CHAPTER II

THE HUGUENOTS COME TO LISBURN

THE HUGUENOT COLONY OF LISBURN was an important one, not only because it brought added prosperity to the town, but because it was the only one in the North of Ireland to have its own Church and Pastor. While there were not as many illustrious names connected with Lisburn as with other Huguenot settlements such as Dublin and Cork, where bankers and merchants flourished, Youghal and Portarlington, which were settled mostly by military and aristocratic families, the Lisburn refugees were weavers, bleachers, merchants, a reed maker, some ex-soldiers, school-masters, a printer and their pastor. It was known for its linen manufacture.

Lisburn had been the site of the Castle of the O'Neill, established in a strategic position near the River Lagan, and in the late 1640's the Huguenots staffed to infiltrate the area, possibly coming first to Lambeg and Derriaghy, where Scottish weavers had settled. There were also soldiers who had served in the Regiment of Colonel Venables in the Cromwellian Army during the Protectorate with names of Lemon, Hoole, De Cherries.⁶

The movement of "foreign Protestants" began about 1540, soon after the ideas of Protestantism began to spread. Luther died in 1546 during the reign of Henry VIII, when there was a small colony of refugees in London. Henry regarded all foreigners as potential spies, but his son Edward VI gave them Churches in which to worship. Mary I reversed this policy and English refugees fled to the Calvinist cities of Geneva and Frankfurt. The situation changed again with the accession of Elizabeth I. However it is remarkable that as one door closed another opened, and there was always a State that promised shelter; and after Holland declared itself a Calvinist State in 1622, it became the chief refuge. Later Sweden, Denmark, South Africa, Carolina in America, the West Indies, also received "Foreign Protestants", although at first the influence of the Jesuits barred them from Canada.

The Huguenots found different receptions in their new countries; some merely tolerated them, some resented their competition, and some welcomed them for their industry and culture. England had an economy which
was able to absorb them, though Scotland did not, nevertheless there was a small colony in Edinburgh. At first, refugees in Ulster were few and came mostly from Southern Ireland and England and gradually built up their numbers peacefully, though in Dublin and Cork there were for a time, fights with their neighbours.

The Parish Registers in the Lisburn area show the gradual settling of foreign Protestants. In 1658 Louis Gaston is found, and in Huguenot dispersion and escape routes 1669 the names Hignet, Boulay, Pilon and Blathwayt (Dutch) appear. By 1676 Benjamin Guerin had arrived and by 1685 Richard Le Bas and Lucas Hamon appear in the Parish records. The families with the Germanic names of Mussen and Wolfenden were also early "Protestant strangers", it is thought from Bavaria, which had changed its ruler and its faith. By 1670 they had been forced to leave not with brutality but by the subtle process of having to sell their goods and homes for much less than their value if they did not revert to Catholicism. It seems that the Mussens travelled to Luxembourg, from where they were expelled in 1670. The Wolfendens went to Holland, some scuffing later in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and others came to Lambeg, about 1675.

Here they established a woollen mill, of which nothing remains but the name Blanket Row. They also built a paper mill and prospered. Later Wolfendens were to marry into several Huguenot families, and Wolfenden memorials in Lambeg Churchyard indicate their importance as a family within the local community.

During the more peaceful year, after the restoration of Charles II, Lisburn had prospered and a thriving community with a market, and improved methods of husbandry and farming had transformed the Lagan valley into a fertile and well organised region. The population had grown to two thousand and the town consisted of four hundred houses, which were either thatched with straw, or covered with oak shingles. It was to this town that the Huguenots in the army of the Duke of Schomberg came on the second of September 1689, after capturing Carrickfergus. Their stay at this time was brief before they marched to Dundalk, where, because of the good defensive position and easy means of communication, the Duke decided to make his winter quarters.

From the diary of Brigadier General Sir Richard Kane⁷ we have a contemporary account of events:

The Duke wrote:

This fact the Duke knew, having been united in Holland when he joined William of Orange, and many of his former officers from the French army, including Captain St Sauveur, Colonel du Cambon (who was killed later at the Battle of Landen in 1693), who became his Chief of Military Engineers, De La Meloni?e, Charles de Caillemotte, and seven hundred and thirty six other Huguenot soldiers.

