IRL-WESTMEATH-L Archives

From: Nan & George Wolf <>
Subject: Westmeath wanderers
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:50:22 -0400

Deb wrote:
>The time frame for the birth of John Pugh
is 1842, he had a brother James born in 1841 so I assume his parents were
married in the 1840's or slightly earlier. They were Catholic. It is said
that they came from France originally, so they may have been wanderers..<

Deb:
There is a good chance - if the line stays in Ireland for quite awhile
before going to France - that they were Walloons. Walloons were Belgium
Huguenots - prosecuted in the Reformation? - but found safe haven in
Ireland. Our Co. Westmeath surname "Pillion" is said to have been of that
group. It was a comment made to me about our Pillion name by another
researcher - I do not have documentation of this fact. It is said that as
of the 1960s there was still a protestant church in Dublin that gave
services in French.

The story as I heard it - the French king's mistress talked him into
voiding the Treaty of Nantes? so the Protestants were once again in danger.
A count whose land was in Walloonia (province of Belgium) gave them
haven. They then spread from there to different parts of the world. The
wife of Richard Warren of the Mayflower Compact was said to be a Walloon.

I am doing this in a hurry before I go out the door so readers are free
to correct my history.

Regards
Nan

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• Westmeath wanderers by Nan & George Wolf <>