Derek Jacobi Who Do You Think You Are?

Actor Sir Derek Jacobi

lives in north London with his partner Richard.

Is he masking me?

DEREK LAUGHS

He's recently won viewers' hearts

in the romantic comedy Last Tango In Halifax.

Celia!

How are you?

Oh, I'm...not so bad.

Derek made his name performing on stage

and in television dramas like I, Claudius...

I'm... I'm Tiberius Claudius Augustus Germanicus.

Oh, yes, Claudius.

..and has starred in films like Gosford Park,

Gladiator and Cinderella.

I think one of the reasons that I've always been an actor -

I wanted to be an actor -

was that when you're acting, you know the plot,

you know how it's going to end -

there's a degree of security in that,

whereas in real life, you don't know what's going to happen.

That side's all right.

I think we need to look at the back there.

Mum predeceased Dad.

Mum got to 70, Dad got to 90.

She went too soon, really.

I regret that I didn't ask enough questions when I was young.

I didn't quiz my parents.

But this programme, hopefully,

is going to fill in some of the answers.

That's the excitement of it and it's the trepidation of it -

that I don't know the end of it, I don't know the plot.

And that is very frightening,

but also very exciting.

Sir Derek Jacobi was knighted by the Queen

at Buckingham Palace in 1994...

HE CHUCKLES Looks very different.

..but comes from more modest east London roots.

It all started here.

Were you actually born here?

I was born in that room.

I was born in '38. I was a mistake...

..because they knew war was coming

and they hadn't planned on having a baby at that time.

I was an only child and spoiled rotten...

..but survived it!

It was a small family - very close, very loving.

East London, a bit "cor blimey".

Very ordinary, very ordinary.

I was quite brainy in those days. I went to university.

My subject was history and I got a state scholarship

and I went to Cambridge,

but really only as a way of having a second string to my bow,

to please Mum and Dad.

Derek knows that his father's family, the Jacobis,

were bootmakers who had originally come from Germany.

So, he wants to find out about his mother's side of the family.

They were a Hackney family

and they were very poor, I think.

My mother's grandmother is the intriguing one.

My mother said she was part French

and she went by the -

I think, the most wonderful name -

her name was Salome Lapland.

Salome Lapland.

You couldn't make it up, could you, really?

Derek is on the trail of his maternal family's origins.

He's revisiting a childhood haunt on Walthamstow High Street.

Saturday nights were always pie and mash time.

Wednesdays was fish and chips, Saturdays was pie and mash.

And I didn't really like the eels.

They served eels and I didn't like that.

But I loved the mash and the gravy that they put on it

and here we are.

Wonderful.

Derek's arranged to meet historian Sarah Wise...

-Hello. Nice to meet you.

-Nice to see... And you.

..to find out more about his maternal great-grandmother,

Salome and her family.

My mother said there was a French connection.

-She was partly French, or she was French, or...

-Yes.

But that is all I know.

Salome, for me, is covered with many veils.

I want them to be uncovered.

Right, well, here's the first veil coming off.

-Oh...

-Salome's 1859 birth certificate.

"Salome...

-"..Laplain"?

-Laplain.

Her father was called Armand Laplain. Laplain.

-So, she was French?

-She was indeed.

So, if we go back further, to the 1841 Census,

we can find her father, Armand, again here.

He was 15.

Don't know if you can spot there, he's...

Although he's just 15, he's already working as a brazier,

or a brass worker.

And what...? Are these all...

-They're all his siblings.

-His siblings?

So, we've got Hannah here, she's 13. David...

-My God, there were a lot of them.

-There was a lot of them.

-Oh, yes!

-And they're living in Hackney.

-Oh, in east London.

So, we've got more on Armand here.

-Six years later.

-1847.

This is his application for Relief from the Bethnal Green Parish.

What, for Poor Relief?

-Yes.

-He's now a woodcutter.

He's a woodcutter,

which is much less skilled than being a brass worker.

-Yes. Now, he's obviously fallen on hard times.

-He has.

Oh, God. I was hoping there'd be money in the past!

DEREK LAUGHS

Obviously not.

He's living at 5 Digby Walk in Bethnal Green.

Digby Walk turns up on a campaigning piece of literature

by a doctor called Hector Gavin,

who wrote a book called Sanitary Ramblings, all about how dreadful...

Can't wait to read it!

Well, here it is for you to read.

If you see what he says about Digby Walk, there's this...

"Sanitary Ramblings.

"More than half of this horrid alley is covered with

"a stagnant pool of most offensive and filthy slime and mud -

"in some places, to the depth of a foot.

"The refuse from a pigsty drains into this gutter

"and adds pungency to its offensiveness."

Oh... They had a tough time, didn't they?

-They really did.

-Really tough.

-Yes.