Soon after the twentieth of September, King James II retired to the River Boyne, and by this time conditions in the Duke's camp were so appalling that he decided to return to Lisburn, to take up winter quarters there, before his army became even more unfit. As the troops moved off, he has been depicted as standing in the rain far as long as the army passed, watching the line of wagons and pack horses, and thanking the sickly soldiers for their service. He was then seventy five years old.

On his arrival in Lisburn he was welcomed by the townspeople, who lit bonfires in Market Square. Then he began to organise his depleted forces. This was a daunting task, for as well as natural disasters, he had to cope with the consequences of being defrauded by his chief commissary, Henry Shales, a former employee of King James, who supplied the Williamite army with too few horses and artillery carriages, some of which were faulty. William Harbourd is also credited with supplying a non-existent troop of horse.⁸

The health of Schomberg's troops improved when they were in better quarters. A meeting with local farmers to arrange prices of meat and bread resulted in improved food supplies, but disease was not completely eradicated. The burial registers of the Cathedral in Lisburn record over ninety funerals, though few of these were French soldiers. One was the Duke's pastry cook, who died of food poisoning.

Supplies of medicine continued to be scanty and inadequate and morale remained low. Routine training took up some of their time, but there were few distractions for the men. A letter written from Lisburn in January 1690 tells of a soldier who threw himself from a third floor window. Doctor Georges, the Duke's secretary wrote:

The Duke wrote to London inviting some refugee Ministers to come to Lisburn. They willingly came, the first Huguenot pastors and the behaviour of the troops improved under their influence. They were Jacques Abbadie, who spoke no English, Pastors Fleury, Durand and Du Bourdieu. Monsieur Abbadie was a prolific writer, who, while living in the centre of a noisy busy town, wrote what is considered to be his most inspired piece of religious writing, 'The Art of Knowing Oneself'. Monsieur Fleury became a chaplain to the King, and Monsieur Jean Du Bourdieu, chaplain to the Duke of Schomberg. There were two well known pastors called Durand, the more famous one born in 1680. It must have been the older Durand who visited Lisburn. They both escaped to Holland, but the younger man later went with the Huguenot regiments to Spain, where he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Almanza in 1707, from there he was sent back to France, but again escaped to Holland and so returned to England.

 During the winter of 1689-90, the troops quartered in and around Lisbum were reconnoitring the surrounding countryside, and made occasional contact with their enemies. At one time they travelled as far as Carlingford, also towards Sligo, but their final foray was to Charlemont, an old medieval fortress to the north of Armagh, held by an enemy force, which included Irish soldiers, released by Louis XIV from service in the Irish Brigade in France. In this engagement Major La Borde was killed and Captain De La Cherois, Captain Le Rapin, and Lieutenant Colonel Belcastle were wounded.⁹


Lisburn saw many Huguenot soldiers throughout the winter in Schomberg's Regiment of Horse, Count Meinhard Schomberg's Dragoons and Colonel De La Meloni?e's  Regiment of Foot, all stationed in or near Lisburn, Hillsborough and Dromore. Some of the additional troops sent to Charlemont were the Brandenburg Regiment, and three Dutch Regiments, all of which contained a number of Huguenots, because of the flow of refugees to their countries.

As spring came, so did reinforcements, and new troops were stationed throughout Ulster, chiefly near good arable land. Many soldiers returned to Lisburn after the campaign, some staying only a few years, such as the Mangin, Le Blanc, Des Brissay and Hautenville families, who later chose to join relations in the Capital and the Huguenot town of Portarlington. Some of the earlier refugees who had gone there had arrived by boat, as the roads were poor, and were stoned from the banks.¹⁰

When King William arrived at Carrickfergus, Lieutenant General Douglas had hoped he would go straight to Lisburn saying, "Lisburn is a healthful place, the air there is much purer than Belfast", doubtless thinking of the Kings asthmatic condition, hot it was not until three days later that the King set out for Lisburn. The army took the road through Malone to Drumbridge, a wooden bridge meant only for pack horses, and so to Lambeg, guided by Captain Bellingham who knew the country. At Lambeg the King's carriage was damaged while negotiating the ford crossing the River Lagan, and the King was invited to rake refreshments at the home of the Wolfendens, whose house overlooked the ford, whilst his carriage was being repaired by Rene Bulmer, the local blacksmith, whose family were also "Protestant Strangers".

