The life and letters of Herbert Spencer / by David Duncan.

  • David Duncan
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life and letters of Herbert Spencer / by David Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/692 (page 1)
    LIFE AND LETTERS OF HERBERT SPENCER. CHAPTER I. FAMILY HISTORY AND PARENTAGE. Towards the end of the sixteenth century Thomas and Balthazar de Henzu or de Hennezel, with other Huguenots, driven by religious persecution from Lorraine, to which they seem to have migrated from Bohemia, took up their abode near Stourbridge. Other immigrants, apparently also of Bohemian origin and bearing the name afterwards known as Hemus, appeared on the scene about the same time. A century earlier, families of the name of Brettell, connected seemingly with the de Breteuils of Normandy, had settled in the same localty. The neighbourhood of Stourbridge was a favourite resort of foreign immigrants. Tradition has it that the famous clay was discovered in the sixteenth century by wandering glass-makers from Lorraine, and that the manufacture of glass, begun about 1556, was introduced by Hungarians. These traditions are in harmony with the supposition that the Henzeys, Hemuses, &c., migrated from Bohemia to Lorraine, and thence to England, taking with them their skill in the manufacture of glass. They would naturally settle in a locality where they could carry on to advantage their native industry, especially if it had the additional attraction of being the adopted home of other exiles like themselves. Marriages between families thus brought together would Note.—Autobiography, i., chaps, i., ii., iii.