-But if we fast-forward to 1891,

we can see another family member, his sister.

Do you remember Hannah, from the 1841 Census?

-Oh, yes.

-Here she is.

Hannah Sudbury.

That's her married name.

"Widow."

She's getting on in years. She's been widowed.

She's finding it hard, as many elderly women did,

to make a living - and look where she's ended up.

"The French Hospital."

-The French Hospital.

-The French Hospital?

-In Hackney?

-In Hackney.

Her choice was to go either into the workhouse,

or to go into the workhouse infirmary.

But a charitable hospital like this is a much, much better bet.

-Great building.

-Gorgeous.

Looks like a French chateau.

-It's being used as a school building now.

-Golly!

And do we know why she was in the French Hospital?

-We do.

-Ooh!

What we have here is her application,

or her petition to be allowed in.

"The Hospital For Poor French Protestants And Their Descendants."

Now, the French Hospital was specifically for French Protestant,

or descendants of the French Protestant refugees, the Huguenots.

-So, it was her French-ness...

-Exactly right.

-..that got her in?

"Hannah Sudbury, widow."

-Descended...

-"Descended from Joseph de la Plaigne,

"who refuged in the year 1702."

So, Joseph is your great-great- great-great-great-great-grandfather.

-Great-great-great-great... six greats?

-Six of them.

Six of them. Wow!

He was one of the Huguenots who was fleeing persecution.

-Ah, yes!

-In 1685...

1685, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

-That's...

-Of course. Yes.

-Yes.

In 1685,

Catholic King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes,

which had previously given Protestants

the right to religious freedom.

By changing the law,

Louis branded non-Catholics as heretics

and sanctioned their persecution.

As a result, thousands of French Protestants, or Huguenots,

sought refuge in England.

England had been a Protestant country

ever since Henry VIII split with Rome,

nearly 150 years earlier.

Derek's mother Daisy had told him there was a French connection

through his great-grandmother Salome.

He's discovered that his family are indeed descended

from a Huguenot refugee, Joseph de la Plaigne.

The Huguenots were famed for their craftsmanship,

especially silk weaving.

Many settled around Spitalfields,

not far from where Derek grew up.

I know that Huguenots came to this part of London

and lived here and worked here -

nearly all silk weavers.

Whether Joseph was one of them, I don't know.

-Hello.

-Hi. How are you? Come in.

-Thank you.

Derek's visiting a house which has been recreated to show

what life for a Huguenot weaver would have been like.

They were given safe refuge to settle in this district

-and that, of course, brought the word "refugee"...

-Yes.

-..into our language.

-Yeah. It was used as a verb?

-Yes.

David Milne is the curator.

Early 18th-century Spitalfields house.

This gives you an idea of exactly how the weavers would have lived.

God, it's like a stage set.

They fled here with very little,

apart from their skill - which was their hands -

and the knowledge of how to make these textiles.

And then, they were given passage to come and live

just outside of the City,

to work here, without the control of the City guilds

and then, they made the most sensational textiles.

-And they lived and worked in here?

-Yes.

There could have been a couple of...number of looms

and then, the family, working and living

within these tiny, cramped conditions.

They were like factories, kind of tenements with endless looms.

You can see there's a sensational image on the wall there.

-I didn't realise how big the looms were.

-Yeah.

15,000 looms at work all day long, making this constant noise.

-15,000!

-Well, there were 50,000 people here.

It must have been incredible -

in a foreign land, not speaking the language...

-But they were not isolated. You know, they...

-No.

They came in such vast numbers and settled

and then, they built this industry.

I was told that my great-great- great-great-great-great-grandfather

Joseph de la Plaigne came over in 1702.

Right. Well, that's late for an arrival.

Cos you think, all the weavers, the first wave of them,

where they came in their thousands...

Yes, the Revocation was 1685.

He wouldn't have been in that first wave of...

-Not the first wave, no.

-..people that fled.

Would he not have been a weaver then, do you think?

I don't think he would have been. The name's an indication.

-Ah...

-Cos "de la" is kind of a very grand name,

where most of the people that came here - the weavers -

-they had very simple names.

-Oh, I see.

He might have been something grander and posher than that?

Oh, I... Yeah, with the name,

I think what you need to do is head across the Channel to Paris.

I think that's a very good idea!

I've been to France and Paris many times,

but never on the Eurostar.

So, it's rather exciting.

I'm going to find out who I am - makes it even more exciting!

I'm going to relish every moment of it.

Derek knows nothing about his six times great-grandfather,

Joseph de la Plaigne, apart from his name and the fact

that he arrived in England in 1702 as a Protestant refugee.

Well, I don't know very much about the persecution of the Protestants.

That's really the excitement of this journey.

I'm going to find all these things out that I'm ignorant about.

