# Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 9 - Section II

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II. Houblon.
The noun houblon, in French, means hops; on the heraldic shield of the Houblon family there are three poles with hops growing round them. There appears to have been no refugee of that name resident in London in 1571.
To the Government loan of 1588 the strangers subscribed £4900. Mr Burn History, page 11) prints the subscription list, from which it appears that Lewis Sayes contributed £100, Vincent de la Bar £100, and John Hublone £100. Strype, in his Annals, vol. iii., page 517, records the preparations for encountering the Spanish Armada, and says, “The Queen took up great sums of money of her city of London, which they lent her readily, each merchant and citizen according to his ability. And so did the strangers also, both merchants and tradesmen, that came to inhabit here for their business or liberty of the Protestant religion, in all to the sum of £4900. Whereof among the strangers, John Houblon was one, of whose pedigree (no question) is the present worshipful spreading family of that name.”
I find the name for the first time in 1583, when Peter Houblon was a witness to a testamentary declaration, and was styled, “a merchant-stranger, aged 26.” This is the Peter Houblon who at his son’s funeral was eulogized as “a confessor” (a refugee from the Duke of Alva’s fury) by Bishop Burnet. (See my Chapter II.) In Alva’s vice-royalty, however, he was only eleven years of age. Perhaps his father was the above-named John Houblon, and he may have been brought to England by him during the long-continued persecutions usually associated with Duke Alva’s name.
I conjecture (see my Chapter XV.) that Peter Houblon had three sons, James, Peter, and Paul; but as the two latter did not marry Du Quesnes, I am not informed concerning them. The eldest son, James Houblon, was born on 2d July 1592, and was baptized in the City of London French Church, where in after-life he was an ancien. In November 1620 he married Marie Du Quesne, a daughter in a refugee family represented by the modern house of Du Cane, and had ten sons and two daughters. A daughter or daughter-in-law is praised by Pepys in 1665 in these terms, “a fine gentlewoman,” and ”she do sing very well.” On 5th February 1666 he extols “the five brothers Houblon,” — “mighty fine gentlemen they are all.” Again Pepys writes, 14th February 1668, “It was a mighty pretty sight to see old Mr Houblon (whom I never saw before), and all his sons about him, all good merchants.” The brothers seem to have been much together. At an earlier date, 15th May 1666, Pepys wrote thus:— “The five brothers Houblon came and Mr Hill to my house; and a very good supper we had, and very good discourse with great pleasure. My new plate sets off my cupboard very nobly. Here they were till about eleven at night; and a fine sight it is to see these five brothers thus loving one to another, and all industrious merchants.” The other great diarist, John Evelyn, wrote as to 16th January 1679, “I supped this night with Mr Secretary at one Mr Houblon’s, a French merchant, who had his house furnished en Prince, and gave us a splendid entertainment.” The venerable Mr James Houblon, known as he Father of the Royal Exchange, died on Tuesday, 20th June 1682, at 6 p.m., and as buried on the 28th, in St. Mary Woolnoth’s. Pepys commemorated him in the form of an epitaph, thus:—
JACOBUS HOUBLON, LONDINAS, Petri filius ob fidem Flandriâ exulantis.
Ex centum nepotibus habuit septuaginta superstites, filios quinque videns mercatores florentissimos, ipse Londinensis Bursae pater. Piissimè obiit nonagenarius, a.d. 1682.
(If he had survived for twelve days more, he would have attained the age of 90.) Bishop Burnet printed a funeral sermon containing much information. He records his surviving to such a great age, although in his 43d year he received severe injuries from a gunpowder explosion which occured at a militia drill near Moorfields. The sermon was dedicated “To the Most Honoured Master {Peter, James, John, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Jeremiah} Houblon, sons of the deceased Mr. James ​Houblon.” The site on which his residence stood is now occupied by the Bank of England, “the noblest monument he could have” (says Pennant).
Peter Houblon, the eldest of the sons, was less eminent than Pepys’ “five brothers.” It is known of him that he married Elizabeth Dingley, who was buried in St. Antholin’s Church on the 25th November 1697, and where, on the following 26th December, he himself was laid. They had a daughter, Sara, who had been buried on 21st May 1673, and apparently were survived by a son, Peter — the “Mr Peter Houblon” whose burial was registered on 7th September 1714.
