9. Francis and Elizabeth Larard of Clerkenwell

The derivation of the Larard surname is uncertain but believed to be of French or Flemish origin. Family lore is that the family were Huguenots. It is sometimes written 'Layard' and it is possible that we are related to the illustrious Huguenot family of Austin Layard MP, explorer of Nineveh. This is 'an ancient Albigensian family, whose original name was Raymond “de Layarde” (near Montpellier), being merely their nom de terre, as in so many similar cases.' The Lazard family also have Huguenot origins.

Huguenots were French Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who followed the teachings of theologian John Calvin. They were persecuted by the French Catholic government: the most infamous violence being the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, which saw up to 70,000 Huguenots murdered, under the direction of Catherine de' Medici, the regent queen and mother of King Charles IX. During the three days of violence that began on the night of August 23, 1572, and spread from town to town, officials recruited Catholic citizens into militia groups that hunted down Huguenot citizens, indulging in murder and gruesome torture, mutilation and desecration of the dead. In 1685, Louis XIV enacted the Edict of Fontainebleau, which made Protestantism illegal. More bloodshed ensued, and over the next several years, more than 200,000 Huguenots fled France for other countries. It is believed that this is the origin of the word 'refugee'.

However, there is scant evidence! Indeed, the name Larard does not appear on authoritative lists of Huguenots. In 'Place Names and Surnames: Their Origin and Meaning' (1944) Taylor Dyson, has Larard - along with Luard and others, as an example of immigrants such as Flemish Weavers or French Huguenots.

There are other snippets which suggest that a Fleming or Walloon heritage may be more likely than French. For example, "Edward III (1327-1377) encouraged the Flemish to settle in England, as he valued their silk and other textile skills [of which more anon]. Other waves came in 1551 and 1567 fleeing the occupying Catholic Spaniards, as did the Walloons. They... were employed especially in silk weaving..." "Henry VIII allowed them to settle and refused all requests from Charles V that they should be forbidden to remain there. Between 1535 and 1550, about 5,000 Flemish and Walloon refugees living in the London area were granted citizenship (many joining the Worshipful Company of Weavers) and there were many more living in country towns. I have found C17 Lorard (Lerard, Larurd) family histories in Braine-L'Alleud and Namur, Wallonia.

Edward Larard was born in Mountsorrel, near Loughborough in about 1650 (during the English Civil War). It would have been essential to find somewhere which offered employment and tolerated Calvinist religion: Mountsorrel eventually had several dissenting chapels and was visited by the Methodist preacher John Wesley.

Mountsorrel castle had been used as a bastion against King Stephen, and was destroyed in 1217 by the King's men from Nottingham, who branded it "a nest of the Devil and den of thieves and robbers". The future King Louis VIII of France had sent support in the form of 20,000 men to the besieged barons in the castle, but this force had failed to arrive in time to prevent the castle's fate.

With Ann, Edward had a son, John Larard, in Mountsorrel in 1680. John moved to Derby, an important centre in the wool trade (note Derby County FC's badge).

Derby is a county town and - since 1977 - a city - on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire. My photos are here. Derby had been settled by the Romans – who established the town of Derventio. Later, the Vikings made Derby one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. Initially a market town, Derby grew rapidly in the industrial era: its claim to be one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution rests on the existence of the proto-factories which now make up the southern part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

St Werburgh's church (credit) in Derby, 
where Francis was probably baptised

The weaving of silk had been introduced to England by Flemish refugees in the C16, and was greatly developed after 1685 when the French Huguenots established themselves in London. The industry developed slowly but, at the end of the C17, Thomas Cotchett built a water-powered mill on an island in the Derwent near the centre of Derby. He installed a number of “Dutch machines” but the project failed. One of Cotchett’s employees, John Lombe, carried out a 'daring piece of industrial espionage', and returned to England with a number of Italian workmen and detailed drawings of Piedmontese throwing machines. In 1721, he and his brother began to build the mill pictured below, which eventually employed over 300 workers, and is now part of the World Heritage Site.

Derby silk mill (my photo)

For the record, and with the usual cautions, my oldest direct ancestors we know about in this part of the family are: Edward Larard (1750), William Dale (1718), Thomas Slater (1710) and Mary Stammers (1710).

John had a son, Edward Larard, in Derby in 1710. Edward was a woolcomber, who had four children there with Sarah. The eldest son was Thomas (1733), a stocking maker, whose son Edward (1762) moved to Hull.

More on his son in Chapter 37.1.1:

• 37.1.1.1 Thomas Larard (1786) 

The third son was Timothy Larard (1739), a silk dyer. Timothy's son Francis Larard (1777) moved to London. The London silk industry, mainly in Spitalfields, developed rapidly after Lombe's patents expired, which might explain Francis' move. Many Huguenots settled in Spitalfields, bringing with them their silk-weaving and textile skills. The Brick Lane Mosque was built as a Huguenot chapel in 1743 and was still is use as such when Francis was in London. However, he married Elizabeth Deale (1771) in the established church - at St Giles Cripplegate in the City of London, in 1800. Deale is locational, and probably means 'Kentish'. The couple had eight children in Clerkenwell, Middlesex.

St Giles, Cripplegate (my photo)

Clerkenwell is an area of London which has basked in turn in notoriety and fashion, based on its location just outside the City of London. My photos of the City are here. It was founded around a priory which was the English headquarters of the Knights of St John, and the clerics' well. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance. The Middlesex Sessions House was new when our ancestors lived there.

Francis and Elizabeth's children were:

• 37.1.1 - Francis Larard (1801). Francis died in 1805.
• 37.1.2 - John Larard (1803)
• 37.1.3 - Mary Ann Larard (1805). Mary Ann died in 1805.
• 37.1.4 - William Larard (1807)
• 37.1.5 - Elizabeth Larard (1809). Elizabeth died in 1810.
• 37.1.6 - Edwin Larard (1810), according to another researcher
• 37.1.7 - James Larard (1810)

There is more on these individuals in Chapter 37.

Middlesex Session House, Clerkenwell (credit)

At the time of James' baptism, Francis was a shoemaker. In 1818, the Old Bailey records a theft: "FRANCIS LARARD. I am a bootmaker, and live in Aylesbury-street, Clerkenwell. On the 4th of April, between ten and eleven o'clock at night. My son alarmed me; I ran out, and secured the prisoner with the boots. JOHN LARARD JUN. I saw the prisoner cut the boots from the nail, and ran after him - We took him on Clerkenwell-green.".

In 1843, Francis was listed in the Post Office Directory as a bootmaker, still at 28 Aylesbury Street. In 1851, he was a 'fund holder', and they live at Green Terrace, Clerkenwell. In his will (which says that he had moved to Greene Terrace), he sets up several annuities each with a thousand pounds. He died in about 1853. In 1861, Elizabeth is lodging with a professional singer, William Adams, in Seckforde Street.

Francis and Elizabeth are buried in the famous Highgate Cemetery. I had this confirmed by the Friends, and received a photo of the plot, which has no headstone.

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