| AdminHistory | Jacques Serces (1695-1762) was born in Geneva, son of a French Huguenot refugee Moise Serces, from Montmeyran in the Dauphiné. Jacques, after studying theology in Geneva, migrated in 1720 to England, where he spent the rest of his life. He was ordained in the Anglican Church by the Bishop of London, and given the living of Appleby in Lincolnshire in 1727, but from 1738 to 1761 was a chaplain of the French Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, which had been granted by William III for the use of French refugees. He was naturalized in 1743. |
| CustodialHistory | Descended through the family of John Lewis Petit (physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1774-80), who married Jacques Serces's only daughter, Katherine Laetitia. The letters remained in the house (Redcourt) of John Lewis Petit, which was purchased by an collector of autographs, G. W. Homan, in 1904. Homan offered them to Reginald St. A. Roumieu, Treasurer of the Huguenot Society, and were passed by him to Arthur Giraud Browning, and then to W. Waller, who passed them to William Minet. |