During Advent, as we choose our Christmas cards, or the font and illustrations for a homemade electronic version, it is fitting to examine the life and work of Esther Inglis, a Huguenot scribe whose creative virtuosity stunned her peers over 400 years ago....

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....

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....

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....

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 ....

"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...

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....

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….

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....

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....

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 ….

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....

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...

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, 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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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 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....

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....

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….

Well known in the 19th century as a spa resort, Karlshafen, along with its surrounding villages, was initially founded in the late 17th century by Landgrave Karl of Hessen-Kassel as a settlement for Huguenot and Waldensian refugees. Fleeing religious persecution in France and in the Piedmont, the settlers left their mark on local customs and architecture; their heritage is kept alive by their descendants and in museum displays at Karlshafen and Hofgeismar….

Following a previous blog on a mid-seventeenth century Southwark MP of immigrant stock, we look at how Protestant 'strangers' were viewed in Parliament during that period. While some incomers could be perceived as a threat to vested interests or to the peace of the realm, others might be welcomed and given assistance. The parliamentary Journals yield a variety of interesting insights....

With the French Protestant Church of London preparing to reopen this Sunday after its impressive renovation, and the Covid-19 closure, we take a look at the Church's history and influence from its foundation in 1550 to the present day....

With group trips impossible this year due to the pandemic, and our September visit to Guernsey postponed, we look back at a fascinating tour we made in 2003 to the Huguenot refuge of Uckermark in Germany. There, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, settled on his lands many of those fleeing oppression in France under Louis XIV....

The previous post explored the various career paths followed by Élie Bouhéreau as he sought to earn a living as a Huguenot refugee. Having trained as a medical doctor before the Revocation, he regularly recorded in his diary medical curiosities and incidences of disease encountered during his eventful life ....

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Huguenot refugee Élie Bouhéreau from La Rochelle led a life of unsettled exile, including travel on the Continent as secretary to British diplomats for nearly a decade, before putting down roots in Dublin, Ireland. His career too, was manifold: a medical doctor, tutor, administrator, clergyman and librarian, he was also a committed husband and father ....

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 ....

MPs of immigrant heritage are now prominent in the House of Commons, but this is not simply a recent development. Peter de Lannoy, who was elected in 1656 by inhabitants of the large and diverse borough of Southwark, was descended from Walloon refugees and baptised in a French-speaking church. A local dyer, engaged in a trade enriched by immigrants, he exemplifies both the gradual process of assimilation and a temporary widening of participation in Parliament in the mid-17th century ....

Occupying several sites over its 300-year history, The French Protestant Hospital has always been set in impressive grounds, designed and tended by Huguenot gardeners and planted with specimens evoking the Huguenot origins of the residents who made it their home ....

Spitalfields, formerly part of the large parish of Stepney, became a parish in its own right with the consecration of Christ Church, in 1729. By this date, the Huguenot refugees who had settled there in the 1680s, in search of religious freedom, had made their name as expert silk weavers, and successful businessmen, and had their own chapels.The poorer members of this tight-knit community were assisted by Huguenot relief agencies, and a charity school operated under the auspices of the French Church of London ....

The archives of the Westminster French Protestant School have survived from its foundation in 1747 until its closure in 1924. Housed at the Huguenot Library, these records are a valuable source of genealogical information, but minutes of Directors' meetings also provide a lively picture of the school's organization, its staff and pupils ....