Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 29
Chapter XXIX.
THE REFUGEES AND THEIR MINISTERS IN EDINBURGH.
The French Protestant refugees in Edinburgh[1] were formed into a congregation in the year 1682. The ministry was collegiate, and one of the colleagues had always the name of Du Pont, and on the death of the last of that name the church was shut up. That was in 1786, and the Scots Magazine (repeating what the octogenarian divine was probably in the habit of saying) recorded that he and his father had held the charge for “four years more than a century.” During the Presbyterian ascendency, a noble lady had founded Lady Yester’s Church, which was opened, and a parish was annexed to it. But when Charles II. established prelacy, the church was shut up, and the parish re-annexed to the Tron Church. It appears, therefore (although few things in those days were minuted in the Town Council books) that the French Protestants had applied for a place of worship, and that the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town-Councillors allowed them the use of Lady Yester’s Church in the year 1682. The two ministers were Rev. Francois Loumeau Du Pont and his father; I put the son’s name first, because the father’s baptismal name has not been handed down. However, as the son was naturalized at Westminster in 1685 (see List x.), we may conjecture that the father made a journey south for the same purpose two years afterwards, and that he is the “Philip Du Pont, clerk” naturalized in 1687 (see List xiii.), especially as the Edinburgh ministers signed themselves Du Pont [not Dupont]. Some of the baptisms and marriages in the French Church are to be found in the register of the City of Edinburgh; but such entries are so few that the church must have had a register of its own, which, however, disappeared, perhaps at the sale of Mr. Du Pont’s library in 1786.
The clear evidence of the French Protestants having had the use of Lady Yester’s Church, is the circumstance of their being turned out of it. King James VII. desired the chapel belonging to the Palace of Holyrood House both as his private Roman Catholic chapel and also as the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, and expressed his desire in a Royal Warrant, dated 29th May 1687. His Majesty wrote several times to the Town Council in order that a temporary church might be provided for the parishioners of the Canongate parish, who had hitherto worshipped at Holyrood, and were to have a new church built for them. The result was announced at a meeting of the Scottish Privy Council on 12th July 1687. Lord Fountainhall, who was present, has noted as to the Abbey Church or Chapel of Holyrood House — “It was adjusted that the keys should be immediately delivered to the Chancellor; and the inhabitants of the Canongate were ordained to go to the Lady Yester’s Church; and the French minister and congregation were put out of it to the High School or Commonhall.” The Town Council indited a minute on the following day, which, after stating the circumstances, concludes thus:—
“Therfor they recomend to the Dean of Gild to cause deliver the keyes of the said Ladie Zester’s kirk befor ffryday next, and because the ffrench minister has this long tyme bygane preached in the said Ladie Zester’s kirk, therfor they appoint him to preach in the comon hall of the Colledge, quhich they think most fitt for accomodating the french congregation, during the councell’s pleasure.”
POUR • L’EGLISE • FRANCOISE • DeDINBURGH.
With regard to the refugees in Edinburgh, my readers can judge of them by the notes I have printed from the City Parish Register, and from the Records of Greyfriars’ churchyard, and of the churchyard of the Canongate. There is a serious gap in the latter, owing to the destruction of several books by an accidental fire. In the Greyfriars’ there was a space marked off, called the Frenchmen’s Ground, or the French Ground, as the records prove, although they have not described the spot. There was a disposition among all ranks to show hospitality to the strangers, and to assist them. The Earl of Panmure, and his brother, Hon. Harry Maule, stood as witnesses to the baptism of a son of James Mel, merchant of Rouen, and Mary Godin, his wife, on 25th March 1686. Monsieur Bineau was tutor to the Master of Napier in 1688. Mr. Latuges was tutor in the family of Lord Basil Hamilton in 1713, and Mr. Basil Hamilton was cautioner for the representatives of Anthony L’heureux, hatter, in 1729.
