[Magdalen] Huguenot Heritage.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

My quarterly newsletter from the Huguenot Heritage Society came this  week.
The periodical had not been published for nearly a year because of  the
death of the organization's long time guiding light, Jack Strang, a  distant
relative.  We both trace ancestry to the same Huguenot immigrants who  left
France in 1685 at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV and 
his minister, Cardinal Richlieu, and arrived, buy way of a three year  stint
in England, at New York's New Rochelle in 1688.
 
The newsletter was filled with the usual scholarly articles about  
Huguenots,
but what got my attention was the statement that French Huguenots at  the
time of their mass exodus in 1685, made up the largest single ethnic  group
(at about 65,000 to England and another 10,000 to Ireland) ever to  enter
England at one time.  There had also been an earlier large group  of
refugees fleeing persecution in Flanders.  Anglo-Saxons made a 
much larger group, but their immigration to England was much more
gradual.
 
The immigrants were France's/Flander's brightest and best, and their  lost 
to 
France/Belgium is incalculable.  The had a strong influence on the  
English, 
especially contributing skilled workmen in many trades.
 
The Huguenot Heritage is looking for a new guiding light/editor, and  though
I did know Jack Strang, and he did make an attempt for me to get more
active in the organization, I will not be that guiding light/editor!
 
 
David Strang.