ferre aparoir par gille Germain et Nicolas qui s'estoit bien porté par de la combien qui auoit promis le ferre aparoir par ceux la. At first this reads somewhat like a puzzle, but on second reading it appears that Matieu Molart had failed to produce certain promised witnesses, who are named, as to his conduct in Guernsey. There are but three or four actes de reconnaissance recorded in the register, these being only in connection with admission to the Sacrament, but there must have been numerous others which no doubt, were recorded in the missing acte books. This is most unfortunate, for these actes de reconnaissance would be amongst the most interesting and valuable of the records, for these two reasons, that they would supply, within a very few days, the date of the arrival of the Refugee in this country, as well as, probably, the place of origin. On the 5th April, 1573, the reconnaissances of two Refugees are referred to as recorded en lautre liure. On the 12th August, 1722, Mons. Pierre Carpentier prêtre de l'eglise Romaine du troisieme ordre des franciscains made a public abjuration of his faith and was received into the Protestant Church by Mons. de St. Denis, the Minister of the French Church.

In 1712, pressure was put upon the congregation by Queen's College, with threats as to the withdrawal of the Chapel from the Refugees if they failed to conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England. This led to much internal discord. Conformity had in Laud's time been forced upon this as well as on other foreign congregations, but after his attainder and execution, the Church had returned to the Calvinistic form of worship.

Although the Revocation must have brought Refugees in great numbers to Southampton, yet, as the Register of admissions to the Sacrament ceased in 1665, we have no help as to numbers from this source. Nowhere in the Register of Admissions à la Sainte Cene of the Walloon Church of Southampton, nor, so far as I know, in those of any of the Huguenot Churches of England, is any mention made of the méreaux, the distribution of which by the anciens to approved. communicants, during the week preceding the quarterly Communion, became in the Reformed Church of France so essential a preliminary to participation in the celebration of the Holy Supper.

The earliest specimen known in France is believed to date from the last years of the reign of Henri IV, and is assigned. to the great Church of the Charenton, near Paris. It was not,

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probably, until the years not very long anterior to the Revocation that the use of the méreau began to spread amongst the Churches of the Reformed Faith in France, and it was, perhaps, only in the days of L'Eglise du désert that its use became general, especially so, in the Provinces of Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis, and the south-west of France.

In the Channel Island Churches its use was no doubt unknown, because, as will be seen later, in Jersey, the Presbyterian form of Church Government came to an end in 1620, and, in Guernsey, at the Restoration. I am, however, under the impression that the méreau in some form or other, was not unknown in one, at least, of the French dissenting congregations of Guernsey, within this century. The méreau was a simple jeton, counter or token, generally of some kind of soft metal, with more or less rude impressions of one kind or other on either side; sometimes an eucharistic cup, an angel or other emblem, with a legend, and usually some initial letters to signify the name of the particular Church. Numbers of these are extant in France, in the hands of collectors, but, with the exception of two of quite early seventeenth century date, all the specimens are of dates subsequent to the Revocation. Many of these have been figured and described in the " Bulletin" of the Soc. de l'Hist. du Prot. Francais.1

The mother church in London protested loudly at the proposal for conformity in the Southampton Church, but

1The subject has been exhaustively treated by M. H. Gelin, in "Le méreau dans les Eglises reformées de France. 1891-Niort.

The word méreau, in a corrupt form, is apparently not unknown in England. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act II, line 98, Titania, replying to the reproaches of Oberon, says, "the nine men's morris is filled up with mud The nine men's morris, played on a rough kind of chess board, cut out of the turf, is, according to the notes on the Play in the Clarendon Press Series, a rustic game still extant in some parts of England, and so called from the Counters (old Fr. merelles) with which it is played. James, in his Variorum Shakespeare, says also that the game, which he describes, is played by the shepherds and country lads of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, and that another form of the game is played in Suffolk. The figures, with which the game is played, are called by the country people. "nine men's morris " or merrils, because each party has nine men or counters. The nine men's morris does not appear to have had any relation to the morris, morisco or morrice dances of moorish origin of which we read in early English literature. The Ency. Britt. gives a short article on the morris dance but makes no reference to the nine men's morris. See also Strutt's Sports and Pastimes.

That the word méreau was not exclusively limited to the tokens used as vouchers for the admission of the faithful to the Communion is evident from a note in the "Bulletin" of the Soc: de l'hist: du Prot: Fr: for January, 1894, from which it appears that it was applied also to those used for purposes of admission à certaines cérémonies des diverses corporations des métiers, and also to those used as a kind of tally for business and official purposes.

nevertheless, in 1712, the Church adopted the English Liturgy, many secessions from the congregation taking place at the same time. The first baptism according to the Liturgy of the Established Church took place on the 21st April, 1712. Further trouble befel the Church, later, owing to the unpopularity of the minister, Mons. Pierre Deneveu de St. Denis. This led eventually to his dismissal and to the election by the congregation, in 1723, of Mons. Daniel Duval as minister. In this unhappy quarrel the acte books were retained by M. De St. Denis, and they have been lost.