The best remembered names, perhaps, are those of Paul Roumieu and his son, Paul Roumieu, both watchmakers in Edinburgh. They seem to have been very kind members of their small community. The father was buried in Greyfriars’ churchyard on 16th March 1694. The son, who was a burgess of Edinburgh, died on 5th November 1709, aged between sixty and sixty-six; a posthumous daughter, Janet, was buried two years after the death of the latter. His wife’s name was “Joannett Bizzett;” and a daughter, Margaret, was baptized on 23rd November 1690. In the circle of their Huguenot friends there was Alexander Mercier, button-maker, and Anna Atimont, his wife; and Daniel Callard, vintner and burgess, and Magdalen Bunell, his wife. A witness at a baptism in the last-named family was David de Bees, chirurgeon-general to Major-General Mackay, 23rd February 1690.
If there was any business in which a majority of the refugees were employed, it was felt-making. At the head of this trade we find, on 15th July 1688, Francis Chameau, master of the manufactory for felt-making, and Susanne Pillet, his wife. “Monsieur du Pont, pastor of the French Church, younger,” officiated at the baptism of their daughter, Elizabeth. Some of the felt-makers, whose names are in the registers, evidently were French, but by no means all of them (I made a long investigation as to the name Schola, which proved to be Scollay, and from the Orkney Islands). One felt-maker can be traced from his marriage to his death; Peter Gautier was married on 23rd March 1694, and was buried in Greyfriars’ churchyard on 4th April 1703. The two different records sometimes throw light on each other; thus I extracted dubiously the marriage in Edinburgh, on 15th October 1701, of Daniel Lasagette, merchant, burgess, to Anne, daughter of the late Rev. William M‘Ghie, minister of Aberlady; but doubt was removed by the entry in Greyfriars’ churchyard, on 23rd January 1703, of the burial of a child of “Daniel Lashagett, a Frenchman.” With regard to felt, which in those days was limited to hats, a felt-maker, when he rose in the world, became a hatter, and the French refugees everywhere were famous for their manufacture of hats. Anthony L'heureux, hat-maker in Edinburgh, seems to have been successful. He married, first, Mary Cadet, and had by her two children, John and Margaret; he married, secondly, Mary Anne Middleton, contract of marriage dated 11th February 1721; he died on 28th August 1727. By the contract his widow had a claim to the liferent of £300, and also to the value in cash of half of the “plenishing,” her share being decided to be £64, 12s. 7d. Antecedently to confirmation before the commissary, she had been married to a second husband, who was confirmed as the executor of her first husband on 25th July 1729. (Perhaps the name survived as Hereuse; William and Peter Hereuse are registered at Inveresk on 2nd August 1768, the former contemplating marriage.)
King William III., by Act of Parliament dated 1693 (renewed by Acts of the Reigns of George I. and II.), granted to the city of Edinburgh the proceeds of a duty upon Ale and Beer, amounting to twopence sterling per pint. The elaborate catalogue of expenditures under the Act included “ two thousand merks Scots [£111, 2s. 2d. sterling] to two French Ministers.” From some surviving receipts from these Divines, and also from the Minutes of a Board of Overseers created to supervise the Town Council’s expenditure of the funds obtained from the Ale Duty, we get some insight into the history of the French ministers. It would appear that the father (or the grandfather), Du Pont, died in 1710, and Rev. Francis Loumeau Du Pont, his son and colleague, obtained M. La Ferre as his colleague. This was “Jean Le Ferre, ministre” so described in the register of Hungerford French Church, London, on 2nd October 1688, the day of his marriage to Marthe Peau; in March 1711 Du Pont and La Ferre acknowledge receipt of their half-yearly salaries. La Ferre died on 9th May 1712, and was buried in Greyfriars’ Churchyard, as “Mr. John Lafwer, French Minister of the Gospel in Edr., aged 66 years.” His widow received a pension. He was succeeded by M. Joseph Broumar du Mulmar (as I am informed by a correspondent), who disappears in 1723, and is replaced by M. Jean Rodolphe Tarin. The senior colleague, M. Francois Loumeau Du Pont ministered for forty-four years; he married Marie Bonfils, who survived him. They had two children, Pierre Loumeau Du Pont, born in 1699, and Marie, who died on 16th October 1705, aged five years. Mr. Du Pont died on 8th December 1726, and was buried on the 9th in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, “in the Frenchmen’s ground, south Morey’s stone.” His widow was his executrix, and his cautioner was Simon St. Bonnet, merchant, burgess of Edinburgh. He left to his son, Peter Loumeau Du Pont (by Will, dated 5th December 1726), “all my books, boxes, tables, presses, and every other thing relating to, and used by me for, my studies.” He left to his wife, “all my property, debts, and sumes of money resting, or that shall happen to be resting, to me by the good town of Edinburgh, or whatsoever other person or persons.” His property consisted of £262, 4s. 2d. sterling in the capital stock of the Equivalent Company, and £90 arrears of stipend.
