There follows what I can only call a lot of bits and pieces, gathered over the years, ranging from comments in letters to quotes from newspapers. As I stated at the beginning, there are many gaps in the Behague history, and the most important chunks lie over there in France. Who were our forefathers? What kind of people were they? Are there still links with the noble line?
Someone should find out.
The 14th century church is dedicated to Wendreda, a Saxon woman, who led a small religious community in Marche (as it was then spelt) in the 10th century. In 1016 her remains, enshrined in gold, were carried on to battlefield in the war between Edmund Ironside and King Canute. They were later presented to the church at Canterbury.
The double-hammer beam "angel" roof has been called the finest timber roof in England. One hundred and twenty angels with outstretched wings appear to be holding up the roof, and the effect is stunning. Beneath it, Behagues were blessed, baptised, married and finally laid to rest in the adjoining churchyard. We searched among the moss-covered tombstones but inscriptions relating to the early Behagues must long ago have been eroded.
But why confine our investigations to the Fen Country - described by the diarist Pepys, after a trip there in the middle of the 17th century, as a sad place, where the people row and wade from one place to another - when large numbers of Huguenots sought sanctuary much closer to home? Home being Sussex.
I can thank a Pentecostal pastor friend, Fred Hodge, for reminding me that his church building in Union Street, Brighton, first offered shelter to the exiles in 1688, and that Sussex is steeped in Huguenot history. He believed that several Huguenots had been buried in his crypt and one day I joined him for a dig there. Old bones were found, but they proved to be those of a large dog. Fred believed there must have been Behagues living in Brighton three centuries ago, but we have yet to find traces. I am grateful to him and to Pastor H. Migot for an interesting collection of notes on the Huguenots in Sussex.