Category Archives: religion

Alençon ancestors

14 Thursday Jul 2022

Posted by in Granger, Huguenot, Normandy

≈ 4 Comments

Alençon is a town in Lower Normandy on the banks of the Sarthe River, 170 kilometers southwest of Paris.

Old town of Alençon.
Photograph taken in 2011 by David Merrett and retrieved through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

The Protestant Reformation was preached in the Duchy of Alençon from 1524 and the town became a centre of the reform movement. In 1598, with the Edict of Nantes, King Henry IV gave limited protection to French Protestants (Huguenots), but with its revocation in 1685 by Louis XIV, Huguenots were open to persecution in France. Many left Alençon, emigrating to England, the Netherlands, and the Channel Islands.

Among these were my eighth great grandparents Israel Granger and his wife Marie Granger née Billon, their son René and daughters Marthe and Magdalen.

Israel Granger was an apothecary who had lived in Alençon, on the Rue de Sarthe. He was the son of Pierre Granger , Sieur des Noes, bourgeois of Alençon, and Suzanne Granger née Groustel. Israel was baptised on 4 March 1635. He married Marie Billon on 20 December 1662. Israel and Marie had nine children. Two daughters and one son lived to adulthood.

Israel Granger was prosecuted in 1685 for taking part in an illicit assembly in the woods of la Fuie des Vignes near Alençon. He and his family went to Paris and he was imprisoned for religious reasons. His
property was seized: land called La Bouillière and a house on rue de Sarthe. A decree of the King’s Council of March 20, 1789 (or 1790) ordered the release of these assets in favor of a woman named Marie Victory Jacqueline Duval de la Poterie.

On 14 July 1687 his daughters Magdalen, age 20, Marthe age 21, both of Alençon, made their Reconnaisances at the French Church of the Savoy in London. A Reconnaissance was a recognition of fault in attending a Catholic service and the public avowal of faith on admission to communion.

Savoy Chapel London photographed 2007
Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, taken by user Neddyseagoon (CC-BY-2.5)

René, son of Israel Granger, was commissioned as Ensign in the English army 1692, appointed on 25 February 1693 as ensign to Captain Taylor of Sir George St George’s Regiment of Foot. By 1698 he had been promoted to Lieutenant. In August 1699 Lieutenant René Granger, one of the officers of Matthew Bridges’s Regiment of Foot, received 2 shillings when the regiment was disbanded.  (Sir George St George’s Regiment of Foot became Sir Matthew Bridges’s Regiment of Foot when Sir Matthew Bridges became colonel. The regiment eventually became the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot). In 1701 René was appointed as an ensign in Sir Matthew Bridges’s Regiment. In October he was appointed quartermaster. On 12 February 1702 he was appointed as Lieutenant to Captain George Withers.

Magdalen married Thomas Champion on 12 February 1695 at St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, City of London. They were both of the parish of St Anne, Westminster. Thomas, later known as Thomas Champion Crespigny, was an officer in the English army.

The Church of Saint Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street from The Churches of London by George Godwin (1839) retrieved through Wikimedia Commons

In January 1697 René, Marthe and Magdalen were mentioned in their father’s will. Israel died in 1700 and the will was proved in 1700 at London.

On 8 July 1699 Marthe married Florand Dauteuil at the French Chapel, Savoy, the Strand, London. They were married by licence issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 4 July. Florand Dauteuil was an officer in the English army.

In 1699 René was naturalised. He was stated to have been born at Alanson in Normandy, son of Israell Granger by Mary, his wife. He was attested by Isaac Eyme and John Peter DesBordes.

Mary’s will was drawn up in 1711. Her daughter Marthe had died but Mary left half her estate to Marthe’s three children by Florand D’Auteuil. The other half was left to her daughter Magdalen. René was not mentioned. He presumably had also died before 1711. Mary died in 1713.

Magdalen was widowed in 1712. She and Thomas had six children, two of whom died young. Her relatives by marriage, particularly her brother-in-law Pierre Champion de Crespigny, helped her financially.

Magdalen died in London in 1730.

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V is for Vaucelles v. Trévières

26 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Champion de Crespigny, France, Huguenot

≈ 8 Comments

On 13 December 1617 my ninth great-grandfather Richard Champion, eldest son of Jean Champion and his wife Marthe nee du Bourget, was married according to the rites of the Reformed [Protestant] Church at Condé sur Noireau to Marguerite, daughter of Adrian Richard Esquire, Squire of Crespigny in the Parish of St Jean le Blanc near Aunay, Lower Normandy, the marriage contract having been drawn up the week before at the neighbouring town of Vassy.

Portrait of Richard Champion died 1669 from the collection of Kelmarsh Hall

Until then, the Champion family had been Catholic. It seems likely, however, that Adrian Richard, Esquire of Crespigny, was a Huguenot—a Calvinist Protestant—and it is probable that his permission for the marriage of his daughter to Richard Champion was given on condition that his future son-in-law should adopt the creed of his wife’s family.

King Henry IV of France (1553 – 1610) was a Huguenot, who converted to Catholicism to obtain dominance over his kingdom (reportedly saying, “Paris is well worth a mass”). A pragmatic politician, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), guaranteeing religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the French Wars of Religion.

Over the next 87 years, until 1685, with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau, those religious liberties were steadily eroded.

By 1620 the royal government had embarked upon a deliberate program to break the independent power of the Protestants. Soon after the marriage and his evident conversion to Protestantism at that time, Richard Champion was required to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, with a declaration that he did not adhere to the Protestant rebels of La Rochelle; he did this on 3 July 1621.

