This links with other
information suggest:
1. The Flemish connection
with the Huguenot movement, The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by
Louis XIV in October, 1685, began anew persecution of the Huguenots,
and hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled France to other countries.
The Promulgation of the Edict of Toleration in November, 1787, partially
restored the civil and religious rights of Huguenots in France. And
as the Huguenots were French Protestants this would account for all
the Battist/Gushlow births, marriages etc., taking place in Protestant
Churches in the early years.
2. It was not any connection
to the Huguenots but to the rise of the French "threat" due
to Napoleon and the French Revolution. As John Henry Battist was born
in 1784, he would have been 14 in 1798, when he was told by his father
that his real name was Gushlow (Gushleau in the French language). He
is stated to have gone to sea in a man-of-war at the age of 14 and on
returning from one of his voyages was informed of the name change by
his father John Battist. Thus it would have made sense to use an anglicised
name, as there was every possibilty of being captured by a French vessel,
whilst continuing his occupation as a sailor.
According to research
carried out by William Caffall (husband of Annie Gushlow ~ 1883-1940),
who was an archivist and genealogist, Battist could be a derivation
of the Flemish form for Baptist and Gushlow the English form of Gushleau.
Again indicating a French connection. Raymond Gushlow has said that
a few years ago when passing through France his mother was certain that
they had passed a shop with the sign Gushlow.
From the time my brother
Mick and I started to research the family tree we have contacted,and
been contacted by, Gushlows we had never heard of! A big vote of thanks
has to go to Mercy Gushlow, who sadly passed away in November, 2003,
and her nephew Malcom Carvell (who has become my unofficial proofreader,
critic and mine of information) who through the years had collated enough
data to form the trunk and the lower branches of the tree. Also Heather
Lord, who lives in Australia, and whose great-grandmother was a Gushlow
has contributed and still researching a lot of the data for the tree.
And of course to all the Gushlows who have contributed information and
copies of documents.
Mercy Gushlow ~ Malcolm
Carvell ~ Heather Lord
I have now traced most
of the living Gushlows in the world even as far afield as the U.S.A.
and Australia! But to fill in all the pieces of the jigsaw is a time
taking task. There are still a lot of missing links in the tree but
with a bit of luck one of the Gushlows is holding a vital piece of the
chain. And amazingly quite a lot of the modern history of the Gushlows
is missing.
