[Reprinted with additions by kind permission of MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN & Co. from the ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, October 1894.] AMONG the many minor falsifications of history which meet the student at almost every turn, there are few more curious, and few have proved more long-lived, than that embodied in the accepted account of the grants made by William III and his successors in aid of the Huguenot refugees in this country. Briefly, the hitherto accepted story is this. Under Charles II and James II, both before and after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, briefs were granted for collections to be made in behalf of the French protestants escaping from persecution, and large sums were raised on those briefs by private benevolence throughout the country. The product of these collections was more than doubled by parliamentary grants, and the total-over £200,000l. was lodged in the Chamber of London, whence it was subsequently borrowed or removed by William III under stress of state necessity. When, therefore, the government of William III issued a grant to the Huguenot refugees of 15,000l. a year, this could only be regarded as the interest on the capital sum confiscated, and therefore the right and property of the refugee French. The full amount of this pension was paid with occasional irregularity through the reigns of William and Anne and part of that of George I: then the Government of George I reduced both pension and arrears by one half, and gradually, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as church after church or refugee family after family ceased to exist or to need the dole, the amount was resumed to the state, until eleven years since, by a resolution of the Treasury, the last item-the grant of 250l. to the French Protestant Episcopal Church of the Savoy-was withdrawn. It is the object of this article to show from documentary sources that the main contention of such a statement of the transaction is completely unfounded. The original briefs and the account books of the collections are still in great measure preserved at the Guildhall library,1 and their testimony is perfectly conclusive. The Chamber of London was simply the treasury for the city of London. On account of the position held by the city its treasury became the depository of numberless funds raised for charitable objects of all sorts. Receipts or notes were made of the money paid in; as soon as the funds began to come in, or as soon as they had reached a considerable amount, they were distributed and receipts taken for the payments exactly as would be the case with any Mansion House fund to-day, and the account was finally and invariably closed by a balancing of charge and discharge within a reasonable date from the opening of the subscription. All these various kinds of documents exist still among the Guildhall manuscripts. The account books are roughly in the form of ledgers or rather cash books. The papers or notes of payments into the chamber consist of the actual briefs themselves, as issued to the churches and returned thence endorsed by the rector and wardens with a statement of the amount of the collections. The acknowledgments consist of the actual forms as signed by the various recipients of the charity. In many of the last-named the ink has faded, and it is difficult to draw out the total. Moreover, the whole series of accounts from first to last is not, as yet, to be found, but enough remains to establish a sufficient account of the question. The first brief for a collection on behalf of the French protestant refugees was ordered by a proclamation of Charles II on 28 July 1681. As a rule these briefs ran only for a year, and were then, if necessary, renewed by a re-enacting proclamation. In this particular case the first payment into the Chamber of London on account of the brief was made on 2 Aug. 1681. From that date onwards the subscriptions cover the whole of 1682 and continue till September 1683, when the account was cast up. But subsequently it was reopened and straggled on to February 1684, the ledger even containing the entries of subsequent years, 1686, 1689. The total payments into the chamber made within the whole period amounted to 14,631. 118. 7 d. The paying out of the money began almost 1 I am greatly indebted to the courtesy of the librarian of the Guildhall, Charles Welch, Esq., F.S. A., for an indication of these manuscripts, and for every assistance in handling them. simultaneously. From the way the account is cast up, however, it is not certain whether we know the exact final amount paid out; but receipts exist for various sums amounting in the whole to 14.1411. 58. 3d. The dates of these receipts extend over 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, and into 1685. From them it is clear that the bulk of the money was paid away before 23 Sept. 1683, when the account was temporarily cast up, leaving a balance of 362l. odd. In the end a sum of at least 14,2681. 