consonant heart and mind, may render unto thee all laud and praise continually, magnifying thy glorious name, who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, art one eternal, almighty, and most merciful God, to whom be all laud and praise, world without end. Amen.”
Lord Burghley took a deep interest in the Refugees. Among his papers was found the following memorandum, which I copy in modernized spelling (see “Strype’s Annals, vol. iv., Supplement No. 4”).
“Upon the massacre at Paris, Protestants fly into England, whereof a brief account was sent up of those that fled to Rye from Rouen and Dieppe. Soon after that massacre came over from Rouen and Dieppe to Rye 641 persons, men, women, and children — families 85. They came over at several times in the months of August and September, and some few in October; but some few came over in August somewhat before the massacre. Besides in the beginning of November, the 4th, 7th, and 9th days, 58 persons more, most of them for religion; several. Monsieur Le Vidame of Chartres’s servants. The view was taken of these French and other strangers, within the town of Rye by the appointment of Henry Seymer, Mayor of that town, and the jurats there. John Donning, Gustos of Rye, sent up the catalogue, Nov. the 22nd, to the Lord Treasurer, according to order sent to him. In this catalogue are the names of divers entitled ministers, clerks, schoolmasters; many merchants, mariners and of all trades, and some gentlemen, with their children, wives and servants.”
Lord Burghley was the principal proprietor of the town of Stamford, and through his enlightened patronage,[1] a colony was founded there this year, to consist of “estraungers beinge for conscience sake, and for the trewe and mere Religion of Christe Jhesu, fledde into her Grace’s Reaulme, and willinge to go to Stanford, and theire to keep theyre Residence.” Their spokesmen were Isbrand Balkins, their minister, and Casper Vosbergius; the colony consisted of manufacturers, silk-weavers, hatters, cutlers, dyers, and other industrial people. Strype in 1711 says, “This Walloon congregation and manufacture continued a great while in Stamford, but now is in effect vanished. In the Hall, where they used to meet for their business, the town feasts are now kept; the place where they exercised their religion is not known. Yet their last minister, a long-lived man, was known to many now alive,” (Strype’s “Life of Parker,” page 367, and Appendix Nos. 72 and 73).
The date of the horrible “sacking of Antwerp” was the beginning of November 1576. The Spaniards stripped all merchants, native and foreign, and massacred Walloons indiscriminately. And simultaneously the French king increased his rigour against the Huguenots; and at the same time “prohibition was made that no Frenchman should be suffered to fly into England,” according to information sent to the Earl of Sussex, by his brother, the Hon. Henry Radclyff, from Portsmouth January 15th, 1576 [?-1577, new style]. This information, which contains information as to the watching of the French coast in order to intercept fugitives, is printed in Strype’s Annals of Elizabeth, vol. ii., page 406.
During all these years until 1588 plots were hatching for the overthrow of Protestant England and the dethronement of Elizabeth. The year 1588 is the date of the destruction of the Spanish Armada. The danger and deliverance belonged equally to all Protestants in the island, whether natives or strangers. It is therefore disappointing to find that some members
- ↑ Out of gratitude to the English Government, a Huguenot Refugee named Bertrand, Seigneur de La Tour, gave information (dated at Spaa, near Aix-la-Chapelle, 11th Aug. 1573) of a Foreign Conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth. It was forwarded to Lord Burghley by Sir William Bromfield, an officer of Her Majesty’s Guards, to whom the communication had been made in presence of Stephen Bochart, Seigneur Du Menillet. The Seigneur de La Tour described himself as one “bound on many accounts to the most illustrious Queen of the English, on account of her hospitality shewn to all the refugees from France for the Word of God, and esteeming the benefits conferred by Her Majesty upon all the brethren professing the same religion, to be common to him and to all the French exiles in Germany or in any other part of the world,” [devinctus multis nominibus illustrissimae Reginae Anglorum propter hospitalitatem exhibitam omnibus profugis, ex Galliâ propter Verbum Dei, existimans beneficia a suâ Majestate collata omnibus Fratribus eandem religionem profitentibus, sibi et omnibus Exulibus Gallis, in Germaniâ, sive in quâcunque Orbis parte, esse communia]. For the latin original, see Strype’s Life of Parker, Appendix, No. 91 for an abstract in English, see his Annals of Elizabeth, vol. ii., page 254.
