The Hospital for French Protestants and their Descendants Residing in Great Britain arose from a bequest made in 1708 by a Huguenot refugee, Jacques de Gastigny, Master of the King's Buckhounds at the court of King William and Queen Mary, and was granted a Royal charter by King George I in 1718. For more than two hundred and fifty years "La Providence", as poor Huguenot refugees and their families called it, provided shelter and care " for those among us who are in distress", first in the City of London and from 1865 in Hackney. Its present home, which was originally Theobald Square, was opened in 1959 after restoration and re-arrangement into flats housing elderly people of Huguenot descent, who require private accommodation but with help always at hand in sickness and emergency. Under a new charter granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 the direction of "La Providence" remains in the hands of a Governor, Deputy Governor and Directors, who are honoured to maintain this "monument to the piety of their ancestors".