ABSTRACT
The Dutch-speaking communities and churches shrank slowly but gradually during the first decades of the seventeenth century, losing members who were often secondor third-generation Netherlanders born in England to their host community. The Dutch community in Austin Friars in London were instrumental in establishing communities in Sandwich and Maidstone, and undoubtedly assisted in the creation of the Dutch and Walloon communities in Norwich and Colchester. Menen had been a centre for Reformed Protestantism during the Wonderyear in 1566, but the repression initiated by the Duke of Alva in 1567 led to mass emigration from the town primarily to England. In November 1630 the consistory of Austin Friars delegated the responsibility for the second royal collection in England for Reformed refugees from the German Palatinate to four merchants-elders: Dirick Hoste, John la Motte, John de Moncy and Abraham Beck.
