| Description | Bundles 1-13 (H/D/3/1-13) contain applications from successful applicants, and were first numbered 1 to 12, but then from no. 3 onwards, were renumbered with numbers corresponding to the entries in the Register of Inmates (H/D/5/1), 1222 to 1818. Very few petitions are missing.
The printed questionnaire is detailed, being designed to elicit the petitioner's history, parentage, and particularly his or her claims to Huguenot descent, occupation, age, religion, character, means, and state of health. Corroborative certificates were required. The enclosures are of particular interest, since they may include and sometimes miscellaneous documents such as apprenticeship indentures, funeral bills, and even family trees, occasionally going back to the family's point of departure in France. The genealogical information is not always reliable. In many cases, evidential papers were noted and returned to the applicant.
Bundles 14 to 23 (H/D/3/14-23) relate to applicants who either died before they could be found a place, or withdrew voluntarily, or were rejected as ineligible or otherwise unacceptable. The petitions, unnumbered, have been arranged alphabetically. As with the successful petitions, there are often enclosures. |