Huguenot-Anglicans in Seventeenth-Century Virginia

Abstract of article published by Anglican and Episcopal History (September 2022), Vol. 91, No. 3.

Lonnie H. Lee

Abstract:

The county court records of late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Virginia offer compelling evidence that the Anglican Church played a more pivotal role in the Huguenot migration to America than historians have previously understood. The Huguenots who migrated to New York, New England, and South Carolina during the 1680s founded churches that were heavily influenced (if not under the direction of) the non-conformist French Church of London on Threadneedle Street. The Threadneedle Street Church was independent of the Church of England, worshiping in French and adhering to the same Calvinist theology, worship, and governance patterns of the Reformed churches in France.

But an important segment of the Huguenot migration to America followed a very different ecclesiastical pattern and would prove to be more resilient, though it has remained largely hidden from historical researchers over the past three hundred years. During the 1680s and 1690s a significant number of Huguenot refugees were making their homes on plantations along the Rappahannock River in Virginia. These immigrants were heavily influenced by another London-based Huguenot congregation, the French Church of the Savoy in Westminster. This was an Anglican-conformist Huguenot congregation that maintained close ties to the English court. The Savoy Church worshiped in French using a French translation of the Anglican prayer book.

One of the leaders of this migration was a Huguenot minister who had been part of the Savoy Church. John Bertrand arrived in the Rappahannock region in 1687 after having been re-ordained into the Church of England while living in London. In Virginia Bertrand performed a dual tract ministry serving Anglican parishes and leading services in both English and French. He was soon joined by dozens of French refugees, including some from his hometown of Cozes in western France. As additional bilingual Huguenot-Anglican minsters arrived in Virginia, the flow of  French refugees continued. By the end of the seventeenth century a large and distinctively Huguenot-Anglican Refuge had been firmly planted.