The French Hospital in England: Its Huguenot History and Collections

Author:   Tessa Murdoch ,  Randolph Vigne
Publisher:   John Adamson Publishing Consultants
ISBN:  

9780952432272


Pages:   128
Publication Date:   19 February 2009
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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The French Hospital in England: Its Huguenot History and Collections


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Overview

The French Hospital for poor French Protestants and their descendants residing in Great Britain was incorporated in 1718. Affectionately known as La Providence, it was one of the earliest foundations to cater for London's needy immigrants, and one of the first in Britain to provide sympathetic care for the mentally ill. This book charts the hospital's history from its early days in Finsbury to its present location in the cathedral city of Rochester, Kent, where it provides sheltered housing for elderly people of Huguenot descent. Over the years many distinguished Huguenot settlers or their descendants have been associated with the hospital, among them the soldiers Henri, Earl of Galway, and John, Earl Ligonier, the lawyer Sir Samuel Romilly and the archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard. The ivory carver David Le Marchand died there in 1726. The architect Robert Lewis Roumieu designed the spectacular new building in Victoria Park, Hackney, which was the French Hospital's home from the late 1860s to the early 1940s. More than a hundred new photographs of the hospital's collections of paintings, engravings, silver, furniture and memorabilia provide a unique visual record. Portraits featured include the eighteenth-century Huguenot merchants Jean-Henri Guinand and Pierre Ogier. The early hospital records held at the Huguenot Library include tradesmen's bills, portraits of inmates and hospital staff. An eighteenth-century steward's diary records that one inmate hid over half a hundredweight of the hospital's coal supply under her bed. Heraldic shields and book-plates record some of the principal Huguenot families who have served as directors, and a transcription of the 1742 inventory compiled in French lends historical colour. This richly illustrated account will appeal to a wide audience including social and art historians and all who are interested in Huguenot heritage.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tessa Murdoch ,  Randolph Vigne
Publisher:   John Adamson Publishing Consultants
Imprint:   John Adamson
Dimensions:   Width: 23.50cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 30.80cm
Weight:   0.994kg
ISBN:  

9780952432272


ISBN 10:   0952432277
Pages:   128
Publication Date:   19 February 2009
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Foreword by Jacob, 8th Earl of Radnor, former Governor of the French Hospital; Introduction; 1 Jacques de Gastigny's bequest; 2 The new hospital, the royal charter and the corporation; 3 Building and founding the French Hospital; 4 Directing and caring at the French Hospital in the eighteenth century; 5 Waning fortunes in Finsbury; 6 The French Hospital in Hackney; 7 Health and heritage: ""The chief Huguenot foundation in this country"", 1867-1948; 8 Under threat, enemy action and evacuation; 9 Retreat to the country: Compton's Lee, Sussex, 1947-1957; 10 Retirement in a cathedral city. Directors of the French Hospital: A Survey; A list of directors; Huguenot heraldry; Book-plates in the French Hospital and their heraldry; Notes to the Huguenot book-plates illustrated on the end-papers; Inventory of the contents of the French Hospital, 1742; Bibliography; Index; Picture credits

Reviews

""Many of the greatest names in the Huguenot annals have been involved - [this book is] not just a memorial to past endeavour, but also a testament to a noble work in progress."" - Huon Mallalieu, Country Life; ""This book charts the hospital's peregrinations and buildings, describes the life of its inmates and illustrates its collections of paintings, furniture and, in particular, silver, all meticulously annotated."" - Burlington Magazine; ""Beautifully illustrated throughout. If you are researching your Huguenot ancestors, this book will make a brilliant addition to your library."" - Practical Family History


Many of the greatest names in the Huguenot annals have been involved - [this book is] not just a memorial to past endeavour, but also a testament to a noble work in progress. - Huon Mallalieu, Country Life; This book charts the hospital's peregrinations and buildings, describes the life of its inmates and illustrates its collections of paintings, furniture and, in particular, silver, all meticulously annotated. - Burlington Magazine; Beautifully illustrated throughout. If you are researching your Huguenot ancestors, this book will make a brilliant addition to your library. - Practical Family History


Many of the greatest names in the Huguenot annals have been involved - [this book is] not just a memorial to past endeavour, but also a testament to a noble work in progress . Huon Mallalieu, Country Life; Beautifully illustrated throughout. If you are researching your Huguenot ancestors, this book will make a brilliant addition to your library. Practical Family History


Author Information

Tessa Murdoch, FSA, is an independent scholar and a director of the French Hospital. Her work on Huguenot refugee art and culture, Europe Divided: Huguenot Refugee Art and Culture, was published in 2021. Family silver by her ancestor the London-based Huguenot goldsmith Edward Feline inspired her doctoral research on Huguenot artists and craftsmen in Great Britain and Ireland. At the Museum of London she worked on the exhibition The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685-1985 marking the tercentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Formerly lead curator for the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries, which opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2009 and features some spectacular Huguenot craftsmanship, she is a member of the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Randolph Vigne, FSA (1928-2016), devoted many years to researching the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Huguenot diaspora and writing and lecturing extensively about it. For eighteen years he edited the publications of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and for six was its president. A contributor to many collections of essays on Huguenot history, he was co-editor in 2001 of the book From Strangers to Citizens, the published papers from the conference marking the 350th anniversary of Edward VI's Royal Charter which granted the right of the Huguenots and Dutch and Walloon Protestants in England to worship according to their own liturgy. He was a director of the French Hospital for thirty years and was its treasurer for ten.

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