QUESTION: Did 'Huguenots' settle in Scotland?

[clazey]

I have been tracking my mother's line...Clazey.  Now...it is also Claise, Claisse...deClacy...and these were Huguenots. The name, Claise and then Clazie, Clazy, Claizey suddenly appear in Berwickshire abt. 1730-1740.  If you look at the familysearch.org site, the name is identified as French Huguenot and the name is largely in Essex.  The Huguenots were part of the merchant and merchant ship economy so between business contacts and their access to ships, it would have been possible for them to get out of France.  One line of Claisse were weavers and thank goodness the French can be a silly people...persecuted the Protestants...drove them out...and in the process bankrupted their economy but enriched the world...If you send me your email to:  * I have another Clazey researcher who is just tracking the name and he sent a number of great websites about the Huguenots...I can then forward to you.
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Sharon

[clazey]

I forgot to add...many of the Huguenots first fled to the lowlands...from there, they moved on when it became obvious they could not return home any time soon!

Sharon

[linmey]

Thanks for that Sharon. Thats another line of enquiry for me to follow.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,  Linda.

[Jeanette H]

Hello To All 'RootsChat Members',

Good to see that this Topic is creating some interest again. 

I first posted this QUESTION, in May 2005, it took off again in September 2006, and now once again we are on the move, having been read over 998 times. 

It is great that we can share the information we come across with our fellow researchers.

Thank you to the recent members who have posted messages: Walder, Linmey (Linda) and Clazey (Sharon).

Clazey (Sharon) in your message which you recently posted.

....I have another Clazey researcher who is just tracking the name and he sent a number of great websites about the Huguenots....

You mentioned that a fellow researcher had come across some web-sites relevant to 'The Huguenots!'

Why not post the URLs to these sites and share them with all of us!

This will only benefit the awareness and understanding of this very interesting Topic. 

Thanks again everyone.
Jeanette H.

[clazey]

As promised from T.M. Sommers, Clazey researcher:  http://www.genealogyforum.com/gfaol/resourse/Huguenot/hug0006...has two entries regarding Scotland.

1609:  Group of Flemish Huguenots settled in Canongate, Scotland.

By 1707:  400 refugee Huguenot families had settled in Scotland and helped establish the Scottish weaving trade.

I quote from T.M. Sommers:  Canongate is evidently in Edinburgh.  What is interesting about the 1609 entry is that they were Flemish.  Apparently most Huguenots were in south and central France. Clacy (Clacy-et-Thierret is the full name) however, is in the north a few miles SW of Leon.  While not exactly next door Flanders isn't very far away; not much farther away than Berwick is from Edinburgh.  It doesn't seem impossible that a Huguenot from Clacy would have joined with a bunch from Flanders emigrating  to Scotland.

http://www.huguenot.netnation.com/general/
http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk
http://www.aftc.com.au/huguenot/hug.html
(the above lists Claisse as a confirmed Huguenot surname in England - my line - clazey.)
http:''huguenots.picards.free.fr/
(Clacy is in Picardy)


I have not visited these websites yet...I will be looking for a map...I do know that what I consider France today was not France yesterday...Flanders was an independent place?

There is not a doubt in my mind that Huguenots made it to Scotland...would have been a perfect place to be left alone...

Let me know what you think of these sites and could one access them...

Sharon

[linmey]

A perfect place to be left alone clazey and of course very very Protestant. Scotland would have been a good choice.

Many thinks for those links.

Best wishes,  Linda.

[j9dw]

Hello Jeanette
Put 'Huguenots' into Wikipedia and you get an interesting history/timeline and also a list of famous people who are/were of Huguenot origin.
On the Mutch family website www.mutches.com Harry Mutch speculates whether the Mutches were Huguenots from the Low Countries, the theory being that Mutch comes from 'mutze' meaning a linen cap and our ancestors were weavers. However, having read what Falkryn says about the Flemish coming to Scotland from the 12th century onwards, perhaps not, especially since the first mention of a Mutch in written records - Marjory, a witch -  is in the 1590's, if I remember correctly.
Malmo, I have also wondered why there are so many surnames in the North-east of Scotland which end in 'o'...e.g. Dalgarno, Argo, Catto etc. Was that because they were originally spelt with an 'eau'? D'algarneaux?
Just a thought.
Trish

I've heard a rumour that the Dalgarnos were survivors of the wrecked ships of the Spanish Armada

[ettrickron]

My Family suddenly appear in the mid 1600s at St Andrews, Fife with the name Motion.  It is thought within the present family that they were Huguenots who had fled from France.   The french name Moisan most closely approximates Motion in Scottish dialect.  Could this be an answer to you question ?

[farah]

I have only found this site and although I have not concrete proof the following may be of interest. On researching the family tree I found that the name Ritchie had been changed from the name Fatt back in the 1600s I thought that it may have been a nickname as was common in the fishing villages and still is but later found a web site in Australia where someone was researching Huguenot surnmaes and one of which was the name Fatt. The only reference to that name in Scotland although there are numerous Fatts in southeast England and London at that time was in Kincardineshire , firstly Stonehaven then they seemed to come down the coast as there are references in Kinneff, Gourdon (Bervie Parish) and then Montrose My family are recorded for the past 400/500 years at Gourdon. The Parish records of Bervie have a David Ritchie also recorded as David Fatt.  Although I don't actively research my family tree I have had correspondence from an elderly lady in America who was trying to find the origins of her surname, Fatt. When Iinformed her of what I had learned she was delighted and informed me that she had been brought up as a child in Germany and that her parents had taken her every Sunday to a Huguenot church . I have no further proof of whether the name is Huguenot. Hoping this might be of interest The Australian website of surnmames is www.aftc.com.au/Huguenot/Hug.html