The first settlement that was made in America, was made by the Huguenots in 1562. They were sent from France by the great Admiral Coligui, who sympathized with them on account of their sufferings, and ten years later he was murdered on St. Bartholomew's day. The captain of the ship that brought them to America was Jean Ribout. He first explored the coast of Florida, and left the Huguenots at a place they called Charlesfort, but it was afterwards called Carolana near Port Royal in South Carolina. There were 26 of them, and they built a fort. Then Captain Ribout returned to France for supplies, but the next year the Huguenots became discouraged and left the place.
The second settlement that was made in America was also made by the Huguenots in 1664. They settled on St. John's river in Florida. There were 900 of them, but the Spanish on the island of Cuba, destroyed the colony and killed all the Huguenots, because Spain claimed to own Florida. Some of them were hanged, with the inscription "Not as unto Frenchmen, but as unto heretics." Four years later a company of French soldiers retaliated by attacking the Spaniards, and they killed 300 of them. So they affixed the sign, "Not as Spaniards, but as murderers."
It is generally claimed that the Spanish made the first settlement in America at St. Augustine in 1665, but the Huguenots preceded them by three years, and it was 45 years before the settlement at Jamestown. But perhaps the first permanent settlement that were made by the Huguenots were made at New Rochelle and at New Amsterdam in 1656. A company of Huguenots came to Maryland in 1666, and in 1671 they established a settlement in Virginia. In 1679, Charles II, of England sent two ship loads of Huguenots to South Carolina, and so they kept on coming, until tens of thousands of them had actually reached America.
But what was the real motive that actuated those Huguenots to leave France and other countries in which they had taken refuge, and come to America just at that time? They must have been literally fascinated by the marvelous stories which were being published abroad concerning the degree of personal liberty that could be enjoyed, and the enormous amount of wealth that could be easily accumulated in the New World. For while religious toleration and political freedom were drawing all men in this direction, it is hardly reasonable to surmise that out great ancestors were absolutely free from avarice or an inordinate desire for the acquisition of "filthy lucre".
Yet the drawing element was not more potent than the stinging lash that repelled. Religious persecution had driven our ancestors out of France, and they took refuge in England and Scotland, but the same evil spirit was now haunting the Protestants in their adopted homes, for the reformation in the British Isles was an accomplished fact in name only, and the liberty of Protestants countries had to be promulgated by the volition of their inhabitants. The diabolical methods of punishment that were inflicted upon the person or dissenters for their public utterances was repugnant to our liberty-loving ancestors, and caused the defenseless believers in their frenzied enthusiasm and fidelity to assume a pugnacious attitude.
They publicly denounced and repudiated the haughty spirit and sullen narrowness of the Church of England, just as the Protestants in France had sworn vengeance against the evils of Catholicism. For this cause, John Bunyan, the so-called heretic, a Baptist preacher, was incarcerated and kept in Bedford jail for twelve years, from 1660 to 1672. And William Penn, a preacher and disseminater of Quaker doctrines, was also incarcerated in the London Tower in 1668, but he was soon destined under Providence to sail for a new and almost unknown country, which he did in 1682. Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, was at that time Governor of Maryland, which office he filled from 1662 to 1664, when he resigned and returned to England.
It is reasonable to believe that our Great Ancestor, who was then a young man, came to America in one of the vessels that Brought refugees to the New World. the date of his advent, like the dawn of history, cannot at this time be accurately determined. He was contemporary with William Penn and Charles Calvert. It is a matter of history that a Company of Huguenots landed in Maryland in 1666, and if the purser's records of that ship could be investigated, the name of John Outten the Lawyer would probably be found.
What has been written of the Outten family in this record may also be said of all the other Huguenot families that have ever settled in this country. They have always been regarded as the very best citizens, both morally and spiritually, in every community in which they have lived, but they have never sought political office, not positions of public trust. Why is this true of the Huguenots more than any other people except the Jews? It is because their forefathers had the very spirit crushed out of them while they resided in France, by the Roman hierarchy that first called Huguenots, and that claimed to be a Christian Church.