A QUARREL IN SOHO (1682)
It is a comparatively easy task to find out how _Monsieur l'ambassadeur_ of
France or a distinguished foreign author lived in London. In both cases
their dispatches, memoirs, and letters, and sometimes their friends'
letters, are extant. But how about the merchants who had seldom time to
gossip about their private affairs; and the crowd of artisans, working-men,
and servants who did not, nay could not, write? Fortunately others wrote
for them, when actuated by some strong motive. Take, for instance, the
following story preserved in an old pamphlet[281] and which, reprinted,
needs no lengthy commentary to give insight into the life of the poorer
Frenchmen whose lot it was to work and quarrel in and about Soho and Covent
Garden under Charles II.:--
"About five weeks ago, the wife of _Monsieur de la Coste_, a _French_
Taylor, dwelling then at the upper end of _Bow Street_ in _Covent Garden_,
lying upon her death-bed, sent for _Mr. Dumarest_ (here the unknown author
of the pamphlet is wrong, he should have spelt the name _Du Marescq_, as
any one may see who cares to consult Baron de Schickler's learned work on
the French churches in London) that he might comfort and pray with her
before she departed; which the aforesaid minister having accordingly done,
and acquitted himself of the function of his ministry (this phrase sounds
strangely un-English; maybe the writer who knows so much about the French
colony in London is a Frenchman himself), the sick person caused the
company to be desired to withdraw, for that she had something particular to
say to her husband and the minister. The company being withdrawn, she
desired her husband to take care of a daughter she had by a former
marriage, who lived in the house of the widow of one _Reinbeau_, because
that she was a Papist, and that she feared that after her death she would
seduce her daughter. (The construction of the sentence is confusing at
first, and very ungrammatical. By using the verb 'to seduce' with the
meaning of 'to convert to Romanism,' the author betrays a French Protestant
descent.) The husband promised to do what his wife desired; the dying
person, not content with the promise of her husband, made the same request
to the minister, who assured her that he would acquit himself of his duty
(_s'acquitter de son devoir_ literally translated) in that respect.
[Illustration: THE FRENCH TAILOR
After Arnoult]
"The sick party died the day after, and the father-in-law sent immediately
for the young maid, clothed her very handsomely, and told her the last will
of her mother; the young maid made answer that she was born a Protestant,
brought up as such, and that she would be very glad to be instructed in her
religion, that she might resist and prevent falling into error. Her
father-in-law finding her in that resolution, told her that it was
requisite she should live in his house, to which she consented with a
willing heart.
"Some days after, widow _Reinbeau_ caused Mr. _La Coste_ to be fetched
before a Justice of the _Peace_ for detaining from her her apprentice ('an
apprentice is a sort of slave,' wrote the French traveller Misson,[282] 'he
can't marry, nor have any dealings on his own account; all he earns is his
master's.' Apprentices were bound by deed for a term of years, sometimes
sums of money were given with them, as a premium for their instruction. If
they ran away, they might be compelled to serve out their time of absence
within seven years after the expiration of their contract). He appeared
there accordingly and said that his wife's daughter was not an apprentice,
and that though she were so, he was not willing that she should be seduced,
that he knew there was such a design, but the _Justice_, without having
regard to this, redelivered the young maid into her pretended mistress's
hands.
"The father-in-law complained hereof to his friends, and while they were
contriving to remedy this business (imagine the excitement), the young
maid went to Mr. Jehu (this is surely a misprint), a goldsmith dwelling in
the house of the deceased (and no doubt an important member of the
Protestant community), and weeping bitterly, desired him to use the means
of having her instructed in her religion, and of getting her out of the
hands of the Papists. He promised to use his endeavours for that purpose,
and that he might perform his word, he went to Mr. _Dumarest_, a minister,
and told him the business; who assured him of contributing all that lay in
his power to his efforts; and they two together agreed that on Sunday, the
Second of _June_, the young maid should go to the _Greek_ Church (in Hog
Lane, now Crown Street, Soho, a kind of chapel-of-ease to the _Savoy_
Church), and that she should be there examined. Accordingly she went
thither to that intent, but the minister being hastened to go to the
_Savoy_ Church, bid the young maid follow him, that he would discourse her
on the way, and that he would after that present her to the Consistory
(otherwise: the elders); which the young maid agreeing to, followed the
minister (we can trace their way on an old map through the dingy ill-paved
lanes lined with squalid houses and almost hear the minister 'discourse' in
loud French, thus attracting notice), but they were no sooner in Newport
Street, than that widow _Reinbeau_, a niece of hers, three of her nephews,
a vintner and other Papists stopped the maid and minister in the way; and
the widow with an insolent tone asked the minister why he talked to that
maid? The minister asked her by what authority she asked him that question?
To which she said that this maid was her apprentice: The minister told her
that he was assured of the contrary, but that though she were so, he had a
right to instruct her, and that it was only with that intent that he spoke
to her and that she followed him, that it was _Sunday_, and that after she
had been catechized, she should return unto her house (the widow's house,
of course), until it was known if she was under any obligation to her or
not, which after he had said, he bid the young maid continue her way with
him. (We can see Du Marescq standing in wig and gown, vainly trying to
pacify the irate widow, and the small crowd of her gesticulating relations
and friends gathering round.)
