CHAPTER IV

CHRISTI ASYLUM

'Ici, au milieu d'un grand Peuple,

Nos Pères ont trouvé la douce hospitalité-le repos :

Nous, avec le Toit paternel,

Nous y avons trouvé la Patrie !'1

OWING to the commercial relations which had existed from the earliest times between the Low Countries and England, and to the fact that many of their countrymen were already settled in this country, it was hardly strange that the persecuted inhabitants of the United Provinces in their time of need should have turned to England as a place of refuge.

The first Flemings and Walloons who had settled in England did so in the reign and by the invitation of Edward III., whose frequent warlike excursions on the Continent had no doubt enlightened him as to their superior skill in their several trades to that of his own subjects; while, keenly alive to the advantages to be gained by their introduction into the country, he sought to tempt them over with promises of protection and encouragement. A large number of artisans and journeymen accepted the King's invitation, not only on account of the religious persecutions which already assailed them, but owing to the trade jealousies which existed within their own gilds at home. As we have seen, Edward VI. followed the same policy, and Queen Elizabeth, recognising the value and anxious to profit by the skill of the 1 Part of inscription in the Walloon Temple, Threadneedle Street, London.

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refugees, welcomed all who reached these shores. From the first, the coming of these 'gentle strangers' was a boon to this country, and exerted a lasting influence both upon the trade and the character of the English people; for, as Mr. Smiles tells us, 'wherever the refugees settled they acted as so many missionaries of skilled work, exhibiting the best practical examples of diligence, industry and thrift, and teaching the English people in the most effective manner, the beginnings of those various industrial arts in which they have since acquired so much distinction and wealth.' As a return for the hospitality extended to them, a single condition was made by order of the Queen, viz. that of their admitting a proportion of English apprentices into their workshops. It was thus that the English industrial class profited, for the artisans became possessed of the trade secrets of the foreign crafts.

1

But large as had been the number of artisans who thus settled in England during the early years of Elizabeth's reign, the influx from the Netherlands both of Flemish and Dutch after Alva's persecutions was far greater. Strype in his Annals tells us, that the hospitality afforded by England to the 'Strangers' gave great offence on the Continent, and that the country was ironically called 'Christi Asylum' or the 'Sanctuary of Christ,' 2 A haven of peace and safety she must indeed have been to the homeless wanderers, whose exhaustion in both strength and means is pathetically shown by the fact, that on arriving in troops on the seacoast (sometimes in open boats) many never went beyond the place of their first disembarkation, but settled down on the spot, setting to work patiently at their several trades and occupations, and quickly establishing branches of industry by which to gain their living. The Queen meanwhile 1 Smiles, Huguenots, p. 125.

VOL. I.

2 Apud Burn, Protestant Refugees, p. 6.

D

was supported in her enlightened hospitality by the strong feeling which existed in the country against the arrogant pretensions of the Spaniards, inseparably connected as they were with the horrors of the Inquisition.

Although the strangers were on the whole well received by the English working-classes, many of whom were content to profit by their skill and friendly willingness to impart it to others, it was but natural that the advent of so many strangers to this country should have been the cause of some ill-will. But although a prejudice remains to this day against the foreigner who freely takes advantage of the wide hospitality which permits him to come and go at his will, the spirit of fair play to all has ever been a tradition with the English people. Our countrymen have always given a free hand to those who have sought either shelter or a livelihood here; though, owing to the narrow bounds of our sea-girt country, the English welcome to aliens would appear to have been a potent factor in the history of her own colonisation.