I shouldn't be, particularly, because

I studied history at university, but that indeed was a long time ago.

As far as persecution is concerned,

I'm not religious. I have no religion

and organised religion terrifies the bejesus out of me.

I think so much that is awful in the world

is because of religion.

But we're now on the trail of Joseph -

Joseph de la Plaigne -

and we're starting off in Paris.

Derek's visiting the Protestant Historical Society of Paris...

-Hello, Derek.

-Hello. Nice to see you.

..where he hopes to find out more about Joseph

with the help of historian Dr Frank Tallett.

Through here and find out some more information about your ancestor.

-It's a beautiful hall.

-Isn't it? Isn't it scrumptious?

Well, remarkably, we've been able to find

quite a number of references to Joseph de la Plaigne

-in the French archives...

-Uh-huh.

..and one of the earliest we've got is this, which is

a listing of individuals who swore an oath in the town of Bordeaux.

There he is, in 1667 on the 3rd December.

Oh, yes, there he is.

Joseph de la Plaigne, avocats - lawyers - and...

What? "Greffiers en chef."

What are "greffiers"?

Well, "greffier" is normally translated as "clerk",

but that would really be a mistranslation here,

because he's got one of the top jobs in the royal bureaucracy

that administered the royal lands in the province of Guyenne.

So, he's really a financier who advanced the King money

in return for the right to collect the taxes.

He's clearly quite an important figure.

And this is Louis XIV?

This is... Yeah, 1667, so this is during the reign of Louis XIV, yeah.

Ah... Wow!

Ooh, we're going up in the world, aren't we?

-He's clearly a wealthy man...

-Yes.

-..and an important man.

You see, I've always known it.

-There you are.

-I've always known it.

All the kings I've played,

all the thrones I've sat on in the course of my career - wonderful!

-Yeah.

-Yes. Do we know how old he was, then?

He'd have been about 28 or 29.

We think he's born in 1638-39.

How interesting. My birthday's 1938.

-So...

-Well, what a remarkable coincidence.

Yes, yes. Yes, wonderful.

Well, the second document we've got

sheds even more light on his status, as well.

Oh, crests.

This is... This is his.

A white dog chasing an orange stag on a red background.

It doesn't mean to say that he was a noble,

but he's clearly got a lot of status.

I mean, I'm so excited.

We've gone from almost the poorhouse in the East End

to this rather grand, very influential

-crested gentleman in France.

-Absolutely.

I presume, since he was engaged in financing His Majesty,

that he would have.... Do you think visited Versailles,

even have known the King?

Whether he knew the King personally we don't know,

-we don't have any record of that.

-No.

But certainly, as a man who was high up in the world of finance,

he would have had to be in Paris

-and have attended the court at Versailles...

-Yes.

-..because that's really where his contacts would have been.

-Yes.

Known as the Sun King,

Louis XIV had established himself as an absolute monarch.

He built a glittering court at Versailles

and surrounded himself with loyal Catholic subjects.

But this lavish regime was costly,

so Louis had an army of financiers, such as Joseph,

raising money for him.

As a lawyer, he's got a top job in the royal bureaucracy.

He's a well-to-do financier.

But he also lives under a dark cloud,

because we know that he's a Protestant

and so, he's a man who is threatened

with the loss of his social status and his wealth,

because during the reign of Louis XIV,

the Protestants come in for a good deal of persecution.

And we have an engraving of some of this,

which shows some of the elements of persecution...

..the atrocities that are committed against young children

in order to get the parents to convert.

Oh, God!

Oh, heavens...

They're throwing a child out of the window.

Yeah. In the background, they're dismantling a Protestant church.

What particularly was it about the Protestant ethic

that they were all so anti or afraid of?

It seems to me that, certainly when they got to England,

the Huguenots were hard workers, they were...

Well, there's always a suspicion in France

-that the Protestants are republican in some way.

-Ah...

And so, they're a threat, in this respect, to the French monarchy.

-So, life became pretty difficult.

-Very, very difficult.

And they're not massacred in the 1680s,

but the treatment of them is pretty dreadful

and there's a second engraving here

which shows some further aspects of this.

Oh... Oh, my God!

This looks like a massacre to me.

They're burning them, they're hanging them...

Oh... Shooting them, drowning them...

Oh, how horrendous.

And in the background here,

you can see the desecration of Protestant cemeteries.

So, how did Joseph survive all this?

In order to survive, he must have converted, at least nominally...

-Ah. Yes.

-..pretended to be a Catholic.

And this would have meant him going to church on a few occasions.

He's a cunning old thing, isn't he, this guy?

-He is a cunning old thing...

-Yes.

..because at any moment, somebody could have pulled the rug on him,

revealed that he was secretly a Protestant,

that he was still a Protestant believer -

and this would have been the end for him.

