THE HVGVENOT FAMILY OF MINET Two Hundred and Fifty Copies privately printed for the Author by Spottzswoode &,, Co., London, 1892 ISAAC MINET SOME ACCOVNT OF THE HVGVENOT FAMILY OF MINET FROM THEIR COMING OVT OF FRANCE AT THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES MDCLXXXVI FOVNDED ON ISAAC MINET'S RELATION OF OVR FAMILLY' BY WILLIAM MINET, M·A· F·S·A· OF THE INNER TEMPLE 'NE SOMMES POINT VENUE DE RACE ILLUSTRE ET NOBLE. SY EST CE QUE NOUS SOMMES VENUE, DIEU MERCY DES GENS CRAIGNANS DIEU' J. SAUCHELLE PREFACE IN accordance with a custom sanctioned by long usage, I preface the work which follows with a brief account of the motives which have prompted its undertaking, and of the methods which have been adopted in its execution. As to the methods, I would first say (with Sir Henry Wotton), ' I am but the gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.' There has come into my hands a large quantity of papers and notes relating to our family, but in that condition of most admired disorder in which the accidents of time have left them. The first task was to arrange them in the order of the generations to which they belonged, that each might, so far as possible, tell its own story; the next, to supply con­ necting-links between one passage and another. I am, therefore, responsible for the right ordering of what is original. Of my own additions this much may be said : I found, as must always be the case in a work of this nature, that a little research would enable me to add considerably to the materials already in my hands. And here I was beset by a temptation experienced by all who have embarked on genealogical inquiries-the temptation to continue research, not so much for the sake of making the story fuller and more living, as for the sake of adding date to date and name to name ; the result of which, not unfrequently, is to produce a mere genealdgical skeleton, perfectly articulated it may be, but still a skele­ ton only. With what measure of success I have avoided this pitfall I hardly know. But, while availing myself of such records of the past as I have been able to discover, I have, in my use of them, tried to vi THE HUGUENOT FAMILY OF MINET keep this principle before me-that the object of my research should be, not so much the addition of another bone to the skeleton, as the making the dry bones to live. As to method, let this suffice. It remains to speak of motive. And here, at the outset, let me disclaim any that should seem based on mere ' ostentation of ancestry.' Granting that what we are depends much upon ourselves, I hold it also true that we are to a great degree what our fathers have made us ; in other words, we are the creatures of environment as well as of heredity, though what part each of these factors has played in the building up of our character, time and a fuller science must more nicely determine. To speak from my own experience of what we owe to heredity: over and over again, as I have gathered from the past some fresh trait in the character of some ancestor, it has flashed in upon me that what I found was nothing new-was but the reflexion of myself. I have, then, collected and ordered these records, partly that our children may learn what their fathers have done in the old times before them, and partly that they may take pleasure, as I have done, m finding in the lives and characters of these the key to some part of their own. We Huguenots are proud of our descent, with a pride which need not be personal, but should rather be based upon the part our origin has enabled us to play in the country of our adoption. Year by year we are more and more being merged and welded into that great whole, the English people ; but of the various foreign elements which have from time to time added new forces to its character, ours is assuredly not the least important. It may, then, not be entirely idle to have placed on record, ere yet it was too late, the story of a Huguenot family for which it may be claimed that it exhibits in no slight degree many of those qualities which have worked for the best in the building up of a sound national life. But one more task remains, and that is to thank those who during PREFACE vii the progress of my work have given me their help and the advantage of their experience. To name all would be too long, but especially would I mention my old college friend, W. C. Waller, F.S.A., whose assistance has been constant and varied; while to Mr. G. H. Overend, F.S.A., whose knowledge of Dover Huguenots is evidenced by his writings, I owe both valuable suggestion and practical aid ; and I am particularly indebted to Monsieur V. J. Vaillant, of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and to Monsieur C. Landrin, of Guines, for much of the material which goes to make up the chapter entitled 'The Family in France.' Nor would I omit mention of my sister, whose interest in our family is as great as my own, and who has shared with me the pleasure of compiling muc;h of what follows. W.M. FOUNTAIN COURT, TEMPLE, LONDON. fune, 1892. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE V I. ISAAC MINET'S BOOK . I IL THE FAMILY IN FRANCE 7 III. THE PERSECUTION AND THE ESCAPE 18 IV. THE FAMILY IN ENGLAND 37 V. ISAAC MINET 50 VI. THE SAUCHELLES 77 VIL ISAAC MINET's CHILDREN . 95 VIII. THE BVSINESS. l l 8 IX. HUGHES MINET 1 54 X. HUGHES MINET'S CHILDREN . 176 APPENDICES I. FACSIMILES OF AUTOGRAPHS II. GENEALOGICAL TABLES Ill. WILLS . 2II IV. INSCRIPTIONS TAKEN FROM MONUMENTS OF THE MINET FAMILY 218 V. DEEDS RELATING TO LA TRESORERIE 221 VI. THE CUPS OF THE CHURCH OF GUINES 224 VIL UNIDENTIFIED MINETS 228 INDEX. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ISAAC MINET Frontispiece PAGE SEAL OF THE TOWN OF DOVER, OBVERSE viii SEAL OF THE TOWN OF DOVER, REVERSE X SEAL OF THE TOWN OF CALAIS, 1228 xii HOUSE IN THE PLACE D'ARMES, CALAIS. To face 12 ARMS OF CALAIS, I 570 17 FACSIMILE OF 'RECONNAISSANCE' To face 51 PIER HOUSE, DOVER ,, HUGHES MINET. 168 " ISAAC MINET " JORN LEWIS MIN ET . " JAMES LEWIS MINET " FACSIMILE AUTOGRAPHS 197 ARMS Genealogical Tables THE HUGUENOT FAMILY OF MINET CHAPTER I ISAAC MINET's BOOK A good book ... embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.-MILTON. THERE are but few to whom the past history of their own family would not be of interest. When that family is of Huguenot origin, and when, moreover, in writing its history, it is possible to draw largely from contemporary records, such a history seems to become of more than individual or family interest. The family whose annals we propose to record is peculiarly fortunate in having had preserved to it'a manuscript book containing, with much other information, a narrative in his own handwriting of the persecution and escape of Isaac Minet, who fled from France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. How this book, after lying hidden for more than a century, came into the posses­ sion of the great-great-grandson of its original owner, it is the purpose of this chapter to explain. This book came into the possession of James Lewis Minet on May 10, 1867, previous to which date its existence was unsuspected. So far as it can be traced, its history is as follows : it first belonged to Isaac Minet, and its original use, to judge from the words 'Receipt Booke' written on its rough calf cover, as also from various entries scattered through it, was that of a book of personal accounts of a heterogeneous description. Gradually, however, it seems to have become a memo­ randum-book, in which its owner noted public and private events, mixed up with fragments of biography and autobiography relating to his family. To disentangle this patchwork would have required some patience, even at the hands of its venerable author. Nor has the task B 2 THE HUGUENOT FA1WJLY OF MINET been rendered easier by the subsequent proceedings of his son William, who (actuated, as he himself says, by the best motives to make what he found therein clearer) has torn out and renumbered pages, and carried on and elucidated what his father had written, by means of notes and remarks inserted in the blank spaces. However, this much is clear-only three hands have ever written in the book : Isaac Minet, the father, William, his son, and a clerk em­ ployed by William to copy some of the notes relating to the Sauchelle family; there is no entry earlier than 1705, and none later than 1751. The book itself thus covers a period of forty-six years ; but in the form of recollections and traditions it goes back to the birth of Isaac Minet's father, Ambroise, in 1613; and in the form of copies from much older notes relating to the Sauchelles (Mrs. Isaac Minet's family), it extends as far as the fifteenth century, though 15 5 3 is the first actual date cited. Isaac Minet does not seem to have written much beyond cash-entries until the year 17 2 2 (he was then sixty-two years of age), when he gives the first, and shorter, account of his escape from Calais to Dover with his mother, and of some of the events preceding their flight.