Richard’s son Claude Champion (1620-1695) married Marie née de Vierville (1628-1708) at Bayeux on 9 June 1651. Claude and Marie also followed the Reformed Religion. Claude and Marie had eight children:

  • Pierre 1652–1739 
  • Margaret 1654–1741 
  • Mary 1655–1736 
  • Suzanne 1656–1727 
  • Thomas 1664–1712 
  • Gabriel 1666–1722 
  • Renee 1667–1744 
  • Jeanne 1668–1748

In the 1670s Daumont de Crespigny, believed to be the same man as Pierre Champion, was deputy of the congregation of Protestants at Trévières near Bayeux. Between 1678 and 1682 he wrote letters concerning a court case involving the church at Trévières was involved. (The family later took the name Champion de Crespigny after arriving in England.)

Although Protestant churches or “temples” were allowed under the Edict of Nantes in all places where such worship had taken place in the two years before 1598, this clause was interpreted with increasing stringency, so that a number of temples were ordered to be destroyed on the grounds that they had been built since 1598. A prosecution was raised in the Court at Paris against the Temple at Trévières. The proceedings lasted from 1678 to 1681.

The case concerned the dispute between the congregation and church at Trévières, west of Bayeux, and that which had been maintained at Vaucelles near Bayeux. It had been decided by the government that one of the two was in excess of the provisions of the Edict of Nantes, and one must be disestablished. The decision as to which it was to be was left to the Royal Council of State.

Trévières now lies a short distance south of the N13, some twenty kilometres from Bayeux and about ten kilometres south of Vierville-sur-Mer. It was on the direct road between the property at Vierville and the more distant region of Crespigny, and it was evidently the local parish for the family.

The congregation at Trévières claimed that its church had been established before the church at Bayeux, and indeed that the Bayeux church was a colony of the original foundation at Trévières. It appears that the Council was at first inclined to favour Bayeux, presumably, among other reasons, because it was a large and influential city, while Trévières was and is no more than a village.

On 27 January 1681 the Council, meeting at St Germain en Laye, a chateau maintained by Louis XIV north of Versailles, held in favour of the congregation of Trévières. In the statement of settlement, M. de Crespigny is referred to as “Deputy”, agent for the congregation at Trévières, and the Advocate was a M. Soulet, a practitioner of law at Paris.

The case was extremely long-drawn, and must have cost everyone a great deal of money. It seems remarkable that the Royal Council, headed by its president the Duke of Villeroy, and attended by ten other senior officers of state, should spend its time arguing about two heretic congregations. However, the two contesting communities had to find the money to pay for the expenses of their representatives in Paris and at Rouen, and also the legal costs. Some of the correspondence deals with the problems this caused, and there is a sorry collection of letters at the end concerning the delays in paying M. Soulet the advocate his fees. Soulet eventually got his money almost a year later, and in his letter of thanks he remarks to Pierre:

All my regret is for the great trouble and the many useless journeys you have taken on account of so inconsiderable an affair…

It appears an incidental part of the royal policy in fostering these disputes was to make it inconvenient and expensive to be a Huguenot.

Pierre commented when the case was won:

It is true that our joy must be very imperfect, since the same decree that preserves our Church, condemns that of Vaucelles [at Bayeux] to be abolished. 
But that one of the two must fall, was a fatal necessity, and an inevitable misfortune; and it is by far better, both for our private interest, as well as the public good, that the church of Trévières should be preserved, since by its situation it is well adapted for collecting the scattered flocks of the neighbouring Churches.

The triumph of the success in maintaining the right to worship at Trévières was short lived. In 1681 the government commenced a policy of ‘Dragonnades‘, meant to intimidate Huguenot families into returning to Catholicism. The policy, in part, instructed officers in charge of travelling troops to select Huguenot households for their billets and to order the soldiers to behave as badly as they could. Soldiers damaged
the houses, ruined furniture and personal possessions, and attacked the men and abused the women. Huguenots could escape this persecution only by conversion to Catholicism or by fleeing France.

Protestant engraving representing ‘les dragonnades’ in France under Louis XIV From: Musée internationale de la Réforme protestante, Geneva and retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

When in 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes with the Edict of Fontainebleau, Huguenot churches were ordered to be destroyed and Protestant schools closed. On 17 January 1686, Louis XIV claimed that out of a Huguenot population of 800,000 to 900,000, only 1,000 to 1,500 had remained in France. It was cynically asserted that Huguenots were so few they no longer needed the protections offered by the Edict of Nantes.

It was illegal for Protestants to leave France. The borders were guarded, and disguise and other stratagems were employed to cross them. Despite the difficulties it is estimated that between 210,000 to 900,000 Protestants left France over the next twenty years; about 50,000 Huguenots fled France to England, others settled in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Ireland, South Africa, and America. The refugees left their land and most of their possessions behind.

Claude, Marie and their children escaped France for England at different times. The two younger sons Thomas and Gabriel travelled to relatives in England when they were about 12 in 1676 and 1678. Claude, Marie, Pierre and three daughters were in London by 1687. The other two daughters had travelled earlier.

Claude Champion de Crespigny 1620 – 1695, my 8th great grandfather. Portrait at Kelmarsh Hall.
Marie, Comtesse de Vierville (1628–1708), Wife of Claudius Champion de Crespigny

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1798 marriage of John Gilbart and Elizabeth Huthnance

03 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Gilbart, Gwinear, Huthnance, Methodist, St Erth

≈ 6 Comments

On Tuesday 3 January 1798 my husband Greg’s 4th great grandparents John Gilbart, 38 years old, and Elizabeth Huthnance considerably younger at 23, were married by licence at Gwinear, near Hayle in south-west Cornwall. Elizabeth was from Gwinear; John was from the village of St Erth, a few miles southwest. Neither had been married previously . Both were able to sign their name. The witnesses to the union were Henry Huthnance, who was probably Elizabeth’s brother, and a man called William Ninnis. The vicar was Malachy Hitchins, a notable amateur astonomer.