It seems that there had been some controversy between the Town Council and the French Congregation. The Council had planned to suppress the charge on Mr. Du Pont’s death. The congregation claimed the right of electing their ministers, and the first Du Pont colleagues of 1682 had no other title than election by the congregation. The people seem to have elected the colleagues after the oldest Du Pont’s death. But it appears that M. Jean Rodolphe Tarin had been elected by the Town Council, in order to quench the hopes of young Pierre Loumeau Du Pont. On 1st March 1725, a resolution of the Town Council came under the review of the Overseers; it was to the effect “to restrict Mr. Du Pont’s stipend from and after the first of July nixt to one thousand merks Scots, and not to supply his or Mr. Turenne’s office on their being vacant by death or otherwise.” On the 3rd March the Overseers agreed to a minute which, after reciting both the Town Council’s resolutions and the tenor of the Acts of Parliament establishing the two ministers, “recommended to the Council to consider how far the same was consistent with the aforesaid three Acts of Parliament.” The congregation had elected the son, who for the present stood aloof, the senior Mr. Du Pont being undisturbed, and dying (as already stated) in 1726. The son forthwith took the father’s place as collegiate minister along with Mr. Tarin. And he had to appeal to the Overseers for his stipend of 1000 merks. (The people, at this date, formulated no objection to Mr. Tarin’s title, although they never actually acknowledged it.) Mr. Peter Du Pont’s appeal first came up on 1st August 1728, and the Overseers requested a conference with the magistrates. On 3rd December 1728 the Overseers recommended the Town Council to pay Mr. Du Pont, and the recommendation “to pay” was confirmed on December 9.
The controversy was put to sleep by a fresh immigration of French Protestants, and a consequent accession to the French congregation. Here I have to apologise to the reading public for having kept in life in my previous editions the tradition that a band of Huguenot silk-weavers in 1685 found an open common near the village of Broughton, and established the colony of Picardy, on the site of the modern street now called “Picardy Place, Edinburgh.” The fact is there was no such common; the ground was enclosed, being the property of Heriot’s Hospital, and was let to tenants. No evidence of refugee silk-weavers is to be seen in the Edinburgh registers and records. The French village of Picardy, or Little Picardy was not built till 1730.
The Commissioners and Trustees for improving Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland were incorporated by a Royal Charter, dated 5th July 1727. In 1728 a grant of £6313 sterling was received, and a scheme of expenditure was drawn up, including the following item:—
“That a sum not exceeding £2000 he employed in bringing over to Scotland and setting to work a sufficient number of Protestant families skilled in spinning, working, and weaving cambrics and other fine linen.”
His Majesty also granted a Royal Sign Manual, of date 7th June 1728, for bringing over to Scotland and setting to work a sufficient number of French Protestants skilled in working cambric and fine linen.
