work. On 20th February the Board, on Nicholas Dassauville’s recommendation, ordered forty packs of lint from Tournay, Mr. Crommelin of Haarlem to advance the necessary cash. Spinning after the French manner was to be introduced in order to keep up the supply of yarn. The contract for “the building of the French people’s houses at Broughton Loan,” had been settled on 27th March. And on 24th April it was specifically ordered that
“Two specimen houses be built according to a model, with the addition of a vent to each vault, and a common stair on the north from both the vaults and the upper stories; the windows in the vault to project a little in the soles from the wall, in order to dart the rays of light to the backmost parts of the vault.”
In May it was settled that there should be a common oven; that the five acres should be enclosed with a dyke; and that Nicholas Dassauville, as the foreman, should have a superior house. The contract with him and the other French people, written in French and English, was signed on 26th November 1730 by the Lord President of the Court of Session, and by Lords Milton and Monzie, Mungo Graeme of Gorthie, Esq., Mr Gilbert Stewart, merchant of Edinburgh. Dassauville received £40 for his travelling expenses on 8th January 1731.
A good deal of work was done in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, by taking some of the weavers and the women to give lessons to Scotch spinners as to the making of tools in the French fashion, and “in their method of brushing the flax and reeling and making up of the yarn.” The Linen Society of Glasgow received them cordially.
The name of Picardy, or Little Picardy, was not given to the village by the Board of Manufactures. The French colony invented the name for itself. It appeared first in the records of the Calton Burying-ground, puzzling successive recorders, who wrote “Pickerty,” “Pickerly,” &c. In course of time it found its way into the books of the Commissariot of Edinburgh.
The village has disappeared. The site was sold for a street or streets for the sum of £1200, and the name “Picardy Place,” was concocted. The only memorial of it is a view of the Huguenot village, taken by John Clerk of Eldin; a facsimile of his sketch is engraved in the beautiful volume of Mr Clerk’s etchings, edited by David Laing for the Bannatyne Club in 1855. The ground appears to be studded with mulberry trees, and tradition has always connected the village with silk-worms and silk-weaving. How to account for this I can make no suggestion. The Board of Manufactures did not promote either silk-weaving or the culture of the mulberry. The vaults, which antiquaries have supposed to have been constructed for the rearing of silk-worms, were built for the reception of looms for cambric-weavers and workers with yarn.
With regard to the surnames of the villagers, enquirers after French names must be informed that part of the duty of the French weavers was to instruct Scotch apprentices. The first apprentice, in 1730, was a Scottish youth named Bowie, a son of the minister of Monzie. In 1731, Peter Garro, one of the boys who came from Spittalfields as an interpreter, was apprenticed to John Dallet. I observed the name of Pillens, from Picardy, in the records of the Calton Burying-ground, and I inquired if the family of Pillans could have been French; but it evidently was not. By apprenticeships Scotch and French names became interwoven.
To return to the French ministers of Edinburgh. M. Jean-Rodolphe Tarin died in the Canongate in February 1741. He left a widow, née Elizabeth Faulcon. Two brothers survived him, named Jean-David and Jean-Baptiste, and a sister, Elizabeth, widow of Monsieur du Valent Suela, of Ducart, in Andalusia. These three appointed Nicholas Dassauville, wright, at Picardie, near Edinburgh, their factor on 1st November 1743. Madame Tarin made her Will on 27th November 1741, and it was registered in the Sheriff Court on 21st May 1742:—
I, Elizabeth Faulcon, relict of Mr. John Rodolph Tarin, one of the ministers of the French congregation at Edinburgh, Being at present sick of body, but sound of memory and judgment, and having by my two dispositions of this date, in favors of Elizabeth Tarin, and Jean David Tarin, and Jean Baptiste Tarin, sister and brothers german to my deceased husband, as also by my Translations in favours of Mr. Piere Loumeau Dupont, one of the ministers of the said French congregation, likeways of this date, settled the greatest part of my affairs; and being desireous to prevent any disputes that may happen amongst my relations after my decease, Am resolved to make my latter Will and Testament as follows:—
Impmis. — I committ my soul to God, hoping to be saved in and throw the merits of my blessed Redeemer, and appoint my executor after named to cause my body to be hurried amongst the faithfull. Item, I, by these presents, without hurt or prejudice to ye aforesaid