After a brief overview of Huguenot involvement in the colonisation of America, we examine the fascinating case of Jean Henry De Bérenger, a plantation owner who lost his inheritance as a consequence of the American War of Independence, 1775-83. Drafts of the petitions he sent in an effort to redress his loss were found within the Huguenot Library's collection of family papers, which are being gradually catalogued at item level by the Librarian, a painstaking but worthwhile exercise....

Following a previous post, in which the details of how the Royal Bounty collection has been made available online, we look at the history of these manuscripts and how the fund was set up and organised. The Royal Bounty was a forward thinking project aimed at lifting Huguenot refugees and their descendants out of abject poverty. Indeed, the majority of them were left with nothing after having had to flee France without their possessions….

The Royal Bounty archive is one of the main collections housed in the Huguenot Library. It consists of the papers of the successive French Committees, whose responsibility was to administer and distribute the funds given by the Crown to help poor Huguenot refugees and their descendants, from 1685 to 1876. The digitization project aimed to make the microfiches of this invaluable collection available online to Fellows of the Society ....