The
following was taken from "French Church Street and the
Huguenots" on AskaboutIreland.ie:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/architecture/architecture-in-cork-city-1/french-church-street-and-/
The Huguenots were French Protestants who fled from religious
persecution during the seventeenth century. When the Edict of
Nantes, which had granted religious freedom to French
Protestants in 1598, was revoked in 1685, many Huguenots chose
to leave France, with about 5,000 of them settling in Ireland.
The community of Huguenots in Cork city never numbered
much beyond three hundred. Another, smaller wave of Huguenot
émigrés followed in the latter half of the eighteenth century,
until the French Revolution finally ended the denial of civil
and religious liberties to Huguenots.
On coming to Ireland, some of the Huguenots
conformed to the principles of the Church of Ireland while
others chose to worship in independent or non-conformist
churches of their own. The non-conformist Huguenots in Cork
bought some property in Cork in 1712 and established a church
between the modern-day French Church Street and Carey's Lane.
A graveyard was later established adjacent to the
church. The Huguenots worshipped at the church in French Church
Street until 1813, when declining numbers caused the closure of
the church. The original building was demolished in 1845 and a
new church was erected by the Primitive Wesleyan Methodists.
The Primitive Wesleyan Methodists had been using the old
church since 1819 and continued to use the new church until
1897. Many of the Huguenots remaining attended worship in
churches of the Church of Ireland. The Huguenots became
prominent in the commercial and civic life of the city soon
after their arrival in Cork. From the seventeenth to the
nineteenth centuries many Huguenots served as Sheriffs and
Mayors of Cork.
In the commercial field the Huguenots
were prominent in trading and textile manufacture, while as
craftsmen they were noted as goldsmiths and silversmiths. Some
of the best known Huguenot surnames in Cork included: Besnard,
Pick, Lavit/Lafitte, Perrier, Godsell, Quarry, Hardy, Malet,
Perdrian, and Delacour.
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The following is from BYU
Family Historian Volume 6 Article 9 9-1-2007 Researching
Huguenot Settlers in Ireland by Vivien Costello. Pages 1 - 145.
Huguenot
Communities with One Church and a Minister (with more than 70
Huguenot families) : There was a Huguenot church in Carlow
(formerly Caterlough), Co. Carlow from about c.1693.
Genealogical research on Huguenots in Ireland is seriously
hampered by the loss of much archival material either in the
1922 Public Record Office fire or through the ravages of time.
The missing items include the original Huguenot church
registers of Carlow, as well as early 18th-century Church of
Ireland registers for most of the parishes where Huguenots were
numerous.
Overview of the Carlow Huguenot Community
Bordering on Counties Kilkenny, Laois (Queen’s County) and
Wexford,
Carlow was within easy reach of many other
Huguenot settlements. The Huguenot church was established in
c.1693 and a succession of ministers was employed until 1747.
Because records about the Carlow Huguenot community are few and
diffuse, Carlow is often omitted from articles about the
Huguenots in Ireland. All traces of the church and its
registers are now gone but the Church of Ireland registers of
Carlow and neighbouring towns like Tullow along with a variety
of other records, especially Registry of Deeds records, yield a
considerable number of Huguenot names.
The Carlow Huguenot Church
and its Ministers
We
know that the Huguenot church in Carlow was nonconformist in
the 1690s. A state paper office memorial dated 1696 [destroyed
in the 1922 PRO fire] lists the French churches that observed
the discipline of France and Geneva and gave the list of
congregations and ministers (unfortunately not named) including
Carlow.
The Rev. Benjamin de Daillon came to Carlow in
1708 from Portarlington to serve as a nonconformist minister
consequent upon a bitter conformist/nonconformist split in
Portarlington. He died in 1710 and was buried in the churchyard
along with his wife Pauline. It was clearly difficult for the
community to replace Rev. de Daillon.
A petition was
sent to the Queen around 1711 requesting funding for a new
minister as the Carlow Huguenot community could not themselves
afford to support his salary, especially as many of the
military officer settlers were fighting abroad.
The
petition signatories were: G. Fontiny, Al. St. Agnan, Ch.
Denroches, J. Michel, Jean Dumont, Ch. De La Boulay, P. Lamy,
P. Balandrie, Pierre Bermond, Jean Livraux, Sam. La Motte
Graindor, L. Darques, F. La Bastide Barbut, Jean Rouviere, Jean
Gallant, Fr. Michel. The next minister was apparently Rev.
Henri Briel who was berated c.1711 by Archbishop King for
having been ordained by “schismatical presbyters among
ourselves.” The Archbishop expressed the fear that if Huguenots
continued in this manner they would be “on the same foot as the
dissenters in relation to communion which would be of ill
consequence….”
Despite the Archbishop’s misgivings,
Rev. Briel would appear to have continued at Carlow until 1720,
thereafter acting as minister in Swanfields, England (1721–34).
His successor was dissatisfied with the salary offered. On 4
February 1721 another petition was sent to the Lord Lieutenant,
Charles, Duke of Grafton from the churchwardens of the Carlow
Huguenot church requesting an increase in salary for Rev.
Charles Louis de Villette as they were in fear of losing him
and not securing another clergyman at the present salary.
The Rev. de Villette whose family stemmed from Burgundy,
although he was born in Lausanne in 1688, did in fact remain in
Carlow until 1737 when he was appointed to the French Church of
St. Patrick’s, Dublin. A further Carlow minister was David
Chaigneau, who served from 1744 until his death in 1747.
A Brief Selection of Carlow’s Huguenot Families. One of the
reasons why the Carlow Huguenots seem to have faded rapidly
into obscurity is that there were few commercial enterprises
and most of the settlers were military pensioners such as the
signatories of the above-mentioned petition and also Pierre
Gilbert de Pagez, Achille de La Colombine and Marguerite de
Najac de Geneste of Carlow, sister of Captain Mark Anthony
Najac (deceased) who received a pension in his stead (1714).
She had married military pensioner Honorat de Bernardon in
Dublin 18th June 1695.
Their son Mark Anthony Bernardon
died in Carlow in 1742. Their daughter Marguerite Bernardon
married Rev. Charles Loius de Villette who subseqent to his
appointment at Carlow went to the French church of St.
Patrick’s, Dublin. Amongst the few traceable Carlow Huguenot
craftsmen was Peter Le Maistre, watchmaker of Dublin Gate,
Carlow who had three sons Charles, William and Mathew.
Elizabeth Le Maistre, resident in Carlow, is mentioned as being
the mother of Michael Le Maistre, apprenticed to a Dublin
goldsmith in 1739.
The info above was taken from the
following source: BYU Family Historian Volume 6 Article 9
9-1-2007 Researching Huguenot Settlers in Ireland by Vivien
Costello. Pages 1 - 145.
Website:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=byufamilyhistorian
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