Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/83

 subscribed the oatlis, and made, repeated and subscribed the declaration appointed by Act of Parliament, made in the sixth year of her said Majesties reign, entitled, an act to make further provision for electing and summoning sixteen Peers of Scotland to sit in the House of Peers in the Parliament of Great Britain, and for trying Peers for offences committed in Scotland, and for the further regulating of voters in elections of Members to serve in Parliament.

“Dated the 14th day of November in the year of our Lord 1709 and in the eighth year of her said Majesties reign.

, Secondar. Coron. Officii in C$d$ D$no$ R$nae$ coram ipsa R$nae$

“Taken out of the several offices and delivered by Messrs Laymerie and Brissac, as also certificate for the sacrament ready filled up.”

In Ireland, naturalization, on taking the oaths before the Lord Chancellor, was granted without difficulty. The following are all the names I find in my note-book:—

. Adam Billon, (1 Aug. 1699). The following merchants being “Protestant strangers,” — (29th Nov. 1704). — Henry Maynard, Anthony Guizot, Stephen Peridier, David Dupont, James Bournack, Clennet Clancherie, Peter Bigot, Daniel Guion, John Clamouse, James Soignon, Samuel Offre, Mark Le Blanc, Andrew Le Blanc, William Boncoiron, Peter Dumas.

VIII. (which extends from pages 58 to 65) is entitled The Royal Bounty. The Royal Bounty for French Protestant Refugees consisted originally of money collected in the churches, the reigning sovereign having appointed each collection, and the royal “Brief” [or intimation] having been read in the pulpits. Ultimately it appeared as an annual parliamentary grant. I give here no summary of the historical information contained in the section, but I note some names mentioned incidentally.

Page 59. — John Evelyn in his diary informs us of the collections — specially of Bishop Ken’s sermon.

Page 60. — Sir Patrick Murray was the collector-general in Scotland, appointed to receive the sums collected in 1689 for the French and Irish Protestants, — under him at Stranraer were Provost Torburne, Sir Charles Hay of Park, and Rev. Mr Miller. The collection throughout England in 1699 is noticed in the diary of Ralph Thoresby of Leeds.

Page 61. — Rev. John Howe wrote a letter in 1689, appealing for an unsectarian distribution of the bounty money.

Page 63. — The Right Honourable George Robert Dawson, M.P., defended the grant to French pastors in modem times.

Page 64. — The Right Honourable John Charles Herries, M.P., officially denied that the descendants of refugees, who were recipients of the royal bounty, were Papists. The section concludes by shewing the interest taken in the Spitalfields weavers by Sir William Curtis in 1816, and by the Rev. Isaac Taylor in the present generation.

IX. (which extends from pages 65 to 73) is entitled Church-government and Worship. Protestant Church-government in France was managed by consistories, colloquies [i.e., presbyteries], provincial synods, and national synods; before the fall of La Rochelle their money affairs were managed by local “Assemblies,” and a “General Assembly,” — the latter are called in history “Political Assemblies.” They had neither diocesan bishops nor episcopal ordination. They had a book of prayers called Prières Ecclesiastiques; one or more of these prayers was, at the discretion of the officiating pastor, interpolated among the ex tempore prayers.

Page 67. — From the days of the Reformation in England there was the Anglican prayer- book translated into French, for the use of the churches in the Channel Islands. This book would have been imposed upon the refugee churches by Archbishop Laud if the civil 