Welcome to the Huguenot Society Blog

Huguenot history, sites, archives, art, and institutions.

Some eminent Huguenots in Early Modern Medicine

26 Feb, 2024 by Huguenot Society
The eminent Huguenot physician Theodore de Mayerne stands out as one of the foremost doctors of the early modern period in Europe. Here fellow Joyce Hampton explores his career in England, the role he played within the medical sciences in his country of adoption, and his legacy among the physicians who followed him - in particular his nephew and great-nephew, Sir John and Sir Theodore Colladon....

Huguenots and the Church of England: a theological and cultural encounter

28 Nov, 2023 by Huguenot Society
In her latest blog for the Society, Hon. Editor Dr Vivienne Larminie examines the plurality of Protestant belief and variety of practice in early modern England, and unravels the threads that ultimately bound many Huguenots of the Refuge to the Church of England....

‘In the steps of the Huguenots and the Waldensians’- a European hiking trail

10 Aug, 2023 by Huguenot Society
Little known in the United Kingdom, the European cultural route 'Sur les pas des Huguenots et des Vaudois', has, in 2023, reached a level of development which means it can no longer be ignored. The result of a long cooperation between countries of the diaspora and of the refuge, the history of its creation is worth exploring - and its paths worth walking, in the steps of our Huguenot ancestors ....

The Huguenot Museum at 95 High Street, Rochester

20 Jun, 2023 by Huguenot Society
"Refugees! Ukrainians and Huguenots", a new exhibition launched for Refugee Week 2023 is the ideal occasion for an excursion to the attractive Huguenot Museum at Rochester, in Kent, where visitors are spoilt for choice...

The Crowning of a New Monarch: Huguenot threads past and present

06 Apr, 2023 by Huguenot Society
With the coronation of King Charles just a month away, Fellow Joyce Hampton looks at continuity and innovation in royal coronations in England, and explores Huguenot threads from the late Georgian period to the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953....

Huguenot Tutorship In Western Europe, c.1600 - c.1750

04 Mar, 2023 by Huguenot Society
In his second blog on Huguenot tutors, Professor Michaël Green explores the reasons why French-speaking Huguenot tutors were in such high demand in western Europe, as for example at the Dutch courts of the House of Orange-Nassau….

Huguenot heritage on the Island of Guernsey

05 Jan, 2023 by Huguenot Society
The Huguenot Society's visit to Guernsey in the summer of 2022 has resulted in this richly illustrated blog by Activities Chairman Tony Wilson, showing the Island's Huguenot Heritage through the many memorials in St Peter Port church and elsewhere....

The renovation of Mount Nod burial ground, East Hill, Wandsworth

18 Oct, 2022 by Huguenot Society
It was with great interest that the Huguenot Society learned earlier this year of the reopening of the East Hill burial ground in Wandsworth, after its successful renovation. A pilgrimage to this unique Huguenot place of memory is highly recommended....

A sombre anniversary: the massacre of St Bartholomew’s day 450 years on

23 Aug, 2022 by Huguenot Society
On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the St Bartholomew’s day massacre in Paris, the Society’s Hon. Editor, Vivienne Larminie, examines the circumstances which led to the atrocity and its aftermath throughout France, and explores resonances across the Channel, in England ….

Huguenot-connected memorials in Winchester Cathedral

18 Jul, 2022 by Huguenot Society
One of the loveliest English cathedrals, Winchester, is the setting for this study by Tony Wilson of memorials to eminent descendants of Huguenot refugees, of the 18th to the 20th centuries....

Huguenots and the World of Finance: Part Two

02 May, 2022 by Huguenot Society
In part two of her overview of Huguenots in Finance, Joyce Hampton follows the Huguenot Portal family from their rise to fame as papermakers to the Bank of England in the 18th century, to the current evolution of Portals International as suppliers of high security paper to organisations worldwide...

Huguenots and the World of Finance: Part One

25 Apr, 2022 by Huguenot Society
This post by Fellow Joyce Hampton examines the background to the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, and the role played by the Walloon Houblon family, particularly Sir John Houblon, the Bank's first Director. Among the original subscribers to Bank stock were many Huguenots...