St Gwinear’s Church, Gwinear, photograph from geograph.org
“England Marriages, 1538–1973 “, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJ9Z-FMN : 13 March 2020), John Gilbart, 1798. Image of register at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G924-P23Z?i=61

John was an employee of the Cornish Copper Company (CCC), who had been promoted from a position in the firm at Copperhouse near Hayle to manage the Rolling Mills at St Erth. The St Erth battery mill, constructed in 1782, used water-powered machinery to roll copper into sheets, much of it used to sheath the hulls of naval vessels.

For most of the nineteenth century the Gilbarts were prominent St Erth Methodists. John Gilbart was a member of the first Copperhouse Methodist Society and the founder, in 1783, of the St Erth Methodist Class. At the time of John and Elizabeth’s marriage, English law recognised only marriages conducted under the auspices of the Church of England, by Quakers, or under Jewish law. This is probably why the marriage was performed in the Church of England and not the Methodist Chapel. Methodism began as a reform sect within the Church of England.

John Gilbart is remembered in the St Erth Methodist Church

John Gilbart died in 1837. Four years later, Elizabeth Gilbart, 65, of ‘independent means’, was recorded in the 1841 census as living in Battery Mill, St Erth. In the same household were six, all unmarried, of her 13 children, and one grand-daughter who, perhaps, was there visiting her grandmother. The household also included a 15 year old female servant.

The house built by John Gilbart in St Erth where Elizabeth was living in 1841

Elizabeth Gilbart died on 1 July 1847. Her death was noted in the Royal Cornwall Gazette of 9 July 1847. A similar notice appeared in the West Briton newspaper of 16 July 1847:

At St. Erth, on Thursday, Elizabeth, the relict of Capt. John Gilbert, of St. Erth Battery Mills, aged 73 years.

(John’s title of captain is one that is used in the mini industry and has no military or naval significance.)

Elizabeth left a will, proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 18 December 1847. Her bequests included annuities to be provided for various children, specific books, and furniture.

The grave of John and Elizabeth Gilbart in the churchyard at St Erth

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Q is for Quaker

20 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by in A to Z 2021, Cork, Cudmore, Dublin, Limerick, religion, Russell

≈ 11 Comments

I have only a few Quakers in my family tree. One was Jane Sarah Russell nee Cashell (1791 – 1879), my fourth great grandmother, a capable and determined woman who separated from her first husband and, after his death, married a fellow Friend.

Her first marriage was to Patrick Cudmore (c. 1778 – 1827). She was his second wife. By his first he had a son, William Christopher, born in Ballyclough in 1798. Jane nee Cashell and Patrick Cudmore had two children, Milo Clanchy (1808 – 1900) and Daniel Michael Paul (1811 – 1891), both born at Tory Hill, County Limerick.

In about 1822 at the time Patrick Cudmore and Jane Sarah separated, Patrick went to live with his son William at Manister, County Limerick. He died there in 1827. His death was announced in the Limerick Chronicle of 10 March 1827: “On Thursday, at Manister Lodge, County Limerick, Patrick Cudmore Esq. aged 47.”

Jane Sarah was living in Cork. She seems to have made her first formal request to join a Quaker meeting – the group is properly called the Religious Society of Friends – on 2 August 1822. On 10 July 1823 a meeting in Cork considered a letter from Jane Sarah Cudmore requesting admission. She had been under care for several months; prospective Quakers put themselves ‘under care’ of a Quaker meeting and were expected to follow the guidance and advice of established members.

On 11 September 1823 the congregation decided to continue their care. Jane’s provisional status was confirmed on 9 October, continued on 6 November and 11 December and through 1824. She was admitted in early 1825.

Around this time, perhaps to improve their prospects, Jane Sarah found places in Quaker homes in England for her sons Milo and Daniel. Between 1822 and 1828 Milo was apprenticed to Levitt Edwards, a baker and flour dealer of High Street, Chelmsford, Essex. He boarded with the Edwards family. Daniel was placed with a relative of the Edwards family named Mary Levitt and her husband William Impey at Earles Colne, a village north-west of Chelmsford. While they were in England the boys saw each other occasionally. In 1830 they returned home to Limerick.

At the 7 August 1828 Cork monthly meeting of women Friends Henry Russell and Sarah Jane Cudmore declared their intention to marry.

Henry Russell of Dublin son of Nathaniel Russell of Moate in the County West Meath, and Elizth his wife; and Jane Sarah Cudmore widow of the late Patrick Cudmore of Manister in the County Limerick, & daughter of Francis Russell of the city of Limerick and Sarah his wife, both deceased, have appeared in this meeting, and declared their intention of taking each other in marriage and severally that they are clear of all others in this respect; the young man having his parents consent in writing by two friends also a minute from the mo: meeting of Dublin signifying his being a member of our Society this meeting accepts their presentation and appoints Susanna Lickey and Hanh Newsom to have the necessary care of any matter which may arise in the case and report to our next meeting and Hanh Newsom to accompany them to the men’s meeting to wh we refer them.

A month later, at the Monthly Men’s Meeting held in Cork on 11 September 1828:

Report is made that the publication of the intention of marriage between Henry Russell & Jane Sarah Cudmore was made in our meeting for worship on two first day mornings & that nothing had arisen to prevent their proceeding; the Women’s Meeting has also informed that no obstruction has arisen with them, & a letter has been received & read from two friends on behalf of Dublin Mo Meeting, informing that due publication had been made there, & that nothing has arisen to obstruct: this Meeting therefore leaves the said parties at liberty to prosecute their said Intention & appoints John Newsom to see the orderly accomplishment of the Marriage.

Cork marriage certificate from the Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives Archive reference MM VIII M4 Retrieved through FindMyPast.

At the Monthly Men’s Meeting held in Cork on 9 October 1828:

Report is made that the Marriage of Henry Russell with Jane Sarah Cudmore was accomplished in an orderly manner in our Meeting for Worship on the 18 of last month: two Certificates for Registry thereof have been handed in, one of which the Registrar is desired to record, the other the Clerk is to forward to the Quarterly Meeting.