188. was paid away, leaving still the same balance apparently unexpended, but probably the item of bad money 2 Guildhall MS. 279: an account of monies received towards the reliefe of poor protestants from the kingdom of France.' The account of receipts runs from 2 Aug. 1681 to 2 March 168 with three entries of May 1682 for London, giving a total collected from the capital of 3,319. 1s. 51d.; and for all England from 10 Jan. 168 to 4 Sept. 1683, giving a total for the whole country up to the latter date of 12,7887. 6s. 114d. (this amount including the London contribution). The dates given are those not of the collection, but of the entry of the amount in the book, which is equivalent to the date of the receipt of the return from the various churchwardens, &c. On the latter date, 4 Sept. 1683, the account was cast up thus: "There was recd by Sir Thomas Player, Knt., late cham- Balance £ 8. d. 12,788 6 111 12,425 13 4 362 13 71 But as the moneys almost immediately recommenced to flow in, the account was re-opened; the entries of payments-in from 11 Sept. 1683 to 28 Feb. 1684 (with two other entries, one of 1686 and one of 1689) making a total receipt of 1,843. 48 8d. These figures give the total of receipt as stated in the text. 14,631 11 71 The payments-out also immediately recommenced with the term of office of a fresh chamberlain (Peter Aylworth, Esq.), and ran over 1684 up to 27 March 1685, including one entry of 1689, when the total of the new payments-in was exactly liquidated. The total of payments-out therefore stands thus: Paid 8 Aug. 1681 to 4 Sept. 1683 ,, 26 Sept. 1613 to 27 Mar. 1685, and an entry of 1689 £ 8. d. 12,425 13 4 1,843 4 8 14,268 18 0 There was therefore, on this showing, an unexpended balance of 3621. 13s. 74d. But against this is to be set the bad money received, which amounted to 110. 28. 9d. The small remainder might have gone in expenses. At any rate, it is expressly stated (see below, p. 348) that the account was finally considered to be properly liquidated. In Guildhall MS. 297, marked 'orders for payments out of collections 1683,' there is a bundle of 345 loose receipts for various sums, of which I make the total to be 14,141l. 58. 3d. All these orders for payments are signed by the bishop of London and the Lord Mayor or one of the two, and are endorsed with the signature of the recipient. The earliest dated of these receipts appears to be one for 301., 12 Aug. 1681. and expenses would fully account for this latter. At any rate it is certain that the committee of the House of Commons, which sat on the question in 1689, came to the conclusion that the money had been properly and faithfully administered. The next transaction of the kind was set on foot by James II's proclamation for a collection by brief dated 5 March 1685-6, renewed in the following year by a proclamation of 31 Jan. 1686-7. In the preamble to the latter of these two proclamations of James, it is explicitly stated that all the several sums of money which were collected under the former (of the two briefs) have been faithfully expended and applied to the use of the French refugees.' Each brief only ran, as usual, for a year; but the last payment, which appears as being made on behalf of either of the accounts or of the combined accounts, runs into 1695, by which time the total money received under the two Jacobean briefs amounted to 63,7137. 28. 3d.3 In the absence of the account of the discharge we are reduced to 3 Guildhall MS. 280, an account of monies received upon the briefe for French protestants.' For the first brief the entries extend from 21 April 1686 to July 1688, with three entries of 1689, and a total receipt of 42,8891. 8s. 103d. Ibid. fol. 27, 'received for French protestants upon his majesty's second brief, dated 31 Jan. 1687, as followeth.' The entries for the second brief extend from 10 March 1683 to January 1688 with a second total of 19,634. 19s. 93d. From this point the two accounts are combined, and the entries thrown together in one column, the items being marked on the first brief,' 'on the second brief,' as the case happens to be. The last item of the combined account is dated 20 Dec. 1695, and the grand total of all moneys received on both the briefs from first to last (including therefore the above-named separate amounts) is 63,7131. 28. 