USA > Connecticut > Colonial Days And Ways: As Gathered from Family Papers > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
All of the very poor colonists must have had certain hardships to endure ; but help of every sort was scarce, and sober and industrious persons were always sure of constant employment, while their tasks, like their lives, were of the simplest. At the same time, the home of every wealthy family was an industrial center. Thus there were no drones in either the richest or the poorest hives. The Huguenots, belonging to neither class, were in a sense cooperative. Neither the privations of the poor nor the multiplied cares of the rich fell
14I
142
upon any with excessive weight; hence, notwith- standing the varying grades of original social posi- tion and culture, there was a great equality of living and enjoyment among them.
It was twenty years after the first Huguenots came to New Rochelle before the refugees could spare the money to build a church or support a pastor. The nearest place where religious services were held in their own tongue was New York city, twenty miles away; therefore, on every Sun- day during the year, in fair weather or in foul, all who were able to do so started very early in the morning, that they might not miss the opening prayer at 10.30 A.M. There were few horses owned among the refugees, and fewer vehicles of any kind. Such of both as they possessed were devoted exclusively to the use of those who were not strong enough to walk.
Many persons now living may still remember Miss Isabella Donaldson, lately of Barrytown, New York, as a person greatly interested in reli- gious matters. She kept a scrap-book composed of original communications concerning the hard- ships and trials of those who had come to this country under stress of persecution. In this book was a copy of a letter which was written about 1704 or 1705. I give this letter as I copied it in 1860 from Miss Donaldson's scrap-book :
"Every week I see the Huguenots pass the house in troops on their way to their church in the
143
City. As they pass here all have lunch bags or baskets and also their shoes on their arms. Yet they are not bare-footed, for they are all provided with wooden shoes, such as the peasants wear in France and in the Low Countries. When they reach a stream not far from the church where they have erected a shed, they all stop and such of them as have other shoes change them before going on ; the others wash their feet and their wooden shoes and put them on again. They are all very plainly dressed but some of them are very elegant looking persons with most charming manners. As they pass they are generally singing some of their psalms, that is, the psalms of David, translated into the French. Some of the airs are very grand and spirit-stirring, but many of them are as sad as dirges, and why should they not be ? For surely this people have suffered much. Still they are nearly always smiling and happy. But to think of walking forty miles in going to and from church every Lord's Day! I am afraid my Christianity would never be equal to that."
For many years the conditions of life in New Rochelle, though not so bitterly hard as those of the Plymouth Pilgrims threescore years earlier, were very trying to those who had been gently born and tenderly nurtured in " sunny France," at that time the most advanced country in the world in the arts and luxuries of civilization. Perhaps that is not saying so very much, for luxury does
144
not always, even now, include comforts, and at that time scant enough were what we now deem the most elementary comforts of life, even in the palace of the "Sun King" himself. In this coun- try the French settlers, though originally among the poorest, speedily became distinguished by the amount of comforts, and even of luxuries, as these were then esteemed, which they gathered around them.
The homes of the earlier Huguenot settlers were, if one may judge by the two specimens which remain in New Rochelle, neither large nor fine; but they were substantial, and as comfortable as was possible under the conditions of the time. None in our country, save the families of high colonial officials, and a few of the very wealthiest of the colonists, possessed more of essential com- forts than the French settlers at a comparatively early date were able to gather around themselves by dint of the industry, skill, and taste character- istic of their nation. There is a tradition that the first to utilize the remnants of worn-out garments by cutting them into strips and weaving them into floor-coverings were the French refugees. The rag carpet, as still sometimes seen, is by no means a thing of beauty, but in the days when the King of England himself did not always have a rug on which to rest his royal bare feet when stepping out from his lofty bed upon his chill and pol- ished floor, the humble rag carpet would not have
145
been esteemed an object of contempt even by his Majesty.
