| AdminHistory | Anne succeeded to the throne on the death of William III on 8 March 1701/2. As regards grants made by Anne, there is evidence of a sign manual of 28 May 1702 for a warrant of £15000, and an expression in December 1702 of the Queen's intention to continue the grant of £15000 p.a. and to pay it a year from the time of its being last paid. Accounts or acquittances exist for grants and payments to the laity in the period 1702-1709. In addition, there is an account printed in 1703 of the distribution of a grant of £15000 for a year not stated, and this is followed by printed 'tats' for grants to the laity for the years 1705-1709. But after that it appears that the Queen's finances ran into difficulties.
In 1710, under a sign manual of 8 July a warrant was issued for the payment of a bounty of £15000 for the current year ending 24 March 1711. But according to the refugees themselves they received only half the amount in 1710, and the remainder was paid at various times in the years 1711-1713. Up to the time of Anne's death on 1 August 1714, only one further grant was made. This was a special grant of £1500 for the relief of poor distressed French ministers 'residing in or about the Citys of London and Westminster' made under a warrant to this special intent on 25 March 1714. As far as grants to the laity are concerned, arrears at the date of Anne's death can be put to a total of £36000 for the three years 1711-1714.
Under Queen Anne, grants continued to be adminstered under the orders of Commissioners named by the Sovereign, and to be distributed by the French Committee. But in 1703 an additional stage appeared. This was the interposition of a body named 'Messieurs les Commissaires Anglais' whose function was to check and close the accounts of the French Committee and to deposit them in 'la Maison de Ville de Londres' (i.e. the Guildhall of the City). By 1705 the 'Commissaires Anglais' had become 'the English Committee by us appointed' to receive the accounts.
It is to be noted that in 1703 the French Committee included in its statement the names of ministers who benefitted from the £3000 grant to the clergy. In 1705, Captain Deguilhon was appointed by the Commissioners to distribute this grant; he continued to do so for many years. In Lambeth Palace Library, there is a list for the distribution of £3000 for the relief of poor French Ministers attributed to the year 1706 (MS 941/64).
During Anne's reign, complaints were made against the French Committee by people most of whom were proselytes from the Church of Rome, whose intention, according to the Committee, was to discredit its work and the Ministers and Vestries of the French Protestant Churches. They brought their accusations to the Queen in Council, and she referred the charges to the Lord Mayor of London. He asked for proofs; but instead, the complainants delivered to his Lordship 'an insolent libel' and then withdrew. Upon the Lord Mayor's report, the Attorney-General was ordered to prosecute one Des-Essers, a pretended proselyte, who was at the head of the accusers. But he made his escape into France, leaving successors behind him who prosecuted his designs.
Amongst the papers held at the Huguenot Library relating to the grants of Queen Anne are two unique books of account: RB/E/28/1 (1704 grant, account no. 4) and RB/E/28/2 (1705 grant, account no. 5). Both these manuscripts are missing from the set in the Corporation of London Record Office. |