The following minute of the Board of Manufactures brings the scheme into shape:—
Edinburgh, 14th March 1729. — There being a probability that Nicholas Dassauville, of St. Quintin, may come over for the cambric trade, upon the proposals signed by the said Dassauville, — one whereof is that each of the ten master-weavers that are to come with him shall be provided with a house and yard, — it was Remitted to the Committee on Linen to pitch upon a spot of ground near to Edinburgh. (Dassauville was promised a premium of £5 per family.)
On 28th October money was voted for their passage viâ Rotterdam, and on the 31st temporary premises were found for them in Candlemaker Row.
A list of the new-comers is then given:—
Nicholas Dassauville and his family.
Charles Proy, reed maker, and his family.
Thomas Carlier, weaver, and his family.
Francis Carlier, weaver.
James Charlet, weaver, and his family.
John Dassauville, weaver and his spouse.
Anne Dassauville, and Jacob Fleming, a boy.
Katherine and Anne Fleming, young women.
Adam Chenabow, their interpreter.
The above were from abroad. A final list, dated 19th December 1729, gives the names of weavers from the Huguenot colonies in London:—
Francis Bochar and family.
Claud Polain [Paulin?] and family.
John Dallet and John Bochar.
The men from London, feeling discontented with the French public worship of Edinburgh, have a place in history. Professor Weiss informs us that in the archives of the City of London French Church, there is “a letter from Edinburgh, dated 30th March 1732, signed by Francois Bochar and Claude Paulin, full of orthographical mistakes, and written by illiterate workmen who apologise for their ignorance. They express their wish to rejoin the Church of London, to which they originally belonged, and to adhere to le rite Calviniste.”
With regard to a site for “the French people’s houses and gardens,” the Board’s Committee, after refusing Provost Wightman’s ground at Roseburn, recommended the purchase of Mr Lind’s five acres at Gorgie; this was on 20th February 1730. On 11th March the Board
“Considered Petition from the French people, representing their resolution rather to return to France than go to Gorgie, or to any other place at so great a distance from this citie, and suggested the ground lying to the cast of Broughton Loan.”
Thus although the Huguenots did not squat on the ground where their village was built, they had kept their eyes open and pitched upon the best site. The Board ordered that the secretary make a proposal to the [Town] Council of Edinburgh to feu from the Governors of Heriot’s Hospital the said five acres. The Hospital Treasurer met with the Board and the Town Council. After a warning that “the present tenants would put in their claim for damages for their removal from the ground,” they arranged that the ground should be included within the borough, that the feu should be valued at £10, 18s. 3d. per annum, and that it should be redeemed by a present payment of £273 to Heriot’s Hospital. This was on 3rd April 1730.
In the meantime measures had been taken for setting the French weavers to 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 Disposition, Assignation, and Translation above mentioned in any sort, Nominat and appoint the said Mr. Piere Loumeau Dupont my executor, sole and universall legator, and intromitter with my whole goods and gear, with full power to give up and confirm the whole moveable goods and gear that shall pertain to me at the time of my decease. Declaring always that the said Piere Loumeau Dupont shall be bound and obliged, Likeas by his acceptation hereof binds and obliges him, to make payment of the sum of six pounds sterling contained in a bill accepted by me to William Alexander, merchant in Edinburgh, with the annualrents that shall be due thereon; as also the sum of one hundered merks to the poor of the French congregation at Edinburgh; and of the sum of one hundered merks to Mary Menzies, relict of Abraham Renny, teacher of French in Edinburgh; and of the sum of two hundered merks to Anne Dasseville, relict of Eber Frammand, of Picardy in France, now residing in Little Picardy, near Edinburgh; and lastly, the sum of one hundered merks to John L’Heureux, son to the deceased Anthony L’Heureux, hatmaker, in Edinburgh, and that at the first term of Whitsunday or Martinmass that shall happen after my decease, with annualrent of the said sums, after the said Term of payment, during the not-payment of yr of. And further, it is hereby declared that these presents shall be without prejudice of the foresaid Disposition and Assignation to the said Elizabeth, Jean David, and Jean Baptiste Tarins, both of this date, as also of the Translation granted by me to the said Mr. Dupont, except as to the said sum of Six Pounds sterling, due by me to the said William Alexander, with interest, which I expressly appoint to be payed out of the sum of Sixty Pounds sterling, conveyed by me to the said Mr. Dupont, as said is. Consenting to the registration hereof in the Books of Council and Session, or others competent, therein to remain for conservation, and thereto I constitute . . . my proctors: In witness qrof I have subscribed these presents, consisting of this and the preceding page of stamped paper, written by David Russell, writter, in Edinburgh, Att Edinburgh, the Twenty-Seventh Day of November, mdcc. fourty-one years, Before these witnesses, John Russell, writter in Edinburgh, and the said David Russell, writter hereof.
