By Christine Swan
I always look forward to planning European trips so I am considering where to visit in 2025. I have devoted a lot of time to exploring my Huguenot ancestry. This is not an easy task! Many of the documents are in French, which is not a problem for me, but often the originals are damaged or indistinct, leading to transcription errors and inaccurate search results. It is a puzzle but such pursuits sit well within the mind of a computer programmer. Problem-solving is my special power.
I am, however, NOT a history scholar. I confess to having been bored at school learning about the Tudors and the Stuarts, and preferred instead to gaze out of the window and make up stories in my head. This post is not a product of my overactive imagination but instead, I have attempted to trace one family in my tree, who left France during a particularly turbulent time, but before the main exodus of Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The earlier decades of the seventeenth century appear to have also been turbulent, with a series of Huguenot rebellions, mostly in the Southwest of France. The English army assisted the Huguenots and this led to an Anglo-French war between 1627 and 1629. In the ensuing years, the French crown and church became increasingly intolerant of the Huguenots and it is likely that England was seen as a safe haven where they could not only practice their faith, but where their skills would be of value, and even in demand.
The Huguenot cross – in the Huguenot chapel, Canterbury Cathedral
My particular focus for this week is the D’Arras family. As the name suggests, the family would have originated from the northeastern town of Arras, within the historic Somme region, that later become synonymous with the horror of the battlefields of World War I. Over time, the surname evolved, was represented phonetically or was anglicized by choice. Thus, the D’Arras became Daras, and eventually Dara, or even Dare.
Arras in 1572 – By Georg Braun; Frans Hogenberg: Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Band 1, 1572 (Ausgabe Beschreibung vnd Contrafactur der vornembster Stät der Welt, Köln 1582; [VD16-B7188)Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberghttp://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/braun1582bd1, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9832806
Although the family must have originated from Arras, my branch came from Bailleul, in the county of Artois, now the Pas de Calais département. At the time when the D’Arras fled, this region was under the control of the Spanish Netherlands and did not return to French rule until 1678. It then fell to Austria before returning to France in 1745. During the bloody Battle of the Somme in World War I, over ninety percent of the buildings in Bailleul were destroyed. Many residents were also killed during an horrific chlorine gas attack that drifted over the town in 1916. The region has seen conflict so many times on an almost unimaginable scale. Although my Huguenot ancestors escaped to England and safety, one of their twentieth century descendants did not. I know that his name is inscribed on the colossal Thiepval Memorial as missing after the battle of Delville Wood, some 60 miles south of Bailleul.
Bailleul in 1918 – By Bain News Service, publisher – Library of Congress Catalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2014708107Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ggbain/27900/27946v.jpgOriginal url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014708107/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67518811
The earliest certain record that I have is of Alexandre D’Arras who was born in 1620. His father, Mathieu, presumably stayed in France but Alexandre emigrated to England, as a young man, and headed to Canterbury. A community of Strangers, consisting of French Huguenots and Walloons from Belgium and the Netherlands, was already established, after the first few families had arrived in the 1570s. In 1640 Alexandre married Marie Toillier who hailed from Saint Tricat. I am always excited to learn of a new association with my beloved France and I discovered that Saint Tricat is just outside of Calais, a short distance from the high-speed rail line to Paris and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in Frethun. I have sped past this spot many times on Eurostar trains and never given it a second thought. I know Calais exceedingly well from a huge number of shopping trips undertaken when my parents lived on top of the White Cliffs of Dover. I never would have considered that I had a familial association with this area. What were the push and pull factors that brought Alexandre and Marie to Canterbury, to fall in love, to marry and raise a family there? Young, ambitious and skilled, Alexandre may have seen his future safety and prosperity.
Outside Calais Hotel de Ville – a place that I have visited many times
The tolerance of the Protestant religion in France was precarious. The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572 saw the killing of some 70,000 Protestants. Those living in Northern France, and within reach of the coast, could attempt to cross to England. I can imagine that those with wealth fled more swiftly. The second wave came later, too late for the D’Arras family, with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, with more waves of immigrants travelling to England to escape persecution.
Although between these two dates, there may have been a less urgent need to escape, I can only guess that no single incident would have triggered their flight but the grinding discrimination and removal of rights and increasing non-tolerance. The pull factors could have come from information about communities already in England and the need for skilled labour to drive industry. These were skilled textile workers, most probably of woollen cloth.
Alexandre Darras marries Marie Toillier in Canterbury in 1640
Alexandre and Marie went to have three children that I have found so far: Ester, Josue and Susanne, all born in Canterbury. Although the Huguenot and Walloon communities became established and the population increased, there were some intolerant voices, including those of Charles I’s Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, who, amongst other issues, took umbrage that the Strangers wore hats in their church, which was he deemed an insult to native English people. His closeness to Charles I and his views, led to him being executed at the Tower of London in 1645.
Weavers’ houses in Canterbury
Alexandre and Marie’s son Josue married Jeanne Galmar in 1677, also in Canterbury, but then moved to Spitalfields at some point between 1679 to 1681. Josue junior was born in Canterbury in 1678 but rest of their children, Jean, Jeanne, Caleb and Marie, were all born in London. Caleb died in 1695, when he was just five years old, and Josue and Jeanne, his parents, both died in 1700, just five years later.
The marriage between Josue Darras and Jeanne Galmar in 1677
My lineage follows on from Josue and Jeanne’s second son, Jean. Although he was baptised in the French Chapel of the Hospital in Spitalfields, Jean decided to anglicise his name and become John Dara. Despite much searching, I have not been able to locate a marriage record yet, but he married Esther, surname unknown, in about 1710. Their children’s baptisms were all held at St Dunstan’s, Stepney with John consistently being described as a weaver of Spitalfields. The couple had two boys – John and William, and three girls – Esther, Mary and Elizabeth.
As was all too common in the early eighteenth century, not all of their children survived into adulthood. Baby John did not survive into his second year but William did into adulthood, and took an apprenticeship to train as a weaver himself, as was his father.
William Dara’s apprenticeship indenture to train as a weaver
Esther, John and Esther’s eldest daughter, married Jean Gaffe, whose story I have already told, . It was her own daughter, also Esther, who married Richard Deighton, my sixth great grandfather. Middle daughter, Mary, died when she was twenty-two and, I believe, still unmarried. I have also been unsuccessful so far in tracing Elizabeth’s life.
John Gaffe married Esther (Hester) Dara in 1737
This week’s research has been rather frustrating as it has left me with a few loose threads. Studying the D’Arras family has allowed me to document to anglicisation of the family, and their move north before settling in London. Spitalfields was at the heart of the weaving industry and I have a strong affinity for its streets. I similarly feel affection for France, even before I began researching my family tree. As I walk along streets such as Fournier Street or Elder Street, I can almost hear the shuttles moving and looms clanking in the lofts above. How many generations have walked these same pavements before me? I can only imagine.
Christ Church has loomed over Spitalfields since 1729
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 