A liberty is an area of a borough outside the jurisdiction of the local authorities, and in Dublin these institutions go back a very long way into the Middle Ages when they were places outside the city walls. There were traditionally fifteen liberties, and for centuries the symbolic defending of the liberty boundaries was a grand affair. These areas were at one time in the possession of the Earl of Meath, and it was through him that the Huguenot weavers were brought into the area; these were Protestants persecuted in France, particularly after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which had previously given them protection) in 1685.