[Magdalen] Huguenot Heritage.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Visiting various family roots in Ireland, I became aware that a Huguenot,
one Gabriel Maturin, was on the staff of the Cathedral when Jonathan Swift
was the dean, and was instrumental in convincing Swift to change his mind
and allow the premiere of a work in Dublin.  Swift was dead set against it,
and they needed the choristers from both Cathedrals to make it work,
apparently.  Thus it was because of my 6x grt-grandfather that Handel's
Messiah was first performed in Dublin. The hall is long gone, replaced by
the George Frederick Handel Hotel. There's a memorial plaque in the
cathedral commemorating the Huguenots who settled there. Several of them,
possibly including my ancestor(s) are buried under one of the altars. May
they all rest in peace.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 4:23 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> 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.
>
>