History Back Drop: Huguenots and Religious Persecution

Huguenots was the name used by the French for refering to Protestants who were members of the Protestant Reformed Church. This was the church originally established in 1550 by John Calvin. French Catholics openly persecuted Huguenots from the mid 1500s into the 1700s for their differing Christian practices and threat to Catholic power. This persecution came with support from the Pope in Rome. At times Protestants were slaughtered by the hundreds. In one particularly nasty event, hundreds of guests were invited to a rare, Catholic – Protestant wedding. Upon their arrival, the Protestants were all slain.

During the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715) a policy of “one faith, one law, one king” was adopted in 1685. This new policy replaced a long standing “Edict of Nantes” which had brought relative peace between the faith groups. In the period from 1685 to 1700 at least 250,000 Huguenots fled France to countries such as England, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, America, the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa. These were countries that either accepted or tolerated their faith views, or where Protestantism was the embraced by the reigning government. During the same period of 1685 to 1700, another 250,000 Huguenots did not escape and were executed. -

Dukelow from DuCloux: Dukelows Likely French Immigrants to Ireland in 1600s

The Dukelow surname is very likely an anglicized form of one of French family name of Ducloux (or one of its variants: Duclou, and Duclos). The change of the Ducloux surname change likely occurred when our Protestant Huguenot ancestors fled from religious persecution in France and emigrated into England and Ireland. This emigration occurred around the year 1685 during the reign of France’s Louis XIV.

The Ducloux families who fled to Ireland no doubt wanted to fit into their newly adopted homeland. The ‘oux’ ending on their name made this problematic. Those literate in English would find French ending of ‘oux’ odd, difficult to pronounce properly and flag of an emigrant French family. So the ending morphed into a more readily spelled and pronounced ‘low.’

As far as the start of the name goes, it is a really a small step to get “Duke” from “Duc” when speaking with a Irish brough. In addition, the families surely recognized that in both France and their new Irish homeland they were governed by a crown that includes a royalty class called Dukes. The use of ‘Duke’ in the first syllable may have intimated the family had connections to royalty. By way of all of these elements, the “Dukelow” spelling better suited the family and the “DuCloux” spelling fell out of common use in Ireland.

The French Ducloux name is a conjunction of two words: du Cloux, meaning “of the” (or from) and the place name “Cloux.” Cloux is a small village in the center of France. Many original French surnames frequently told of where a person was from. For example, someone with the given name of Jean Claude might be asked from where he comes, and the natural reply being “I’m Jean Claude du Cloux.”

The "cloux" may indicate that the area was a small valley forming a small region. This word appears to be related in language to other words describing boxed-in spaces such as closet and enclosure.
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