The French Hospital in England

Dr Tessa Murdoch, FSA, is Acting Keeper, Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum, and has been a director of the French Hospital since 1999. Family silver by her ancestor the London-based Huguenot goldsmith Edward Feline inspired her doctoral research on Huguenot artists and craftsmen in Great Britain and Ireland. At the Museum of London she worked on the exhibition The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685-1985 marking the tercentenary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. She is lead curator for the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Galleries which opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2009, featuring some spectacular Huguenot craftsmanship. She is a member of the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Randolph Vigne, FSA, has devoted many years to researching the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Huguenot diaspora and writing and lecturing extensively about it. For eighteen years he edited the publications of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and for six was its president. A contributor to many collections of essays on Huguenot history, he was co-editor in 2001 of the book From Strangers to Citizens, the published papers from the conference marking the 350th anniversary of Edward VI's Royal Charter which granted the right of the Huguenots and Dutch and Walloon Protestants in England to worship according to their own liturgy. He has been a director of the French Hospital for thirty years and was its treasurer for ten.

Acknowledgements; Foreword by Jacob, 8th Earl of Radnor, former Governor of the French Hospital; Introduction; 1 Jacques de Gastigny's bequest; 2 The new hospital, the royal charter and the corporation; 3 Building and founding the French Hospital; 4 Directing and caring at the French Hospital in the eighteenth century; 5 Waning fortunes in Finsbury; 6 The French Hospital in Hackney; 7 Health and heritage: "The chief Huguenot foundation in this country", 1867-1948; 8 Under threat, enemy action and evacuation; 9 Retreat to the country: Compton's Lee, Sussex, 1947-1957; 10 Retirement in a cathedral city. Directors of the French Hospital: A Survey; A list of directors; Huguenot heraldry; Book-plates in the French Hospital and their heraldry; Notes to the Huguenot book-plates illustrated on the end-papers; Inventory of the contents of the French Hospital, 1742; Bibliography; Index; Picture credits

"Many of the greatest names in the Huguenot annals have been involved - [this book is] not just a memorial to past endeavour, but also a testament to a noble work in progress". Huon Mallalieu, Country Life; "Beautifully illustrated throughout. If you are researching your Huguenot ancestors, this book will make a brilliant addition to your library." Practical Family History