| Description | Titles on cover: 'Registre des Tesmoinage donné 1646' and 'Registre pour les Actes tenu dans Le consistoire de cette Eglise commencé le (blank) Juillet 1685 quelle a recommencé'.
On back cover: 'Registre pour les Tesmoinages 1646 receu'. There is no pagination.
pp 1-4: 'Tesmoignages donné en l'esglise de Dou(v)re 1646'
Names of 25 persons who had 'retiré' their témoignages, 1648-1652. Presumably these adherents, on moving elsewhere, took with them testimonials from the Dover congregation, as was done regularly. One of them, Arnoult de Lilier, was married in Dover in 1659, described as then of the church in Canterbury.
pp 5-28: Actes (Minutes) of the (fourth) church, 1865-1693 and 1711-1712
Most of these are printed verbatim in William Minet, 'The fourth foreign church at Dover 1685-1731'. It seems that no Actes were entered after 1712, when the congregation - or so the accounts suggest - was reduced in numbers and periodically without a Minister.
At end (reversed):
pp 1-6: 'Livre pour le Ministere (Ministry) recommencé 1685'
Collections and expenditure for the Minister's stipend, 1685-1694.
pp: 9-23: 'Le Livre pour le Ministere de lesglise de Dou(v)re 1646', 'Compte pour le Ministere et aultre fres (frais)...' (pp 11-19 numbered as folios 1-9)
Collections and expenditure, including a Bible, church repairs,wages, and journeys to Canterbury and London (with detailed expenses for deputies attending the Colloquy in London in 1654), 1646-1659. Sections of these accounts are printed in G H Overend, 'Strangers at Dover', Huguenot Society Proceedings, vol. III, pp 286-330.
pp 25-32: 'Le livre pour les tesmoinages receu, 1646'
Names of about 90 persons who presented themselves with testimonials for joining the congregation, 1646-1660. The names of all persons giving or receiving témoignages are printed in the Appendix to G H Overend, 'Strangers at Dover'.
pp 33-53: 'Reconnaissances', 1686-1694 and 1711 (fourth church)
These are not the same as the earlier témoignages. Reconnaissances were formal expressions of penitence by refugees who in order to escape, or to avoid maltreatment, had agreed or pretended to abjure the Protesant faith and now wished to be received back into a Protestant congregation. The names are all given, with analyses of places of origin and dates in William Minet, 'The fourth foreign church at Dover 1685-1731'.
The remainder of the book is blank. In the binding are cuttings from a printed black-letter Act of Parliament. |