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Ashtead's Refugee Rector
Aspects of the life of The Reverend Peter Hamelot MA (1660/1-1742)
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Hamelot Table Tomb - Ashtead Churchyard
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The Reverend Peter Hamelot was one of the longest serving rectors of Ashtead. He was the incumbent for most of the first half of the eighteenth century until his death in 1742 at the age of 81. Peter was the son of a French doctor Hierome and his wife Jane. His table tomb lies at the south-east corner of Ashtead`s St Giles` Churchyard. It tells us that Peter left France when the Protestants there were being “destroyed”. Religious and civil liberties in France granted to the Huguenots at the end of the sixteenth century by the Edict of Nantes were gradually being eroded in the second half of the seventeenth century. |
By the 1680s Protestants in certain areas of France were being terrorised. Over time 200000 Huguenots fled from France to settle in various parts of non-Catholic Europe: up to 50000 came to England and were generally welcomed here. All French Protestant pastors were sent into exile when King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in October 1685 while the laity were forbidden to leave France.
It remains to be discovered whether Peter Hamelot came directly to England when the Edict of Nantes was revoked. The Catholic King James 11 had succeeded to the English throne eight months earlier but head-on confrontation with leading Anglicans and the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six Anglican bishops in the Tower of London came only towards the end of James`s three year reign.
What is certain is that Peter came to England in an era of religious and political ferment. The “Glorious Revolution” following the abdication of King James and accession to the English throne of the Dutch Protestant William of Orange had taken place in 1688, war was to break out with France and the Bank of England was created to help in financing it. (Incidentally the name of one Peter Hamelot appears in Treasury records among investors in loans to be applied specifically for the war.)
| Evidently Peter was in England in 1691 to conduct a marriage ceremony. A Memorandum in Ashtead`s Parish Register - which seems to have been inserted in the register at some time after he had become Ashtead`s Rector in 1699 - states that Peter “had the honour to marry the Honourable George Booth Esq to the Right Honourable Lady Lucy Roberts in London at a private house but in the presence of several witnesses of credit reputation and honour. Averred and attested by me Peter Hamelot Rector.” In the following year a cousin of Peter`s father Paul Colomies died. Paul – grandson of a notable Huguenot pastor and preacher Jerome Colomes of Rochelle - was a distinguished author and librarian to William Sancroft and for a short time Rector of Eynsford Kent. Peter had been appointed as executor of Paul`s will (under which he was beneficiary of Paul`s “small savings”). So he may well have been present in London at Paul`s funeral and his burial in St Martin in the Fields Church. |
Ashtead Parish Register; Memorandum of Marriage in 1691 - click to enlarge
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It is interesting to note that Peter is listed in English Denization Records 1693 as one of six clerks along with more than a hundred others in a warrant dated 13 March 1693 for the naturalization of French Protestants.
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Thomas Howard father and son - St Giles Church
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Peter`s appointment as Rector of Ashtead almost certainly resulted from his close association with the Howards who held the Manor of Ashtead. Remarkably Peter was installed as Rector on the first day of the then New Year 25 March 1699 just three weeks following the death of his predecessor William Duncumb. Six months earlier Peter`s patron Thomas Howard had succeeded to Ashtead Manor on the death of his father Sir Robert Howard, Secretary to the Commissioners of the Treasury and Auditor of the Exchequer. Peter was tutor to Thomas`s son - also Thomas - whom he found to be a most promising pupil. Tragically Thomas junior died in 1702 at the Howard`s Westminster town house eleven months after the death of his father. He was just 14 years of age.
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It seems likely that Peter would have been a familiar figure in the London Society in which he moved and visited from time to time. He became associated with the French speaking Church of the Savoy established in London in 1661. From the outset the Savoy was a conforming church adopting the Anglican clergy. Huguenot Society records show that in 1719 Peter as minister of Ashtead was in attendance at a Savoy Church wedding.
One tries to imagine what life would have been like for Peter ministering to the needs of the high-born and the humble in a rural community of perhaps 300 souls. One would expect him to have supported the good works of Lady Diana Feilding who as the widow of his patron for long played a prominent role in the affairs of Ashtead until her death in the 1731. As Rector of Ashtead Peter was appointed as a trustee of a bequest by Lady Diana under her will for the establishment of an alms house to accommodate “six poor widows of the Parish”. The opening of Feilding House in 1736 built with moneys from the bequest – now part of Ashtead United Charities along with The Haven opened in 1893 and Maples House opened in 1975 - has enabled countless women of limited means to be provided with homes in Ashtead for over 270 years.
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Diana Feilding - St Giles Church
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John Stansfield, 29/07/2009 |
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