David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ Dassauville received £40 for his travelling expenses on 8th January 1731.
A good deal of work was done in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, by taking some of the weavers and the women to give lessons to Scotch spinners as to the making of tools in the French fashion, and “in their method of brushing the flax and reeling and making up of the yarn.” The Linen Society of Glasgow received them cordially.
The name of Picardy, or Little Picardy, was not given to the village by the Board of Manufactures. The French colony invented the name for itself. ”

“ The name Dassauville kept its ground till recently, and the family is still represented through females (I do not assert that there is no male representative) . The old tendency was to the spelling of Dassevile — latterly, the spelling was accurate, but the pronunciation was Dossavil. The first funeral recorded in the register of Calton burying-ground from the village of Picardy, near Edinburgh, was “Mary Dasaviley, aged three,” March 8, 1735. Nicholas Dassauville, the head of the colony, was born in 1692; John Dassauville, one of the weavers, was his brother. ”

“ In the circle of their Huguenot friends there was Alexander Mercier, button-maker, and Anna Atimont, his wife; and Daniel Callard, vintner and burgess, and Magdalen Bunell, his wife. A witness at a baptism in the last-named family was David de Bees, chirurgeon-general to Major-General Mackay, 23rd February 1690.
If there was any business in which a majority of the refugees were employed, it was felt-making. At the head of this trade we find, on 15th July 1688, Francis Chameau, master of the manufactory for felt-making, and Susanne Pillet, his wife. ”

“ THE REFUGEES AND THEIR MINISTERS IN EDINBURGH.
The French Protestant refugees in Edinburgh [1] were formed into a congregation in the year 1682. The ministry was collegiate, and one of the colleagues had always the name of Du Pont, and on the death of the last of that name the church was shut up. ”

“ Scotland has not been inserted in the heading of this chapter, because (with the exception of the Paper-mill in Cathcart parish) Edinburgh is the only place where we can positively allocate refugees. In the various parochial registers some names of probable Huguenot refugees occur, and I have noted them in my Historical Introduction. Two or three are from the Stirling register. ”

“ Duncan Dassauville had married, on 18th November 1759, Katharine, daughter of George Yule, farmer in East Fenton, in the parish of Dirlcton. On 16th May 1771 he became cautioner for the executor of Rev. John Baptiste Beuzeville, and was called “Duncan Dassauville, Caroline weaver at Picardie.” ”

“ The fact is there was no such common; the ground was enclosed, being the property of Heriot’s Hospital, and was let to tenants. No evidence of refugee silk-weavers is to be seen in the Edinburgh registers and records. The French village of Picardy, or Little Picardy was not built till 1730. ”

“ The elaborate catalogue of expenditures under the Act included “ two thousand merks Scots [£111, 2s. 2d. sterling] to two French Ministers.” From some surviving receipts from these Divines, and also from the Minutes of a Board of Overseers created to supervise the Town Council’s expenditure of the funds obtained from the Ale Duty, we get some insight into the history of the French ministers. It would appear that the father (or the grandfather) , Du Pont, died in 1710, and Rev. Francis Loumeau Du Pont, his son and colleague, obtained M. La Ferre as his colleague. ”

“ And on 24th April it was specifically ordered that
“Two specimen houses be built according to a model, with the addition of a vent to each vault, and a common stair on the north from both the vaults and the upper stories; the windows in the vault to project a little in the soles from the wall, in order to dart the rays of light to the backmost parts of the vault.” ”

“ One felt-maker can be traced from his marriage to his death; Peter Gautier was married on 23rd March 1694, and was buried in Greyfriars’ churchyard on 4th April 1703. The two different records sometimes throw light on each other; thus I extracted dubiously the marriage in Edinburgh, on 15th October 1701, of Daniel Lasagette, merchant, burgess, to Anne, daughter of the late Rev. ”