We've got a couple of further documents -

they're both dated 1699 -

which show that he's still holding this office of Greffier.

He's referred to as being a Counsellor of the King.

And there's your ancestor's signature at the bottom.

DEREK GASPS Oh, God!

-Ooh, that's, that's...

-It's thrilling, isn't it?

It is, very thrilling. He actually wrote that.

-That's actually what he wrote.

-Yes.

It is a very confident signature.

It's very showy, with a line underneath.

-He's no shrinking violet, is he?

-He's no shrinking violet, no, no.

Oh, how wonderful to have that.

I think it's pretty remarkable

-that there's so much in the archives about Joseph de la Plaigne.

-Yes.

Do we know who Joseph married?

Well, there's no record that he got married, nor that he had children.

But maybe he can't bring himself to marry in a Catholic church

and swear to bring up children as Catholics.

It's just a step too far.

He's clearly a man who's tussling with his conscience.

But he had to live a life of subterfuge, didn't he?

-He does, yes.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

We know that he's leading this very dangerous double life...

-Yes.

-..until at least 1699.

But I think you mentioned that you knew that he came to England.

He came to England in 1702.

-Right.

-So, what happened in those last three years

that persuaded him to give it all up here?

Well, we've got another piece of documentary evidence

which we can have a look at, which tells us what happened to him.

And this is from a dictionary of Protestant families in Bordeaux.

-1700 or 1701, he was arrested?!

-Yeah.

"Imprisoned in Bordeaux, then at the Chateau of Loches."

Ah, he was in prison.

We don't know why he was arrested,

but it's as a Protestant

that he was transferred to this prison at Loches.

And he would have been transferred there on the orders of the King,

not by order of the court,

but through a lettre de cachet which Louis XIV...

-From Louis himself?

-..would have signed.

Gosh.

The castle that he was transferred to - the Chateau de Loches -

-is that still with us, or...?

-It is.

It's an old medieval fortress which was turned into a prison

and it's still there.

It's preserved and you can visit the cells

-and the dungeons where prisoners were kept.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Joseph was taken from his home city of Bordeaux

to the town of Loches, over 200 miles away in the Loire Valley.

I wasn't expecting it to be so big.

No, it's quite a dominant place, isn't it?

Yes. Rather beautiful town, too.

-It is beautiful, isn't it?

-Yes. Gorgeous.

The fortress is rather different.

Now surrounded by a town,

the castle complex of Loches is protected

by five-metre-high stone walls.

This fortified gateway is still the only way in - or out.

It's pretty impressive, isn't it?

-It is pretty formidable, isn't it?

-Yeah.

One just wonders how he came here.

-Yes.

-Presumably in chains.

-In chains, do you think?

-On a cart, maybe.

Oh, dear. Poor old Joseph.

The castle was once a home to kings and nobles,

but in the 15th century, part of it was converted into a state prison.

That looks nasty, doesn't it?

Wow! It's huge!

Pretty grim, isn't it?

Grim is not the word.

That's really dreadful.

By the time Joseph was brought to Loches in 1701,

it was notorious for its treatment of high-profile prisoners.

Oh, my...

Gets grimmer and grimmer.

Gets worse the farther you go in, I think.

Oh, God, look at this.

-I'll go ahead and open the gate.

-OK.

Joseph was in his early 60s when he was locked up here,

potentially for life.

God, that looks ominous.

What is that?

Prisoners were singled out for special treatment.

They might be put in this cage.

Oh...

I hope he wasn't a very tall man.

I can only just stand upright.

We know that Protestants in particular

received special treatment.

They have dead animals thrown into the cells with them.

They're given food and drink,

but it would be put just out of their reach,

so they couldn't get to it.

They'd be kept in chains.

DEREK SHUDDERS

Some of the Protestants were encouraged to convert and become...

-That would get them out?

-That would get them out.

But it's not really an option for Joseph de la Plaigne,

because he's lived so long as a nominal Catholic

that if he was to say "I'm converting,"

-who would believe him?

-Who would believe?

So when he's put in here, he knows he's here forever.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

He's played a blinder so far, but it's tripped him up.

-He's lost everything, really.

-It's tripped him up.

-Yeah.

And of course, he's not a young man, is he?

He's in his early 60s.

So, he's a man now who's... He's got no alternative, really.

He either comes to the end if he stays in the prison,

or he tries to escape.

But how?

Can you imagine getting out of a place like this?

Well, we've got a bit of a clue

as to what happened to him in this book.

It's a book on the prisoners of Loches

and he's referred to here, in this paragraph.

"In the same month of June a Lord Laplaigne

"transferred from the prisons of Bordeaux towards the end of 1702.

"He had succeeded in saving himself from the stranger."

What does that mean? That's...

