Perhaps no American Family that does not claim royal descent can trace their antecedents back with perfect accuracy beyond the period of the Reformation in Europe. Yet many people who are of French lineage can follow the exodus of their ancestors who were Protestants, from their home in France to their final settlement in America.
The Protestant movement in France began very soon after the Reformation began in Germany. There were tens of thousands of Protestants in France before they were ever called Huguenots. This sobriquet was given them by the Roman Catholics in derision, about the year 1533, as it is possible to trace it any further back, and it was about the time that John Calvin began preaching in France. They had many other preachers at that time of great ability, but as they espoused the very doctrines that he promulgates, it seems probable that he was regarded as the real leader of the Huguenots.
For several years the Protestants increased rapidly, and it was said that one-third of the people of France were Huguenots. But the Roman Catholics were united against them, and backed by the royal families the plutocrats, and all the officials of the kingdom, began a series of persecutions, plunder, destruction of churches, and murder, that nothing could cause to cease. Neither the Edict of Nantes, nor the 30-years war seemed to mitigate their suffering. And that indescribable and malicious persecution, savagery, cruelty, and assassination continued relentlessly until the French Revolution, in 1789, or about 150 years, and then it did not end, but the sharp edge wore off, and the Huguenots were given the right of citizenship.
It is not known at what time the exodus began, but it is very probable that all the Protestants who could leave France, did so, as soon as possible, by disguising themselves, changing their names, concealing their identity, and deceiving their guards. Some went to the Netherlands, some went to England and Scotland, and all other nearby countries. Some sought refuge at the Cape of Good Hope, and others found sanctuary in the American Colonies. Later on all Protestant believers were ordered to leave France, and nearly 1,000,000 of her best citizens were practically driven out of the country, and for no other crime except that of worshiping their Creator according to the dictates of their own conscience.
Why should the descendants of the Huguenots ever show the slightest degree of respect for that contemptible and diabolical hierarchy that masquerades in the name of a church, when they have never once denied or repudiated their hypocrisy in inflicting starvation, cruelty, and murder upon the helpless Huguenots during the 16th and 17th centuries.
It seems very likely that our own ancestors intended to emigrate to Scotland when they abandoned France, but they fled by way of the Netherlands, as that country was known to be friendly to the French Huguenots. A certain branch of the family has inherited the natives of Holland. But the ethnologist could not discover any mental characteristics, similarity of names, facsimile of form or features sufficient to justify him in accepting this tradition. Their sojourn in Holland was therefore of brief duration. Yet it is easy enough to account for all these traditions and theories that have been advocated, upon the hypothesis that letters or souvenirs probably existed in the family for many generations.