Following their marriage Jane Sarah Russell moved to Dublin. The Monthly Men’s Meeting held in Cork 11 December 1828 noted:

Jane Sarah Russell (late Cudmore) having on her Marriage with Henry Russell of Dublin, which took place on the 18 of 9 month last, removed into the compass of Dublin Mo Meeting, the Clerk is desired to communicate that information to said M Meeting, by sending thereto an authenticated copy of this minute.

Henry and Jane Sarah Russell had two children Elizabeth born 1829 and Henry Cashell born 1831. Both children were brought up as Quakers, both emigrated to America and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth died in 1896 and Henry in 1919.

Jane Sarah Russell died on 5 July 1878, aged 88. Recorded as the widow of Henry Russell, who had died in 1868, residence 48 Blessington Street, St Mary, Dublin, she was buried at Temple Hill Friends burial ground (also known as the Friends Sleeping Place) on 8 July 1879. A witness was her son Milo Cudmore.

Certificate of burial. Image retrieved from FindMyPast
Friends Burial Ground, Temple Hill 2010. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

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H is for Huguenot

09 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in A to Z 2021, Grueber, Huguenot

≈ 5 Comments

It has been estimated that in the early part of the 18th century 10,000 Huguenots – French Protestant refugees from religious oppression – settled in Ireland, about half of them in Dublin. Among these were several of my forebears.

Nicholas Grueber (1671 – before 1743), one of my seventh great grandfathers, was one. Grueber emigrated to Ireland from England, arriving by Michaelmas 1698. He had previously come to England from Lyons in France with his family by 1682. In Dublin he became a Freeman under the terms of a 1661 Act of Parliament, legislation meant to encourage Protestants to settle in Ireland.

Grueber’s occupation on his arrival was recorded as ‘merchant’. In 1717, however, he was awarded a 21-year contract to supply gunpowder to the government, and two years later established Dublin’s first large-scale gunpowder manufacturing factory, at Corkagh in south Dublin. There was a family connection: his father Daniel (1643 – 1692) had operated gunpowder mills at Faversham, Kent.

On 19 May 1703 Nicholas Grueber married Marguerite Moore at L’Eglise Française de St Patrick (part of St Patrick’s Cathedral set aside for the use of Huguenots). Marguerite was the daughter of the Reverend Moore, a minister of the English church.

The Lady Chapel of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. Special services for Huguenots ceased in 1816, by which time the Huguenots had been fully assimilated into the city population. Photographed in 2015 by David Iliff. License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

Nicholas Grueber and his wife Marguerite had six children baptised at the Nouvelle Église de Ste Marie:

  • Nicholas Grueber 1704–1705
  • Elizabeth Grueber 1706–
  • Susana Maria Grueber 1707–
  • Nicholas Francis Grueber 1709–
  • Arthur Grueber 1713–1802 (my 6th great grandfather)
  • William Grueber 1720–1782

Of the four sons of Nicholas, one died in infancy, one followed him into business and the other two attended university and became clergymen in the Protestant Church of Ireland.

My sixth great grandfather Arthur Grueber was a pupil of the well-known Anglican divine Thomas Sheridan, a friend of Jonathan Swift. Grueber studied at Trinity College, Dublin, gaining his MA in 1737 and DD in 1757. He was ordained as a deacon in 1736.

In 1754 Dr Arthur Grueber was appointed headmaster of the Royal School Armagh. This flourished under his administration, becoming one of the finest schools in Ireland.

Grueber later abandoned teaching to become a bookseller and publisher, in this venture, however, meeting with less success. By 1793 he was bankrupt. He died in 1802.

A miniature of Reverend Arthur Grueber, one of my sixth great grandfathers, handed down through the generations to my father

William Grueber, Arthur’s brother, also attended Trinity College; he was admitted in 1739, gaining his BA in 1745 and his MA in 1749. He was the rector at Athboy, County Meath in 1759. He became Chancellor of Lismore Cathedral in 1772, then treasurer in 1778, and in 1779 was appointed the cathedral’s Precentor.

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My gunpowder-manufacturing Huguenot forebears

09 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Dublin, Grueber, Huguenot, Kent

≈ 3 Comments

I have quite a number of Huguenot forebears, among them the Champion de Crespignys and Fonnereaus. Recently, pottering about in a different branch of the family, I came across several more, including a group of gunpowder manufacturers.

One of my 3rd great grandmothers was Charlotte Champion Crespigny née Dana. Her great grandfather was an Irish cleric, the Rev. Dr Grueber. Tracing his family led me to Huguenot refugees from Zurich to merchant bankers of Lyons, and from these to gunpowder manufacturers, with factories near London and in Ireland.

Thus through the Dana line, my eighth great grandfather was a Frenchman called Daniel Grueber, the son of Jean Henry Grueber (1585 – 1683), a merchant banker of Lyons and Anne Grueber née Theze. Jean Henry was the son of Jean Grueber, described as ‘Marchand banquier allemand à Lyon, Bourgeois de Zurich’, who married Jeanne Barrian in Lyons on 22 May 1576.

At Lyons on 3 December 1657 Daniel Grueber married Suzanne de Montginot. Their children, all born in Lyons, were:

  • Francis Grueber 1658–1730
  • Anne Grueber 1660–
  • Suzanne Grueber 1661– 1737
  • Daniel Grueber 1664–1670
  • Jean Henry Grueber 1666–
  • Francoise Grueber 1669–
  • Marguerite Grueber 1669–
  • Nicholas Grueber 1671–1743 (my seventh great grandfather)

On 21 November 1682 Daniel Grueber, Susanne his wife, their sons Francis, John Henry and Nicholas, and their daughters Susanna, Margarita and Frances, received formal letters of ‘denization‘, conferring on them the status of ‘denizen’. This was similar to present-day permanent residency. A denizen was neither a subject (with nationality) nor an alien, but had the important right to own land. On the same date Philip le Chenevix and his sister Magdaelena Chenevix also received letters of denization; Philip Chenevix married Suzanne Grueber in 1693.