The Grand Tour and its Huguenot Tutors

15 Feb, 2022 by Huguenot Society
The Grand Tour, a rite of passage whereby young men of means could complete their education through cultural discoveries, became a source of employment for Huguenot tutors during the early modern period; however, these journeys were not always plain sailing for the tutors, as Professor Michaël Green explains....

French Protestant Temples old and new

19 Dec, 2021 by Huguenot Society
In this month's blog, we take a look at the difficult history of Protestant temples in France after the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and how very few survived demolition, whilst others were later rebuilt or relocated in repurposed buildings as a result of the 1787 Edict of Toleration, and the 1811 Napoleonic Concordat....

Spotlight on the Huguenot ivory carver David Le Marchand

18 Nov, 2021 by Huguenot Society
With the recent addition of a new piece by ivory carver David Le Marchand to the V&A's sculpture collection, guest writer Dr Kira d'Alburquerque (Curator, Sculpture 1600 - 1800), shines a spotlight on the life and work of this virtuoso Huguenot artist....

Three Mills Island, Bromley-by-Bow, a Huguenot industrial enterprise

13 Oct, 2021 by Huguenot Society
This post by Huguenot Society Activities Chairman Tony Wilson looks at a lesser-known example of Huguenot heritage in these islands - the surviving examples of Huguenot industrial enterprise in the south of England; in particular the Three Mills site in east London, a popular tourist attraction....

Relief for ‘Poor Protestants’: Public Appeals for Refugees before 1685

03 Sep, 2021 by Huguenot Society
Well before the setting up of various relief funds to assist Huguenot refugees fleeing France in the 1680s, English parishioners were being exhorted to contribute towards Church appeals in favour of groups of persecuted Protestants abroad, notably the Waldensians. This proto-Protestant community, driven into the Italian Piedmont valleys by Louis XIV's cousin, the Duke of Savoy, suffered a cruel martyrdom, but their cause was championed by England's Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell....

L’Assemblée du Désert, 1911 - 2021.

04 Aug, 2021 by Huguenot Society
After a rare omission in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, the Assemblée du Désert, French Protestantism's iconic annual gathering, will be taking place again this September in the evocative setting of Mialet in the Cévennes where the Musée du Désert is also proposing a full programme for its visitors....

The Huguenot settlement at Portarlington, Ireland

23 Jun, 2021 by Huguenot Society
In 2010 the Huguenot Society organised a visit to Portarlington for its members during the conference at Londonderry. Here we look at the history of the town's foundation by Henri de Ruvigny, Earl of Galway as a settlement for war-weary Huguenot veterans and their families, and consider the political repercussions of this undertaking....

A Huguenot Haunt: A Shell House in Hatfield Forest

03 May, 2021 by Huguenot Society
In the Georgian period, an unusual lake side cottage in Hatfield Forest, decorated with shells by a young member of the Houblon family, became the setting for convivial picnics on the Hallingbury Place estate in rural Essex....

The Huguenot Society in Denmark

05 Apr, 2021 by Huguenot Society
The Society's visit to Denmark in 1999 explored Huguenot colonies in rural Fredericia and in Copenhagen and its region, where fortunes and architectural landmarks were built by 18th-century Huguenot entrepreneurs, active in the financial and shipping sectors....

The early years of the Huguenot Society of London and its international connections

04 Mar, 2021 by Huguenot Society
Created in the bicentenary year of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by directors of the French Hospital, the Huguenot Society of London, now of Great Britain and Ireland, would become well known internationally for its publications, its research collections at the Huguenot Library, and its links with similar societies worldwide....

A Red Admiral butterfly leads to the identification of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues (c.1533-1588)

01 Feb, 2021 by Huguenot Society
The life and art of 16th century Huguenot artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues are equally intriguing. A fine set of his naturalistic watercolours forms part of a forthcoming exhibition showing Renaissance watercolours from the V&A's collection, aspects of which can be previewed online now....

The Royal Bounty Archive unveiled

05 Jan, 2021 by Huguenot Society
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….