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Distribution Lists, and Muster Rolls.-Also presented by Mr. Moens, who had it copied from the original list lent to the Society by Mr. C. C. de Villiers, of Cape Town.

An account of the Family of Hallen or Holland (De Mirabelle Dit Van Halen of Malines), from A.D. 1280 to A.D. 1885, with Pedigrees of Families of Hatton of Newent; Shakspeare of Stratford-on-Avon; and Wright of Clengre: by the Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen, M.A. Cam., F.S.A. Scot., Edinburgh. Printed by Neill and Co., 1885.-Presented by the Author.

A manuscript pedigree of the family of Martineau. It commences with Sir Moyle Finch, who married Elizabeth Heneage, created Countess of Winchilsea in 1628. Elizabeth Finch, his great granddaughter by this marriage, married David Martineau, the second son of Gaston Martineau, a refugee from Normandy after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Harriet Martineau, the celebrated authoress, was one of their descendants.-Presented by Miss Burrows of Aylsham, Norfolk.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Bi-centenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes has been celebrated not only in England and France, but at Cape Town. At a meeting presided over by Sir J. H.de Villiers, Chief Justice of the Cape Colony, and at which speeches were made by Professor Marais, Mr. du Plessis, and other descendants of the Huguenot exiles, it was decided to erect in Cape Town a monument which should be worthy of the occasion, and to offer a substantial sum for the best history of Huguenots. The victims of Louis XIV's persecuting policy who sought an asylum in the Dutch East India Company's settlements at the Cape sailed from Delft in five ships, the first of which left that port in December, 1687, and the last a year later. The refugees numbered altogether about one hundred and fifty souls, and constituted a valuable element in the permanent colonization of the country. They soon found from bitter experience that the Company's rule was oppressive and harsh. For example, they were not permitted to sell their produce except to the Company, and at prices fixed by it or its agents; and they were only allowed to buy commodities at stores belonging to the same monopolists. At first they endeavoured to preserve the French language, but its use was prohibited in official documents, and ultimately it died out. Moreover, in consequence of intermarriages with the Dutch, the separate nationality of the

refugees at last only survived in their names. It is worthy of remark that among the eight French elders who were appointed to rule over their little community of Stellenbosch in 1690-91, there occur the names of Guilliaume du Toit, Claude Marais, and Abraham de Villiers, names which still figure largely in the public affairs of South Africa. [Sunday at Home November, 1885.]

From a little leaflet now being circulated by "The Christian Community," it appears that the common belief that this Society was established in the year 1772 has been found by recent investigations to be erroneous. It has now been ascertained that it had its origin in the previous century about the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes when the Huguenot refugees to this country banded themselves together to endeavour to check the vice and infidelity which they found everywhere rampant, and to spread a knowledge of the Gospel. Several of the descendants of the refugees are still connected with the Society. One fact not generally known about it is that it possesses a Free Library of some 10,000 volumes, in addition to a large collection of magazines and reviews.

It appears from the recently issued translation of M. Pontalis's life of John de Witt, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, that the author of this important work claims for the United Provinces the credit of having put a stop to the persecution of the Waldenses by the Duke of Savoy. He considers that though Cromwell was the first to intervene, it was really the action of the States General in despatching the Deputy Van Omeren to Switzerland, which brought matters to a crisis, and caused the French Court in alarm at this coalition of the Protestant powers to join in procuring a settlement of the question. Mr. R. St. Aubyn Roumieu, the Treasurer of the Westminster French Protestant School (founded in 1747 for girls descended from Huguenot Refugees), has just issued his report to the subscribers to "The Bi-centenary Fund." This, it will be remembered, was a fund for which the Directors of this deserving institution received subscriptions last year, in the hope of raising a capital sum sufficiently large for the interest of it to prove an appreciable permanent addition to the income of the school. The total received from all sources up to the date of closing the account was £375 6s. 5d., which has been invested in New Three per Cent. Annuities. It is now proposed to add to this fund such legacies or donations as may be received from time to time in excess of the annual sum required for the ordinary current expenditure of the school.