Among the earliest importations of the French settlers were spinning-wheels and looms of better quality than were previously known here. Im- migrants from fruit-growing and wine-making districts of France brought grafts and roots, and succeeded in naturalizing most of the hardier va- rieties. A few were able to import hangings, mir- rors, china, and furniture of rare beauty; but in general they possessed only those articles which could be manufactured here. However humble these might be in themselves, they would surely be made decorative by little touches which only the French hand could give.
Homespun linen yarn of heavy quality was by the Dutch and English colonists dyed and then woven into stripes and checks of varying degrees of ugliness for bed- and window-curtains. The French settlers used for the same purpose either purely white linen of that which had but one color. The preferred shades seem to have been a light blue, a sort of dusky green, and a subdued gold-color made by dyes of which they brought the secret with them. These linens, when made into hangings bordered by an embroidered vine or arabesque design in white upon the gold, or in gold and white upon the blue, or of varied colors upon the all white, were delicately beautiful, and became heirlooms in many a family, including that of my
IO
146
mother's mother. When this fashion was imitated by their Dutch or English neighbors, the "em- broiderments " grew heavier, and, instead of being confined to simple designs, frequently became perspectiveless " landscapes with figures," wherein the yellow-faced shepherdess, clad in red and green, was taller than the stiff blue-green trees, and her black-and-white sheep were as tall as herself.
The bedroom of my mother's grandmother L'Estrange has often been described to me. The floor was painted as nearly as possible to match the subdued gold of the linen hangings. The ceilings and side walls were whitewashed with lime. The windows and dressing-tables were hung with tastefully arranged draperies, bordered with a grape-vine pattern embroidered in white, and further trimmed at the edge with a knitted fringe of white linen yarn.
The tall four-posted bedstead of carved mahog- any was provided with a tester, with long draw- curtains, over which valances about two feet and a few inches deep, and cut into deep scallops on the lower edge, hung in a full ruffle from the cor- nice. Foot-curtains and all were of the same linen, all embroidered and edged with fringe in the same manner. Over the high and downy bed lay a fringed and embroidered coverlet of the same linen, only that in this case the vine was em- broidered over the center part as well as the bor-
147
der. An immense stuffed chair, running easily on wooden globes the size of billiard-balls, which were the precursors of the modern caster, had a very high back and side wings, against which the head might rest. Such chairs were really comfor- table, and some may still be found. This one had a neatly fitted slip-cover to match the draperies of the room.
The linen yarn for the draperies of this room was all said to have been spun by the first Mme. L'Estrange and her daughters, and it was afterward woven under their direction and embroidered by themselves. Until a comparatively late date there still existed other bits of their handicraft, in the shape of fans of peacock feathers, and humbler ones of goose and turkey feathers -these last deco- rated with painted flowers. There were also some hand-screens made by covering small hoops with tightly drawn slips of white silk, the joinings hid- den by narrow fringe. One screen was embroi- dered with colored silks, others were daintily painted, and all were supplied with handles of carved or smoothly turned and polished wood. When a child I saw one of the peacock-feather fans (un- fortunately, moth-eaten), and a pair of the prettily painted hand-screens. The latter were used to hold between the face and the blaze of the open wood fires, which, genial and delightful as they are, have a disagreeable way of scorching one's face and eyes.
148
Very graceful and delicately executed embroi- deries upon the daintiest of muslins are still shown which were made by members of this family, but possibly by those of a later generation. They are evidently from French designs. In the court of Louis XIV lace-making was an art cultivated almost as assiduously as that of embroidery. My sister and I now have a few yards of two patterns of lace made by Mme. L'Estrange, which hap- pened to be trimming some part of her under-dress at the time of her escape from Paris. She taught the secret of its manufacture to her daughters, and for three generations her descendants made similar lace, though none was as filmy as that wrought in the boudoirs of Versailles, because it was impossi- ble to get threads sufficiently fine.
