Hampshire, aged 110, Mr Cordelon, a native of France; and in the No. for January 1772 the death is announced, as having occurred at Rumsey in the previous month, of “Mr Cordelon, a French refugee, aged 107.”
ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS.
CHAPTER XXX.
Refugees, being Converts from Romanism.
(1.) Rev. John Francis Bion was born at Dijon, 24th June 1668. He was curate of Ursy, in the province of Burgundy, and thereafter almoner of the convict galley La Superbe. The torments inflicted on the Protestants, and the fortitude, patience, and humility of the sufferers led him to inquire into their faith. “It was wonderful to see (he writes) with what true Christian patience and constancy they bore their torments, in the extremity of their pain never expressing any rage, but calling upon Almighty Cod, and imploring His assistance. I visited them day by day . . . . At last, their wounds, like so many mouths, preached to me, made me sensible of my error, and experimentally taught me the excellency of the Protestant religion.” On his conversion, in the year 1704, he retired to Geneva. Thence he came to London, and for a time he was rector of a school, and minister of a church in Chelsea. He published at London, in 1708, his Relation des tourmens que l’on fait souffrir aux Protestans qui sont sur les galères de France. And in the same year and place he issued an English translation entitled “An Account of the Torments the French Protestants endure aboard the galleys.” Ultimately he settled in Holland as an English chaplain.
(2.) Rev. Francis Durant de Brevall was a member of a monastic order, and was one of the preachers to Queen Henrietta Maria. The exact date of his conversion to Protestantism I cannot find, but he preached in the London French Church in the Savoy in October 1669. His sermon was generally applauded, but on Sunday, 17th October, the Superior of the Capuchins at Somerset House rudely assailed him, and denounced the sermon as infamous and abominable. It was therefore translated into English, and published with the title “Faith in the Just victorious over the World, a Sermon preached at the Savoy in the French Church, on Sunday, October 10, 1669, by Dr Brevall, heretofore preacher to the Queen Mother; translated into English by Dr Du Moulin, Canon of Canterbury, London. Printed for Will. Nolt, and are to be sold at the Queen’s-Arms in the Pell-Mell, 1670.” The text was 1 John v. 4; and the heads of discourse were (1.) Who are those which are born of God? (2.) What victory they obtain over the world. (3.) What this faith is which makes them obtain the victory. In May 1671 he was made a prebendary of Rochester. On 11th February 1672 (n.s.) John Evelyn notes:— “In the afternoon that famous proselyte, Monsieur Prevail, preached at the Abbey in English extremely well, and with much eloquence; he had been a Capuchin, but much better learned than most of that order.” He was made a Prebendary of Westminster, 21st Nov. 1675, and in the same year he was, by royal command created S. T. P. of Cambridge. He died 26th January 1708 (n.s.), and was buried in Westminster Abbey. By Susanna Samoline, his wife (who died 4th July 1719, aged 73), he had three sons, Theophilus, Henry and John Durant, and four daughters, Dorothy, Catherine, Frances, wife of Stephen Monginot Dampierre, and Mary Ann. His youngest son, known as Captain Breval, was an author of poems, and of several folio volumes of travels, well printed and illustrated; before entering the army he was M.A. and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, but was deprived of his fellowship in 1708; the Duke of Marlborough employed him in negotiations, and promoted him in the army. Captain John Durant Breval died at Paris in January 1739 (n.s.).