3d. For the verification of part of this debit account there still exists at the Guildhall (Guildhall MS., bundle 291) the original forms of the latter of the two concurrent briefs just as returned from the various parishes endorsed with statements of the amount collected, and signed by the parson and churchwardens. Many of these have been almost hopelessly damaged, having evidently passed through a fire and been deluged. There is unfortu nately no record of the discharge or credit account, and in the absence of it we are reduced to the imperfect record of the receipts which have been preserved of the payments-out. So many of these as are still known to exist are contained in Guildhall MS., bundle 347, orders for payments out of collections for relief of French protestants to Henry Loades, Esq., chamberlain of London.' These orders are in many instances signed by Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Jeffreys, Nottingham, Huntingdon, &c., &c. Each document is a written instruction to the Chamberlain of the city of London to pay so much money (mostly to Peter du Gua, merchant and treasurer of the French church at the Savoy), and is endorsed by Du Gua's or other signature as attesting the full receipt of the money. The number of receipts preserved is fifty. The total amount of the payments they attest I make to be 55,150l. 16s., and the dates range from 5 May 1686 to 8 Jan. 168, the dates of the payments-out, therefore, not covering but falling within the dates of the payments-in or debit account. The series is, therefore, quite manifestly incomplete. At the end of MS. 280, there is an entry of bad money received upon the brief of 1687, the amount being 2241. 118. 10d. On the previous brief of March 2, James II, the bad money received 22 April 1687 to 6 March 1683 was 3901. 16s, 2ąd. the testimony of a file of receipts which is manifestly incomplete and which, with the account of the bad money received, gives a total of known disbursements of 56,4657. 188. 1d., leaving an apparent debit balance of 7,2371. 48. 2d. The presumption is that this balance would be satisfactorily accounted for by the missing receipts, for there is not the least doubt that the whole sum was exactly expended and on its proper object. So much is directly avouched by the report of the Commons' committee above referred to. The succeeding brief, and the last which it is necessary to notice, was ordered by William and Mary by their proclamation of 31 March 1694. It produced between 2 May 1694 and 17 Feb. 1701-2 a total of 11,829l. 58. 101d., but the account of the discharge I have been as yet quite unable to trace. This was by no means the last brief issued for the protestant refugees. But as far as the origin and real nature of the royal bounty are concerned, the crux of the question lies in these collections of Charles II, James II, and William III, and there cannot be a shadow of doubt as to the disposal of the funds raised by them. Almost as fast as the money came in it was paid out; the accounts were properly watched and finally balanced; and whatever was done further by either king or House of The accounts for this collection exist in part in Guildhall MS., bundle 290, which is as before a large bundle of the actual briefs as despatched to the various parishes, and returned thence endorsed with the amounts collected and the signatures of the rector and churchwarden. There are 104 briefs in the bundle, but I have been unable to take out the total of amounts on account of the state of decay of a great portion of them. The full statement of accounts (debit), however, is preserved in Guildhall MS. 280. It is abstracted as follows: Entries running from 2 May 1694 to 6 July 1696 continuously, 11,7747. 178. 4 d., and thence four or five entries of scattered dates reaching to 17 Feb. 1701, 54l. 8s. 5 d., making a total of receipts on the brief of 31 March 1694 of 11,829l. 58. 104d. There was 3051. 78. 14d. of bad money received. The materials for the balancing of the account are unfortunately wanting. In the Guildhall manuscript, bundle 348, there are two bundles of small printed receipts for money paid out to the distressed French. They mostly relate to 1698. The various amounts received have been entered in ink, and the ink has so faded in many instances as to render it impossible to cast up a correct total. The same bundle encloses a doubled-up paper book of about thirty leaves in good condition, which contains an account of the distribution and assistance made to the poor French protestant refugees out of the money proceeding from the parliamentary fund granted for their relief for the year 1696, which distribution was made by the French committee, &c., &c.' The total accounted for in this book is 2,488l. 68. 1d. and it is possible that the loose receipts preserved alongside in bundle 349 represent this total. The only other possible (partial) statement of credit account which I have been able to find at the Guildhall is contained in bundle 349, which is unlettered, but is evidently a rough file of payments made 1695-8, mostly to the refugee churches outside of London, as Colchester, Thorp, Barnstaple, &c. forty-two receipts, giving a total disbursement of 1,161. 16s. 8d.. manifestly a mere fraction of the account. There are But this is |