68 



THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AIMERICA 



London 



1687 



1688 



South Coast 



Shipping and 

 Commerce 



To London the refugees came by thousands, ' ' far the 

 greater numbers in a state of persecution, empty and 

 naked, to depend on the hospitality and charity of this 

 good-natured kingdom." But never for long were they 

 dependent. Workshops and churches sprang up to- 

 gether. In a single year the official account of the relief 

 committee reported that 13,500 refugees had been helped 

 in London ; while two French churches were organized 

 in Spitalfields and one by the Strand. Commerce an<l 

 church went together where the Huguenots wer(\ 

 Among those thousands aided there were 143 ministers 

 and 283 families of quality. Their children were sent to 

 the best trades or into his Majesty's troops — the latter to 

 the number of 150. In the next year the French minis- 

 ters in and about London were incorporated, with power 

 to purchase lands and build houses, and three new 

 churches were provided for. The peopling of the waste 

 Spitalfields was due to the French, and in a generation 

 nine churches had arisen there, and the workmen were so 

 many and so busy that the silk manufacture of London 

 was multiplied twentyfold. 



French colonists lined the south coast, where the exiles 

 gathered around such leaders as the Marquess de Ruviguy, 

 their aged chief who long guarded them at the French 

 court and was now their sponsor in England ; whose sons, 

 by the way, rendered great service to England in war. 

 These coast refugees devoted themselves chiefly to ship- 

 ping and commerce. At Exeter the Uipestry weavers, 

 however, established themselves, and in other southern 

 towns trades were created, among them the fine linens 

 and sail cloth. In nearly all the industrial centres the 

 French were to be found, engaged in weaving, in print- 

 ing calicoes in their unrivalled style, in making glass and 

 paper ; and everywhere setting an example of skill, thrift 

 and cheerfulness. The paper mills extended from Eng- 

 land into Scotland, the first being started at Glasgow. 

 Edinburgh received a number of cambric makers, and 