From 1684 Daniel Grueber was leasing both gunpowder and leather mills along Faversham Creek in Kent, 48 miles east of London. Explosives had been manufactured at Faversham since at least the 1570s. There is a connection between gunpowder and leather: considerable quantities of leather were needed to protect the gunpowder from accidental detonation during its production, transportation and storage.

Stonebridge Pond Originally part of Faversham Creek, Stonebridge Pond became a mill pond for a flour mill which was later used in the gunpowder industry. Photograph from geograph.org.

Daniel had possibly gained experience in gunpowder manufacture in Lyons though his immediate relatives, including his father, seem to have been merchants and bankers, not manufacturers.

Daniel had a contract to provide gunpowder to the British government’s Board of Ordnance, in partnership with James Tiphaine, another Huguenot refugee. Besides those at Faversham, Daniel had mills at Ospringe and Preston, both places within a mile of Faversham.

Daniel Grueber was naturalised on 2 July 1685 together with his three sons. Daniel was described as born at Lyons in France, son of John Henry Grueber by Anna These, his wife. ‘Naturalisation’, requiring an act of parliament be passed, granted all the legal rights of English citizenship except political rights (for example, the right to hold political office).

Daniel Grueber died in 1692 and his will was probated 15 February 1693 by his sons Francis and Nicholas. Francis continued the gunpowder business in Kent. In 1745 his son went bankrupt and eventually the mills were purchased by the Ordnance Board in 1759.

Nicholas Grueber emigrated to Ireland and had arrived by Michaelmas 1698 when he became a Freeman of Dublin under the terms of the 1661 Act of Parliament to encourage Protestants to settle in Ireland.

Nicholas Grueber’s occupation on his arrival was merchant. However, in 1717 he was awarded a 21-year contract to supply gunpowder to the government. In 1719 he established Dublin’s first large-scale gunpowder manufacturing business at Corkagh in south Dublin.

On 19 May 1703 Nicholas Grueber (the record has ‘Grubert’) married Marguerite Moore at L’Eglise Française de St Patrick (part of St Patrick’s Cathedral set aside for the use of Huguenots).

Nicholas was a merchant, son of Mr. Grubert and Madle Monginot, Marguerite was the daughter of the Reverend Moore, a minister of the English church.

Nicholas Grueber and his wife Marguerite had six children baptised at the Nouvelle Église de Ste Marie:

  • Nicholas Grueber 1704–1705
  • Elizabeth Grueber 1706–
  • Susana Maria Grueber 1707–
  • Nicholas Francis Grueber 1709–
  • Arthur Grueber 1713–1802 (my 6th great grandfather)
  • William Grueber 1720–

Of the four sons of Nicholas, one died in infancy, one followed him into business and the other two attended university and became clergymen in the Protestant Church of Ireland.

My sixth great grandfather Arthur Grueber was a pupil of the Anglican divine Thomas Sheridan, one of Jonathan Swift’s friends. Grueber studied at Trinity College, Dublin, gaining his MA in 1737 and DD in 1757. He was ordained as a deacon in 1736.

In 1754 Dr Arthur Grueber was appointed headmaster of the Royal School Armagh. The school flourished under his administration, becoming one of the finest schools in Ireland. A notable pupil was the Irish cleric and astronomer James Archibald Hamilton (1747 – 1815).

Grueber later abandoned teaching to become a bookseller and publisher, in this meeting with less success: by 1793 he was bankrupt. Arthur Grueber died in 1802.

Portrait of Rev. Arthur Grueber,  my sixth great grandfather. The miniature, owned by my father, has been handed down through the Dana family.

Sources

R is for refugees

21 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by in A to Z 2020, Champion de Crespigny, Huguenot

≈ 10 Comments

Eight of my eighth great grandparents were Huguenots, French Calvinists, members of the Reformed Church of France.

(This is about 1.5% of my 8th great grandparents; everyone has up to 512 ancestors at this level of their family tree).

British (English) School; Marie, Comtesse de Vierville (1628-1708), Wife of Claudius Champion de Crespigny

Marie, Comtesse de Vierville (1628–1708), wife of Claudius Champion de Crespigny, one of my 8th great grandmothers. Portrait hanging in Kelmarsh Hall, image retrieved through artuk.org

CdeC huguenot forebears fan a
All four grandparents and seven of the eight great grandparents of Philip Champion de Crespigny were Huguenot refugees. Philip was my 5th great grandfather. His Huguenot forebears are highlighted in purple on this fan chart. His great grandparents are some of my 8th great grandparents.

 

From 1598 the Edict of Nantes had granted the Huguenots the right to practice their religion in France without persecution from the state. When in 1685 the Edict of Nantes – the law of toleration toward Protestants – was revoked, my Huguenot forebears abandoned their homes and property and fled to England.

When Louis XIV revoked the Edict he claimed it was no longer needed because there were no Huguenots left in his kingdom and so their special privileges had become unnecessary. He had been persecuting Huguenots for some time, but in 1681 the campaign against them entered a new phase. Louis instituted a policy of ‘Dragonnades‘, meant to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or returning to Catholicism. The policy, in part, instructed officers in charge of travelling troops to select Huguenot households for their billets and to order the soldiers to behave as badly as they could. Soldiers damaged the houses, ruined furniture and personal possessions, and attacked the men and abused the women. Huguenots could escape this persecution only by conversion or by fleeing France.

