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In Issue 5, we made a case for Charles
Leleux* having been descended from a Huguenot family. John Humphrey puts his view:
"The Huguenot issue is unproven. Charles' father Augustus
is hard to track, mysterious even. The sons of Augustus so
far traced by us were evidently Protestant, but of the Church of England variety.
I'm not sure to what extent the original cockney Huguenots still
clung to their churches at this point or whether they were assimilated into
the Church of England.
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The French Church, Soho Square, London
By
courtesy of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland
The
carved tympanum tells the story of the Huguenot flight to England
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The 1876 enlistment papers of Jessie's husband (Charles
Leon) state that his religion is Church of England and he married Jessie
Stentiford according to the rites of this body notwithstanding the presence of a
Huguenot Church in East Stonehouse (The French Episcopal Church). Some
ten years after he joined the army, his papers were amended and his
"religion" entry became "Wesleyan".
The same army enlistment documentation names Charles' father as his next-of-kin but gives an address for him on the Rue Palikao in Paris.
Clearly there was live contact with the family's French homeland and I'm
not sure how common that was with the Huguenots.
We know little more about Charles' father** beyond his occupations at
various times in his life. He was described as a machinist in 1857 and a
journeyman engineer in 1861. On Julia Piguet's death certificate in 1870
he is described as "engineer electrician" - surely one of the
earliest uses of this job designation, only three years after Michael
Faraday's death and 12 years before Thomas Edison opened his
"Electric Light Station" at 57 Holborn Viaduct in London. We
now think that he went through a third marriage ceremony in 1871 to a Lucy
Jarvis at St. Mary's, Marylebone, our evidence for this being
documentation relating to the last years of their lives which were spent
in Woolwich. Lucy died in 1886 and Augustus in 1893."
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The
Dynamo Room of Edison's Electric Lighting Station (1882)
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Bruce Humphrey shares a similar view:
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"There is no doubt that the family were Protestant, not
Catholic, although whether strictly Huguenot is a different matter. It
is very likely, however,
that it was mother Julia, born of a family from protestant Switzerland,
and herself baptised in the Anglican faith, who influenced that.
There is no certain record of any Leleux* in connection with the
Huguenot Churches in England.
Charles was a Freemason, a member of Lodge 230 in England which of
course, also goes against any possibility of Catholic origins."
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Freemasons' Hall, Plymouth
Erected by members of Lodge 170
(Fortitude) and Lodge 339 (Friendship) and opened in 1828
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* Bruce Humphrey:
The name LELEUX is predominantly found in North-East
France and Belgium, through to the Champagne country and is not, there,
indicative of Huguenot connection. There is a Rue Charles Leleux at
Macon in Belgium.
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**Bruce
again:
"We've had to consider the possibility that
Catherine Grandjean, ‘our’ Augustus’ first wife, was still alive,
not only during the lifetime of Julia Piguet but at the time of another
"marriage" subsequent to Julia's death. There is conflicting
information on several documents - is he trying to cover tracks on
a possibly bigamous marriage? No divorce for Catherine, if she was,
indeed, Catholic." |
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