The king was solicited to erect the managers into a Corporation, which was granted. The Royal Charter was dated 24th July 1718,[1] and is from George the First, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland (a better King of France practically, at least to the refugees, than their native king). The first Governor of “the Hospital for poor French Protestants and their descendants in Great Britain” was named in the charter, “our right trusty and right well beloved cousin” Henry De Massue, Marquis De Ruvigny, Earl of Galway; also the first Deputy-Governor, Mr. James Baudoin or Boudoin, and thirty-seven Directors. The number of Directors was to be unlimited; the first treasurer was Mr. Louis Des Clouseaux, and the first secretary, the Rev. Philippe Menard. The latter preached a sermon at the opening of the Hospital on the 12th November 1718 before “a great concourse of French refugees.” The charter empowered the Directors to appoint a Minister to perform Divine Service in the Hospital after the rites of the Church of Fngland.
There is printed among the “By-laws” a special prayer to be used at the “Courts” (or Meetings) of Directors. It is the following:—
“Dieu tout-puissant et Père misericordieux, qui es le Consolateur des affligés, le Nourricier des pauvres et le Salut de ceux qui mettent leur confiance en toi, regarde en tes compassions infinis tous ceux qui se trouvent dans l’affliction, dans la calamité et dans la misère, et particulièrement ceux qui ont été reduits pour la cause de ton saint Evangile. Fais que l’épreuve de leur foi leur tourne à honneur et à gloire quand Jésus-Christ sera révélé, et pourvois à leurs besoins selon les richesses de ta miséricorde. Et puisque tu nous fais la grace de nous appeler à donner nous soins au soulagement de nos frères qui sont parmi nous dans l’ indigence, accorde-nous celle de nos acquitter fidèlement de ce devoir. Benis cette maison que ta Providence a preparée pour nos affligés; fais-leur y trouver les secours et les consolations qui leur sont nécessaires, et benis notre administration, la faisant réussir à ta gloire, au bien de tes pauvres et à notre salut éternal par Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur, Amen.”
The Providence of God is acknowledged in this prayer. The seal of the Hospital has the motto, “Dominus Providebit” [the Lord will provide], and the device engraved upon the seal is “Elijah fed by the ravens in the wilderness;” this is also stamped on the plates and dishes. The appropriateness of this tribute of recognition seems to have been felt from the first. One of the old French Church registers in naming the Hospital says that it was commonly called La Providence. And Professor Weiss concludes his account of the Refugees in Britain by saying as to their descendants in Spitalfields, “Ils invoquent fréquemment le droit de finir leurs jours à l’ hôpital Francais qu’ils appellent leur Providence.”
The institution flourished. Munificent donations and legacies swelled its funds, some of which I had opportunities to record in my Biographies. In 1736 additional ground contiguous to the hospital was purchased, and the area of the entire property was 4½ acres, which was tastefully laid out. “On April 18, 1753, a sermon was preached in the chapel of the French Hospital in Old Street Road for the benefit of that charity, wherein 225 poor persons were maintained, when the audience was very numerous, and the collection amounted to upwards of £1250.”[2] The year 1760 is the year when prosperity had reached its greatest height. Additions had been made to the buildings at an early period, and for a number of years before that date, two hundred inmates at one time could be and were accommodated. But since that date the numbers have greatly fallen off. At the present time there are twenty men and forty women. There are some permanent benefactions administered by the Directors. Mr. Stephen Mounier left a Bequest by which boys are apprenticed to trades (one boy every half-year). Madame Esther Coqueau provided a fund for poor widows or maidens of the age of fifty years and upwards; there are ten recipients of monthly allowances of ten shillings each, for life. The gradual extinction of old families, and the drying up of sources of revenue, compelled the Directors, in 1808, under a private Act of Parliament, to let the great mass of their land in building leases, and thus there sprang up Gastigny Place, Galway Street, and Radnor Street.
An article in “Household Words” (vol. viii., 1853), contained the following allusions:— “The hospital has lost much of its distinctive national character. Sixty years ago a visitor might have heard the inmates chattering away in antiquated French. They speak English now, probably some of them do not know a word of French, because the majority of their ancestors in four generations had been English. As a little amusing mark of deference to the land of their founders, I may mention that a Mrs. Stephen (who was admitted after 1820) became Madame St. Etienne as soon as she entered the French Hospital.”
- ↑ The Index to the Patent Rolls has a nearly accurate entry:— “4 Geo. I., 24th July. Incorporates Henry de Massue, Marquis De Rouvigney, Earl of Galway, and divers others, by the name of Governor and Directors of the Hospitall for poor French Protestants, &c, and grants them divers liberties, &c”
- ↑ British Chronologist, vol. iii.
