of them, La Touche, opened the first
banking establishment. Wherever they settled they were missionaries of
industry, and examples of perseverance and success in skilled labour,
as well as integrity in commerce. Many of those exiles settled in
Lisburn, and the colony was subsequently joined by Louis Crommelin,
a native of Armandcourt near St. Quentin, where for several centuries
his forefathers had carried on the flaxen manufacture on their own
extensive possessions in the province of Picardy. Foreseeing the
storm of persecution, the family had removed to Holland, and, at the
personal request of the Prince of Orange, Louis came over to take
charge of the colonies of his countrymen, which had been established
in different parts of Ireland. The linen trade had flourished in this
country from the earliest times. Linen formed, down to the reign of
Elizabeth, almost the only dress of the population, from the
king down--saffron-coloured, and worn in immense flowing robes,
occasionally wrapped in various forms round the body. Lord Stafford
had exerted himself strenuously to improve the fabric by the forcible
introduction of better looms; but little had been done in this
direction till the Huguenots came and brought their own looms, suited
for the manufacture of fine fabrics. Mark Dupre, Nicholas de la
Cherois, Obre, Rochet, Bouchoir, St. Clair, and others, whose ashes
lie beside the Lisburn Cathedral and in the neighbouring churchyards,
and many of whose descendants still survive among the gentry and
manufacturers of Down and Antrim, were, with Crommelin, the chief
promoters of the linen trade which has wrought such wonders in the
province of Ulster. Lord Conway granted the Lisburn colonists a site
for a place of worship, which was known as the French Church, and
stood on the ground now occupied by the Court-house in Castle Street.
The Government paid 60 l. a year to their first minister, Charles de
la Valade, who was succeeded by his relative, the Rev. Saumarez du
Bourdieu, distinguished as a divine and a historian. His father was
chaplain to the famous Schomberg, and when he fell from his horse
mortally wounded the reverend gentleman carried him in his arms to
the spot on which he died a short time after. Talent was hereditary in
this family, the Rev. John du Bourdieu, rector of Annahilt, was author
of the Statistical Surveys of Down and Antrim, published by the Royal
Dublin Society. Referring to his ancestors he says that hi