father, which he buried within the temple of Aubonne in the Canton de Vaud: the epitaph is in gilded letters on a black marble tablet:—
Siste gradum, Viator!
Hie conditur cor invicti herois,
Nobilissimi ac illustrissimi Abraham Du Quesne
Marchionis, Baronis, Dominique du Quesne, de Walgrand,
de Quervicard, d’Indrette, &c.
Classium Gallicorum Praefecti —
Cujus anima in coelis,
Corpus nondum ullibi sepultum,
Nec unquam sepelientur praeclara gesta.
Si a te ignorari queant tanti viri
Incorrupta erga principem fides,
Imperterritus in proeliis animus,
Singularis in consiliis sapientia,
Generosum et excelsum pectus,
Ardens pro verâ religione Zelus,
Interroga aulam, exercitum, ecclesiam,
Imò Europam, Asiam, Africam, utrumque pelagus.
Verùm si quaeras
Cur fortissimo Ruitero superbum erectum sit mausoleum,
Ruiteri Victori nullum,
Respondere vetat latè Regnantis reverentia.
Hoc sui luctûs ac pietatis ergà patrem triste momumentum maestus
et lacrymans posuit Henricus ejus primogenitus,
hujusce toparchiae Dynasta et ecclesias Patronus.
Anno 1700.
The junior marquis took up a good position in public life as a friend of the French Protestants. Luttrell writes on Tuesday, 14th June 1709, “Monsieur du Quesne, a French Protestant, presented on Sunday a letter to Her Majesty from the King of Prussia about the reformed churches in France, and a petition in the name of above a million of these poor people who groan under a most severe persecution. She assured him that she had already given her ministers abroad instructions concerning the same, and will do further whatever lies in her power.” “19th July — The Marquis du Quesne, having received a letter wrote by Her Majesty to the King of Prussia in answer to one she lately received from him in favour of the reformed churches in France, goes hence for Berlin with all expedition.”
When Philip V. of Spain aspired to the Regency of France, and employed Scipion Soulan as an emissary to stir up rebellion in the south of France against the Regent (Duke of Orleans), that shivering and dastardly Duke invoked Protestant aid, got a refugee officer from England to deal with the French Protestants of the south, and implored the influence of Pastqur Basnage of the Hague, and Professor Pictet of Geneva. The Marquis du Quesne happened to be in Paris; and the Regent sent for him and consulted. This was in May 1719. By Du Quesne’s advice, M. Genac de Beaulicu, a Protestant nobleman of Dauphiny, was selected as an envoy, to obtain assurances of the loyalty of the Protestants and to suggest a temporary suspension of their assemblies for Public Worship. The spokesman of the Protestants of the south were the pasteur Antoine Court, and the Sieur Benjamin Du Plan, a gentleman of Alais. They satisfied M. de Beaulieu that their loyalty was unimpeachable, that their worshippers did not carry arms, and that if Soulan came among them they would deliver him up to justice, on condition that he should not be put to death; a report to this effect was sent to the Marquis du Quesne. The government declared it to be satisfactory; and De Beaulieu assured Du Plan that the cessation of the assemblies would no longer be insisted on.[1]
In 1718, Henry, Marquis Du Quesne, was Lieutenant and Lieut.-Colonel of the first troop of Horse Grenadier Guards, commanded by Colonel Fane. He died at Geneva in 1722.
The second son of the French Admiral was Abraham Du Quesne, Capitaine de Vaisseau, who died in England, a Protestant refugee. Gabriel Du Quesne, his son, probably a military officer, was in 1725-6 Commissioner of Fortifications in the English service at Port-Royal, Jamaica; he defended his conduct in a pamphlet published in 1728. He was living in 1735 in Old Bond Street, London. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Bradshaugh, Bart., of Haigh, Lancashire, and was the father of the Rev. Thomas Roger Du Quesne (born 1717, died 1793),
- ↑ Bonnefon’s Benjamin Du Plan; London, 1878; chapter 6.