-It's escaping and getting abroad.

-Ahh!

-So, that's...

"He had succeeded in saving himself and getting abroad" -

"a l'etranger."

The archives are not very complete, but he's pretty unusual,

pretty rare in being able to get away.

Yeah. Do we know how?

I guess bribery. He may have had contacts on the outside.

Yes. Yes, I see. Yes.

That seems the likeliest, doesn't it?

-That seems the most probable thing.

-Yes.

Rather than kind of shinning down with the sheets tied together

-and all that. They didn't have any sheets!

-No.

And he's 62, 63 -

and the escape itself is not without danger.

-No.

-If he was caught while he was escaping, then...

-That would be it?

-Well, the penalty was to be sent to the galleys.

Oh, God! And this is what he was risking?

This is exactly what he was risking. It was pretty awful.

He'd be chained to an oar 24 hours a day.

We've got records of Huguenots being whipped on these ships

and dying of their wounds.

They're singled out for special treatment.

There's a punishment called the "bastinado",

where their feet are whipped.

I'd have preferred to stay in prison actually, I mean, with risking this.

Yeah. So, for a man like Joseph Laplaigne, who's in his early 60s,

this would have been an absolute death sentence.

-Absolute death sentence.

-Yeah.

-And this is what he was risking?

-That's absolutely what he was risking.

-By escaping. Yeah.

He's a brave fellow, Joseph.

He was a brave old fellow.

And a genius and brave, yes.

What's the next step? How did he get out of the country?

Well... Again, we're not sure, but the most likely way

is that he managed to escape down the River Loire -

and the river is guarded by customs officers...

-Ah, yes.

-..and he'd have had to navigate around those officers.

-More bribing, do you think?

-More bribing, yeah.

And boarded a ship and got away to England.

It must have been pretty daunting to arrive on the English coast,

-disembark from his ship across the Channel...

-Absolutely.

I mean, it's mind-boggling, really.

And all at the age of 60-odd!

I'm beginning to admire Joseph very much indeed.

He'd lived a kind of double life.

One of Louis XIV's financiers,

while at the same time being a Protestant.

Life must have been pretty edgy for him.

His whole story zings with resourcefulness.

To escape and leave the country -

that required courage, that required resolve.

I do hope that we discover

the bond that links me to Joseph...

..because I do admire him and I want to be part of his family.

In 1702, Derek's six times great-grandfather

Joseph de la Plaigne arrived in London.

Derek wants to find out whether Joseph was able to continue

his career as a financier and lawyer in England.

-Hello again.

-Hello.

He is meeting legal records expert Susan Moore

at one of London's oldest centres of law, Lincoln's Inn.

It's been fascinating, hunting down my ancestor,

called Joseph de la Plaigne.

And I'm wondering if he resumed his lawyer's life,

or what became of him, in fact.

Well, it seems he didn't take up a legal career.

However, he was involved in a legal case in the Court of Chancery.

And the Court of Chancery was occasionally held

here in this building.

People didn't have to appear in court to give evidence,

it was all written down.

So, from our point of view now, it's excellent,

because we have these big documents.

Right, if we look, we've got Joseph de la Plaigne.

-Oh, yes, yes, yes.

-There's his name.

We've got the date there, the 1st May, 1703.

And he's bringing the case against Jane De Beynac,

-and we have her name there.

-Jane De Beynac.

-Reading the original is quite difficult...

-Yes. Oh, I see.

..so if you'd like to have a look at the transcript...

"In the year of our Lord 1690,

"one Jane De Beynac, single woman,

"a French Protestant,

"acquainted your orator of her intentions to make her escape

"as soon as she could..." Now, your orator is Joseph.

The orator is Joseph.

"Your orator assisted her in making her escape first

"and laid out several sums to take care and manage."

It's talking about his money

and he's going to work together with Jane.

-He's giving her money and lodging money with her...

-Yes.

-..for his future use, yes.

-For his future use, yes.

-That's the point that he's trying to make.

-Yes.

It's being done in secret.

-He can't legally send money out of the country.

-Yes.

So, he did start kind of filtering it away early on,

foreseeing that he might, at some point, have to leave.

-Yeah, yeah. He had no idea it was going to take ten years.

-No.

Because these are very long documents,

it's not sensible to read the whole thing word-for-word,

but what we do discover is that in June 1691, she goes...

..and we then get a long list of the money that he gives to her,

via various other merchants and financiers.

Then we come on to this bit here,

where he sort of sums up what he's done.

"Your orator is very well assured

"the said Jane De Beynac received the sum of 13,500 livres,

"your orator's own proper money,

"and so remitted and sent for your orator's sole benefit."

Now, the amount of money, the 13,500 -

if you calculate that in today's terms, that's about £80,000.

-I mean, that's...

