the sum of £500, which I give to my nephew Claudius Groteste, son of Mr. De la Bufnerre, my elder brother, and the heirs of the said legatary, which said sum shall only be paid, as is said, after the decease of my wife. And as niy family has advanced to me several sums for which I ought to be accountable to it, I thought it justice to cause part of my effects to return to them to make them amends, hoping that my dear spouse, in case of need, would confirm this present legacy, the equity of which she hath acknowledged, that is to say, that after her decease I give to Mr. James Groteste sieur de la Bufierre, my eldest brother, and to his heirs, £1200, the like sum to Mr. Groteste, advocate of the Parliament, my younger brother, the like sum to Mr. John Robethon, Privy Councillor of Embassies of his Electoral Highness of Brunswick, the said sieur representing Mr. Robethon, his father. In case Mr. Robethon, my nephew, should not be living at the time of the decease of my dear wife, I intend that the sum of £1200, which I have bequeathed to him, do pass to the heirs of his blood. I give to my dear wife full power to dispose in property of the surplus of my said effects which shall be found, my aforesaid legacies being paid. And I name her Executrix of this Will, and in default of her, Mr. John Robethon my nephew.
Done at Chelsea, the third of September 1713. Signed and sealed by me in the presence of the underwritten witnesses for that purpose required.
John Bardin. Franc Duneau. Cosmo Duneau.
Proved by Mary Groteste de la Mothe, relict and executrix, London, 6th October 1713.
X. Rev. Alexandre Descairac.
Alexandre Descairac, born in 1637, was educated at Montauban, and became the Reformed Pasteur of Le Fleix in 1665, but was translated in the following year to Sauvetat. He married Mademoiselle La Brue, daughter of a distinguished military engineer, and sister of Madame Rigaud. His last church in France was Bergerac, in the province of Guienne, where he settled in 1677, and from whence he removed by command of the Revocation Edict in October 1685. Being in Bordeaux as a traveller, he brought himself under the lash of the law by conducting family worship for his host. He wrote a narrative of his subsequent adventures, which is preserved in manuscript[1] by the Rigaud family, by whom I have been obligingly furnished with the following summary:— “In consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the orders of the French court for all the Protestant clergy to leave the kingdom in a fortnight, M. Descairac went to Bordeaux. He lodged in the house of a friend, who desired him to read prayers, and he considered it to be contrary to his duty to refuse. A female servant, who had been permitted to attend, betrayed him (as he was told) to the jurats of the city; he was seized and sent to prison. They visited him there four or five times every day, and pressed him to abjure his faith, as the evidence was so strong, and the king’s orders so precise, that they could not otherwise avoid condemning him to the galleys. He resisted; but the magistrates importuned him at least to comply with the outward ceremony of going over to the Roman Catholic faith. To this he was at last induced to submit, by the fear of the utter ruin which otherwise hung over his family. He resolutely refused, however, to go to church, or to do more than sign an abjuration either in prison or in a private room. This was contrary to the directions of the Church; but when the archbishop was consulted, and assured that more could not be obtained, he consented to dispense with his own orders in this respect. Having regained his liberty, M. Descairac endeavoured to send his family out of the country. The ship in which his wife embarked was burnt, and the report was that none on board had escaped but a few sailors. Notwithstanding this, he sent his two eldest daughters, who could not embark with their mother, on board another vessel. [These had a difficulty in escaping, and one of them was obliged to be concealed, when the vessel was searched, in a coil of ropes.] About this time the Jurats of Bordeaux, having had information of his intention to escape with his family out of the kingdom, were about to seize him, when he fled to Paris, thinking it might be more easy from thence to put his intentions into execution. He remained there a month, but to no purpose. He then went into Normandy, and, returning through Paris, went to Brittany, and after visiting several seaports, he went to Rochelle, but the watchfulness of the government was so great that he found no means of getting away. He then came to Bordeaux. But the rigour there was greater than ever, and left him no hope of
- ↑ This precious heirloom is known in the family as the De Schirac Manuscript; the ink has faded very much, and in a few places the words are nearly obliterated. The late very eminent Professor Rigaud made a fair copy of it, and drew up a summary. He, however, quite mistook the surname. There is a list of necessitous ministers, drawn up by themselves in 1695 (M.S. Treasury Papers, Vol. 35), and one of the names is Desqueirac, aged fifty-eight. In the Bristol French Church Register, each baptismal entry is followed by the perfectly distinct surname, Descairac. See D’Hozier’s Armorial General de la France for an account of Hugues D’Escairac, Seigneur d’Escairac (whose wife was alive on 11th June 1556), and his descendants.
