Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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“sermon gadder”
Francis Bremer in “John Winthrop” defines a sermon gadder as-“one who traveled to other parishes to listen to additional preaching”. Further he notes that “stranger churches”, foreign protestant churches, were visited by the early evangelicals, 16th C., to learn latest reforms from Europe. Sam, of course, no evangelical, but he was a gadder.
The French Church in Threadneedle St., founded in 1550, was a Huguenot congregation. Following is taken loosely from History Today, Volume 43, Issue 5 | May 1993 | Author: Bakshian, Aram
Soho’s French Connection
…A central London Protestant community … stemming from the emigration of French and Flemish Protestants to England in the sixteenth century. The main place of worship was in Threadneedle Street in the City of London. Founded in 1550, when Edward VI granted Protestant refugees freedom of worship by royal charter, what had previously been St Anthony’s Hospital Chapel, became known as the French Church. The medieval building which dated back to the thirteenth century was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but by 1669 the hardworking Huguenots had erected a new church, one of the first to be rebuilt after the fire. It was demolished in 1841 to make way for the Royal Exchange.
Edward VI’s charter required the names of all pasteurs to be submitted to the sovereign for approbation and the tradition continues with the French Pasteur being the only foreign minister to be appointed by Her Majesty the Queen.
After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 there was a large immigration of French Protestants to England. In 1700 something in the region of 5 per cent of London’s population were Huguenots, who brought with them a wealth of trade secrets and in some cases financial capital also. The Huguenots contributed overwhelmingly to the development of the textile, gun-making, silver, watch and clock-making industries, to the creation of the banking and insurance business as well as to the sciences and the arts.
See also
http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/publications/cdrom.html
French Church : facing Finch lane; back of Pig street and a stones throw from the Merchant Taylor’s Hall;
there also be another French Church at St. Martins Lane on the way to the Tems.
A drawing of the Huguenot Church in Threadneedle Street as it looked in the 17th century: http://www.art-science.com/Ken/Genealogy/PD/images/Church.jpg
(This may be the church building as rebuilt after the Great Fire).
