Let's not get carried too far into the land of the gentry, and take a closer look at the community from which we undoubtedly emerged. We know that thousands of religious refugees sought sanctuary here in the 17th century. It has been called the biggest brain drain in history because many of those arriving from France were Huguenot craftsmen.
Why did they have to leave their homes and flee? The fact is that they were being cruelly persecuted and faced death if they did not abandon their faith. Despite their contributions to life and culture - they ran universities and were teachers, doctors, artists, and men and women with wide skills - they were hunted down and slaughtered. So much for French royalty and the Roman church of those days.
The first persecutions began in 1523 and became increasingly worse. After the St. Batholomew massacre in August, 1572, in which 30,000 Huguenots perished, Queen Elizabeth of England dressed herself in mourning when she received the French Ambassador. The Edict of Nantes was proclaimed in 1588 offering a certain degree of liberty, but it was revoked by Louis X1V in October, 1685, when he declared he would have no more Huguenots in his kingdom.
King Charles 11 promised shelter for any Huguenots in distress, and orders were given to port authorities to welcome them, let them in freely, remit all taxes on their belongings and tools, and help them travel to any place where they wished to settle. It is said that as more and more refugees fled, France become impoverished, her industries closed and towns became deserted. How stupid can you get?
In 1687 alone more than 15,000 French refugees arrived in England. Thirteen thousand settled in London and 2,000 in the coast towns where they'd landed. Since it was death to stay in France and death if caught escaping they had to go to extraordinary lengths to outwit their persecutors and cross the channel. Some concealed themselves in bales of wool, and others in empty wine casks.
Quite a number found work in Brighton and in 1688 built a chapel for themselves in the centre of the town. The building still stands in Union Street and has seen several different faiths worship there, including that of my friend, Pastor Fred Hodge. Brighton owes much of its prosperity to the refugees. Derik Carver, who came from Dilsen in the valley of the Meuse, founded its first brewery, which can be seen in Black Lion Street. Others started small firms to manufacture sail cloth, ribbon, velvet and serge, pins, mirrors, felt hats and watches.
There you have a pretty broad sweep of history. We Behagues should be proud of our name and our ancestry, and I challenge the younger eager beavers in the family to venture forth to the fen villages and coastal towns of southern England to dig up more names and traces, and then to parlez vous with the French on their own ground to discover our real roots. Who knows, there may be a royal title waiting out there for someone!
John Behague, Brighton, August 1991.
Well, how time does fly! It is now Christmas 1997 and over the past two years I have been in touch with Professor Gerard Behague's daughters Sabina and Dominique. Also a small group of Behagues in Napier, New Zealand headed by Geoff Behague has popped up. Geoff's son Rick can claim responsibility for spurring me on to create this Web site after failing to receive material sent by E-mail. The great thing about the Net is that it's compatible with most computers, including the Mac.
Quality checks and any criticisms please to the Brighton Webmaster.
After all, 'Bon guet chasse male aventure'!
