April 1646: An Ordinance for the erecting of a French or Walloone Church in the Town and Port of Dover.

April, 1646

[16 April, 1646.]

Ordinance for erecting a French or Walloon Church at Dover.

Whereas a Petition has been presented to the House of Peers, in the Name of the Walloones or French, and other Strangers, professing the true Protestant Religion, and residing at Dover: humbly praying, that they may have Liberty to erect a Wallowne or French Congregation in the Town and Port of Dover, with the same Discipline and Immunities as are granted to the several Foreign Congregations of this Kingdom; which Petition being referred by the said House of Peers to the Committee of Lords and Commons for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports, the said Committee, upon Consideration and Debate thereof, did report their Opinion to the said House, That they conceived it meet the said Petitioners should be authorized, by an Ordinance of Parliament, to erect a Church accordingly, with such Cautions as both Houses should in their Wisdom think fit: Be it therefore Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, That the said Foreign Protestants in Dover shall have Power, and are hereby authorized, to erect a Wallowne or French Congregation in the Town and Port of Dover, with the same Discipline and Immunities as are granted in the several Foreign Congregations of this Kingdom by the Charter of King Edward the Sixth, and enjoyed by them in His Reign, and in the several Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James, as likewise in the Reign of His Majesty that now is; and also that the said Foreign Protestants in Dover, and their Successors, shall have the Liberty and public Exercise of the Protestant Religion, under a faithful Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, as other Foreign Churches of this Kingdom do and may freely enjoy: And it is Ordained, That the Mayor and several Officers at Dover whom this may concern be assistant, upon all Occasions, to the said Congregation, for the Maintenance of them in their just Privileges hereby granted them.