Book Description

Doubtless one of the scarcest Huguenot studies and yet unquestionably a classic, Lee's "Huguenots in France and America" is essentially a history rather than a treatise on emigration or a list of names, with primary emphasis on the exposition of facts and notable events. It is an exhaustive account of the origins of the Huguenots in France, their persecution and their subsequent flight, embracing sketches of many leading contemporaries and an account of the Reformation of the church in Europe and kindred circumstances resulting in the rise of French Protestantism. Particularly close attention is given to the major events leading to the Huguenot dispersion to England, Holland, Germany, and America; namely, the St. Bartholomew Massacre (1572), the assassination of King Henry IV (1610), and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). An important section of nearly 100 pages is devoted to the Huguenots of America, with emphasis on the formidable Huguenot settlements at Oxford (Mass.), New Rochelle (N.Y.), New Paltz (N.Y.), Frenchtown (R.I.), and Jamestown (S.C.). The work further contains a "List of the Names of Huguenot Families in America," documenting the arrival in Boston of those families who later settled in Maine, New York, and Rhode Island; and the names of those who settled in the South, including the settlement on the Santee River in South Carolina.