The second son of James was Sir James Houblon, M.P. for London from 1698 till his death. He was an intimate friend of Samuel Pepys, the diarist, who has recorded that “James Houblon told me I was the only happy man of the Navy, of whom (he says) during all this freedom the people hath taken to speaking treason, he hath not heard one bad word of me.” He wrote a letter in behalf of his friend (dated London, August 8th, 1683): “Mr Richard Gough. This goes by my deare friend, Mr Pepys, who is embarqued on board the Grafton Man-of-warr commanded by our Lord Dartmouth who is Admiral of the King’s fleet for this expedition . . . If his occasions require any money, you will furnish him what he desires, placing it to my account. I am your loving friend, James Houblon.” His eldest brother did not come forward as a public man; it is to this second James (afterwards Sir James) that Evelyn alludes when after 1682 he speaks of “Mr. Houblon.” He says in 1683, 16th March, “I dined at Mr Houblon’s, a rich and genteel French merchant, who was building a house in the Forest, [i.e., Epping Forest], near Sir J. Child’s, in a place where the late Earl of Norwich dwelt some time, and which came from his lady the widow of Mr. Baker. It will be a pretty villa, about 5 miles from Whitechapel.” On 3d October 1685, Pepys invited Evelyn to dinner in order to show him the papers which King James II. had written, which were said to make manifest that his royal brother and predecessor had died a Papist. The two diarists had a private interview for the purpose after dinner, and the only other confidant was “Mr. Houblon, a rich and considerable merchant [whose ancestor] had fled out of Flanders on the persecution of the Duke of Alva.” On 29th September 1692, Mr. James Houblon was sworn into London civic office as alderman of Aldersgate Ward. The following 29th of October was Lord Mayor’s day; King William and Queen Mary dined at Guildhall, and Mr. Houblon received the honour of knighthood along with seven others. The first board of directors of the “new bank” (Bank of England) was chosen by the subscribers on 12th July 1694, and at the top of the list was Sir James Houblon. Lady Houblon’s maiden name was Sarah Wynne; she was a daughter of Charles Wynne, Esq., of London. Sir James died (says Le Neve), “about 25th October 1700,” and was buried in St. Bennet’s, Paul’s Wharf, 31st October, about ten at night, in a vault in the middle aisle of that church. Lady Houblon died as his widow on 27th May 1731. Their family consisted of three daughters and two sons. The daughters were Elizabeth (wife of John Harvey, Esq. of Norfolk), Dorothy, and Sarah. The elder son, Wynne Houblon, seems to have lost his life at Lisbon, in August 1694; Narcissus Luttrell writes, “Mr. Brown, an English merchant, made a noble treat upon the news of Admiral Russell’s arrival in the Mediterranean, for the English envoy, Mr. Methuen, and the company drank plentifully; the young gentlemen went a serenading, which occasioned a quarrel with the natives, in which some.of them were killed, as, one of Mr. Methuen’s sons and one Mr Houblon.” The other son appears in the records of the Commissary Court of Edinburgh as “James Howblong, of the parish of St. James, Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, merchant in London;” he had been appointed by Queen Anne “one of the Commissioners for managing the Scots Equivalent,” and ,£612 sterling of salary was due to him at his decease in or before 1715; his sister, Sarah Houblon, spinster, was confirmed as his only executrix, and her “cautioners” were Sir John Cope of London, knight; Richard Houblon, of London, Esquire [her cousin, afterwards Sir Richard]; and Alexander Dundas, M.D., her factor in Edinburgh, 21st April 1715.