-Wow, that's a lot of money.

-Yeah.

So, you know, his relationship with her...

There's obviously a lot of trust.

Yes. I just hope his trust is in the right place.

I've got a feeling that she's going to do the dirty on him.

-Something's going to happen.

-Something's going to happen.

This is a court case, after all.

Yes, he might trust her, but I am having my doubts about her.

Yes. He's obviously going to arrive and expect, well,

to get his money, do we think? Yes.

"Jane De Beynac sometimes pretends

"your orator never remitted any money at all to her.

"At other times, Jane pretends

"that the money so sent to her by your orator was her own money."

-Oh! She's a case, isn't she, is Jane?

-She is, yes.

Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

But you could... You could see it coming.

Strangely, for a lawyer and a financier,

knowing what money does to people,

to trust her from that distance, you know?

-Yes. And for that length of time.

-And for that length of time is...

Yes. I mean, it's ten years. 1691, it starts.

So, that's his side of the story.

-The next document...

-Is this her?

This is her response.

And we get here, it's called,

"The Answer of Jane De Beynac, Defendant."

"In the year of our Lord 1690 or thereabouts, she came to Paris.

"The complainant made her frequent visits..."

Ah, it's warming up.

"..and at one time, gave her to understand

"that he would procure her to make her escape into another kingdom..."

Ah. "..if she would promise to marry him."

-Oh, she's something else.

-Yes.

He comes, Joseph comes with his servant...

"..with his servant, came to this Defendant's lodgings

"and the Defendant was surprised to be arrested

"in an Action of above £2,000,

"upon which said arrest, she has been a prisoner in the Queen's Bench."

He's actually got her put in prison

and it was a debtors' prison, rather than a criminal type of prison.

He's trying to bring a case in the Court of the Queen's Bench.

At that court, you have to have written proof of your debt.

When you were gathering your evidence,

your opponent was put into the debtors' prison.

So, she went to prison for four months?

-Yeah. At his instigation.

-Yes.

Good on you, Joe.

It's no more than she deserves, because I don't believe her.

She's the one who's been lying

and taking him for a ride.

We then find that the case didn't proceed in the Queen's Bench.

Presumably, he couldn't get enough evidence -

that's why it comes to the Court of Chancery,

where it's one person's word against the other.

So, who finally decides?

Well, most Chancery cases don't ever reach any judgment.

-Any decision?

-No.

So, Joseph will have been the one in charge, because he brought the case.

He will have either settled or dropped, we don't know.

But certainly, it doesn't proceed any further.

-It's not very satisfying, is it, really?

-No.

-I mean, it's just dropped and...

-But it... I don't know, you...

These records, they give you such a personal side of the people.

-They do. Well, they do, absolutely.

-Yeah.

I don't yet know how much longer he survived and what he did.

We know that he didn't marry and they didn't have children in France.

Well, we assume he married, because otherwise, how would you be here?

Well, exactly. I mean, that is...

That is the question that's been bugging me all the time.

-Yeah.

-How do we find out that?

I think probably the next stage would be for you to go to Soho.

A lot of people know about the Huguenots, who were silk weavers

and ended up in Spitalfields, places like that.

-That's where I started this search.

-Yeah.

Actually, these financial-type Huguenots

were based much more round Soho

and there is still a Protestant church in Soho,

which may well have some records

which might throw some light on what happened next.

Get me a taxi at once! SHE LAUGHS

I long to find out how long Joseph lived -

what he did in the latter part of his life,

because he must have had children.

But I still don't know anything about that

and that's the next thing that I must know -

exactly where I fit into the whole scheme of things.

In the early 18th century,

Soho in central London was so full of Huguenots

that it was known as "Petit France" or "Little France".

Now, the only remaining French Protestant church is in Soho Square.

Derek's meeting historian Tessa Murdoch.

I'm here to find out more about Joseph's personal life.

We've discovered quite a lot about him until now -

what he was up to, things that happened to him -

but I'm longing to find out...

..ultimately, where I come in.

Well, I think this is a rather exciting bit of information.

There's the name.

There's the huge signature that he had.

"30th July, 1708.

"Which day approved formally

"Joseph Laplaigne of the Parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields,

"in the County of Middlesex,

"aged 70 years and a bachelor,

"who allegeth that he intendeth to marry

"with Salome Labastide of the Parish of St Martins-in-the-Fields

"in the County of Middlesex aforesaid, 25 years and a spinster."

God -

70 and she was 25!

And her name was Salome...

..like my mother's grandmother.

-It's a family name?

-It is a family... Yes.

How exciting!

Wow... As they say,

there's a turn-up for the book.

Salome Labastide.

Almost as good as Salome Lapland.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Oh, I'm so glad he got married at last.

I'm so glad he made it.

