MEMOIR

OF THE

FRENCH PROTESTANTS,

WHO

SETTLED AT OXFORD, IN MASSACHUSETTS,

A. D. MDCLXXXVI;

WITH

A SKETCH OF THE ENTIRE HISTORY

OF THE

PROTESTANTS OF FRANCE.

BY ABIEL HOLMES, D. D.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY..

CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED BY HILLIARD AND METCALF.

1826.

PREFACE.

THE incidental discovery of an event, in the early settlement of our country, which had scarcely been noticed by any of our historians, and which had nearly passed into oblivion, was the occasion of this Memoir. It was at first designed solely for an account of the French settlement at Oxford ;-an occurrence, which is entitled to notice in our early history, and which is peculiarly appropriate to our Historical Collections. An investigation of the subject, with reference to the settlers of Oxford, naturally led to a particular examination of the cause of their exile. The Edict of Nantes, by Henry IV, allowed the toleration of Protestants; the Edict revoking it, by Louis XIV, deprived them of their liberty. This Edict of Revocation was one of the most extraordinary acts recorded in the pages of history; and its effects were the most calamitous and the most extensive of any, perhaps, that can be ascribed to a single act in the administration of any government, either in ancient or in modern times. Beside the many thousands whom it drove from France into all parts of Europe, one Frenchman of distinction, we are told by M. Aignan, went, at the head of his family, even to the Cape of