The cultivated taste and the dainty arts brought from France made the homes of the Huguenots much more attractive in appearance than those of other colonists, even though the latter might be possessed of far greater wealth; and the same dif- ference was manifest in their dress. The latter was certainly no more costly than that of most of those who had filled similar social positions in their re- spective mother-lands ; but the Frenchwoman's fine eye for color, and her delicate skill with brush, needle, and bobbin, united to produce more attrac- tive results. Similar touches of taste and skill ap- peared everywhere, and gave distinction to all the Huguenot homes, whatever may have been the
149
owner's social standing in the mother-land. As neat as their Dutch neighbors, they devised labor- saving methods to maintain perfect cleanliness without being slaves to it. As liberal as the English, they were far more economical, and by their skill in cooking they succeeded in rendering palatable and digestible even the coarsest fare. Their skill in preparing rich dishes, sweet cakes, and preserves was not equal to that of the Dutch huysvrouws, and they could not compare with the English in roasts and pastries; but in wholesome dishes for daily consumption they far exceeded both, and particularly in bread-making. It is tra- ditionally related that the French were the first to introduce the use of yeast in this country, the larger part of all the colonists at that time, and the Dutch for more than a century later, continu- ing to use leaven.
Perhaps the most keenly felt of the material hardships which the French refugees had to meet were caused by our stern winters and fierce sum- mers, and the learning to subsist on the coarser meats and vegetables which formed so large a por- tion of the fare of the English and Dutch colo- nists. Very soon, however, the refugees taught themselves to resist or endure the extremes of the climate, and, with their readiness of adaptation, they learned to prepare even the coarsest foods with a culinary skill which puzzled while it pleased their new-made friends. It is a little curious to note
150
how long it was before the delicately flavored soups, the light omelets, and the delicious entrées, common to all Huguenot households, came to be adopted by even those who were the loudest in praise of these delicacies as made by the French ladies. Some special forms of buns and rolls ex- cepted, very few of the distinctively French dishes appear to have been used in families not of French descent, prior to our Revolutionary War.
Notwithstanding all the invincible light-hearted- ness of his nation, the lot of the Huguenot must be felt to have been sad and lonely. The Puritan was an emigrant from his native land for con- science' sake, it is true, but his conscience was set upon political as well as religious rights. He came here of his own accord, that he might have freedom to worship God and govern himself (and others !) as he thought fit. The Dutchman, hav- ing achieved moral and political liberty for his hardly won and overcrowded dike-lands, did not feel that he was expatriating himself when he sailed for the New Netherlands, but rather that he was enlarging the Dutch domains. Even after he had fallen under English rule he did not greatly repine.
The Huguenot, on the contrary, was not a colo- nist, but a refugee. In all the world there is not a more truly patriotic nation than the French. They love their people and their homes, their cus- toms, and their country's very soil with a passion- ate devotion. The Huguenot was no exception
151
to the rule. For the privilege of continuing within the beloved borders of France he had gradually sacrificed his every political and almost all of his civil rights. Not until the only alternatives left were the denial of his religious faith, death, or flight, did he resort to the latter. Then he felt himself, not a voluntary emigrant from his native land, but an exile, an outcast; and his feeling toward the government which had sent him so harshly forth was of the bitterest description. This was shown in many ways. The French Canadian, a voluntary colonist, retains his language even to-day, though long cheerfully submissive to an alien rule. The Huguenot refugee ceased to speak his own language as speedily as possible. My grandmother and her many brothers and sisters were only the fourth generation in this country. As their own grandfather had been left behind in France and educated there, they might well be counted as the third generation here. Yet, with the exception of some of Marot's psalms, two or three childish rhymes, a proverb or two, and a few chance expressions, their speech betrayed no traces of their national origin. Though their great-grand- father, the refugee, taught his own language for several years, the household use of his beautiful mother-tongue was distinctly discouraged by him.
To the land of their adoption the Huguenots transferred to the full all the inborn loyalty of their characters. During Great Britain's long wars with
152
France - 1744 to 1763 - the descendants of the Huguenots, whether in England or the colonies, bore their part in continental or provincial armies, doing valiant and often highly distinguished ser- vice in both. Many of the best Huguenot families in New Rochelle and Rye sent representatives to fight the French and Indians. Among them were my mother's grandfather and his brother. The first was also, when the time came, an officer in our Revolutionary army.
