Areas of London where our branch of Cavaliers lived.

Whitechapel, Mile End, Stepney, Poplar, St. Georges in the East.

Our branch of the Cavalier Family which originally came over from France with dispossessed Huguenot families from France settled in and around London.
The following excerpts from later writings give details of Mile End, Stepney, Whitechapel and Spitalfields where the family lived, and worked. We begin with Spitalfields and the others will be found on the pages that follow.

With the exception of its inhabitants and of those who have business there to attract them, Spitalfields is but little known even to a large number of the population of East London, whose acquaintance with it is often confined only to an occasional journey in a tramcar along Commercial Street, the corridor leading from Whitechapel to Shoreditch. By them the choice of the site of the church, as well as that of the market, may very easily be attributed to the importance of the thoroughfare in which they are both now found; but such is not the case, for until the middle of the last century Commercial Street had not been cut through the district. The principal approach to Spitalfields had previously been from Norton Folgate by Union Street, which, after a widening, was referred to in 1808 as "a very excellent modern improvement." About fifty years ago this street was renamed Brushfield Street, after Mr. Richard Brushfield, a gentleman prominent in the conduct of local affairs.

In 1728 the parish of Christ Church, Middlesex (to give the legal appellation), was formed out of a portion of the old parish of Stepney. The vicinity, however, continued to be called by the name established by long usage, and which originally had been bestowed on a small area included in it, that is to say, the fields which once had been at the back of and adjoining the Priory of St. Mary Spital. This priory was founded by William Brune, a citizen of London, and his wife Rosia, in the year 1197 on the highway outside Bishopgate in the parish of St. Botolph. Although its lands had extended northwards to the boundary of the parish of Shoreditch, the site of the Spital was between what is now Spital Square and White Lion Street, where until recently there could be seen built in the first house on the north side a stone jamb marking where once stood an ancient gate.

A change was soon about to take place. In 1657 an Act was passed which contained a clause enabling  William Wheler Esquire, who is by lease and contract engaged to build certain houses in and upon lands in Spitalfields in the parish of Stepney, at any time before 1 October 1660 to erect, new build, and finish, upon eight acres of the said fields, on part whereof divers houses and edifices are already built and streets and highways set out, several houses, and other appurtenances. This marks the beginning of the transformation of the district, for by 1660 the field was covered with buildings, and the remembrance of the occurrence is perpetuated in the name of Wheler Street.

Spital Square occupies the plot of ground on which there once stood, at the north-east corner, a pulpit cross, first found mentioned in 1398, from whence were preached for many years the celebrated Spital sermons during the Easter holidays. At these,the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriffs always attended, robed in violet gowns on Good Friday and Easter Wednesday, and on the other days in scarlet. Near the south side of the pulpit was a two-storeyed house, built in 1488 at the expense of an Alderman, the first floor being for the accommodation of the Lord Mayor and the second for the bishops who might attend.

The Spital sermons were here preached until the Pulpit Cross was destroyed in the troublous days of Charles I. From the Restoration to the year 1797 they were preached at St. Bride's Church, and since that time at Christ Church, Newgate Street.
Westwards of the Spital field there was an enclosed piece of ground which had belonged to the dissolved Priory, and which was called Tasel Close because teazles, a prickly plant, were grown there for the cloth-workers who used them in dressing their cloth. (A machine now used to carry out this process is still called a teazle.) Henry VIII granted this land to the Fraternity of the Artillery for their exercise ground, and here they shot at the popinjay with the cross-bow. The charter incorporating the Fraternity granted by the King was surrendered for a new one with larger powers given by Queen Elizabeth in 1585 during the Spanish threat of invasion. Here merchants and other citizens trained themselves and others in the management of guns, pikes and halberds, and to take command of the common soldiers. When the City troops mustered at the camp at Tilbury in 1588 the captains were selected from the Artillery Company and called Captains of the Artillery Garden.

About 1640 the Artillery Company, having greatly increased in number, removed from Spitalfields to Finsbury, and the two artillery grounds, the "Old" and the "New," were respectively so distinguished.
The use of the old Ground was continued by the London Trained Bands, and it was the place where the Parliamentarians enlisted their first soldiers against the King. Clarendon, referring to the battle of Newbury, wrote that "the London Trained Bands and auxiliary regiments, of whose inexperience of danger, or any kind of service beyond the easy practice of their postures in the Artillery Gardens, held till then too cheap in estimation, behaved themselves to wonder, and were in truth the preservation of the army that day."