The third son of the first James was Sir John Houblon, the most eminent of the brothers, Alderman for Cornhill Ward, and member of the Grocers’ Company. The first Lord Mayor’s day in the reign of William and Mary was 29th October 1689. Luttrell writes: “The 29th was observed the usual solemnity of the Lord Mayor’s show, which was very splendid; their Majesties and the Prince of Denmark did his lordship [Sir Thomas Pilkington] the honour to be there, and in a balcony in Cheapside to see the show, which was very fine and great appearance of the citizens; and there was the royal city regiment of Volunteer Horse led by the Earl of Monmouth [who afterwards succeeded his uncle as Earl of Peterborough]; and after the show ​was gone their Majesties, both houses of parliament, the privy councillors, the judges, and other persons of quality, were entertained at Guildhall with a most noble dinner; and his Majesty was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on Christopher Lethuleer and John Houblon, Esqs., the present Sheriffs, &c.” On 26th April 1694 he became one of the Lords of the Admiralty, an office which he held till November 1702. On 26th July of that year he subscribed .£10,000 to the “new bank” (the Bank of England); and the new co-partnery at its first meeting on the 10th inst. elected him as Governor, with Mr. Michael Godfrey as Deputy-Governor. Sir John Houblon was elected M.P. for Bodmyn in 1695, and sat in the House of Commons till 1705. He was also Lord Mayor of London. Luttrell gives us details of a long contest, which began in September 1692, at which time “the church party put up Raymond and Sir Peter Daniel, and the whiggs Sir John Fleet and Sir John Houblon.” The numbers at the poll were:— Fleet, 2486; Houblon, 2445; Raymond, 2167; Daniel, 2069; and the Court of Aldermen chose Sir John Fleet. In 1693 the candidates were Sir Jonathan Raymond and Sir Thomas Cook on the one side, and Sir William Ashurst and Sir John Houblon on the other, and the result of the poll was — Ashurst, 1927; Houblon, 1914; Raymond, 1008; Cook, 958; and the first two names, according to custom, being sent up to the Court of Aldermen, the Court was divided, 13 being for Ashurst, and 12 for Houblon, so Sir William Ashurst became Lord Mayor. In 1694 Sir John was too busy to give any thoughts to Guildhall. But on 28th September 1695 he was chosen unanimously. Luttrell writes:— “Tuesday, 29th October 1695 — This day Mr. Justice Rokeby of the Common Pleas took his place in the Court of King’s Bench; after which Sir John Houblon, the new Lord Mayor (attended by the aldermen and liverymen of this citty, who came down to Westminster in their barges) was sworn at the Exchequer Barr; from whence he returned into the citty, where a splendid dinner was prepared, the Lord Keeper, Judges, and several of the nobility were present.” Elkanah Settle, the poet, signalised the occasion by publishing “The Triumphs of London. Performed on October 29, 1695, for the entertainment of S$^{r.}$ John Houblon, K$^{t.,}$ Lord Mayor of the City of London. Containing a true description of the several pageants, with the speeches spoken on each pageant. All prepared at the costs of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. To which is added a New Song upon His Majesty’s return, by Elkanah Settle. London, 1695,” 4to, 16 pages. In 1696 there was a public subscription for building the " noble fabric " of Greenwich Hospital; Sir John Houblon subscribed £100.
His wife was probably a daughter in a French refugee family; she is called by French registrars Marie Jorion, or Jourion, and by English, Mary Jurion. According to the inconvenient English custom, they resorted for religious ordinances sometimes to the parish church and sometimes to the French Church, so that I cannot give a complete list of their children. I find in Threadneedle Street register their son Isaac, baptized 6th October 1667. The next as to whom I have information is Matthew, baptized also in London, but in the parish church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, 25th October 1670, where he was buried 29th July 1671; then in 1672 the next child was baptized and buried, name, Samuel; the next also was baptized there, 25th December 1673, name, Benjamin. Then I find in Threadneedle Street register, Elias, baptized 1st January 1682 (n.s.), and Elizabet, baptized 17th February 1686 (n.s.). I have not found the baptism of one son who grew to manhood, Rev. Jacob Houblon, Rector of Moreton. Sir John Houblon was buried in the church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, 18th January 1711 (n.s.). Mary, Lady Houblon, survived until 10th December 1732.
The present Houblon family descends from Jacob, the fourth son of the elder James and Mary Du Cane, his wife. Deferring our notice of him, we state on the authority of an authentic manuscript pedigree, that there were originally ten brothers; and when we collate the names with those prefixed to the Funeral Sermon, we conclude that, in the lifetime of the elder James, three died — viz., Daniel (the 7th), Benjamin (the 8th), and Samuel (the 9th). Jeremiah was the tenth; of him I have no account, except that the four died unmarried.
The fifth son of the elder James was Isaac Houblon, born 1638; he was a merchant of St. Mary Woolchurch, London. He was married in Westminster Abbey, on 18th August 1670, to Miss Elizabeth King (born 1649), an orphan, daughter of the recently deceased Bishop of Chichester. Isaac seems to have been ​a very handsome man, — a compliment which a melancholy occasion gave an opportunity for recording. I allude to the Great Fire of London in 1666, of which Pepys has given such a graphic sketch. The diarist walked into the midst of the conflagration on “Lord’s day,” 2d September, with a message to the Lord Mayor from the King and the Duke of York. He writes:—
“Saw the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their goods. . . . Met my Lord Mayor [Sir Thomas Bludworth] in Canning Street, like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King’s message, he cried, like a fainting woman, ‘Lord, what can I do? — I am spent, people will not obey me; I have been pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it;’ — that he needed no more soldiers, and that for himself he must go and refresh himself having been up all night [it was then nearly 12 noon]. So he left me and I him, and walked home[ward], seeing people almost distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire. . . . Here I saw Mr. Isaac Houblon, the handsome man, prettily dressed and dirty, at his house at Dovvgate, receiving some of his brothers’ things, whose houses were on fire, and, as he says, have been removed twice already, and he doubts (as it soon proved) that they must be in a little time removed from his house also, which was a sad consideration.”