Dragonnades430

Protestant engraving representing ‘les dragonnades’ in France under Louis XIV From: Musée internationale de la Réforme protestante, Geneva and retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

It is estimated that some 50,000 Huguenots fled France to England. Others settled in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Ireland, and America. It was illegal for Protestants to leave France. The borders were guarded, and disguise and other stratagems were employed to get across.

The majority of the refugees established themselves both as members of the French community in England and also as British subjects. There were three stages to the process: reception by a church in England, grant of denization or permanent residence by the British government, and formal naturalisation. Denization and naturalization required an Act of Parliament, and those seeking naturalization had to present a certificate confirming that they had received the sacraments according to the rites of the Church of England.

When they arrived in London, many Huguenot refugees presented their credentials, ‘Témoignages‘, which were documents from a previous congregation witnessing that the holder was a member of the Reformed Religion, Calvinist Protestantism. With this they could be received into a new congregation. The document gave an indication of when the family had arrived and from where.

Four_Times_of_the_Day_-_Noon_-_Hogarth

Noon: Plate II from Four Times of the Day by William Hogarth 1736. The scene takes place in Hog Lane, part of the slum district of St Giles with the church of St Giles in the Fields in the background. The picture shows Huguenots leaving the French Church in what is now Soho. Hogarth contrasts the fussiness and high fashion of the Huguenots with the slovenliness of the group on the other side of the road. The older members of the congregation wear traditional dress, while the younger members wear the fashions of the day. Retrieved from Wikipedia.

The de Crespigny family presented their témoignages credentials at various times. Claude Champion Crespigny (1620-1695) and his wife Marie née de Vierville (1628-1708), my eighth great grandparents, and four of their children: Pierre, Suzanne, Renee and Jeanne, registered their témoignages on 30 June 1687 at the Savoy Church in the West End of London. The two elder daughters Marguerite and Marie were already married and travelled separately. My 7th great grandfather Thomas Champion de Crespigny and his brother Gabriel had been sent separately to England by their parents when they were about 12 years old; Thomas in 1676 and Gabriel in 1678.

Savoy French Church 1746 map

from Rocque’s 1746 Map of London showing the French Church, the Savoy Church, marked with an orange arrow

The next step was to obtain denization. A denizen was neither a subject (with nationality) nor an alien, but had a status akin to permanent residency today. A denizen had the important right to hold land.

All eight children of Claude and Marie became denizens of England by an Act of 5 March 1691. Their parents, however – Claude and Marie Champion de Crespigny – did not find it necessary it necessary to take that step.

Gabriel was naturalized on 12 March 1699, but Peter and Thomas waited until 1706. It is clear that this final step was not considered urgent: by 1706 Pierre had been in England for twenty years, Thomas and Gabriel perhaps ten years longer; and both held full commissions in the army. There is no mention of any women of the family being naturalised.

When Huguenot refugees first arrived in England they relied on private charity, but in 1689 the joint monarchs William and Mary inaugurated the Royal Bounty with funds from the Civil List – money allocated by Parliament for personal expenses of the royal family. The Bounty was later maintained by Acts of Parliament. During the reign of Queen Anne from 1702 to 1714 the program was known as the Queen’s Bounty. The list of recipients is held in the library at Lambeth Palace, and an extract copy was provided to our cousin Stephen Champion de Crespigny in 1986. In 1707 Marie and Renée – with the surname Champion de Crespigny – were living at 37 Wardour Street, Soho, and the amount of the pension was £18.

Claude and Marie died in London, Claude in 1695 and Marie in 1708. They are buried at Marylebone. Their gravestone indicates that they were refugees from France. Many other members of the family were buried at Marylebone in the family vault. The vault as not survived, but a copy of the headstone is in a garden of remembrance near the site of the old church.

London 1746

from Rocque’s 1746 map of London. The orange arrow shows the Savoy Church. In the north west the pink arrow shows the church of St Mary le bone. The green arrow shows Wardour Street, the home of Marie and her daughter Renee and also Marie’s son Pierre. The blue arrow to the east shows Doctor’s Commons near St Paul’s Cathedral. John Rocque’s 1746 map of London can be explored at https://www.locatinglondon.org

Sources

  • Minet, William, and Susan Minet, Livre des conversions et reconnaisances faites à l’église françoise de la Savoye 1684-1702, transcribed and edited, Huguenot Society of London Publications XXII, 1914 [archive.org]
  • Shaw, William A, Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England and Ireland 1603-1700, Huguenot Society of London Publications XVIII, 1911 [archive.org]
  • Shaw, William A, Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England and Ireland 1701-1800, Huguenot Society of London Publications XXVII, 1923 [archive.org]
  • de Crespigny, Rafe Champions from Normandy : an essay on the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family 1350-1800 AD. Lilli Pilli, New South Wales Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny, 2017. Can be viewed at Champions from Normandy

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A memorial window in Glenelg

05 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Cudmore, Glenelg, religion, Trove Tuesday

≈ 3 Comments

Some time ago, idly browsing digitised newspapers on Trove, I noticed a reference to a stained-glass memorial window at St Peter’s Church Glenelg in memory of my great great grandparents James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912) and Margaret Cudmore née Budge (1845 – 1912).

Last week, in Adelaide for a short holiday, we drove to Glenelg and had a look.

St Peters Glenelg West Window 20191030

The West Window – the left hand light is in memory of James Francis Cudmore and his wife Margaret who both died in 1912. It shows the Raising of the Widow’s Son.

Cudmore window unveiling 1915

CONCERNING PEOPLE. (1915, August 16). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 – 1929), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59413619

The left light (panel) of the window, unveiled in August 1915, depicts the story of Jesus raising the son of the widow of Nain from the dead. The episode is recorded in the Gospel of  Luke 7:11–17. Nain was a small village, a day’s walk from Nazareth.

11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.

12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a
dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.

17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.

The subject of the west window is Jesus’ triumph over death. It has three lights, depicting His three resurrection miracles. The others show the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the raising of Lazarus.