If the poorest emigrants were well received by those who foresaw what useful and industrious citizens they would make, the rich and intelligent men, whose religious convictions had induced them to forsake their native country for London, would be doubly welcome. Writers on this period testify to the fact that the Merchant Strangers, from the time of their arrival and settlement here, constituted a powerful and prosperous group. 'Several of the foreigners,' writes Mr. Smiles, 'now became known as leading men in commercial affairs, who had already been distinguished as merchants in their own country, and they brought with them a spirit and enterprise which infused quite a new life into London business.' Jean's name heads the list given by Mr. Smiles of the leading foreign merchants of Elizabeth's time, among whom he recognises 'the names

of Houblon, Palavicino, De Malines, Corsellis, Van Peine, Tryon, Buskell (De Bosquelles), Cursini (Corsini), De Best, and Cotett." And be it remarked that these men did not apparently seek denization, i.e. naturalisation as yet not hard to obtain-but were content, under the special protection of the Queen, to carry on their business as 'Merchant Strangers' or 'Merchants of the Intercourse,' as they were called, in the Christi Asylum which had given them refuge.2

Some hundred and twenty years after the expatriation of Jean Houbelon, a sermon was preached by the famous Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, on the occasion of the funeral of his descendant. The bishop was a friend of the family, and the details of the short memoir embodied in his sermon were, as he states in the preface to the published edition, supplied him by the sons of the deceased. With respect of Jean and the reasons for his settlement in England, the words of the English bishop would seem to imply that even at that date-1682-the fear of persecution in their own country had not wholly disappeared from men's minds, while the sufferings of their ancestors were still fresh in the memories of the anglicised foreign families. Of the ancestor of the English Houblons the bishop spoke as:

1 Smiles, Huguenots, p. 108.

Burn is under a misapprehension when he assumes in his History of the Protestant Refugees, p. 94, that the ancestor of the English Houblons came to Rye from France in 1572. Quoting Stow as his authority he says: "He [Stow] mentions having seen an authentic catalogue of such French as filed to Rye in Sussex, anno 1572,' and 'that there were the names of Le Tellier and Tellier, one a Merchant the other a Minister, who with John Houblowe (already mentioned in the text) were very probably the ancestors of those eminent merchants and citizens, bearing the name of Houblon and Le Thieullier, which at this present flourish here in wealth and reputation, and some of them such as have and do partake of the government of the city as well as places of honour and trust.' If so be that a Jean Houblon from Normandy landed at Rye in 1572, he would probably have been a member of the old French house of Des Houbelon, if indeed any still remained. Gabriel Ogilvy in his Pedigree of the Houblon Family (1873) assumes this. But he was not identical with the Merchant Stranger in any case, whom we know to have come to England some years before, and from Flanders.'

1682

'That worthy Mr. Houblon, a gentleman of Flanders, who above a hundred years ago fled to England from the persecution that was raised there against all that embraced the purity of the Christian religion by the Duke of Alva. Then all that received the reformation were reduced to those hard straits (which how far they are from us the only wise God knows), either to act against their consciences, to seal their faith with. their blood, or, as the least dreadful, to suffer loss of all that they had and fly for their lives to other countries. This was the choice of that noble person who did by this act ennoble himself and all that descended from him.'1

Although Jean arrived as a fugitive in this country, his great prosperity and that of his brother merchants soon after their arrival in London may be explained by their not being strange to the city. A transference of their property, or a portion of it-for part of a merchant's wealth is in the country with which he trades -would have been natural. Only when it became evident that Alva's orders were so stringent as to include the sacrifice of the vast trade of the Netherlands, did the merchants leave. Having gathered at Antwerp from their native cities they were doubtless employed to the last in hastily making arrangements for the transfer of their business to London. That all the best of them were Protestants is probable, for after the holocaust was over, the trade of Antwerp had disappeared; it had gone to London.

Since the abolition of the monopoly of trade with northern ports enjoyed by the famous Hansa merchants (or merchants of the Steel Yard) in London, English trade had received a great stimulus; for so long as the Germans held their own, except in so far as the exchange

1 Sermon preached 28 June 1682, by Dr. Gilbert Burnet, D.D., Bishop of Salisbury, at the funeral of Mr. James Houblon, senior, grandson of the 'gentleman of Flanders' here alluded to. Printed for Rich. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard. London, 1682.