pedigree of the Champagnes.
The teacher, Vincent Primont, was probably a young man. He asked and obtained leave to teach the French language to English pupils, and was thus a public benefactor. His daughter Magdalen was married in the cathedral on 17th December 1599. The widow of “Maistre Primont” was alive on 25th December 1621.
The surname Cousin is deeply rooted in Great Britain, and those who bear the name claim French Protestant ancestry. The reader has observed Gilles and Michel Cousin on the Canterbury petition. The surname occurs again in Canterbury in 1596, Jan Cousin presenting his son Jan for baptism. But the name appears oftener in Southampton. In 1572 Antoine Cousin, a native of Armentieres, was married to Jane de la Croix: five daughters were born to him, three of whom, as well as himself, died of the plague in 1583. There were also two brothers, natives of Tournay, Gilles and Robert Cousin; the latter died in 1584; but Gilles had two sons, Pierre (born 1575) and Jaques {born 1577).
The surname De la Forterye also took root, though this refugee family, like many others, gravitated from Canterbury to London. They trace their pedigree to the Jean de la Forterie of 1567, who came from Lisle in Flanders. The refugee and his wife sailed for England, and a son was born to them “on ship-board, as they came.” He received the name of Nicolas. “Nicolas de la Fortrye” became a merchant in London, and married Anne, daughter of William Theissies (or Thieffries) also a London merchant. His three sons were duly chronicled in 1633-34:—
- ↑ For more particulars see a Paper on the Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, by W. S. Scott Robertson, in Archaologia Cantiana, vol. xiii. Through being allotted to the refugees as a Christian church, the western part of the crypt gained a celebrity which was denied to the eastern. “The lofty eastern crypt had been, in 1546, assigned to the use of the First Prebendary, and was occupied by successive holders of that prebend as a cellar for wood and coal, from 1546 until (about) 1866.” — Page 551.