The Bulmer or Boomer family had come to Lambeg, possibly a generation earlier, although it is reported that Rene spoke to the King in perfect French. In almost every account of the journey of King William from Carrickfergus to the River Boyne, his encounter with Mr Bulmer at the ford is told, and how the King embraced Mrs Bulmer.¹¹ The family had come from Northern France and the first record of the name seems to be found in the list of arrivals of "Foreign Protestants" at Rye in 1658. Whether there is any connection between the Boullmers of Rye and the Boomers of Lambeg is not known, but it is thought to establish a "Foreign Protestant" link.
The name has been spelt Boullmer, Balmer, Boomer, all pronounced Boomer. There are Boomers living in Holland at the present time.

After the King had taken refreshments he went to Lisburn where he inspected the army encamped at Blaris, and then to Hillsborough where he met a member of another Huguenot family. The wife of Captain Jellet, who was serving with the Marquis of Ruvigny, met the King to ask for protection from hostile neighbours, while her husband was away. She was granted help in the shape of two soldiers, who accompanied her home The descendants of these soldiers are still in the vicinity of Moira. Captain jellet survived the campaign, and died in 1717.

The next day, telling his Generals that he had not come to Ireland to let the grass grow under his feet, the King gave the order for his army, which was converging on Lisburn to move south by Dromore and Loughbrickland and towards the Jacobite forces.

Lisburn must have been a noisy place that day with the rumble of wagon wheels, the jingle of harness, the clatter of horses' hooves, drummer boys drumming and the people cheering the soldiers. Troops following orders converged on the whole area from Moira, Glenavy; even north Antrim, the Ards peninsula and Co.Down. The artillery they brought was formidable, great guns, field guns, siege guns, carronades and howitzers. ¹² At length they had all passed through and left the town. Amazingly there is no plaque or monument in Lisburn to recall the sojourn through a long winter of these foreign strangers, though the Duke of Schomberg lived in Castle Street. His chaplain's family, who came to Lisburn in 1756, is remembered by a bust of Saumarez Du Bourdieu, his great nephew, in Lisburn Cathedral.

Some time later Lisburn received the news of the victory at the Battle of the Boyne, though due to the death of the Duke of Schomberg, with sadness also. He had lived in Lisburn throughout the winter, spring and early summer, and being half English, and a linguist (he spoke four languages) he was able to talk to people. Burnet wrote of him:-

There were some very interesting families established in Lisburn as a result of this campaign, whose story shows the adventures and lives of these Huguenots. They should not be forgotten.

THE DE BERNI?E FAMILY

Captain Jean Antoine De Berni?e was the only son of Jean De Berni?e of Alen?n, who escaped after the Revocation to Holland, where he joined the army of William of Orange, leaving behind his father and two sisters, who inherited the estate. He served in Ireland and later in Spain, where he lost his left hand at the Battle of Almanza in 1707. He married Mary Magdeline, the daughter of Louis Crommelin. They had three children, Mary Ann, Madeliene and a son, Louis Crommelin Berni?e , born in 1713. His mother died a few days after he was born (aged twenty four years) and is buried in the Crommelin grave in Lisburn Cathedral graveyard. In 1726 Captain De Berniere made his will leaving his money to his son Louis and his goods and chattels to his daughters.

In1739 Louis Berni?e married Elinor Donlevy, sister-in-law of the Bishop of Dromore, Louis was also a soldier and saw service in Canada and Senegal where he became ill and was sent home on furlough. He never reached Lisburn, dying at sea in 1762. His wife had died previously in 1759 and their children were taken by relatives to be brought up. The elder son, John Anthony De Berni?e born in Lisburn in 1744, was sent to his aunt, the wife of Bishop Marlay, and eventually entered the army. The younger son went to Dublin, to the home of Paul Mangin, and in time he also became a soldier, serving in America and France and rising to the rank of Brigadier. He died in France, leaving one son and two daughters. His son John Henry De Berni?e was born in Rochester, Kent in 1801, but died in Verdun, one of Napoleon's internment camps, in 1809.

