THE FRENCH HUGUENOTS


     There is no chapter in the lives of our ancestors which can equal that of the
French Huguenots who settled at Manakintown in Virginia about 1700.  THE HUGUENOT
BARTHOLMEW DUPUY AND HIS DESCENDANT, by Rev. B. H. Dupuy, was published in 1908.
It has been a treasured possession in most of our families.  It is one of the finest
family genealogies I have ever seen.  

     Rev. Dupuy devoted eighty-five pages to the Huguenot movement in France.  The
Protestant movement actually began in France.  It was born among the University
Scholars of France and spread among the upper classes first.  Persecution by the
Catholics began in 1521.  The Huguenots were involved in eight wars in thirty
years and were the victims of some terrible
massacres.

     Finally, in 1598, King Henry of Navarre issued the edict of Nantes, granting
"full toleration in religion".  But his toleration did not last long, as King Henry
was killed in 1610 and the persecution resumed, culminating in the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantesby King Louis XIV in 1685.  This ordered the destruction of the
Protestant churches, refusal to allow any worship, even private, among the Protes-
tants, and banishment of ministers.  Children could not be instructed as Protestants
and must be baptized and educated as Catholics.  There should be no escape from
France under penalty of death.

     They did escape - they poured into Germany, Switzerland, England and Holland.
From 300,000 to 400,000 escaped and it is believed that at least that many died in
the attempt.  France was not to recover for over a century from this loss of some
of its finest families.

     Some of the refugees lived in the countries mentioned for the rest of their
lives, but in 1699 King William of England invited all of the Huguenot refugees to
go to America and 700 of them left in four different fleets to settle in America.

     Two hundred of these Huguenots formed a settlement at Manakintown, King William
Parish, Virginia, about eighteen miles above Richmond. They were granted 10,000
acres.  Among them was the Dupuy family and several other of our ancestors.  Life
was not easy for them.  William Byrd wrote in 1701 that he had visited the French
refugees in Manakintown.  He found their houses very "mean" and noted that, although
they attempted to raise gardens, they did not know how to prepare them or to keep
the weeds out.  "Though these people are very poor, yet they seem very cheerful -
all they seem to desire is that they may have Bread enough."  
                   
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