Mr Isaac Houblon’s will was dated 14th February, and proved 27th March 1702. His widow died 26th August 1719.
The sixth son of the elder James was Abraham Houblon, born 1639, a Director of the Bank of England from its commencement in 1694, and elected the Deputy-Governor on 5th April 1701. In May 1702 he became one of the Commissioners of the Victualling Office. On 2d January 1672 (n.s.) he married, in Westminster Abbey, Dorothy, daughter of Sir Richard Hubert of Langley, grand-daughter of John King, formerly Bishop of London, and first cousin of Mrs. Isaac Houblon [see pedigree below]. She died in July 1703, aged 61. Abraham Houblon succeeded to, or acquired, his father-in-law’s mansion, as the announcement of his death styles him Abraham Houblon, Esq., of Langley, County Bucks. He died on 11th May 1722 in his 83d year. He was the father of Sir Richard, and of Anne, wife of Henry Temple, first Viscount Palmerston. The Political State of Great Britain contains the following notice:— “Died, 13 Oct. 1724, Sir Richard Houblon, who left the bulk of his estate to his sister Lady Palmerston, and to Mrs. Jacob Houblon.” [On 2d December 1723, “Samuel Houblon, Esq.” died suddenly; he was probably named after Samuel Pepys, and may have been a son of Sir James Houblon.]
| | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | John King, Bishop of London from 1611 to 1621. | | | | | |
| Henry King, Bishop of Chichester. | Henry King, Bishop of Chichester. | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | = | = | Joan Smith of Guildford. | Dorothy King | Dorothy King | Dorothy King | = | = | Sir Richard Hubert of Langley, | Sir Richard Hubert of Langley, |
| from 1641 to 1669 | from 1641 to 1669 | $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,$ | | | | | | | | | Groom Porter to Kings Charles I. and II. | Groom Porter to Kings Charles I. and II. |
| | Elizabeth King | Elizabeth King | = | = | Joan Smith of Guildford. | Isaac Houblon. | Dorothy Hubert | Dorothy Hubert | Dorothy Hubert | = | = | Abraham Houblon. | Abraham Houblon. |
| | | | | | | Sir Richard Houblon. | Sir Richard Houblon. | Sir Richard Houblon. | | | Anne, Viscountess Palmerston. | Anne, Viscountess Palmerston. |
Returning to Jacob, the fourth son of the elder James, we identify him as the Rev. Jacob Houblon, rector of Bobbingworth, who married, 17th July 1662, Elizabeth, only child of Rev. Thomas Wincup, D.D., of Ellesworth, and had three daughters — Anne, Elizabeth, and Hannah, and two sons, of whom Jacob died without issue. Charles, the survivor, married Mary Bale, and was father of Jacob Houblon, Esq., M.P. for Hartfordshire from 1741 to 1747, who married Mary, daughter of Sir John Hynde Cotton, Bart., grandfather of Jacob (who married Susannah, heiress of John Archer, Esq.) and great grandfather of John Archer Houblon, Esq., of Hallingbury and Welford, M.P. for Essex. The last-named gentleman died on 1st June 1832, and is represented by his eldest son and namesake, John Archer Houblon, Esq., of Hallingbury and Culverthorpe, and by his second son, Charles Eyre, Esq., of Welford (Berks). The latter has a son and heir, George Bramston Eyre, Esq.
* ↑ Marie Du Quesne, aunt of the above-named Marie, had in 1613 became the second wife of James’s father, Peter Houblon.
* ↑ Mr. Godfrey’s connection with the Bank had an abrupt and melancholy termination. He with two other directors had gone to Holland on a project of establishing a mint there, for the payment of King William’s army then in the field. In July 1695 Sir James Houblon, Sir William Seawen, and Mr. Godfrey dined with the King in his tent, and then accompanied His Majesty to the trenches, where a cannon ball killed Mr. Godfrey as he stood near the King. Luttrell, vol. iii., p. 503.