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Lost Scots’ Colony in France

Saint-Martin-D’Auxigny, nr. Bourges was considered a Scottish “colony” in France from 1425 to 1789 on land granted by Charles VII for Scots’ aid vs. the English. In 1810 locals still called themselves “L’écossais” and surnames like “du Perth” were still common.

For years the “colonists” married within themselves and spoke a strange mix of Scots and French. The town was “a protestant island in sea of French Papists”. In the 1870s churches in Scotland held benefits for the people of St.-Martin-D’Auxigny who were terribly impoverished.

References

Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette. 1st July 1871. pg. 4.

Duncan, J.D. (1890) St. Martin D’Auxigny, an old Scots colony in France, Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, 1(4): 544-549