Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/180

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168
FRENCH PROTESTANT EXILES
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Additions to Chapter XV.

(14.) Guy Miége was an industrious compiler, often associated with Boycr in educational publications. His department was to teach Frenchmen English, and Boyer’s to teach Englishmen French. Books, resembling our Almanac Lists, wore published annually by Chamberlain and other compilers. Miege edited “The Present State of Great Britain,” for 1707, and dedicated it to Henry de Grey, Marquis of Kent.

(15.) J. de la Heuze was employed by the first Earl of Warrington (better known by his former title, Lord Delamere) to be tutor to his son. And on the Earl’s death he printed his lordship’s papers, chiefly on the politics of the patriots of England, and dedicated the book to the son, who had succeeded his father as second Earl. The date is 1694, and in the dedicatory epistle he says, “you are become in a little time a great master of several languages and most parts of philosophy. . . . It is not enough for one in your lordship’s high station to be humanist, geographer, historian, and (I may add) a good man too; he must be also a statesman and a politician; but being neither myself, I must repeat that your lordship wants a better master. Amongst several of the most eminent men which I could recommend to your lordship, I found none so learned, nor indeed so fit to make deep impressions upon }our mind, as your lordship’s noble father, whose writings belong to you as well as his estate.”

Chapter XVI. (pp. 163-180.)

(1.) The Lord of Castelfranc (pp. 163, 164). A noble family, in possession of the chateau and lands of Castelfranc, near La Rochelle, was surnamed De Nautonnier, and its head had the title of Seigneur de Castelfranc. At the time of the siege of La Rochelle, the Seigneur was a clergyman. His eldest son and successor was the head of a family of Huguenot refugees. He himself, and his wife Marguerite Chamier, had at first to come to England alone, their three sons and six daughters having been taken prisoners in attempting to escape from France. Three of the daughters were detained, but in course of time were allowed to retire to Geneva. The six other children were put on board a French ship lor a penal settlement. The English captured the ship, and brought them to London, where they were set at liberty. Two of the refugee daughters married; one became Madame Testas, the other Madame Boudet. Three of the sons entered our army, two of whom were killed in action. The third survived, and spent his later years at Portarlington; he was styled Le Sieur Gedeon de Castelfranc. The old Seigneur had set out on a journey to Holland; his ship was taken by a privateer of Algiers, and he ended his days in slavery.

(2.) Pyniot de la Largére (pp. 164, 165). Samuel Pyniot, Lord de la Largére, a gentleman of Poitou, and Mary Henrietta Chatagner, his wife, and three children, were refugees in London. He died in 1699. He seems to have been related to the Cramahé family.

(3.) De la Cherois (pp. 165-167). This noble family bore the patronymic, De Choiseul, and the territorial title of De la Cherois. Three gentlemen and two ladies were refugees in Ireland. Daniel de la Cherois, the eldest brother, was educated to be a country gentleman; but having become a refugee in Holland, he entered the army, came to England with King William, and served in Ireland. He left the army in 1693, and made a fortune at Pondicherry. He married a Madeline Crommelin; his only child was Marie Angelique Madeline, Dowager Countess of Mount Alexander.

Nicholas, Major in our army, and Lieutenant-Colonel-elect, married Mary, sister of the great Crommelin; and Samuel, his son, and Madelaine, his daughter, each founded a family. Died 1706. See Chapter XXII.

The youngest brother, Bourjonval, Lieutenant in the army, was killed in 1690. The two sisters, Louise and Judith, died unmarried; the latter was aged 113.

(4.) Vicomte de Laval (pp. 167-171). The Vicomte De Laval had the surname of D’Ully, and claimed descent from Henri IV. His seat was the chateau of Goulencoeur in Picardy. His wife’s maiden name was Magdeleine de Schelandre. The noble couple suffered persecution and imprisonment in France, as to which the Vicomte left a narrative in manuscript (see pp. 168 to 171). He and his family settled at Portarlington.