CHAPTER IX HUGUENOT WAYS IN AMERICA
CHAPTER IX.
HUGUENOT WAYS IN AMERICA.
&
Alterations in Names. Resentment toward their Native Land. Differences between French and English Calvinists. Schools Established by the Huguenots. Amusements, and Games of Courtesy.
-
0
a
1
A
4
0
1
4
8
A
HE utter abandonment by the ex- T patriated Huguenots of all con- nection with France is shown in nothing more clearly than in the change of both christened names and surnames. Henri and Pierre, Jeanne and Mar- guerite, became Anglicized almost immediately, and, it must be confessed, not to their betterment. The spelling of surnames was apt to follow the pronunciation of their new friends and neighbors. Even when the spelling was retained the sound often became hopelessly altered. De la Vergne, though retaining the accepted spelling, was soon written as one word, and pronounced (think of it !) Dillyvarje. Often the spelling also was changed beyond recognition. Bonne Passe (Good Thrust; in the days when good swordsmen were valued this was a name of honor) first became shortened to Bon Pas, and then changed to Bunpas, followed by Bumpus and finally contracted to Bump! L'Estrange was first known as Streing, then as Strange, afterward as Strang, and even, in a few cases, was changed to Strong.
155
156
In writing the name of this last-named family I have followed the usage of at least some of its ear- lier members in this country, as well as a wide- spread belief among them all in its correctness. It is a family tradition that when the young Daniel - afterward the refugee - was sent to Switzer- land to enter the academy there as a student of philosophy, July 29, 1672, his surname was pur- posely misspelled as Streing to avoid giving a clue by which his father's persecutors might discover whither the son had been sent; and that afterward, upon the young student's return to France, and during his stay there as a member of the Royal Guard, he had resumed his rightful name. But later, when he was obliged either to abandon his principles or to fly for his life, he thought it wise to again adopt the name of Streing for the sake of members of his family still residing in France; for, as is well known, the spies of Louis XIV were almost as active in London as in Paris, and though the refugees there could not themselves be reached by the laws of France, the tyrant's wrath at their immunity was often visited upon their relatives still unable to escape from his clutches. The change of name was considered of enough impor- tance to be kept up even in this country until after the arrival here of the oldest son, whom his heartbroken mother, as before related, had been obliged to abandon at the gate of Paris. The son did not come over until he was twenty-one or
157
twenty-two years of age. By this time the habit of the name had become fixed. This son seems to have retained his name as L'Estrange, and some of the others also used it, at short and irregular periods. Both L'Estrange and Streing appear to be names belonging to the numerous ranks of the petty gentry.
Among the reminders of their native land to which the refugees clung the longest was the ver- sion of the psalms of David by Marot-that version so hated by the persecutors that every copy dis- covered by them was immediately treated with as much animosity as was the Bible itself. Even after the descendants of the refugees had so far forgotten their ancestral tongue that they preferred to read the Bible in English, they yet sang, to the old melodies which had so often thrilled their fathers' souls, the beloved psalms which were still cheering the hearts of their persecuted brethren hiding in the caverns of the Cévennes, where alone the remnant remaining in France could worship as conscience dictated.
I would give much if I could now recall the air to which my mother's mother and one of her sisters, both of them considerably over seventy years of age at the time, tremulously sang the psalm in which occur the words :
's Quiconque espère au Dieu vivant, Jamais ne périra !"
158
But both the air and the rest of the words have escaped my recollection. What has not forsaken me is the memory of two petite but still remarkably handsome women, one of them very erect, the other a good deal bent, but both still vigorous of mind and body, as, in the late twilight of a summer Sun- day evening, they sat together in a shadowy room and crooned the old sacred song with a strong and faith-inspired emphasis on jamais, stopping in a startled, half-ashamed way as soon as they discovered " Little Pitchers " trying to efface herself in a dark corner, because she well knew that the entertain- ment would end as soon as her presence should be known.