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So little is known of the Huguenot community at Greenwich that every fact concerning it, however trivial, is perhaps worth noting. It is only referred to once in Mr. L'Estrange's recently issued work, entitled "The Palace and the Hospital, or "Chronicles of Greenwich." Speaking of an academy there for young noblemen and gentlemen," Mr. L'Estrange says that one of the advantages claimed for the school in its prospectus, was that such pupils as learned French, might attend the French Church. He remarks, "there seems to have been many "French settled here at this time. [the middle of the eighteenth century] which may account for a society of anti"Gallicans assembling here quarterly. We read of them "meeting in 1771, at the Chocolate House, on Blackheath."

Any information relating to the French Church at Greenwich and its Registers, will be welcomed by the Honorary Secretary of the Society. Information is also asked as to the site of the house occupied by the Marquis de Ruvigny, at the beginning of the last century.

The Charity Commissioners have intimated that they propose to make an order with respect to the library at the French Protestant Church, St. Martin's le Grand. This library consists of works on ecclesiastical and theological subjects, chiefly in French and Latin, many of them being rare. There is no fund or charity to maintain it, and the books have simply accumulated by the gifts of private individuals. The proposal of the Commissioners is to place it under the care of the City Corporation, in the Guildhall Library, with the same regulations as in the case of the library of the Dutch Church, Austinfriars, which was placed in the Guildhall Library under an order of the Commissioners.-[The Daily Telegraph, 31st December, 1885.]

Mr. W. J. C. Moens, F.S.A., has undertaken to edit the Register of the Walloon Church of Norwich, which is now being transcribed for the Society. It is hoped that the volume will be ready for issue some time to Fellows during the autumn.

The work of restoration in the French Huguenot Church in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, undertaken as a memorial of the late Archbishop Tait, has now been completed, and the interior of the sacred edifice, which comprises the Chantry of the Black Prince, is greatly improved. It is proposed to raise an endowment fund of £3000, so as to provide a permanent pastor's salary in connexion with the foundation.-[The Times, 20th January, 1886].

Miss Fanny Montfort, of St. Dominick's Abbey, Cashel, co. Tipperary, Ireland, has kindly promised to furnish the Society with a copy of the pedigree of the family of Montfort.

Mrs. Ogier-Ward, of St. Germains, Eastbourne, has kindly promised a copy of the Ogier pedigree, with some account of traditions preserved in her family concerning refugee Huguenots. A portrait of Pierre Ogier, elected a Director in 1761, hangs in the Court Room of the French Protestant Hospital, Victoria Park, London.

Mr. E. E. Stride, of 31, Lingfield Road, Wimbledon, would be glad of any information respecting the families of Stride and Size. He is doubtful whether the first of these two names is of French or Flemish origin, and would like to hear of any name resembling it such as L'Estride. It may perhaps occur in some list of refugees settled in Kent.

Mr. B. Piffard, of Hill House, Hemel Hempsted, Herts, intends to visit France during the coming summer, to make enquiries respecting the history of a family formerly seated at Cordéac, near Mens, in Isère. If furnished with one or two names of families coming from the neighbourhood of this town, he would make notes of such references to them, as he may meet with in the course of his researches.

Mr. A. Giraud Browning, the Hon. Secretary of the Society, would be glad to receive any information bearing upon the later life of Jean Cavalier, the Camisard leader.

Mr. F. P. Labilliere, of Mount Park, Harrow, would like to know where lists of the troops brought to this country from Holland, by William III., in 1685, may be found, particularly Muster Rolls showing the names of the private soldiers.

Alexandre Auguste des Villates, son of Alexandre Auguste des Villates and Louise Christine von Kronemann von Kromanshof, born in London, was baptized at the Dutch Church, St. James, 8th Dec., 1689. No other entries of this family appear in the said register. Any particulars of the baptisms of the later children of Alexandre Auguste des Villates, or of this family, will be most acceptable to Mr. W. J. C. Moens, Tweed, Lymington.

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