The elder son of Louis De Berni?e, John Anthony, married Ann Jones, while stationed in Rostrevor. He saw service in America, rose to the rank of Colonel, then emigrated to America, where his descendants still live, although the name De Berni?e has died out. An interesting derail is that Louise De Berni?e, eldest daughter of John Anthony; corresponded with Mary Ann Clark (the mistress of the Duke of York). She married into the Du Mauri? family; also of Huguenot descent, and was the great grandmother of Daphne Du Mauri?.

THE DE LA CHEROIS FAMILY

A family tradition is that in 1641 Captain Samuel De La Cherois¹³ married an heiress from Languedoc and their children Nicholas, Daniel, Boisjonval, Judith and Louisa, eventually came to Ireland. By 1685, the year of the Revocation, they were living in Ham in Picardy, where they owned land and other property, as did many Huguenots. Professor Murray called the Huguenots the French puritans, but C.E.Lart, of Huguenot descent, who had studied the genealogy, contradicts this theory, by saying that they may have been puritanical in their religion, but in their social behaviour they never lost their sense of style.

The De La Cherois family did not come to Lisburn together. The first to arrive was Daniel, who had stayed in Ham at first with his father whilst Nicholas and Boisjonval served in the army of Louis XIV, but after the Revocation he escaped from France to Holland and joined the army of William of Orange, becoming a Lieutenant in the Comte de Manton's Regiment (afterwards Lord Lifford's), and came to England. In 1699 he married Marie Angelique a cousin of Louis Crommelin in London and  probably joined the Lisburn colony after that. Being an astute business man he spent much of his time acquiring property. When the fire of Lisburn broke out in 1707 he was living in Castle Street and his house being destroyed, he was invited to join the Brownlow family at Lurgan, who were busy developing the linen trade there. However, he rebuilt his house in Lisburn on the site of the old one, and returned there after its completion. It is thought that the majority of the townspeople also built on the same site as their old houses, probably because they held the lease for the place.

Daniel De La Cherois died in 1732, leaving his estate to his only child Ang?ique, with some bequests to the French Church and to cousins. The other two brothers came with the invading army and took part in the Irish Campaign, serving in Colonel Du Cambon's Regiment. Only Nicholas went back to Lisburn.

Nicholas De La Cherois received a commission in the French army in 1675; a description on his passport, issued in 1686 says he is "aged about 35 years, with chestnut coloured hair". It is believed he used this passport as a means of escape from France, through Li?e in the same year, going into Holland.

During the winter of 1689, after the debacle of Dundalk, the brothers Nicholas and Boisjonval were stationed in Lisburn, from where they were sent on forays to Carlingford, Sligo and the besieged Charlemont. Captain Nicholas De La Cherois fought at the Boyne and during the rest of the Irish Campaign, only returning to Lisburn after Daniel had settled there, probably after 1699. Then he joined Daniel in the linen industry, also living in Castle Street. He married Mary Madeleine, a sister of Louis Crommelin and they had two children. He died accidentally in 1724 after being sent poison in mistake for medicine by an apothecary.

Boisjonval, the youngest brother, also wintered in Lisburn, but during the spring of 1690, while out on reconnaissance, was ambushed near Dungannon and killed.

The next generation was represented by Samuel and his sister Madeleine. Samuel De La Cherois married Sarah Cormi?e, another Huguenot. They had three sons and lived at Hilden, later moving to Donaghadee. Samuel adopted the name Crommelin. Their third son Samuel carried on the name through his son Nicholas who built Carrowdore Castle. He is buried in the De La Cherois tomb there, just outside the east end of the church. His sister Anne was the mother of Dr Charles Nicholas De La Cherois Purdon, who wrote the family history in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1853.

The line now continues through the distaff side and in churches attended by the De La Cheroes family are memorial plaques bearing the names of sons who did not attain the inheritance. In 1811 Nicholas De La Cherois, an ensign in the 47th Regiment of the Line, was killed during the Napoleonic wars at the Battle of Barross, aged 22 years. In 1859 Lieutenant Louis De La Cherois, RN, died in the Crimean War and in the next generation in 1905, Philip Alexander Vaughan De La Cherois, who was born in Donaghadee, died of fever in Africa, while serving as a District Officer. On the wall of the church at Carrowdore there is another memorial, put there by Samuel Arthur Hall De La Cherois Crommelin in memory of his two sons, Louis and Arthur Claud.