You've got lots of other things there, haven't you?

Yes. This is something rather special, actually. It's...

Oh, and there's his crest!

The hound chasing the stag.

But it's developed now,

it's got this other side to it, this tree and...

Well, we think that is the coat of arms of the Labastide family.

"Je meurs pour revivre." I...

-Oh! "I die in order to live again."

-Exactly.

The phoenix is born again in fire.

And perhaps, that could be a reference

to Joseph de la Plaigne's new life,

leaving France behind him...

-Oh, yes...

-..and starting again in London.

Yes. That's a nice thought. A very nice thought.

Yes. You know, suddenly, I'm feeling close to him.

I've found out all sorts of things that happened to him,

and what he did, but now I'm getting a feel of Joseph himself.

And also, I'm getting a feel of where I fit into the picture.

I can't lay claim to it.

-Well, I think you can.

-Could I?

Yes. It's the coat of arms of your ancestors.

Yes, you're quite right.

So, that's the marriage -

and nine months later...

DEREK GASPS

"Madame Salome de la Plaigne..."

Oh. Have you got the translation?

-This is the English translation.

-Yes, that helps me.

"I certify that on the 28th of May

"in the year 1709,

"I baptised Guillaume de la Plaigne..."

-That is William?

-Yes.

Yeah, William de la Plaigne.

"..the legitimate son of his parents,

"Monsieur Joseph de la Plaigne and Madame Salome de la Plaigne.

"He was presented at the baptism by his godparents,

"the very Honourable Guillaume - William - Kendish,

"My Lord Duke of Devonshire,

"and by Madame Marie de la Bastide."

Who is Salome's sister-in-law.

It's worth looking at the witnesses of the baptism,

because they include Armand de la Bastide,

who is the brother of Salome.

Ah...

And his godfather was very grand.

The Duke of Devonshire, no less.

Here is the Duke,

painted in his robes as a Knight of the Order of the Garter,

which I think he was awarded in that very year.

I'm sort of lost for words, at the moment.

Here he is, mixing with the nobility of England,

fathering a child at the age of 71.

Now, what happened to Joseph?

Did he live happily ever after?

Well, the next document...

It's rather sober.

-I think his hourglass has run dry.

-Oh.

This is a will.

When did he die?

I think he died in January, 1710.

-Oh...

-So, about eight months later.

Yes.

Oh, that is...

That's very sad.

The young mother is a widow.

Obviously taken out of him, with all that...

DEREK LAUGHS

But she is now a widow, with a son.

What happened to them?

Well, fast-forward some 20 or more years

and here is an exciting announcement in Reed's Weekly Journal

from March 6th, 1736, in Shropshire.

"The Reverend Mr Laplain,

"Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire,

"Vicar of Wrockwardine in the County of Salop,

"was lately married to Mrs Sandford,

"a well-accomplished young gentlewoman of a great family

"and a good fortune."

This is William, who would have been

my great-grandfather five times removed.

He's a Reverend -

Chaplain to the Duke of Devonshire.

Which indicates that he must have been properly educated,

and we are excited to discover

that he attended Cambridge and was at Trinity Hall.

DEREK LAUGHS

I was next door, in St John's.

-There you are.

-Oh, gosh! And he's...

Already, the name is changing.

"The Reverend Mr Laplain."

So, he's based in Shropshire,

but described as Chaplain to the Duke of Devonshire.

Wonderful. Wonderful.

So, they kept up the connection with the Duke of Devonshire.

-It seems to have been a family affair.

-Yes.

The connection must, I think, have come through...

Salome de la Bastide.

Well, we do have a clue to the connection.

This is a letter from Salome and Armand's father,

dated September, 1691.

"Sir, I thought it necessary to get acquaintances of some great Lords,

"whose friendship I have procured by a thousand dangers of war.

"These Lords had the goodness to present me and my son to the King,

"your great monarch,

"who had the goodness to promise me

"that he would take care of him -

"and my intentions have always been

"that he should follow the martial life."

So...

..this is Salome's father...

Yes.

..promoting his son...

Presumably Armand.

..Armand, to be in the Army, to be...

Yes. In the service of, at this stage, William III.

-Cos it's dated...

-1691.

-..1691.

That's three years after the Glorious Revolution.

Exactly. So, maybe that Devonshire connection

is very closely linked with loyalty and support for the new monarch.

For the new monarch, yes.

Originally from Holland,

King William III had been invited to take the English throne

by a group of Protestant Lords,

which included the Duke of Devonshire's father.

When King James II had been crowned three years earlier in 1685,

English Protestants became worried.

James was the first Catholic monarch for well over a century

and a cousin of Louis XIV.

So, English Protestants feared

they would suffer the same fate as the French Huguenots.

William's bid to overthrow James

would become known as the Glorious Revolution.

