 On April 12, 1883, the Society was inaugurated by a group of descendants of Huguenots who had fled persecution in France and who (or whose descendants) settled in what is now the United States of America.The purpose of the Society is primarily to promote the cause of religious freedom and to perpetuate the memory of the Huguenot settlers.Its first president was John Jay—lawyer, diplomat, abolitionist, and grandson of the first Chief Justice of the United States.