THE GASTON FAMILY

Irish Pedigrees states that this family came to Ireland before the reign of Louis XIV The first record in Lisburn is of Louis Gaston in 1685. In 1718 John Gaston lived in Ballinderry and in the next generation there was another John Gaston there. They can now be found in many parts of Ulster.

THE GUERIN FAMILY

In 1676 Benjamin Guerin was baptised in Lisburn, the son of Benjamin Guerin, In 1682 Simeon and Nicholas Guerin came to Lisburn and in the same year Daniel Guerin appears. In 1685 Nicholas and Robert Guerin paid rent to Lord Hertford. In 1689 Ensign Guerin was stationed with Schomberg's Regiment of Horse and in 1704 Mr Pierre Guerin was noted as a lawyer of Lisburn. He is mentioned as being a best man at the wedding of Henry Bringuier, Merchant of Lisburn, in Dublin. The next apparent entry is of Mr Peter Guerin in 1737. Some of this family went to Guernsey, another to Carolina, where Matturin Guerin applied for naturalisation.

THE GUILLOT / GILLOT FAMILY

There are varied spellings of this name and even Jellet is thought to be connected. In his article on the French settlers in Lisburn, Dr Purdon states that the Guillots were naval officers in the French navy at the Revocation and escaped to Holland to join the Dutch navy. However, it seems that some Guillots came to Ireland earlier as in 1656 Abraham Guillot is in the denization list. Jacob Guillot came from Bergerac and in 1701 was a pastor of the non-conformist congregation in Dublin. In 1711 two of his daughters married sons of Samuel Crommelin and the baptism of their children is in Charles Lavalade's list. The Guillots seem to have settled in Lisburn and Cork. On the Huguenot graves in Lisburn Cathedral graveyard are several notices: Here are interred the body of Abraham Guillot who died 8 July aged 55 years; Ann Gillet, wife of Samuel Lewis Crommelin who died 30 August 1718 aged 30 years; Gillet their son died 2 December 1715, aged 2 years and Jane their daughter who died 31 January 1718 aged 5 months.

There are Gillots now living in Belfast. During the period of the famine they went to the south of Ireland looking for work and not finding any, went to Preston in Lancashire, where they found work in the weaving town. There are still Gillots in Preston. In the parochial visitation of 1824 Rev. William Gillet lived in Bow Street, Lisburn and was curate of Ballinderry.

THE GENESTE FAMILY

Ensign Geneste served in Colonel La Meloni?e's Regiment in 1690 The Geneste family had estates in Guienne and the Huguenot member of it settled in Lisburn after the Irish war and had two sons and a daughter. He still remained in touch with his relatives in France and in due course his eldest grandson returned to France to discover if there was any chance of recovering the family estates after the Napoleonic government hat made vague promises to exiled Frenchmen. In 1792, he wrote to his relations in Lisburn:

At last, having met some of his family, who made excuses to return to their homes, he gave up the search and returned to London, where he died.

This was the reaction which many returning exiles encountered. There now seems to be none of this family in the Lisburn area, but it is though that some went to the Isle of Man.

THE HAUTENVILLE FAMILY

David Hautenville was born about 1650 and came from Rouen to London about 1680, and from there to Lisburn. It is thought that he married in Lisburn in 1680. In 1690 the army lists show Ensign Hautenville in Colonel de Caillemotte's Regiment. Daniel Hautenville had two sons and four daughters. The eldest, Daniel, born in 1681, left no heir. Samuel Hautenville, born in 1690 in Lisburn, married Elizabeth Wilkins, daughter of Rev. Josiah Wilkins, Rector of Lisburn and Dean of Clogher, in 1694. Her grandmother was Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Rawdon, of Moira The Hautenville family then moved to Dublin Rawdon Hautenville, a grandson of the first Earl of Moira, held a commission in the 4th Regiment of Foot, later the West Yorkshire Regiment, in 1739. He married Abigail Jeffrey, the daughter of Robert Jeffrey of Lisburn. They lived at Lenaderg near Banbridge, but moved to Dublin where Rawdon died in 1815. The family seems to have had no further connection with Lisburn.