Derek's come to William III's London residence, Kensington Palace,

to meet historian Dr Gabriel Glickman.

Very nice to meet you.

You too. Love your house! THEY LAUGH

It's... It's not bad, is it?

Derek wants to find out what role

his six times great-grandmother's family, the de la Bastides,

had in William's army

and whether they were involved in the Glorious Revolution.

Salome's father Jean and her brother Armand are professional soldiers

and they're fighting in the wars

that break out across Europe in the later 1680s.

And they're quite literally fighting for their faith.

William sends out the call of recruitment

across Protestant Europe,

and we can see here that his army

was beginning to assume a very international composition.

"The Huguenot cavalry were provisionally enrolled

"in two regiments of blue and red dragoons.

"The officers of the blues included la Bastide."

Armand de la Bastide!

-And William really values the experience of these men.

-Yes.

So, when the army sets sail from the Netherlands in October 1688,

it's been estimated that roughly 10% of William's army

was composed of Huguenots.

And they land at Brixham Harbour in Devon

on the 5th November, 1688.

As William's army marched on London,

Catholic King James II's regime collapsed

and James himself fled to France.

Protestant William and his wife Mary

were crowned as joint monarchs in 1689.

And this Glorious Revolution

seemed to secure England as a Protestant country.

But the threat is not over, because very soon,

James II is sailing back with an army funded by Louis XIV -

and they land in Ireland.

William knows that he can rely absolutely on his Huguenots.

-On the Huguenots?

-Because they had everything invested.

Of whom Armand is one. Yes.

William starts assembling his troops,

giving them passes to move into Ireland.

And here we have...

"Lieutenant Armand de la Bastide, his servant and one horse,

"with his goods and necessaries

"to go to High Lake and thence to Ireland,

"dated the 18th of June, 1690."

-So, Ireland...

-Now, this is going to be the Battle of the Boyne, isn't it?

This all leads up to the Battle of the Boyne.

-The famous Battle of the Boyne.

-The critical encounter.

Ireland had long been a battleground between Catholics and Protestants,

but the fight between James and William's armies at the River Boyne

was for more than just the British crown -

it was for the balance of power in Europe.

It results in a spectacular victory for the Protestant forces.

It's a tremendous triumph for William.

It's also a tremendous triumph for Armand,

that he's proved his mettle in one of the most dangerous

and unpredictable conflicts in British history.

Wow! What relation would he be to me?

Something very complicated?

-So, he would be great-uncle seven times over, I think.

-Yes!

Great-uncle seven times over.

In December 1691,

an Act is passed in Parliament,

naturalising as Englishmen

a handful of William's most trusted, most loyal followers.

-And here...

-And it includes...

"Armand de la Bastide, Son of Colonel John de la Bastide."

Now, that was a huge honour, wasn't it?

A huge honour. Tremendous accolade.

So, Armand is now really part of the England created

in the Glorious Revolution

and we can see him rising through the ranks.

"Armand de la Bastide,

"to be Exempt and Eldest Captain -

dated Whitehall, 20th January, 1694."

1694. The regiment is very significant.

This is the Life Guards,

it's the traditional protectors of the monarchy

on the battlefields and in times of peace.

It's also highly socially exclusive.

It's very difficult to get into that regiment

if you are not of noble or gentry blood.

So, my great-grandfather six times removed, Joseph,

when he married Salome,

he was marrying into a very high-class family.

Socially and professionally -

and we see here again in 1705,

much later, another promotion.

Oh, here he is.

"Armand de la Bastide to be Guidon..."?

Guidon. And the Guidon was the man

who bore the standard of the Third Troop of Horse Guards.

And this regiment is the forerunner to the Queen's Household Cavalry,

the mounted bodyguards of the royal family.

And he was the standard bearer of that regiment?

-He is the standard bearer.

-He's going up and up and up, isn't he?

-It's an extraordinary summit to a military career...

-Yes.

..for a man who came into England as part of an invading army

and as a Protestant refugee.

Yes. I had no idea that this journey was going to end up here

and with somebody quite so close to the Sovereign.

Gosh. That's wonderful. Wonderful.

What is surprising for me - and quite astonishing -

is the journey from my immediate forebears,

who were very ordinary, very working class.

I thought we were going to go back on that level,

but no way, we've ended up with friendships in very high places -

dukes and duchesses and even a foot into a royal palace.

I mean, there was Armand de la Bastide,

standard bearer of the Household Cavalry,

fighting fantastically at the Battle of the Boyne with William III.

And Joseph -

Joseph de la Plaigne was a man I would love to have met...

..a man who lived a double life.

Very brave.

It's been wonderful.

It's been a revelation to me.

And I've discovered the people from whom I have emerged...

..are admirable people.