Sic Subtr. Elizabeth Faulcon. David Russell, witnes. John Russell, witnes.
Edinburgh, 22nd December 1741.
Follows an Eik upon the said Latter Will. — I, Elizabeth Faulcon, designed in the preceding Will, in respect that John L’Heureux, also designed in the Testament, has died since making the said Will, I hereby appoint my Executor to pay to Peggy L’Heureux, sister to the said John L’Heureux, the sum of One Hundered Merks at the term, &c.
I conjecture that Madame Tarin, née Faulcon, died in the autumn of 1743, in which year her sister-in-law and two brothers-in-law appointed a factor. Their affairs did not finally pass through the Commissariot till 20th October 1758, on the motion of the sister, then the only survivor.
Mr. William Alexander, whom she names, was in 1752 and 1753 Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and from 1754 to 1761 M.P. for the city. He married a Huguenot lady, Marianne Louise de La Croix. They were the grandparents of an eminent Judge, the Lord Chief Baron Sir William Alexander of Airdrie. In the Books of the Commissariot of Edinburgh Jean D’Harcourt, widow, is confirmed on 12th February 1755 as executrix of her deceased husband, Mr. James Claude D’Achery D’Harcourt, merchant in the city of St. Quentin, in the valliage of Vermandoise, in France.
Mr. Tarin, as one of the French ministers, had always been paid without grudging, being a nominee of the Town Council. Mr. Pierre Loumeau Du Pont had to go to the Court of Session in 1729, and obtaining a “decreet” in his favour, the Council had to pay the colleagues. However, on the death of the former, the Council indulged the expectation that Du Pont would be sole minister, and nominated no colleague. The French congregation met and elected Mr. Jean Baptiste Beuzeville to the vacant charge; he was the brother of Stephen Beuzeville, silk manufacturer in Edinburgh, and brother of Mr. Samuel Beuzeville, afterwards minister of the French Church of St. Jean, Swan Fields, Shoreditch, London. Mr. Beuzeville entered upon his duties as collegiate French minister of Edinburgh, and then applied to the Town Council for his stipend; the Town Council disowning him, he appealed to the Overseers, who also disowned him in their minute dated 3rd August 1742.
“Yet, nevertheless, and notwithstanding,” the two ministers, elected by the congregation, kept their places, and got their money. How this result was reached I am not informed. It may be that the Lords of Session were again appealed to. If not, I may allude to the notorious fact that in the end of 1743 and beginning of 1744 the national policy, aroused by the alarm of an invasion by the Pretender, was to study the Protestant interest in every part of the country. The French Church in Edinburgh was a memento of Popish persecution and Protestant sufferings. Mr. Beuzeville died in August 1771, and his brother received the balance of his stipend.[2] (Other men of this surname were elected Directors of the French Hospital of London — Stephen in 1774, Peter in 1776, and James in 1777, and another Stephen in 1814.)