When the Huguenot weavers landed at the various English seaports and resorted to Spitalfields, preparations had already been made for their reception and their immediate relief. The concourse comprised over 13,500 persons, including women and children, besides which there were a number of ministers of religion, lawyers and physicians. To understand how this settlement came to be made in a new neighbourhood, and by whom it was arranged, a few references will have to be made to the silk industry in England previous to that time.
Until the latter part of the sixteenth century the weaving of silk in this country was confined to the production of small wares such as laces, girdles, fringes, ribands and the like. The religious troubles in the Netherlands at that time caused many merchants and artizans who were engaged in the silk manufacture to take refuge in England where they pursued their occupation. The raw silk, which was imported from the Continent in skeins, had to pass through the hands of the throwster before the weaver could be employed upon it. The throwster, by means of a machine, twisted lightly the silk into a slight kind of thread known as singles, and these singles were combined to form tram. By a larger series of operations the raw silk was unwound from the skein; each individual thread was spun, twisted or "thrown," and two or more of these spun threads were twisted to form organzine. All these operations are included in the general term "silk throwing" and are entirely distinct from weaving.

Before the arrival of these Dutch refugees, the fabrics known as broad silks, such as lustrings, satins, brocades and velvets, had been imported. With the object of introducing into England this flourishing industry, for the advancement and the benefit of the realm, James I warmly supported a project for the culture and rearing of silk worms, and with this end in view he encouraged the planting of mulberry trees. The project, similar to that which had proved profitable in France, failed, but the king succeeded in inducing many silk throwsters, dyers, and broad silk weavers to come to England.
In 1629 the Silk Throwsters were incorporated, and no one was allowed to set up in that occupation without serving an apprenticeship of seven years and becoming free of the Company. Ten years later, the Weavers Company (one of the oldest City Companies, founded when wool was the staple of English trade) admitted into their body a certain number of silk weavers. In 1661 the Company of Silk Throwsters, it was said, employed 40,000 men, women and children, but this statement doubtless was exaggerated. Many so employed lived and worked in the immediate vicinity of Aldgate, Bishopsgate and Shoreditch, from whence they gradually spread towards Spitalfields. The Act of Parliament empowering the erection of houses there by Sir George Wheler was the result of the increase of the population engaged in the industry, for the building over the fields lying outside the City was prohibited in the absence of statutory authority.

. Most of these immigrants were in a destitute condition on their arrival in England, but as generous assistance was forthcoming for their immediate wants, and the means were provided to earn a livelihood, it is apparent that the arrangements for their welfare had been made carefully beforehand by the Protestant throwsters and weavers and their co-religionists.
The refugees showed that they were determined to help themselves, for, being industrious, thrifty, and self-reliant, they soon settled down to work in a strange land. With a roof over their heads, a warm hearth and a stewpot on the fire, they were content and happy. They knew the art of cooking, that of obtaining the greatest amount of nutriment and at the same time presenting the food in a savoury manner. To them is owed the introduction of eating ox-tail, for before their coming the tails were thrown away by London butchers as offal. Being foreign folk, and therefore having no claim to relief under the poor laws, they formed mutual benefit societies against sickness and for burial. These societies were the first of their kind, and years afterwards suggested the formation of Friendly Societies now so widespread. They were a simple and gentle people, loving flowers and birds. On Sundays they took their children to church where the French tongue was spoken, and it was hoped that they would thus retain familiarity with their native language. At their religious devotions and in family intercourse French remained long in the the expression of love and affection, but it gradually gave way to the English speech when the old generation passed away.

The Huguenots brought with them the art of weaving many kinds of fabrics including those which were then in everyday demand, such as lustrings and alamodes, but which, unfortunately, soon went out of fashion. Another blow was the discontinuance of the use of tapestry and hangings in the interiors of great houses. These were manufactured in the district before the settlement of the refugees. The result was that the skill of the weavers was for some years afterwards principally confined to the production of silks and velvets. In 1713 it was stated that silks, gold and silver stuffs and ribbon made here were as good as those from France, and that £300,000 worth of black silk for hoods and scarves was made annually. In 1721 the value of the silk manufactured in England amounted to £700,000 more than in 1688, when wrought silks were imported from France to the annual value of half a million sterling.
The prosperity of Spitalfields reached its height about the time when it ceased to be a hamlet of Stepney and became the parish of Christ Church, Middlesex. It was then that many of the large commodious houses were built for the weavers and the silk merchants. The church, an imposing edifice designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren, was consecrated on 5 July 1729. Its spire, one of the loftiest in London, is 225 feet high, or twenty-three feet higher than the Monument.

There is a lot more to be learnt about this part of London but, in case you are bored so far we have set further detail  aside  in a separate page  named  Our  London.