THE JELLET FAMILY

This family are thought to have come to England after the Massacre of St Bartholomew, in 1572. Captain Henry Jellet married Miss Levigne in 1631, a relation of the Rawdon family of Moira. They had a son, William, who married Catherine Morgan, the daughter of a Cromwellian soldier who had settled at Tullyard, between Moira and Hillsborough, and it was she who travelled to Hillsborough to petition King William for protection whilst her husband was serving in Colonel Rawdon's regiment, under the Marquis of Ruvigny. Captain William Jellet returned home safely after the war, dying in 1717, and is buried in Dromore Cathedral.

They had three sons of which the eldest, Morgan Jellet died unmarried in Barbados at the age of twenty. William, the second son, only survived his father by four years, and although married he did not have an heir. He was buried in Magheralin in 1721. The youngest son, Mattieu, married Mary Brown of Downpatrick, and lived at Tullyard, which was still owned by Catherine Jellet They had five children but two small daughters died of smallpox almost at the same time as their father. The eldest son William was disinherited by his grandmother and went to live in Lisburn where be became a doctor. The Belfast News Letter carried an advertisement in 1750 which stated that

William Jellet died in 1754. His daughter Jane married William Pierce in 1769.

William's younger brother, Morgan Jellet, inherited Tullyard from Catherine and he married his first wife in 1745. Miss Jane Wynn was the daughter of his widowed mother's second husband. She died in Dublin in 1750, leaving him four small children, Catherine born in 1747, William born in 1748, John born in 1749 and Jane born in 1750. For a second time a son was disinherited and when John was older he went to live in Dublin where he became a jeweller He died in 1791 leaving a son, Morgan Jellet

Morgan Jellet of Tullyard (born in 1748) married as his second wife Brilliana Mason, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant. They had a son, Morgan who became an attorney in 1789, and who wrote the family history. In 1785 he went to serve his apprenticeship to a solicitor in Lisburn and noted that the "boys" wore hair powder and a cue. He wrote:

He left four children, two sons and two daughters.

The last reference to Jellets of Tullyard seems to be in the records of the Royal School, Armagh, which state:

The Tullyard house, being old and no longer comfortable, was sold and later dismantled. There is a pleasant farm house now on the site, but no longer any Jellets of Moira.

THE LILLEY FAMILY

This family is descended from the De Lilles, who were ch?elains of the town of Lille from the eleventh until the sixteenth century. At one stage in the fifteenth century they married into the Royal Bourbon line. Members of the family were prominent at the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve in 1572 and appear to have left France some time after that date. The name Lillie appears in the Canterbury and St Botolph's, London registers in the early seventeenth century. At the same time a Nicholas Lilley was Master of the Merchant Taylors Guild in Dublin 1629-1645 and a John Lillie was a Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin in 1633, awarded B.A. 1638. This John Lillie was Prebendary of Kilpeacon 1638-1661 and of Croagh, 1661-1686, both in the Diocese of Limerick. He was the son of Nicholas Lylles, who was also , Prebendary in the same diocese 1618-1663. It is interesting to note that John when first entered in the Trinity College records uses Lylles but it is stated there that the spelling was subsequently changed to Lillie.

Thomas Lilley was a Lieutenant in the Marquis of Ormonde's Troop of Horse in 1662 and it is possible that this is the branch of the family which settled in Lisburn. The Lisburn Cathedral registers have a marriage entry of John Lilly to Elizabeth Holiday on 26 July 1681 and a baptismal entry of John, son of John Lilly on 21 August 1686. Another entry shows the marriage of John Lilliar (another form of the name) to Margaret Taverner on 10 June 1690.

There are a number of Lilleys in the Lisburn Cathedral registers in the first half of the eighteenth century, but we pick them up again when William Lilley took out a lease of eight acres from the Hillsborough Kilwarlin estate in the townland of Taughblane in 1756. Thereafter the family spread widely throughout the Lagan valley, one unbroken line can be traced down to Dr Kathleen Rankin, whose maiden name was Lilley.