6 President's Address. 



Hall would seem to shew that the same practice was adopted there ; 

 and'pointed to Flanders as the country from which the de Bailleuls 

 came. Further investigation proved this to have been the case. 

 In 1565 Hector de Bailleul was Seigneur of Eecke and Steen- 

 voorde in Flanders ; his great-grandson was Philippe, the refugee. 

 There seems to have been a double migration, first into France, 

 and then into England. In 1598 Henry IV. had published the 

 Edict of Nantes, securing toleration in France. On the other hand, 

 the Inquisition was still in force in Flanders, and in all countries 

 subject to Philip II. At the close, therefore, of the 16th century 

 there was persecution on the Flemish side of the frontier, but 

 toleration on the French. Eecke was only 1 or 12 miles from the 

 French frontier ; once across the frontier and the Protestant was 

 for the time safe. At that time the de Bailleul family realised 

 their property in Flanders, crossed the frontier, and settled in 

 France. The period of safety, however, was short. In 1610 

 Henry IV. was assassinated by Ravaillae : and his son Louis XIII. 

 reigned until his death in 1643, when his son Louis XIV. succeeded 

 to the throne. Under Louis 13th persecution had been somewhat 

 veiled ; under the Grand Monarque it was bitter and unrelenting, 

 culminating in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The 

 well-known saying of Louis XIV. explains the situation : " My 

 grandfather loved the Huguenots without fearing them ; my father 

 feared without loving them ; I neither fear nor love them." It 

 was shortly before 1650 that the de Bailleuls sold their property 

 and took refuge in England, forming part of a Huguenot colony 

 settled at Thorney. The colony consisted mainly of farmers and 

 labourers, but one family consisting of four brothers belonged to 

 an old and noble family in Flanders ; they brought money with 

 them, bought land, and lived on terms of intimacy with the county 

 families around them. One of these brothers was Philippe de 

 Bailleul. His grandson Isaac had three sons, from the second of 

 whom, John Bayley of Elton, as the name had then become, we are 

 descended. John Bayley married Sarah Kennett, granddaughter 

 of White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough in Queen Anne's reign, 

 of whom more anon. I know little of this John Bayley except 

 that he was 6 feet 4 inches in height, a great sportsman, kept fox- 

 hounds, was among the first to ride thoroughbreds to bounds, and 

 spent a large fortune. His son, my grandfather, was for many 

 years on the English bench, and I can remember seeing him try 