Stephen Beuzeville is the first person of Huguenot descent in Edinburgh who is described as a silk manufacturer. Mr. Clerk of Eldin’s drawing of a silk factory at Little Picardy, and of “a mulberry plantation on the slope of Moultrie Hill,” may depict a speculation of this Mr. Beuzeville and friends. The Board of Manufactures had no such undertaking; but the silk-grounds maybe conjectured to have been near the Huguenot village, although not in its ground. The ground consisted of five acres only, half-an-acre for each family, deducting what would be required for a road and walks. There was no bleaching-ground; from the first it was decided that the French people’s linen could not be properly bleached in Scotland; it was sent in a “green” state to be “whitened” in Holland.
Mr. Pierre Loumeau Du Pont probably survived all his congregation. He died March 1786, and was on the 13th buried in Greyfriars’ Churchyard, “north Phesdos tomb.” At that period the Recorder was not in the habit of stating the ages of those buried, but he had a column for the cause of death, which a physician might give him information of. In Mr. Du Pont’s case, the entry is — Cause of death, “87 years.” The French church was finally closed.
With regard to the families in Little Picardy, the name Paulin (often in old times spelt Polain) still meets our view. Whether we have representatives of Huguenots in them I cannot tell. One of our Scottish minor poets is Mr. George Paulin, and his son, Mr. David Paulin, is now manager of the Scottish Life Assurance Company. I traced his family in the registers, and found it in the parish of Ladykirk in 1698, the name being then spelt Palin, and I conjecture that its origin is English rather than French.
The name Dassauville kept its ground till recently, and the family is still represented through females (I do not assert that there is no male representative). The old tendency was to the spelling of Dassevile — latterly, the spelling was accurate, but the pronunciation was Dossavil. The first funeral recorded in the register of Calton burying-ground from the village of Picardy, near Edinburgh, was “Mary Dasaviley, aged three,” March 8, 1735. Nicholas Dassauville, the head of the colony, was born in 1692; John Dassauville, one of the weavers, was his brother. John died in June or July 1737; his property was administered to by his brother, Nicholas, designed “wright, at Little Picardy.” John is described as “cambric weaver at Little Picardy, near Broughton, in the paroch of St. Cuthbert’s, aliàs West-Kirt” [West Kirk]. His brother had undertaken to send his cambrics to Holland to be bleached; and having this stock to account for, he appeared as executor on 23rd February 1738. John (I may say, as there is no trace of a third brother) was the father of a second Nicholas, whose children will appear in due course. Nicholas the first died on 9th February 1760, and his burial on the 12th in the Calton ground is registered as of “Nicoll Dasevile, from Pickardy, aged 68.” In the Commissariot books he is designated, “Lapper and Stamper of Linen at Picardy, in the shire of Edinburgh.” This office had a salary of £10 per annum, and he was succeeded in it by Duncan, his son and sole executor.
Duncan Dassauville had married, on 18th November 1759, Katharine, daughter of George Yule, farmer in East Fenton, in the parish of Dirlcton. On 16th May 1771 he became cautioner for the executor of Rev. John Baptiste Beuzeville, and was called “Duncan Dassauville, Caroline weaver at Picardie.” (There is a puzzle here; is “Caroline” a clerical error for “cambric,” or does it mean “silk”?[3] I have found nothing more about him, except that his wife as his widow died in July 1787, and left no children, her heirs being the children of his first cousin, Nicholas Dassauville, manufacturer in Picardy, who were named Duncan, James, Nicol, and William. From her inventory I extract the French books:— “French Bible” and “French Dictionary,” 4s.; “Robinson Crusoe,” in French, 2 vols., 1s.; “Boyer’s Dictionary,” 1s.; “French Catechism,” 3d.; “Dialogues Rustiques and Plays,” in French, 1s. 6d.; “Les Marquardes Françoises” and “Principles of the Christian Religion,” in French, 2d.
