THE FRENCH CONNECTION

When William the Conqueror invaded and took control of England in 1066, his French Norman lords and ladies established themselves as the ruling caste over and above the English and this iniquitous caste system has prevailed to this day along with name changes that reflect French influence.

Throughout the Middle Ages, travel and commerce between England and France was fluid. The two countries, in fact, were virtually one and Scotland and Ireland soon had a similar fate to that of England. The English language took on so many French influences that if you removed half the words in the Oxford Dictionary you would be left with not much of a language remaining; and just like the Angles and Saxons and Danes and Vikings had more or less wiped out the native populations in the British Isles, the Normans did likewise.

It is more correct to call the English Anglo-Norman rather than Anglo-Saxon.

Many English surnames have French derivatives, and DEWICK sounds like it could have originated with DE WICK or DUKE -- but as explained earlier the name is more likely to have derived from DUICK which, in turn, derived from the old Dutch name of DUYCK.

The first DUKE record uncovered anywhere in the world was the birth of Ansbert DUKE born 960 somewhere in France, and the first DUYCK birth record was that of Gysbert Duyck in 1202. The only other French name that sounds like Dewick is DORICK -- first recorded with the birth of Ursula DORICK in Colmar, Haut-Rhin, France 1599, but the name did cross the channel.

Until Henry VIII ascended to the English throne England, like most of Europe, was a Catholic nation. The Pope's refusal to bow to Henry's many requests for divorce and remarriage lead to England becoming a Protestant nation with it's own Church of England. From this time onwards, the Catholics of England suffered persecution and many fled to France, Ireland and Scotland. Ursula DORICK born 1599, for instance, may not be French at all but a Catholic refugee from Protestant England; and many of the Scottish and Irish names that sound like DEWICK may be similarly the names of expatriate English Catholics!

The most significant French immigration to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 occurred in 1685 when France revoked the Edict of Nantes, and thousands French and Belgian Protestants -- the Huguenots -- fled to England. 1685 was just two years down the track from the Siege of Vienna which had Moslem Ottoman Turks poised to take over Europe. The French had been largely tolerant of Protestants, Jews and other religions, so this revocation and persecution was out of character. At this particular time DUWICK appears for the first time in England. A SUSANNAH DUWICK was born in 1691 at Stepney, London, and could have been a Huguenot -- but more likely it was a typical spelling error of Duick or Dewick.

In 1685, too, Charles II died and all hell broke loose when his brother, the openly Catholic and French supported James II, succeeded him. James II was deposed in 1688 and replaced the next year by his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.

James II's exile by William and Mary of Orange sparked the birth the Catholic Jacobite movement to restore the Stuarts to the English throne. His son, Charles Edward Stuart, born in Rome in 1720, carried on the struggle as Bonnie Prince Charlie. In 1744, without the backing from Louis XV of France that had been promised to him, Bonnie Prince Charlie pawned his jewels and borrowed money to buy arms and landed in Scotland - where he roused the Catholic Scottish chieftains and entered Edinburgh in triumph. He then crossed into England where he found no Catholic rising to join him. At Derby, Charles was advised to turn back, which he did -- with the English forces, led by the king's son, the Duke Cumberland, in hot pursuit.

The final confrontation took place at Culloden Moor. Charles fled, disguising himself as a serving wench to a Highland girl, Flora MacDonald -- one of many who helped the fugitive prince -- and finally arrived back in France where he lived off the legend his youth until 1788.

His brother, a Roman Catholic cardinal, paid no attention to the remaining Jacobite exiles -- who now called him Henry IX -- and by then France was heading towards a revolution that would cease interest in such sectarian causes and start a massive influx of French royalist refugees into England and Scotland. Births of children in Scotland after 1789 with names that look like Dewick or Duick make one wonder about the connection between them and the French Revolution. Were they, in fact, the children of a French noble named 'de Wick'?