Tradition has it that the Minier family were French Huguenots. These
Protestants who after long and bitter fighting were enjoying religious freedom
under the Edict of Nantes, proclaimed in 1598. However, in 1685 this edict
was revoked and who provinces emptied as the Huguenots refused to live under
this intolerance and exiled themselves to other countries.
His son Christian's mariage record describes Wilhelm as an "armorer, master
of the forge, in the service of the Count of Hohenlohe at Ernstbach."324