The first edition of this work was printed in 1866. Its predecessors were J. S. Bum’s “History of French, Walloon, Dutch, and other Foreign Protestant Refugees, settled in England” (1846); also, “The Witnesses in Sackcloth,” by a Descendant of the Refugees (1852), praised by the Edinburgh Review as an essay which deserves attention, especially on account of its literary and bibliographical Appendix. Professor Weiss’ “Histoire des Refuges Protestants de France,” in two volumes, followed in 1854; it surveyed the globe in six books, the third being devoted to British Refugees. An English translation was published by Blackwood. It was the occasion of a well-informed and useful article in the Edinburgh Review for April 1854. The “Ulster Journal of Archaeology” (vols I. to VI., 1853 t0 1858) has eight excellent Papers on the Refugees in Ireland. The Camden Society volume, entitled “Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England, 1618-1688,” was edited in 1862 by W. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., who also contributed a Paper to the Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 13. The French Protestants, from the Reformation era to 1789, have their worthies faithfully and learnedly memorialized in alphabetical order in the Messrs Haag’s “La France Protestante,” in ten volumes.

To my predecessors I am largely indebted. Yet as far as British Refugee Biography is concerned, they have produced little more than the draft of an index of the names of individuals and families. In the belief that the subject was a neglected one, I issued the first edition of “Protestant Exiles from France” (100 copies), which, being unavoidably defective and sometimes inaccurate, must now be regarded as withdrawn. The more full and correct work, now offered to the public, is the result of research of considerable extent in the Public Record Office and Doctors’ Commons, and in Public Libraries. I am also indebted to Peerages, Cyclopedias, Printed Correspondence, Periodicals, and Books, and also to private correspondence. All statements, however, have been editorially sifted. I was most kindly allowed access to the manuscript collections of the late John Southerden Burn, Esq., and also of Colonel Chester, whose annotated imprint of the Westminster Abbey Registers is so eagerly expected. The Aufrere Parchments and other French manuscripts in the possession of G. A. Aufrere, Esq., were lent to me with generous confidence. My apology for not presenting my readers with an alphabetical index of surnames is that my paper and patience are exhausted.

The Free Church Manse,
Wigtown, N.B., 15th March 1871. '

* Supplementary chapters on the Refugees of the Duke of Alva’s and the St Bartholomew Epochs, and on Refugees who fled from France on account of their conversion from Popery, could not be given. All the space has been required for Huguenots-proper, and the reign of Louis XIV.

Volume 1  |  Volume 2  |  Volume 3

In order that the two volumes on “Protestant Exiles from France in the reign of Louis XIV.,” may be serviceable to historical and genealogical students, it is necessary to provide this Index-Volume. The author takes the opportunity of introducing new memoirs, and illustrative documents and notes—especially memoirs of refugees in former reigns (fugitives from the Duke of Alva, the St Bartholomew Massacre, &c.), and their descendants. The surnames in volumes first and second are re-produced in a careful analysis of the whole work. Additional surnames, admitted in conformity with the plan of volume third, are incorporated in the Analysis, and the Alphabetical Tables refer to the pages in volume third. The original work has thus been zealously supplemented, annotated, and corrected, so that the possessors of volumes first and second have in this Index-Volume all the advantages of a new and improved edition, without the disadvantage of their former purchase becoming reduced in pecuniary value. It is impossible that the author can reprint the original work. For the sake of new purchasers, therefore, the third volume must be complete in itself. And, accordingly, some repetitions will be observed, which the possessors of volumes first and second are requested to excuse.

A large number of the books and documents quoted in this work can be consulted in the library of the English Presbyterian College, Queen Square House, Guildford Street, London.