The Oyler family is
one branch of my family tree.
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above.
My father,
Thomas Grayson, was the son of Alice
Oyler and Thomas Porter Grayson. I have traced my Oyler line back
12
generations to the 1590s in Kent. There
were
several branches of the Oyler family in Kent and East Sussex. Many
branches have
parents and children with the same names in each family so it was
difficult to
determine exactly which antecedents belong to my branch of the Oyler
family. The earliest traces of my branch
start in Cranbrook where the Oyler family
stayed for many generations before the move first to the small villages
around
Cranbrook and later to other parts of England and abroad.
The name
Oyler is probably anglicized from the name Iler. The Ilers were rumoured
to be Huguenots but it is not known
if they were French, Dutch or Belgian. Indeed, there is no firm
evidence that
they were originally Huguenots. In the International Genealogical Index
(IGI –
Mormon Church records) there are Ilers (also Iller and Oyler) in both
the
Netherlands and France but not in Belgium.
There were several
influxes of Huguenots to
England. In 1270, King Henry III extended
a royal invitation to "all workers of woollen cloth" to come and
settle in England, and in 1331 the export of unwashed wool was
prohibited by
King Edward III and he issued letters of protection to Flemish weavers
who
wished to settle in England. The Flemings planted their “fulling-mills”
along
the rivers Cray and Dart, the weavers settling principally at
Cranbrook,
Goudhurst, and the neighboring villages. “At county meetings the
Gray-coats of
Kent carried all before them, gray cloth being the prevailing color of
the
Kentish article, as that of Kendal was green.” The
Huguenots: Their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England….
- Samuel Smiles
Flemish emigration to the British Isles
continued throughout
the 14th century and into the 15th century. The cloth-trade has long
since
departed from Cranbrook, once the
centre of the
Kentish trade, its manufactures like so many others, having migrated
northward;
and the only indications remaining of the extinct branch of industry
are the
ancient factories, evidently of Flemish origin, which are still to be
seen in
the principal street of the town.
In 1685, the Catholic King Louis XIV of
France outlawed the
practice of Protestantism. Many French Protestants fled from France
following
the Edict of Fontainbleau. The Huguenots' services were banned and
their
churches torn down. All French children were required to be raised as
Catholics. Yet it was illegal to leave the country, and Protestant men
caught
trying to escape abroad could be executed or sentenced to serve as
galley
slaves, while women risked imprisonment. Despite such risks, around
200,000
French Protestants, mostly Calvinists, fled abroad, smuggling
themselves out
hidden in bales of straw or empty beer barrels and wine vats. Around
50,000-80,000 of them settled in London, in Soho and in Spitalfields. London's traditional anti-Catholicism, and
stories of French atrocities against Protestants, ensured them a warmer
welcome
than was usually given to foreigners.
Many of the Huguenots who made Spitalfields their home
came
from Lyons, centre of the French silk industry. They set up business as
silk
weavers, using handlooms to weave raw silk imported from Italy. In the
1750s
there was another large influx of Huguenots. Many of these refugees
settled in Canterbury
and Sandwich, bringing their skills into the area, including silk
weaving,
paper making, goldsmithing and bookbinding.
The first member of the Oyler family that I can trace was
John
Oyler (Iler) born
about
1555-1560 my great x10 grandfather. I found descendants from each
generation down to my grandmother Alice Oyler