So far did some of the Huguenots carry their resentment to the government which had so unjustly expelled them that they did not like to be reminded of the land from which they came. It is told of one who lived for many years in Charleston, South Carolina, that while he never thoroughly mastered the English language, he would speak only in that tongue even within his own family circle. He had his name translated into its English equivalent, and though his accent invariably betrayed him as not of American or English birth, it was not definitely known by his neighbors that he was born in France until a short time before his death, when it became necessary to declare his nativity in order that he might obtain possession of some property willed to him by a relative in Burgundy.
159
Probably few of the refugees went quite as far as this, but certainly for many years their descen- dants, while rejoicing in the name of Huguenot, seemed to resent being called French. I remem- ber that for some time my own grandmother (of the fourth generation in this country) opposed her grandchildren's study of the French language. One day I said to her, " But, grandmother, your own ancestors were from France, so the language is partly our own, and why should we not study it?"
Her large and brilliant black eyes flashed at me over the tops of her spectacle-bows as she replied : " Yes, they came from France. They did not re- main there. France is now the home only of per- secutors and atheists." And I fear that she was never able to believe that any one who could not be properly classed as either the one or the other could continue to exist in the country which had so pitilessly cast forth its most loving children.
This trace of resentment seems to have been the only somber characteristic of the Huguenots and their descendants in this country; and even this had its good side, for it led to their more ready adoption of the ideas and institutions of the new land which welcomed so warmly and so helpfully those who had " endured hardness " for the sake of their common faith.
Doctrinally, the Huguenots and the Puritans were the same. In practice there were many points of difference. The Puritan was a very strict Sab-
160
batarian, beginning at sunset of Saturday a twenty- four hours of abstinence from any avoidable work, as well as from any pleasure save that which his devoutness found in religious services. The Huguenot Sunday began and ended as now. Like Calvin himself, the refugees did not think it essen- tial to avoid all pleasant things on Sunday more than on other days, and all who had friends living near the wayside stopped in to visit them as they returned from church, for the Sunday time that was not devoted to church services and to an hour of catechizing at home was not considered as ill spent in cheerful social intercourse.
In Calvinistic Switzerland it had been customary to indulge - after church hours -in any form of innocent amusement. The Huguenots seem to have drawn the line just short of this. But on week-days their national light-heartedness was bound to display itself in as many ways as their circumstances would permit. Tableaux and little comedies were frequent, while dancing was the expected amusement in most households at every evening gathering, and these took place as often as possible. Children were instructed with a degree of gentleness and consideration quite in contrast with the sterner ways of their coreligionists of English or even of Dutch descent.
Cheerfulness, even gaiety, was the rule. A gloomy Huguenot was an anomaly to be pitied and apologized for by his compeers only on the
161
ground of exceptional misfortunes. Yet, when one considers the horrible oppressions which they and their ancestors had endured without relief for almost a hundred years after the end of the tem- porary respite granted by the Edict of Nantes, one must wonder at, while forced to admire, their happy dispositions.
The "boarding and day schools for young ladies " which were established in New Rochelle were eagerly hailed by the elder English and Dutch colonists. Hitherto their daughters had had few educational advantages. The sons could have private tutors or attend fairly good prepara- tory schools which fitted pupils for the colleges so early established in the colonies; or -if his parents were among the magnates of the land - an especially fortunate youth might be sent to one of the great English universities. In general, the girls had to be content with the crumbs of know- ledge which dropped from their brothers' not over- supplied tables, though, in some rare instances, governesses were brought from over sea for their benefit. So when these French Protestant schools were opened by those who had enjoyed every then prized advantage of social culture, they were well patronized from the start.
In these schools were taught not only the lan- guage of the " politest of the nations,"- to employ the words of Lord Chesterfield, written half a cen- tury later,- but also all the " ladylike accomplish-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.