The church of St Peter’s at Glenelg is on land set aside by Colonel Light in 1839. The first church of St Peter’s was built in 1852. In 1880 the first church was demolished to make way for a larger structure. Its foundation stone was laid 18 January 1881, with the new building consecrated 19 May 1883.

The architect of the 1881 building was Edmund Wright, who also designed the Adelaide Town Hall in 1863, the Adelaide Post Office in 1866, and the South Australian Parliament House in 1874. He also worked on Paringa Hall, a house built for James Francis Cudmore between 1880 and 1882 at Somerton, South Australia, a few kilometres south of St Peter’s Church.

The first record I have found in the digitised newspapers of the Cudmore involvement with St Peter’s was a report in the Adelaide Evening Journal of 1 February 1883: “We understand that a liberal offer has been made by Mr. J. F. Cudmore (in addition to previous gifts) to have the internal plastering of the building [St Peter’s Church, Glenelg] executed at his expense.” The report of the consecration of the new building in May 1883 included a mention that J.F. Cudmore was on the building committee.

In July 1883 the South Australian Register reported “Two very handsome gas standards, about eight feet high and containing seven lights, have been presented to the Church by Mrs. J. F. Cudmore. The lower part of each is nicely designed and supports a spiral brass standard carrying an elegant crown of jets. These additions to the Church are very handsome indeed, and with the memorial window enhance the effect of the interior arrangements, which are in themselves in thorough good taste.”

In the evening of 27 December 1883 and on the following day a bazaar in aid of the church was held. The Advertiser reported :

The stalls, four in number, exclusive of a Christmas tree and the inevitable bran pie, were very nicely arranged under the management of Mr. J. F. Cudmore, and were covered with articles of use or ornament. The ladies who presided were Mesdames Cudmore and Winnall at one, the Misses Bonnin at another, Mesdames Simms and Ferguson at the third ; and Mrs. West and the Misses Phillipson at the fourth. The Christmas tree was under the supervision of Mrs. Fisher, and the bran pie under that of the Misses Young, whilst Mrs. Douglas managed the refreshment stall. A considerable number of visitors were present during the evening, and the stalls were very well patronised …

So it appears that my great great grandparents did not merely attend St Peter’s Church. They were active members of the congregation.

In July 1889, Mrs Cudmore was helping with the annual social and an associated sale of goods. In October 1891 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was in charge of a Fancy stall when the ladies of St Peter’s Church held a Jumble Sale to wipe off the debt of the Church mission-room.

There was a large attendance at a dramatic and musical entertainment in August 1893 at St Peter’s schoolroom. Among the performers Miss Rosa Cudmore was reported as making a very pretty page boy and there was a piano duet by the Misses Cudmore. James Francis and Margaret Cudmore had 13 children including 7 daughters, 2 of whom died young. Rosa was born 1879 and about 14 years old in 1893. Her two older sisters were Violet born 1872 and Dorothea born 1876 and perhaps they were the pianists.

At the 1894 annual strawberry fete in aid of St Peter’s Church there was a good trade reported at the refreshment stall conducted by Mrs R. Smith, the Mayoress, and Mrs Cudmore, assisted by a large number of young ladies.

In 1896 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was on the committee to raise funds to renovate the schoolhouse. At a fundraising ball Mrs Cudmore was in the first set of lancers with Mr W. Bickford. [William Bickford 1841 – 1916 was the father of Reginald Bickford 1880 – 1945 who married Rosa Cudmore in 1910.]

In 1899 Mr J. F. Cudmore was reported as being on the committee to organise additions to the church.

In 1904 Mrs J.F. Cudmore was one of five seatholders selected to act in conjunction with the trustees and the Bishop of Adelaide to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Rev. Canon Green.

In 1907 Alexandrina Budge Cudmore (1882 – 1942), fifth daughter of James and Margaret, married Hugh Crawford at St Peter’s Church Glenelg. In 1910 Rosa Cudmore (1879 – 1954) married Reginald Bickford at St Peter’s and later the same year Dan Cudmore (1881 – 1966) married Kathleen Pile at the same church. The following year in 1911 Mary Paringa Cudmore (1887 – 1952), their youngest daughter, married Arthur Toll at St Peter’s.

Both James Francis Cudmore and his wife Margaret died in 1912 within 5 months of each other. In 1913, in accordance with the wishes of the late Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Cudmore, of “Paringa Hall,” a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” was presented to St. Peter’s Church, Glenelg. The painting is by an Italian artist, Giovanni Grinaschi [Grignaschi]  (1839 – 1905) who seems to have produced a number of versions of this copy. The Cudmores are said to have bought the painting from the artist in Milan in 1890.

St Peters Glenelg Last Supper 20191030

“Last Supper” painting

The painting is still hanging in the church accompanied by a plaque inscribed “To the Glory of God and loving memory of JAMES FRANCIS CUDMORE of Paringa Hall, Glenelg, who died 17th August 1912 and MARGARET his wife, who died 1st December 1912”.

St Peters Glenelg altar 20191030

Looking towards the altar with the “Last Supper” on the left

Sources

Z is for zealot

30 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in A to Z 2019, Cambridge, Chauncy, Hertfordshire, immigration, Massachusetts, prison, religion, university

≈ 9 Comments

My ninth great grandfather Charles Chauncy (1592-1672) was a non-conformist Divine, at one time imprisoned for his views by Archbishop Laud, who emigrated to America and later became a long-serving President of Harvard College.

