This collection of essays discusses how, between 1550 and 1750, tens of thousands of immigrants, many of them religious refugees escaping persecution on the European continent, settled in Britain, its colonies, and in Ireland. The writing details how the immigrants brought with them their formidable energies and talents and quickly assimilated themselves into the host society. The works range from general considerations of trends towards integration in the immigrant communities to detailed case-studies of the movement into British society of individual immigrants; from studies of popular attitudes and government policy towards the newcomers to examinations of relations within the immigrant communities themselves and their structures for self-sufficiency. The immigrants' contributions to art, scholarship, manufacturing, theology, and politics are also explored.

This collection of essays discusses how, between 1550 and 1750, tens of thousands of immigrants, many of them religious refugees escaping persecution on the European continent, settled in Britain, its colonies, and in Ireland. The writing details how the immigrants brought with them their formidable energies and talents and quickly assimilated themselves into the host society. The works range from general considerations of trends towards integration in the immigrant communities to detailed case-studies of the movement into British society of individual immigrants; from studies of popular attitudes and government policy towards the newcomers to examinations of relations within the immigrant communities themselves and their structures for self-sufficiency. The immigrants' contributions to art, scholarship, manufacturing, theology, and politics are also explored.