THE HISTORY OF NONCONFORMITY IN PLYMOUTH. 67 
then, nor are now (for it still exists), any doctrinal conditions 
attached to membership — first Arian, and then Unitarian. 
Arianism first made head in Plymouth under the ministry of the 
Eev. H. Moore, successor to Mr. Harding ; and as it showed itself 
at the same time in the Batter Street congregation, where it was 
favoured by Mr. Hanmer, assistant to Mr. Baron, there was a 
double exodus; the orthodox of both congregations settling in 
Batter Street, the heterodox in Treville Street, which has since 
been distinctly Unitarian. 
An exceedingly interesting feature of the religious life of the 
town has passed into oblivion. Few call to mind the fact that 
Plymouth was the seat of a colony of Huguenot refugees, who 
settled here when driven from their own country by the Revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes. The first party escaped across the Channel 
in an open boat from Rochelle, arriving on the 5th September, 1681. 
They numbered between forty and fifty, and were joined by so 
many others that they established two congregations, one at 
Plymouth and the other at Stonehouse. It is the one redeeming 
feature in the years of persecution which followed, that these poor 
creatures do not seem to have been molested. "We know little more 
concerning them than is to be found in the registers of the two 
congregations, now at Somerset House ; those of the Stonehouse 
congregation ranging from 1692 to 1791,* and those of the Ply- 
mouth congregation from 1733 to 1807, the earlier records having 
been lost. The register of 1733 commences with an entry of the 
election, on the 11th April in that year, as wardens, of Pierre 
Hory Laine, Jayre Yaleau, Jean Pare, and Moyere Thomas, in 
succession to Jean Pare, Etienne Brigeau, Francois Thomas, and 
Etienne Cagna — twenty-four heads of families assenting. In the 
July following there is an entry of the distribution of the royal 
bounty of fifteen guineas to fifty-one poor members of the com- 
munity, ranging from eighty-two years of age to an infant in arms. 
Allowing five to a family, and assuming that the recipients of the 
bounty did not take any set part in the management of the church 
affairs, the number of the little colony may be reckoned at between 
150 and 200. For fully half a century these sufferers for con- 
science lived in Plymouth, among, but not of, our forefathers. 
When they were householders they were entered in the rate-books 
under the style of Monsieur or Madame. Thus in the poor rate 
* It was not dissolved until 1810. 
E 2 
