This question has been asked by many members of the Outten family during the last generation, and perhaps it has been a question in the minds of all other generations, for the last three centuries. But while the writer has found no historical proof that they were Huguenots, neither has he found any proof that they were not, and the preponderance of evidence seems to be that they were. So he will record the traditions here as a question, the answer to which is yet to be determined.
The name Huguenot was applied to the Protestant believers in France during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is a word that can not be defined, because it has no meaning either in the French or the English language. But it is supposed to have been a proper name that is now obsolete. Just as the followers of John Wesley in England were called Methodists, so the Protestant believers in France were called Huguenots by the Roman Catholics in order to express their contempt for them, and for their methods of worship.
There may be, however, in the word Huguenot a reference to Geneva in Switzerland where the sect originated under the preaching of John Calvin, and was afterwards sustained and supplemented by the preaching of John Knox and other religious reformers.
Methods of punishment were prescribed by the Parliament of France in 1560, and these followed confiscation of property, imprisonment, and murder, and 1200 Huguenots died that year at the hands of executioners, but this only caused the protestants to become more reunited. Two years later a company of them had met in a barn for religious worship, but they were attacked and murdered, and their leaders sought and slain.
In the next ten years, the Government of France took up arms against the Protestants at least eight different times, and tens of thousands of them were either murdered, or executed by law.
Seeing that all other means that had been adopted for the extermination of the Huguenots had failed, Catherine de Medici, the queen mother, concocted a diabolical plot, which she thought would lead to a general massacre of all the Protestant believers in the Kingdom. She generously set apart August 24 and 25, 1572 which was to be celebrated as St Bartholomews birthday, and she gave orders for the bell to be rung in the tower of the palace at midnight, as a signal for the beginning of the great celebration. But she secretly planned a general massacre of the Huguenots throughout the kingdom, and 70,000 Protestant men, women, and children were murdered in their homes. And the big show lasted 30 days, until it looked as if all the Huguenots in the kingdom of France would be exterminated, by the merciless order of that wicked woman. The queen mother actually received congratulations from the Catholic powers, and Pope Gregory XIII commanded bonfires to be lighted, marched in procession to the church of St Louis, and proclaimed a year of jubilee.
The writer has referred to this little incident in the history of France, just to call the reader's attention to the extent of persecution and suffering to which the Huguenots were subjected.
No wonder that thousands of them sought refuge in other countries, where religious persecution was less intolerable, and where they would be less exposed to the thugs and murderers who maltreated and butchered their victims in the name of the Catholic church.
Were our ancestors Huguenots, and did they reside in France during the 16th and 17th centuries ? If they did, then they probably had resided there for many centuries. Let us hope that they made good their escape before the horrible and never to be forgotten St. Bartholomew's day in 1572.
The American people have always been in mutual sympathy with the people of France, and thousands of families can trace their origins to that country. But we should remember that the people of France have never been permitted to rule, and no European country has ever had so many kings who were weaklings, and were ruled by others. For centuries France was practically ruled by the Pope of Rome, and the Devil incarnate, and the people either had to conform to Catholicism or endure the consequences, which meant suffering and death. But the Huguenots always remained true to their Protestant faith.
The writer will now record a literal translation from the French language, of a beautiful old hymn that was sung by our Protestant ancestors, amid the rocks and caves of France during the fierce persecution of the Huguenots more than three centuries ago, and has come down to us as an old heirloom. It reveals their religious zeal and consecration to a great cause. The song is entitled "My Lord and I".