GA, thank you for that historical review of the Huguenot arrival in London and their subsequent success. I had only a vague understanding of their influence. Forgot about the Edict of Nantes and its later revocation I guess.

That is quite an impressive townhouse on Elder Street with the symbolic spool still in place. Kudos to Elizabeth Randall, editor of the Huguenot Society Journal, for keeping their traditions alive.

It is fascinating to read about the Spitalfields Huguenots but I am equally proud of those who came much earlier and would love to add to my knowledge of them, the Tirots certainly did well and I have followed up what became of them. William’s sons somehow became comfortably well off watermen on the Archbishop’s barge at Lambeth until the building of the Westminster bridge, and one of John’s sons, Richard Tiro, was clerk of the works for Inigo Jones at the Queen’s House in Greenwich.

I mustn’t go on at length about my family but I always feel that the earlier Huguenot refugees are overlooked whereas their history in London is just as fascinating as that of the later arrivals in Spitalfields. Their skill with felt for instance meant that they made virtually all the hats in London in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and most of these were made in Southwark. Family history is a great way to discover more of history in general and I thoroughly recommend it for that purpose.