179 Notes and Queries. I. AN EMIGRATION OF HUGUENOTS TO SOUTH CAROLINA IN 1764. It is very evident from the Society's correspondence that there are many persons, bearing names of French origin and having family traditions of their being of Huguenot descent, who believe that their ancestors must necessarily have left their native land at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This erroneous idea that no religious refugees sought shelter here except about the year 1685 would scarcely seem to need refutation, had not experience shown it to be very prevalent. The Society's publications have borne witness to the large number of aliens settled in this country at least a century earlier, while, on the other hand, attention was directed in the last volume of the Proceedings to an emigration to London from the Vallée d'Aspe in Béarn about the year 1745. A still later emigration from the south of France to South Carolina is recorded in the documents relating to that state at a time when it was still an English possession which are preserved amongst the Colonial Office Papers in the Public Record Office, London. The greater number of these documents were printed in 1858 by Mr. William Noel Sainsbury, late of that office, in the Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society. The information they contain is so important and curious, extending even to the size of the berths and the amount of the provisions allotted to the emigrants in the ship conveying them from this country across the Atlantic, that it is to be hoped they will before long be reprinted in our Proceedings together with such later papers as can be discovered relating to the refugees in their new home. Prefixed to the documents is a brief summary of the contents of the more important of them, which, with some slight 1 Vol. iii, p. 592. 2 Vol. ii, pp. 75-103. modifications, we here reproduce. A few of the documents relate to Protestants confined at Aigues-Mortes and in the galleys. These are taken from the Foreign Office Papers and appear to have been included in the collection under the belief that they might prove to be connected with this emigration, but we do not think this is so, and, for the sake of distinction, the portions of Mr. Sainsbury's summary pertaining to these subjects have been printed in italics. The summary is as follows: 'The French Protestants of Abbeville District, S.C. In 1761 an Act was passed in South Carolina for encouraging foreign Protestants to settle in that province. The same year Mr. Titley, the King's minister at Copenhagen, addressed a memorial to Lord Bute, containing proposals for settling foreign Protestants in the British colonies in America, which his Lordship referred to the Lords of Trade; but it does not appear that their Lordships adopted any measures in consequence. On May 28, 1762, an order in Council referred to the Lords of Trade a petition from one hundred and fifteen poor French Protestants, who, persecuted in their native country for not conforming to the ceremonies of the Romish Church, had fled to England for refuge from their oppressors, and prayed to be allowed to settle in some of the British colonies in America. On June 10 following, the Lords of Trade reported to his Majesty, that, though these refugees might, no doubt, be useful settlers in some of his Majesty's southern colonies, still they could not advise the introduction and settling of the petitioners on account of the great expense consequent on their extreme indigence, as they desired not only to be sent over to America, but even to be maintained there at the public charge. On January 13, 1763, the Duke of Bedford, the English Ambassador in France, wrote to Secretary Lord Egremont enclosing a letter he had received from the Duc de Choisenl concerning Protestants confined on account of their religion, from which it appears that application had been made to the French government in favour of certain French Protestants confined at Aigues-Mortes and in the galleys, of whom lists had been forwarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. On June 8 following, at a meeting of the Lords of Trade, certain proposals of Mr. Alexander McNutt for transporting foreign Protestants to America, on condition of their having a grant of lands in the Island of St. John's, in the proportion of fifty acres to each person, were taken into consideration. Their Lordships were of opinion that it would not be advisable to comply with the same if it were intended to transport foreign Protestants in general without limitation; but did not object if it referred only to a limited number who had come over upon encouragement from the government, though they could not consent to grant lands in St. John's. On July 29 an order in Council referred to the Lords of Trade a memorial of M. Gibert, relating to the settling of a colony of French Protestants in South Carolina. M. Gibert appears to have been informed by Mr. Jenkinson, Secretary to the Treasurery, that it was useless applying for grants of land anywhere except in South Carolina. On October 20, M. Boutiton, the agent of a number of French Protestants then at Plymouth, informed the Lords of Trade that they had expressed a desire to be settled upon the river St. John's in East Florida, and that Lord Halifax had signified his approval. On November 22 a letter was addressed by the Lords of Trade to Thomas Boone, Governor of South Carolina, enclosing a list of the names and ages of the French Protestants who were to be sent to that province, with instructions how they were to be settled, &c. On November 30 and December 7, 1763, Lord Hertford, Ambassador in France, wrote to Secretary Lord Egrement, stating the favourable manner in which his application for the release of French Protestants confined for their religious faith had been received. In December 1763, and January 1764, there are papers relating to an unfounded report that the French Protestants had been imprisoned while at Plymouth. On April 16, 1764, Governor Boone issued a proclamation for the Assembly to meet on the 19th inst., to consider the settling of a certain number of French Protestants who had then arrived in the province. On June 1 £500 sterling was voted to be paid out of the fund appropriated for the settling of foreign Protestants, for the settling and supporting of such of the foreign Protestants lately arrived as should settle in a body at Long Canes; and on August 3, a further sum of £200 current money of South Carolina, to be paid out of the said fund for the settling of those French Protestants who had separated from the rest at Long Canes. On August 20, 1764, Lieutenant-Governor Bull wrote to the Lords of Trade, giving an account of the settling of these French Protestants. A few, who through disgust or quarrels had separated from the others, he had settled at Purrysburgh, and had honoured their township with the name of Hillsborough, while to its little town' he had given that of New Bordeaux, in memory of the place whence many of them had come.' The names of the one hundred and fifteen refugees who presented the petition referred to in the Order of Council of May 28, 1762, are given in a list following the petition. The list, for some reason not entered upon in these papers, is endorsed 'List of French Protestants willing to go to Nova Scotia.' Whether the persons named in it eventually went to South Carolina, or to any other American colony, does not conclusively appear from the documents collected by Mr. Sainsbury. The list1 is as follows: Paul du puis Sa femme et Six Enfans Christolphe le marechal Sa femme deux Enfants Jean Bertrand Sa femme trois Enfants.. Jean de la marre Sa femme deux Enfants 3 3 2 5 6 3 8 7 9 3 4 7 2 6 1 1 Jean gro Caux Sa femme deux enfants 1 Colonial Office Papers, Board of Trade, Plantations General, Vol. 17. The following is the list of the refugees about to depart for South Carolina enclosed in the letter of November 22, 17631763. Nov. 22nd. Liste des Protestants Refugiés actuellement à Plymouth pour se rendre en Amerique dans les possessions de sa Majesté George troisieme, Roy de la Grande Bretagne, sous la conduite & direction de Jean Louis Gibert, Pasteur. 1 Colonial Office Papers, Board of Traile, South Carolina, Vol. 29, pp. 212-214. 2 Commencing with No. 21 the column containing the age is placed last in the manuscript, but for the sake of uniformity the order with which the list began has here been maintained throughout. 7 24 Marin. 23 Masson. 45 Charon. 24 Laboureur. 35 Labr. |