French King), and ordering that his acquittance should be taken for the receipt thereof.1 1618 This same year, 1605, Nicolas, married Marie, daughter 1605 of Jacques and Jeanne Godescal. This family had been refugees from Flanders, and the names of both Jacques and his brother Jean are to be found among the Merchant Strangers who subscribed to the Loan of 1588.2 Two years after the birth of his youngest child, Nicolas, Houbelon died. His will was proved by his wife, 18th April 1618. He left five children named respectively, Nicolas,, Jeanne, Jean, Anne, and Judith, of whom the eldest was but eleven years old at the time of his father's decease; their baptisms were registered in the French Church of Threadneedle Street. At the time of their uncle's death the children of Pierre were already grown up and his sons launched on the world; this fact may possibly account for the relative prosperity of the two families at a later date; for although Nicolas left a not inconsiderable fortune at his death, his children were deprived of his guardianship at an age when they needed it most, while-unlike those of his brother Pierre 2, who were English subjects by right of their father's naturalisation -Nicolas's sons laboured under the disabilities of their foreign extraction; for their father remained an alien to the end of his life. 1 See Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5755. The document is signed by Lords Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Buckhurst, Worcester, Howard, the Duke of Suffolk, Rob. Cecyl, and others. Jean subscribed £200, and Jacques £100. At the death of the latter he left legacies to several members of the Houbelon family. See Will in the Muniment Room, Abbey, Westminster. Their descendants were wealthy and influential citizens of London. VOL. I. 1^) F CHAPTER VI REFUGEE FAMILIES: THEIR ORIGIN AND ARMS 'Astra Castra Numen Lumen Munimen.'1 or THE 'Gentle Art' of Heraldry-called Le beau Science by the French-but few now either reverence understand. And yet there was a time when not only Armigeri-viz. persons entitled to bear armsbut every one else, considered it as part of their education to be more or less familiar with the language of heraldry, and even to be able to 'emblazon a coat.' In days when few were able to write, each man had his mark or insignia, usually engraved upon a seal. Not only Idid the rich and noble make use of seals, but all alike did the same; gilds of crafts, corporations, ecclesiastical establishments, commercial companies and towns, even individuals of industrial trades, all possessed some sort of insignia, and these were generally engraved upon seals, or sculptured in stone and affixed to the façades of their owners' houses or over gateways.2 Thus, while some claimed the privilege of bearing arms on a heraldic shield, others of humbler position used insignia of the nature of a modern trade-mark, in England often consisting of a monogram only.3 In the case of the commercial towns, leaden plummets bearing the 1 Lindsay motto. 2 F. de Vigne, Mœurs et usages des corporations des Métiers de Belgique, etc., p. 118. Gand, 1857. 3 See Monogram on Tapestry hanging, at Hallingbury Place. impression of the seal of the city were attached to every bale of goods before it could be sold. Thus the plomb de commerce, as it was called, of the town of Lille, consisted of a fleur-de-lis, the lion rampant of Flanders, and the label 'Lille.' In the earliest days of chivalry, the practical use of heraldry was to be found in the facility it afforded for recognising an individual in armour; it was indeed (as is now believed), the outcome of the custom of using insignia rather than its origin.1 After a time the heraldic art became altered and enlarged in scope. Deeds of daring and adventure, the desire for fame, or a chivalrous devotion to a 'liege lady,' found expression in our knightly ancestors through the emblematic language and imagery of heraldry, which was regarded as the exponent or trustee of these sentiments; and in an age when letters were in great part the possession of the cloister or higher branches of the clergy, the civilising influences of the art had their value. A still later development supervened, when men began to multiply the quarterings to which they had a right by marriage or descent, upon their shields, which no longer were characterised by that simplicity which formerly enabled the individual who bore them, easily to be recognised. Armorial bearings thus in time became solely the outward sign of gentle birth and the evidence of lineage. The laws of chivalry and the rules and language of heraldry were practically international, while the same may be said with regard to many of the laws and customs of municipal life, and of the privileges and restrictions of its members. In Flanders, for example, as elsewhere, though no ordinary bourgeois could bear arms, the Échevins or magistrates of the great free cities (though themselves bourgeois) were privileged to do so; Encyclo. Brit., HERALDRY. 1 and hence the origin of canting arms. On the Continent insignia were usually of a nature suggestive of the name or occupation of the individual, or bearing on the origin of the name; and while some, like the Houbelons, resorted to the productions of nature, whether of animal or vegetable life, others had recourse to something emblematic of their craft, or of the name of the place of their birth, or even of some personal characteristic.1 The more elaborate of these insignia, such for instance as were used by the important citizens, were termed canting' or armes parlantes. With the lapse of time, these canting arms in many instances ceased to be distinguishable from the armorial bearings of chivalry, more especially as it was frequently the custom on the Continent for the nobles to introduce quarterings of this description into their coats; for the privileges of citizenship were eagerly coveted by the noble classes, and as no one was eligible unless he was a member of some one of the gilds, many sought admission, frequently adopting at the same time the insignia or arms of the craft of which he was made free. A familiar example of a canting coat is to be found in the armorial bearings of the great Tuscan family of Medici, who had no patrician origin. Whether they derived their famous palle from the insignia of the Lombardy merchants of the Middle Ages, as did the pawnbrokers; or from the pills of a mythical Medico ancestor, as some have thought; the arms would alike. be canting. Their coat may be seen emblazoned in the palaces and sculptured on the walls of the municipal buildings of Florence, side by side with the armorial 1 Derode, Histoire de Lille, i. 287, 8. 4 2 For example, the family of Frémaux'avait des gueules à trois fermails d'or. (Fermaux-Frémaux.) Morier trois têtes de nègre. De Mailly portait trois maillets d'or,' etc. Ibid., i. 392. 3 Encyclo. Brit., PAWNBROKING. comprised Central Italy. The name 'Lombardy Merchant' • Verini, apud Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, note p. 5, 7th ed. bearings of the great patrician families. Besides many English, other instances of canting coats of much interest are to be found among the German and Flemish bourgeois families, such as that of Albert Dürer. The father of the great painter was a goldsmith of Nuremberg, and on the back of his portrait, painted in 1491, are his canting arms: Thüre-an open door. So far as the Flemish Houbelons are concerned, they would soon have given up the use of their former armorial bearings in their new surround ings, as they (and some others) ceased 1 ARMS OF To this day Les Cerisiers is a small fief in the Among the French refugees of 1685 1685 there were some who could trace a common origin with the French-speak HOUBELON CANTING ing Flemings already settled in England. ARMS.' Every student of French history is familiar with the intimate connection between France 1 Registres de Loudun. Huguenot Society Publications. 2 Ibid. |