That dreadful scourge of Europe during the 16th & 17th centuries, the Plague, is often referred to in the Register. In 1583, under date 7th July, a note is made that because of the plague public service without a sermon would take place at five o'clock in the evening. Again, in 1665, in the absence of Mr. Bernert (? Bernard), minister of St John's Parish, on account of the plague, a child of English parents was baptized at the Parish Church by Mons' Couraud, the French pastor, on 23rd July, and two more children, of English parentage, also for like reasons on 26th, Nov' of the same year. Again on 4th Dec., 1665, Mons. Couraud married Jacob Berger and Sara Baylie of St John's, les Ministres Englois ayant abandonné leur troupeaus a cause de la peste qui rauagoit en ce lieu. Many marriages of English men and women took place at the French Church in this and the following year. A note is made with regard to the Communion of 4th August, 1583, that, in accordance with the advice of the last Synod, celebration should take place monthly, that is, not only on the usual quarterly dates, but the note goes on to say, et aussy entant que la Peste nous pressoit fut aduisé de la ferre ainsi pour nous fortifier en foi en lui priant avoir pitié de nous. In that dreadful year of 1583 the register of Les Morts gives, only too truly, an idea of the ravages of the plague. In April of that year, the words Peste a commencé introduce a long list of deaths from this cause, numbering over seventy in that small community. Amongst the victims is, apparently, Wallerand, Thévelin,1 the first minister of the Church. He succumbed on the 13th Sept., 1584, enuiron les 5 et 6 heurs du soir (et) fut enterré Lundi 14 dud.

In

Another dreadful outbreak of the plague is recorded in 1604, when one-hundred and sixty-three deaths are registered. 1665, the year of its calamitous appearance in London, it 1 His wife Elizabeth Le Mahieu was admitted to the Communion le ler dimanche de Juillet, 1568.

carried off several, but still comparatively few victims, from amongst the French congregation, though we must not forget that by 1665 the community itself had greatly diminished. The baptisms recorded run very irregularly. From 1567 to 1631 there is an unbroken series but none are recorded in 1632 and 1633, the register being silent again from 1635 to 1652, both inclusive. After this there are only occasional entries and even the immigrations of 1685 and following years do not seem to have brought anything like a large increase in the number recorded, the highest number being eight in 1699, i.e. between the Revocation and the end of the century, and three of these were children of Channel Islanders on one side or other.

At the baptism, on 1st April, 1666, of the child of an English parent, the Godfather is recorded with the name of Obadiah Walker. I notice this because it occurs to me as probable, the name is so unmistakable, that this was the same individual who, in later years, was to become the famous, or rather infamous master of University College, Oxford. If so, it is somewhat strange to find him officiating, even as Parrain, in such a stronghold of Calvinistic Protestantism as the Huguenot Church of Southampton must necessarily have been in 1666. Obadiah Walker, although a Clergyman of the Church of England, had, during the reign of Charles II, been strongly suspected of Popish tendencies. Soon after the Accession of James II, he openly professed Popery and celebrated Mass within the College.1 By direction of the King a Royal Licence was issued authorzing Walker, and other apostates like himself, to hold their benefices, an exercise of the dispensing power which was, of course, illegal. As time went on a press was set up at Oxford under the direction of Walker for the printing and disseminating of theological tracts in favour of the King's Religion. With 1688 however, came the Revolution, and with 1689, the Whig majority in Parliament. The apostates of the preceding reign were soon dealt with by the House of Commons, for there was no hope of passing the Indemnity Bill which had been introduced into the House in the

166 'The London Courant" Tuesday, Jan. 1st, to Saturday, Jan. 5th, 1688-9, reports under the heading of "Tower of London, Jan. Ist. This evening the Earls of Peterborough and Salisbury, Sir Edward Hales the late Lieutenant of the Tower, Mr. Hales, his Brother, all new Converts, Obadiah Walker, an old Papist, who lately pluckt off his Protestant Mask, were brought in hither as Prisoners, for having a hand in endeavouring the total subversion of the Protestant Religion, Laws, and Liberties of England."

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preceding session. Obadiah Walker behaved as apostates generally do in such circumstances, and, when before the House, took refuge in quibbles which, however, availed him nothing. He was found guilty of High Treason and sent to prison, whence he was released only on the passing of the Act of Grace on the 20th May, 1690.

The last recorded baptism is in 1779, one Godfather and one Godmother bearing distinctly Guernsey names. The Sponsors on the occasion of the baptism on 8th Sept. 1717, of Ruvigny, son of Mons, Pierre de Cosnes, Chevalier, and Dame Aimee Le Venier, de la Grossetiere, were the Marquis de Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, and la tres Honble. Dame Rachel Wriotesley, veuve du tres Honble. Seigneur Guillaume Russel, who were represented by proxies. We have no difficulty in recognizing here, the widow of the patriot, Lord William Russel, who was executed 21st July, 1683, for his supposed participation in the Rye House plot. The Marquis de Ruvigny, created by William III, Earl of Galway for his valour at the seige of Aughrim, was connected with the Russells, for his father's sister had been Countess of Southampton, and he was first cousin to Lady Russell, who herself was the daughter of Rachel, the daughter of Daniel de Massue, Seigneur de Ruvigny. Lord Galway's home was close by at Rookley, near Southampton, where after all his wars and fighting he had finally settled down. At his death on 3rd Sept., 1720, he made Lady Russell, who, according to Agnew, was his nearest surviving relative, his heiress at the age of 84. I can scarcely think that Agnew was justified in saying that the Marquis de Ruvigny had no nearer surviving relative, for the present Marquis de Ruvigny, one of the leading lights of that extraordinary association known as the League or Society of the White Rose is descended lineally from Ruvigny's brother, Caillemote, who was killed at the Battle of the Boyne. It seems to be a strange revolution of political faith which makes the present day descendant of one who lost his life fighting against the Stuarts, now pose as one of the chief supporters of a Princess of Bavaria to the Crown of England, as the descendant of the Stuarts. From the Marriage Register we get full information, as a rule, as to the places of origin of the Refugees, and the entries under this head are consequently most valuable. It will be seen too that the greatest care was taken on the part of the authorities of the Church that these Refugee Unions should have the sanction of parents or guardians on both sides. A note explaining this appears in the original Register and is printed on page eighty-three.