| AdminHistory | This trust, founded in 1753 under the will of Lieut Col Isaac Bérenger de Boislin, was taken over by the French Hospital in 1884.
Colonel de Boislin, a bachelor, made his will at Bruges in Flanders on 26 April 1708, appointing as executors 'Sir Francis Le Coq, kt. and Theodore Le Coq de St Léger, refugees in London'. He died some time before 9 December 1709, perhaps among the heavy losses in Marlborough's victory at Malplaquet in September. The executorships having been renounced, administration was granted in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury to the testator's sister Elizabeth Bérenger de Boislin, spinster. It was not until many years later, on 1 June 1753, that - all the life interests having presumably expired - a further 'administration with the will annexed' was granted to the Rev James Theodore Muysson and others (some of the Commissioners or Distributors of the Royal Bounty) in trust for poor French refugees, who had been made the residuary legatees by Boislin.
The will had left the following life annuities: £40 to Colonel de Boislin's sister Elizabeth; £40 jointly to his uncle Mr de la Pommeries and his daughter; £40 to his cousin german (or Christian name Germain) De Rochefort Pain de la Fenestre, Captain of Foot in the King of Denmark's service; £20 to his cousin Maston de Besse; £15 each to Messrs Larssan and De Malleres, gentlemen of Poitou and refugees in London. After the death of these life tenants the income was to go to poor French refugees of the Protestant religion in London. However, if his two nephews, sons of his sister Madame Pain de la Fenestre should come out of France, adopt the Protestant religion and settle in England or any other free country, then the will was to be void and they were to be his sole heirs except for the life annuity to his sister.
Accordingly from 1753 the Trust was administered by the French Lay Committee for the Royal Bounty (for which see Charles F. A. Marmoy (compiler), 'The French Protestant Hospital: extracts from the archives of "La Providence" relating to inmates and applicants for admission, 1718-1957 and to recipients of and applicants for the Coqueau Charity, 1745-1901', Huguenot Society Quarto Series, volume 53 (London, 1977), p. 80). The income was distributed in grants of from 5s to £7 a year to a number of poor persons of Huguenot descent in Spitalfields and Soho.
The Court minutes of the French Hospital (H/A/3/4, pp. 121) record a letter of 11 May 1884 from R H Giraud, then Deputy Governor, in which he explained that the French Lay Committee had become extinct, the Government having ceased to fill vacancies. Mr Giraud himself had been Treasurer of the Lady Committee since 1863. The distribution of the Boislin income had continued, but the Trustees were now reduced to himself and one other , who would be glad to transfer the Boislin funds to the Governor and Directors of the Hospital, if they would undertake to continue payments to the 44 recipients then on the list, and to carry on distribution in accordance with the terms of the bequest. To this the Court agreed, and in December 1884 the funds, then producing about £85 per annum, were transferred. The income has since been distributed as part of the external assistance administered by the Hospital.
Any records earlier than 1808 have disappeared. |