Villiers family from Normandie who settled in Armagh, Ireland

[MosheVilliers]

Has anyone found records for the Villiers family from Normandie who settled in Armagh, Ireland?
Any help appreciated, Moshe Villiers.

[jorose]

Do you know when they came to Ireland?

If they may have been Huguenots then see:
www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/irish-section.html

[MosheVilliers]

Hi jorose,

My family came to Ireland around the 1600's. I have an Andrew Villiers born in Armagh in 1680, and from research there was a Huguenot colony in Armagh. It's mentioned in a book by Grace Lawless Lee called "The Huguenot Settlements in Ireland", on the cover of the book there is a map of the settlements, one  of which is in Armagh, where my family settled. Any help you could give me would be appreciated. I've also tracked down some of my families descendants in Australia, at least one of them is convinced that the family is Huguenot. Regards, Moshe.

[MosheVilliers]

I see there may be a connection to William of Orange, the Williamite wars and Pierre Drelincourt the Dean of Armagh with the Villiers family. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[MosheVilliers]

I've found several marriages for my family in the 3rd Presbyterian Church Armagh. From what i've found on the internet, the Huguenots when they migrated to other lands joined the already existing Presbyterian congregations where they resided. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Rena]

You'll know that the Christian world was once "Roman Catholic" and ruled from the Vatican.  At the time there were extreme punishments for digressing from the strict rulings.

If you look for those who protested (Protestants,) in the 16th century that God was not to be feared, you will find names such as:

"Calvin" from whence the French protestant Huguenot church had its beginnings
"Martin Luther" = the German Ev. Lutheran church and "John Knox" of Scotland who was a Catholic priest until he listened to the theories of Luther and others - it was Knox who helped start up the Scottish "Presbyterian" church.

Ireland was mainly a Catholic country, so you can see why all the protestants gathered together and as there was already a protestant church it stands to reason that immigrants would congregate there until maybe in the future the congregation grew too large and they'd maybe set up a church just for the Huguenots, which is what usually happened in England.

You can read a little bit more on the history of European religion on this page:
http://www.huguenot.netnation.com/general/huguenot.htm

[MosheVilliers]

Has anyone found the name Villiers or it's derivatives amongst the Huguenot records or on any of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland's CD's? Help appreciated, Moshe.