Of the heirs of the Dassauville family I think that I observe one in the “Edinburgh Directory” for 1817, namely, William Dassauville, engraver, Gosford’s Close. Either he or one of his brothers was the father of Nicholas Dassauville, surgeon and dentist in South St. Andrew Street, and latterly at Northumberland Street, for about forty years. He was senior elder of Trinity College Church, Edinburgh,[4] under the ministry of the justly celebrated Rev. William Cunningham, D.D., and left the church along with that great divine and all his brother-elders (one only excepted) in the month of May 1843.[5] Mr. Dassauville latterly resided at Comely Bank, and died there on 17th October 1851. He had two sons and two daughters. The elder son was William Alston Dassauville, M.D., who was in the army, having entered the Ordnance Medical Department as assistant-surgeon on 14th June 1836, and promoted to be surgeon on 25th July 1849 (he was alive in 1854 and on full pay). The younger son was Peter Alston Dassauvile, teller in the Edinburgh Royal Bank, who died at Portobello on 23rd May 1880. The daughters were (1) Mrs. Dumbreck, who had two daughters; (2) Margaret Alston Dassauville, alive in 1880. Edward Alston Dassauville, alive in 1880, was (I think) a son of the above-named M.D.
Note as to Scotland.
Scotland has not been inserted in the heading of this chapter, because (with the exception of the Paper-mill in Cathcart parish) Edinburgh is the only place where we can positively allocate refugees. In the various parochial registers some names of probable Huguenot refugees occur, and I have noted them in my Historical Introduction. Two or three are from the Stirling register. William Drummond, of Rockdale, Stirling, and the Harvey family of that town, including Sir George Harvey, the great painter, President of the Royal Scottish Academy, claimed to be descended in the female line from the Huguenot family of Geffray, which in course of years had became Jeffrey. Aberdeenshire in that old time can be searched for refugees by the help of the Poll of 1696 (printed by the Spalding Club). The refugee family of Divorty disclaim descent from the old Scotch family of that name. Their surname was probably Dobertin, which was soon corrupted into Doverty. In the Poll-Book of the parish of Tarves, Divertie and Doverty are given as distinct names; and as late as 1790 I meet with Mr. William Dovertie, Session Clerk of Brechin. The Huguenot family is now represented by Rev. George Divorty, M.A. I was acquainted with the late Mr. Archibald Courage, bookseller in Aberdeen, and he assured me that his ancestors were Huguenot refugees; this surname is of frequent occurrence in the Poll-Book of 1696. We can only query as to the nationality of James Depamare, or Depamaer, then a merchant in Aberdeen. (What are we to make of James Frenchee, in the parish of Coull?)
Morren is a Huguenot surname which was met with in London as early as 1571. A Huguenot family of that name took refuge in Holland in 1685, and came to this country in or about 1689. A prominent representative was Rev. Nathaniel Morren, M.A., author of “Biblical Theology,” “Annals of the General Assembly from 1739 to 1766,” 2 vols., &c, born in Aberdeen on 3rd February 1798, died, the senior minister of Brechin, 28th March 1847.
- ↑ I am very much indebted to the Heads and other Officials of all the Public Offices and Libraries of Edinburgh.
- ↑ The pasteur, Samuel Beuzeville, was installed in the Church of St. Jean, London, in 1758, and died in 1782, aged sixty-five.
- ↑ In the reign of Charles II. it was projected that “silk-worms, supported by plantations of mulberries,” should be reared in Carolina.
- ↑ On 1st September 1833 the kirk-session gave the charge of the silver cups, plates, and flagons to Mr. Dassauville as senior elder.
- ↑ On Sabbath, 28th May 1843, it was formally announced to the kirk-session that Rev. Dr. William Cunningham had seceded from the Established Church of Scotland, and that “Messrs. Dassauville, Hutchison, Rose, Blackadder, Lothian, Muir, and Crawford, elders, have also left the Church along with the minister.”