ABSTRACT
This chapter looks first at the development of poor relief and related social welfare systems in England, trying to assess the degree to which they were influenced by Huguenot immigrants. Second, there is the phenomenon of the relief made available to the mass of Huguenots in England which began with the grand refuge and continued into the nineteenth century. A third development to be considered arises from the emergence of voluntary hospitals in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, and the outdoor relief that went with it. In England, individual Huguenots had contributed to the 'public good' before the grand refuge concentrated their minds on the needs of their fellow Huguenots 'who are in distress'. While proclaiming, as on the seal of the French Hospital, that Dominus Providebit, they strove to assist the 'afflicted or distressed' in their own and their host community.