"The widow seeing that the young maid followed, seized her with violence,
swore that she should not go with the minister; at the same time three of
her bullies surrounded the minister, and after he had told them that he was
amazed they should commit such violence on the King's highway on a
_Sunday_, when the business was only the instruction of one of his
subjects, being in fear of the _Roman dagger_, he went to a Justice of
Peace called Sir John Reresby, to inform him of the whole matter. (In this
little tragi-comedy, Sir John Reresby, made Justice of the Peace for
Middlesex and Westminster in Nov. 1684, plays the part of the upright
judge; a time-saver he appears to have been, but then he was a strong
anti-papist; at that moment he had just been superintending proceedings
against Thynne's murderers and probably cared very little for the noisy
Frenchmen.)
"The minister was no sooner gone than that Mr. _Jehu_ being desirous to get
near the young maid and speak to the widow _Reinbeau_, this woman without
hearing him, fell upon him, tore his peruke and shoulder-knot off, and she
and her myrmidons began to cry out: _a French Papist_ (a scurvy trick!).
"This piece of malice had like to have cost the Protestant his life, for at
the same time some of the _mobile_ who were crowded about him seized him by
the throat; but the populace being undeceived, and having understood the
_Popish_ trick, let go the Protestant, which the Papists perceiving, they
ran into a house hard by, swearing they would cause the _French_ Protestant
to be stabbed (just after the scare caused by the Popish Plot, there was
not a loyal Protestant, either English or French, who did not believe every
Papist had a knife up his sleeve and was scheming a new Bartholomew's Day).
"After they were got into that house, they immediately contrived how to
secure their prey: for that purpose they sent for a chair and had her
conveyed away (after the manner of the Catholics in France, as every one in
England knew at the time).
"During that interval Mr. _Du Marest_ the minister having discoursed Sir
_John Reresby_ upon this business, this worthy Justice of the Peace sent
for a constable (_deus ex machina!_), and gave him a warrant. The constable
performed his commission, brought the widow and her niece, but the other
Papists prevented his seizing them by making their escape in the crowd.
"The Justice of the Peace examined them concerning the maid, they confessed
that she was not an apprentice, but a maid they set to work, and to whom
they gave twenty shillings a year; upon this, and the declaration which the
young maid made, he discharged her ('apprentices to trades,' said
Blackstone almost a hundred years later, 'may be discharged on reasonable
cause, either at the request of themselves or masters, at the quarter
sessions, or by one justice, with appeal to the sessions'), and recommended
the care of her to the minister, and then proceeded to examine to the
bottom ('au fond' is the French legal term which would naturally occur to
the writer of this pamphlet) the violent action which the women had
committed, and upon their confession, and the depositions of several
witnesses, he bound them to the sessions (here should the story end, but
the writer thinks it needs a moral, and so he proceeds).
"This conduct of the Papists would something startle me, if I did not daily
hear of such-like violences. But when I am assured that a certain Papist
called _Maistre Jacques_ (let us hope Sir John Reresby will have him hanged
at next Middlesex Assizes), upon a dispute of religion, did so wound a
Protestant that he is since dead of it; when people of honour assure me,
that they hear Papists call the illustrious Queen _Elizabeth_ a whore, and
beat those who oppose them upon this subject; when I hear that the Papists
threatened some years since, that they would set the streets a-flowing with
blood (the Popish Plot again!); when that I see people that are perverted
every day, and who are taken from us by force; when I see that the Papists
contemn the King's Proclamations, that, instead of withdrawing according to
his pleasure to some distance from _London_, they crowd to that degree this
City and its suburbs, that one would say they designed to make a garrison
of it; I do not wonder at this last insolence, and I apprehend much greater
if care be not taken."
Such a pamphlet could be the production only of a Frenchman, most probably
of mean condition, certainly no scholar. The interest lies less in the
narrative itself, than in the frame of mind which it reveals among the
humbler Frenchmen then living in London. While the Protestant refugees are
in fear for their safety, their Catholic fellow-countrymen exhibit a
singular arrogance in so small a minority. No doubt the effects of the
French King's policy were being felt even in England, some knowledge of the
secret articles of the Treaty of Dover filtering down, through the medium
of priests and monks, to the ranks of the working people: they now suspect
Charles II. to be in the pay of Louis XIV., and hope that the King of
England will soon proclaim his Catholic faith and call in the aid of the
French dragoons to convert the reluctant heretics. In a similar manner are
the private arrangements between Sultans and European Powers divined and
commented on at the present time by the native population in Persia or
Barbary. The slightest quarrel, the most commonplace street brawl are
pretexts for rival factions to come out in battle array. Among men of the
same race and blood, feelings of hatred and instances of perfidiousness are
manifest. As is always the case in time of civil war, the aid of the
foreigner, be he an hereditary enemy, is loudly called for and order is
finally restored by constable, judge, and gaoler.
FOOTNOTES:
[281] _The Relation of an Assault made by French Papists upon a Minister of
the French Church, in Newport Street, near St. Martin's Lane_, 11th June
1682.
[282] _Memoires et observations faites en Angleterre_, La Haye, 1698.