II. La Marquise de Ruvigny.
Madame la Marquise de Ruvigny, in her widowhood, is separately memorialised, because (as the reader will perceive) historical inquirers have thus a vein opened up for further research. On the death of her aged husband in 1689, her younger son was with his regiment in Ireland. Her grief at his death, in the prime of life and at the height of promise, is alluded to in Lady Russell’s letter. And Dumont de Bostaquet says, as to the royal gift of the colonelcy of Schomberg’s Horse to her eldest son, that “she was little elated by the gift of such a magnificent regiment, seeing in it nothing but the exposure of her dear and only surviving son to the perils of that Irish war, which had deprived her of La Caillemotte.”
Greenwich was her place of abode up to this date. Mr. Baynes says, “The Dowager Marchioness De Ruvigny had a residence at Blackheath.”
From the Earl of Galway’s will, it appears that she made her will on 14th May 1698, but where the will was deposited I cannot ascertain. The date of her death is not preserved, but it probably was May 1698, or soon after, as may be inferred from the following communication to our ambassador in Paris, the Earl of Manchester:—
“Whitehall, July 17, 1699. . . . I am likewise to put into your Lordship’s hands a petition of my Lady Russell concerning her pretensions to the estate of the late Marquis De Ruvigny, her uncle — the memorial of Sir William Douglas — the petition of Monsieur Le Bas, Mareshal of the Ceremonies, and the case of Mrs Mary Cardins, who all pray to be restored to their estates in France as is more fully contained in the papers herewith delivered to your Lordship.”
Louis XIV. met such petitions by alleging that to repossess the memorialists was to dispossess the present occupiers, thus disobliging as many persons as would be obliged. This apology did not in honesty apply to the Ruvigny estate, as it was not given away until 31st March 1711, at which date the king gave to Cardinal de Polignac “la confiscation des biens de Monsieur de Ruvigny, qui s’appelle en Angleterre Milord Galway.”
III. Colonel Ruvigny De Cosne.
Pierre Tallemant, banker in Paris, was by his second wife the father of Marie, Marquise De Ruvigny. But he had a daughter by Elizabeth Bidault, his first wife, who was named Elizabeth, and was married to Francois Le Venier, Sieur de La Grossetiere. In honour of this brother-in-law, the Marquis De Ruvigny named his third son Francois. This child (according to Haag) was presented for baptism by Francois Le Venier and Marie Tallemant, 6th Feb. 1656, and died before the Revocation. The Ruvigny and Le Venier families thus appear to have been intimate. Aimee Le Venier de la Grossetière, probably a niece of the Marchioness, was married to Pierre De Cosne, a refugee gentleman in Southampton, a native of La Beauce, Province of Orleans.[1]
The family of Cosne, originally from Dauphiny, had been settled in La Beauce since the fifteenth century. The first on record is Pasquier de Cosne, Seigneur de Houssay et de Chavernay. He left two sons, of whom Charles (the younger) founded the branch of Cosne-Houssay. The elder son, Jean, was the head of the Cosne-Chavernay branch, and his great-grandson, Jacques, Sieur de Chavernay, was gentleman of the bedchamber to Henri IV. Jacques’ representative was his son Daniel de Cosne, Sieur de Chavernay, whose first marriage was solemnised in 1636, and whose second wife was Susanne Des Radretz; by the latter he had seventeen children.
The name of Pierre is found in both branches of the house of Cosne, but most frequently in the Chavernay branch. Captain De Cosne Chavernay came over with William of Orange, and commanded a company of gentlemen volunteers; he was Lieutenant-Colonel of Belcastel’s regiment at the taking of Athlone in 1691. I have no proof that Pierre De Cosne was a brother of that officer; but there is room for the two in the family of seventeen already mentioned. And if anything can be inferred from the probability of relations choosing the same town as a residence, it
- ↑ It is a probable conjecture that she was his second wife; for there was a Peter De Cosne, probably the offspring of a previous marriage. This Peter De Cosne married, 1st, Louisa Aimee de la Maugère, and 2ndly, Ann Boirousseau. He administered to the estate of his first wife on 3rd September 1720, and to his second wife’s estate on 22nd August 1744.