HarvardPresidentCharlesChauncy

Harvard president Charles Chauncy

In “Highways and Byways in Hertfordshire” (1902), H. W. Tompkins mentions Charles Chauncy in connection with Ardeley Bury:

To mention Ardeley, or to think of Ardeley Bury, is to call to mind the Chauncys, a good Hertfordshire family, whose talents were exercised in several spheres of usefulness. First, though not foremost from the standpoint of literary or historic importance, was old Charles, somewhat renowned in his day as a Nonconformist divine. Where he was born I am unable to say ; he was baptised in the church here on 5th November, 1592. He was an indefatigable reader and student, and was eminent as an oriental and classical scholar. For some time he gave the benefit of his learning to the townsmen of Ware ; but managed to fall foul of Archbishop Laud, as so many pastors did, and was summoned to appear before the High Commission Court on two occasions. I believe the precise nature of his misdemeanours, theological or political, is known to the learned, with whom I leave them. However trivial we might deem them now, they were heinous offences in the eyes of Laud, and Charles Chauncy was deprived of his living and placed in prison. I am sorry to remember that he was but a weak-kneed brother, and presently, finding that to him, at least, stone walls did make a prison, he submitted in the most abject manner before the mitred bigot. For this humiliation he never forgave himself. In 1637 he landed at Plymouth in New England, where he became for a short time an assistant pastor, going from thence to a town called Scituate. There he preached for several years, and then, the Puritans having triumphed over their enemies, the men of Ware besought their pastor to return. But his work now lay elsewhere. He was almost on the point of embarking for England when he was invited to become President of Harvard College — a position for which he was eminently qualified — and in November, 1654, he was installed as the second President of that now famous institution. At Harvard he laboured for the rest of his life, and dying there in 1672, was buried at New Cambridge. He was a rare and racy preacher of the old sort, whose mouth uttered quaint sayings in abundance, and who kept tongue and pen alike busy. The Plain Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner in the Sight of God, was one of his productions — doubtless a pithy, profitable, and long discourse, which probably no man or woman now in Hertfordshire has ever read, and which rests in a few libraries in a repose almost as deep as the bones of its author.

Charles Chauncy graduated from Cambridge in 1613, and became a fellow of his college, Trinity College, and professor of Hebrew and Greek. In 1627 he was appointed Vicar of Ware, Hertfordshire, and from 1633 to 1637 vicar at Marston St Lawrence, Northamptonshire.

Chauncy had Puritanical opinions that placed him in opposition to the church hierarchy, including its most senior member, the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. He asserted in a sermon that “idolatry was admitted into the church” and he opposed, as a “snare to men’s consciences” placing a barrier – the altar rail – around the communion table. He was suspended by Archbishop Laud for refusing to perform his duty to read from the pulpit the “Book of Sports”, which set out permissible Sunday recreations. He was brought before the Court of High Commission in 1629 and again in 1634. In 1634 he was imprisoned. He made a formal recantation in 1637 which – it is said – he later regretted.

In 1638 Charles Chauncy emigrated to America. From 1638 to 1641 he was an associate pastor at Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, the Plymouth church community was dissatisfied with Chauncy’s advocacy of baptism of infants by immersion. From 1641 to 1654 he served as pastor at Scituate, Massachusetts. From 1654 until his death in 1672 he was President of Harvard College.

Charles Chauncy and his wife Catherine Chauncy nee Eyre (1604 – 1667) had six sons and at least two daughters. All six sons were said to have been “bred to the ministry and graduates of Harvard”. I have previously written about Ichabod, their third child and second son.

I think Charles Chauncy is close to the definition of a zealot: a person who has very strong opinions about something, and tries to make other people have them too. Chauncy only seemed to compromise reluctantly.

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I is for Ichabod

Source

Q is for quires and questions

19 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by in A to Z 2019, Crew, Durham, religion

≈ 3 Comments

A “Quire” is the area of a Christian church, more often referred to as the chancel, where the choir assembles.

Thirty years ago we visited Durham Cathedral. We were very impressed by its magnificent stained glass, old and modern, the shrine to St Cuthbert, and also the tomb of the Venerable Bede, father of English history. The Norman architecture has survived largely intact. The stone columns were awe inspiring. Durham Cathedral was a place we remember fondly and are keen to revisit.

The quire stalls and other woodwork in Durham Cathedral date from the mid-seventeenth century. The Cathedral, badly damaged in the Civil War, was rebuilt by Bishop John Cosin (bishop from 1660 – 1672). Cosin was responsible for a unique style of church woodwork, described as a sumptuous fusion of gothic and contemporary Jacobean forms.

Just after Easter when we were travelling in 1989 we were interested to read newspaper reports of the controversial theological views of the then Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins (1925 – 2016). Jenkins is remembered for raising doubts about the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus. When we were driving in Scotland we saw a sign outside a Church of Scotland quoting the Apostles’ Creed “I believe in…the resurrection of the body”, which appeared to be a reference to the unorthodox theology of the Bishop of Durham.

We joked that the fortified position of Durham Cathedral high on the peninsula and surrounded on three sides by a river meant that the Bishop, well separated from the rest of the Christian community, would not need to be particularly circumspect in his questioning of fundamental Christian beliefs. One of Jenkins’s obituaries was entitled “David Jenkins: the bishop who didn’t believe in the Bible”.

Durham, ca. 1795

Durham, ca. 1795, unknown artist, eighteenth century, , Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

 

My tenth great uncle Nathaniel Crew (1633 – 1721), who succeeded John Cosins, was Bishop of Durham from 1674 to 1721, one of the longest serving bishops in the history of the Church of England. Like the twentieth century Bishop Jenkins, Nathaniel Crew was more than a little unorthodox. He is said to have owed his rapid promotion to the Duke of York (later James II), whose favour he had gained by secretly encouraging the duke’s Roman Catholic interests at a time, not long after the English Civil War, when the political role of the Church was being fiercely argued. James II was overthrown by the Revolution of 1688, the bloodless Glorious Revolution. Crew was not included in the general pardon of 1690 but was allowed to keep his see.

Nathaniel Crew portrait

Nathaniel Crew in about 1680 by an unknown artist. Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

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Sources