Amidst the decline of enthusiasm outside, the earnestness of the Directors has been unabated. In the preface to their book they say:— “The Directors contemplate with the same interest as heretofore the descendants of those respectable families who suffered so much religious persecution. A charge of great value is entrusted to them; it is endeared to them by the memory of their fathers; and their earnest desire is to preserve this monument to the benevolent foresight of their predecessors. They are sensible that at present the descendants of the refugees have a right, by birth, to the national hospitals and the assistance of their respective parishes; but it is a fact presented to their daily observation, that the poor of this particular class are more happy, have more confidence and comfort in a charitable establishment, founded for their peculiar benefit, under a body of Directors connected with them by common ties, in a society in which they find the same habits and the same remembrances, and in the frequent recurrence of religious aid, so particularly suited to their age and circumstances. On these grounds the Directors of this Hospital are anxious to maintain it as a Monument of the piety of their ancestors.”
Since 1865 much of the beauty and magnificence, which the mind associates with a monument, has been secured. I allude to the new hospital in the neighbourhood of Victoria Park. Not that the old venerable building was destitute of charms. In Bath Street the dusty smoke-breathing visitor knocked at the gateway, over which the name given to the Hospital by his Majesty George I. was inscribed. When the door was opened, at once he breathed pure air; and his eye met a pretty peaceful rural scene, shrubs, grass, and beds of bright-coloured flowers. Though the rooms of the Institution, having been designed according to the habits of former days, were rather confined, yet there was no lack of home comfort; and the site was convenient for visitors of the humble class to which the inmates belong.
The site of the new building is described as Wick Lane, Victoria Park; though these is no appearance of a lane. The grounds are extensive, and studded with a pleasing variety of fine old trees. The building is a massive and ornate French chateau, with handsome windows and minarets, a noble porch, and a lovely chapel. The outside walls have variegated hues, the ground-work of red brick being crossed with a net-work of blue, and a similar effect being produced on the roof by the use of slates of different shades. The inner walls of the lobby, passages, grand staircase, and corridor are ornamented with a greater variety of hues and devices, all wrought in bricks of different colours, without any aid from pencil, paint, or varnish. The architect was Mr Robert Lewis Roumieu, one of the Directors. He gave the benefit of his architectural genius and practical experience, and valuable time, and all the duties of an architect, as a free gift to the hospital. There is also a porter’s lodge at the entrance of the approach to the hospital, and in the same style of architecture. This monumental mansion was opened in the summer of 1865. As to the rooms, which are all that could be desired, I need mention nothing except that in the Directors’ dining-room there are several good portraits, including General the Earl of Galway in his old age, Field-Marshal the Earl Ligonier, and Le Sieur Jacques de Gastigny.
The names of all the Directors of the hospital for upwards of 170 years are recorded in their book. I have arranged in alphabetical order (giving the English forms of the Christian names), the Directors of the first fifty years of the existence of the corporation. When a surname is represented by two or more persons, I have connected them by a bracket. The reader may see both the names of worthy Huguenots and also how far they are represented by descendants, for the representatives of these oldest surnames up to the present date are included. Governors and Deputy-Governors are signalised by capital letters. The military or other rank connected with some of the names gives the highest rank to which they had attained before their deaths, not their rank at the date of their election as Directors, which is the only printed date. The Directors having always had an unlimited power to add to their own number, no official intimation of a death in their ranks was required.
The later surnames are useful for tracing descents, especially collateral ones. But it would be presumptuous in me to proceed further, when it is known that my learned friend, Henry Wagner, Esq., F.S.A., an energetic Director, has made very extensive researches in this direction, and that it is hoped that he will soon print 200 Huguenot refugee pedigrees, many of them being those of the Directors of La Providence, and many others bringing to light refugees (with their ancestors and descendants) hitherto buried in old archives. Either by himself, or under his auspices, a monograph on the French Protestant Hospital may appear before very long, containing the Directors’ names, with full biographical and genealogical annotations.
