222
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. iv. SEPT. ie, ion.
no fewer than thirteen of her children
baptized at his church.
The names of Tournai and of Armentieres here acquire additional interest in the light of the late Mr. W. J. C. Moens's ' Walloons and their Church at Norwich,' p. 4 (Huguenot Society, 1888), in which he says:
" The Flemings and Walloons came for the
greater part from West Flanders .... bringing with them so many industries before almost unknown
in this country Bailleul, Cassell, Bergues,
and Bourboug, were the four Chatellenies whence they chiefly came." Again: " Flanders, formerly a province of France, was ceded absolutely to the Emperor Charles the Fifth in August, 1529, more than half the population being of the reformed religion, openly or secretly." Also: "Philip the Second ordered the repression of this so- called heresy."
The people saw in the presence of the Spanish troops a menace against their liberty, and there was no one who would not die to defend it. In the month of October, 1561, a French minister set himself up to preach in the market -place of Tournai, and the whole town soon resounded with the chant of the Psalm "a la Calvin." At Valenciennes the same took place at night, and armed bands of men collected to set free the prisoners who had been arrested by the authorities.
In the last days of May, 1566, the preach- ings commenced at Bondnes, near Tournai. Three or four thousand people were collected together to hear the minister, who was a Frenchman, the chief people and ladies of Tournai being among the crowd. The women were seated ; behind them were ranged the men, holding their halberds and swords raised.
There were other preachings near Valen- ciennes, Armentieres, and Warneton, fol- lowed by hangings, burnings, and the wheel, all of which forms a dramatic back- ground for a little scene which took place outside the walls of Southampton in 1591, when, according to the record of Maitre Phillippe de la Motte,
" La Serenissime Elizabeth, Queen of England, came to Southamptonne on the 4th of September with a Great Court, and departed on the seventh of the same month about midday. And as she came without the town, we, who had been unable to gain access to her presence before, approached her person and gave her thanks for the twenty- four years which we have passed in unity in this town, under the benign clemency of her pro- tection (under God), in all tranquillity and peace. To which the Queen graciously replied, thanking God that He had given her power to help and succour the poor strangers whose prayers, she was confident, had helped her."
The family of Des Maistres, from Armen- tieres and "la Chastilenie de 1'Isle," were
also clothworkers. Of these were Baltasar
Des Mestres (made profession of faith 1574) ;
Judith (Madame la Motte), profession 1582 ;
and Marie, profession 1584. The latter was
married at Southampton on 12 November
to "Robert le Page de Fecan en Caux"
(their children were Rachael, Pierre, and
Susanne le Page, baptised respectively in
1598, 1600, and 1603).
Baltasar was buried on 20 April, 1605, and his daughter Elizabeth (baptized at Southampton 1579, and made profession
7 March, 1596), was married on 18 July, 1604, to Timothee Blier, Ministre du St. Evangle, and a native of Rouen. Their children were Phillippe, baptized 1605, Jacques 1607, and Timothee Blier 1609.
The first baptismal entry of the De la Motte children was on 11 March, 1589 :
" Judith, daughter of Phillippe de la Motte, minister of God's word, sponsor Baltasar Des- Mestres."
This child was followed by twelve others, in- cluding Jane (1591), Phillippe (1592), Marie (1594), Jan (1597, obit. 1601), Daniel (1598), Abigail (1600), Josept (11 Aug., 1602), Jacques (1603, obit. Sept., 1603). On
8 February of 1603 special prayers were ordered to be made publicly in this church "against the contagious disease now menacing us, two or three of our congregation having already fallen victims." This was followed by the announcement on 11 July, 1604, that " the pestilence is now in the midst of the republic of this church." There is a note to say that all who could do so left the town. The De la Mottes appear to have gone to Eling, and the register of that church for 1604 shows the baptism of "Martha, daughter of Phillippe de la Motte, Minister of the French Church." On 16 January, 1605, the Walloons had a service called an " Action de graces publiques et Solennelles," that it had pleased God -to arrest the plague, both in this republic and also in the town. Then in 1606 came a daughter, Anne, to the Pasteur and his wife ; followed in August, 1608, by a son, Mathew. This large family occupied a house in Bull Street, where they carried on their dyeing operations, as appears by the complaints presented at the Court Leets for 1615-16:
" the servants of Mr. Phillip de la Motte doe caste their woad and dyenge water out of the dye house in the back part of Bull Streeth, which is most unseemlie and causeth unsavorie smells to the people passing bye, and therefore not suffer- able."
