referred to the Colloquy, the doctor contending he could hold both appointments; his son, Nathaniel, was sent from Norwich School to Bennet College, Cambridge, as a Norwich scholar.” (3.) A respectable tradesman in Walbrook, London, surnamed Calamy, was a native of Guernsey. His son was the Rev. Edmund Calamy, B.D. (died 1666), a leading Presbyterian Divine, who, at the King’s Restoration, refused a bishopric, author of “The Godly Man’s Ark,” &c. This reverend gentleman (who contributed the letters E C to the name of Smectymnuus) had four sons, viz., the Rev. Edmund Calamy, M.A., of Cambridge, a non-conformist, (died 1685), Rev. Benjamin Calamy, D.D., a celebrated Anglican clergyman, (tutor to James Bonnell, Esq.), the Rev. James Calamy, M.A. of Cambridge, Prebendary of Exeter (died 1714). and [Rev. ?] John. Only the first of these left an heir, viz., Edmund. This was the most distinguished Edmund Calamy, D.D. (born 1671, died 1731) a very voluminous author on Church History, Non-Conformity, the French Prophets, and Practical Divinity. His interesting manuscript, entitled “An Historical Account of my own Life,” was printed in 1829, and in it he writes, “I have been informed by some of the oldest of my relations . . . that my grandfather, applying to the Herald Office about his coat-of-arms, was there certified that there was an old town and castle that bore his name on the Norman coast, which belonged to his ancestors.”
For some of the facts in the above paragraph I am indebted to Mr. Smiles, to whom I owe all my knowledge of Briot. Nicholas Briot was a gentleman of Lorraine, the reputed inventor of the coining-press, and graver of the mint to Louis XIII. But unable to submit to serious religious disabilities as a Huguenot, he withdrew, as a voluntary exile, into England, and in 1626 became chief-engraver to the London Mint, through the patronage of King Charles I. In 1633 he received an appointment in Edinburgh, and in 1635 succeeded Sir John Foulis as Master of the Mint in Scotland, in 1637 his daughter Esther was married to Sir John Falconer, and this son-in-law was conjoined with Nicholas Briot in his office. Briot, however, returned to England on the out-break of the civil war; he secured for the king’s service all the coining apparatus of the nation, and finally is said to have died of grief on his royal patron’s death. Sir John Falconer was of the Halkerstoun family and ancestor of the Falconers of Phesdo.[1] Mr Smiles enumerates several fine medals executed by Briot, who “possessed the genius of a true artist.”
Thomas D’Urfey,[2] dramatic and song writer, (better known as Tom D’Urfey), was of Huguenot descent. At a much earlier date than the revocation, his parents came from La Rochelle to Exeter, where he was born in 1653. Addison says in the Guardian No. 67, 28th May 1713:— “I myself remember King Charles II. leaning on Tom D’Urfey’s shoulder more than once and humming over a song with him. It is certain that that monarch was not a little supported by ‘Joy to Great Caesar,’ which gave the Whigs such a blow as they were not able to recover that whole reign. My friend afterwards attacked Popery with the same success, having exposed Bellarmine and Porto-Carrero more than once in short satirical compositions which have been in everybody’s mouth. He has made use of Italian tunes and sonatas to promote the Protestant interest, and turned a considerable part of Pope’s music against himself” He also satirized the Harley-Bolingbroke ministry, for he took the true refugee view of the Peace of Utrecht, as a bad bargain for Britain and for the Protestant interest:
“A ballad to their merit may
Most justly then belong.
For, why! they've given all (I say)
To Louis for a song.”
The zeal of Dryden for Romanism may be regarded as partly explaining the severity of his criticism upon D’Urfey. I allude to the following recorded dialogue:—
“A gentleman returning from one of D’Urfey’s plays the first night it was acted, said to
