“This is the complement of all their other miseries. And to avoid so great a mischief it is that they fly in flocks to Protestant countries, that they may save the souls of their own bowels, and not have them bred up in Popish darkness and the regions of the shadow of death. Some have slipped away by night with their families, and driven without intermission till they have got out of their imperious Prince’s dominions. And others, as is credibly reported, have shipped off their little ones packed up in bales of merchantable goods.
“As for their ministers, they upon any pretended crimes are banished, fined, or imprisoned on purpose to make them forsake their flocks, and to discourage the people from putting their children to the study of Divinity. Nay, they are in an especial manner obnoxious to the barbarous cruelties and insults of the soldiery, who have free quarter upon the poor Protestants, whom they abuse to what degree they please.
“In some provinces (as Poictou, Xaintonge, and about Rochelle) they trail them like dogs by the neck to the mass, torture them till they renounce their religion, and most inhumanly misuse or murder those whom God enables to resist unto blood. And though these tyrannical and arbitrary outrages be not done by open order, yet it may be presumed they are done upon connivance, and according to the secret will of the supreme authority; since those that do them are neither punished nor restrained, notwithstanding the complaints which the sufferers daily make at court. These barbarous insolences, added to the severity of the royal edicts, you may be sure adds wings to their haste, and makes them fly in great hurry and confusion into foreign countries. And the providence of God hath cast many of them, like shipwrecked men on our coasts, and expects that we should show them no little kindness, but receive them courteously, and do good unto them in an especial manner, as unto them that are of the household of faith. They are persecuted, but we must not forsake them; they are grievously cast down, but in such an exigence as this we must not let them be destroyed.”
So far Dr Hickes, who had been much on the Continent as a travelling tutor, and, having correspondents abroad, was fully competent to draw up an elaborate, accurate, and interesting statement such as the above. The collection was made in 1681 (old style), but according to new style in 1682. Anthony a Wood says in his Diary:— “April 1682. — At the latter end of March and beginning of this month, was a collection in every college and hall, as also in every parish of Oxford, for succour and relief of poor Protestants that were lately come into England on a persecution from France; people gave liberally.”
The following tidings appeared in a newspaper: — Plymouth, 6th Sept. 1681. — An open boat arrived here yesterday, in which were forty or fifty French Protestants who resided outside La Rochelle. Four others left with this boat, one of which is said to have put into Dartmouth, but it is not yet known what became of the other three.” Pointer says, — “30th Nov. 1681. — Mr Firmin settled some French Protestants at Ipswich.”
Section IV.
THE VARIEGATED POLICY OF JAMES II., AND WILLIAM AND MARY’S FRIENDSHIP TOWARDS THE REFUGEES.
The date of the accession of James, Duke of York, to the British throne, is 6th February 1685. This king looked on the refugees with an evil eye, and was eager to listen to accusations against them. A rumour being put in circulation that they favoured the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion, the leading members of the Thorp-le-Soken French church formally offered their services, goods and lives to “Sa Majesté Jacques Second, Roy d’Angleterre, d’Ecosse, France et Irlande, Defenseur de la Foy,” &c. Their written declaration of loyalty had the following signatures:— Jean Severin [ministre], Jean de l’Estrilles de la Clide, Daniel Olivier, Roquier Puiechegut, Pontardant, Planeq, De la Porte, Samuel de Courcelles, Jean Sionneau, P. Potier, Maria, Bonnet, Messien, Benjamin Turquain. Dated 21st June 1685.[1]
For political reasons King James could not discontinue his late brother’s hospitality; and from his subsequent scheme of toleration, the Huguenots could not be omitted. Hut Henry Savile, now established at home as Vice-Chamberlain, knew the king’s antipathies, and wrote (in July 1685), “I am of opinion that the next two or three months will be so very critical as to our affairs, that it will be seen within
- ↑ Burn, page 122.
