Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/363

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
groups of refugees.
349

following is the title of the French edition:— “La Silence du Fidelle dans l’Affliction, ou Sermon sur le Pseaume xxxix. 9 prononcé dans la Chapelle des Grecs le Dimanche de la Trinité 1712, a l’occasion de la Persecution renouvellée en France, avec un ample preface pour la justification du Sermon.” The preface extended to 112 pages. On the occasion of the Scotch Rebellion, he took occasion to expose the dogmata of Dr. Sacheverell and the Jacobites, in a sermon preached on 7th June 1716, on the day of thanksgiving for the success of our arms:— “La Faction de la Grande Bretagne caracteriseée et confondue — sur ces paroles de St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 26, En perils entre faux frères, ou l’on refute cc qu’il y a d’essential dans le Discours du Docteur S___l sur ces mêmes paroles.” In 1718 (says Paynes) he published, “An Appeal to the British Nation, or the French Protestants, and the Honest Proselytes [from Romanism], vindicated from the calumnies of Malard and his associates; with an account of the state of the French Churches in this Kingdom.” His last printed sermon was on an occasion of the King having returned from Hanover; Du Bourdieu thought it expedient to hint to the English that the refugees could observe their prejudices and the fickleness of their hospitable resolves. The sermon is entitled:— “Mephiboseth, ou le caractère d’un bon sujet — sermon sur 2 Sam. xix. 30, prononcé le 5 Janvier 1724 (n.s.), sur le retour du Roi de la Grande Bretagne dans son royaume et dans son palais.” I translate the following sentence which provoked many remarks (as doubtless the preacher intended that it should):— “But if (which God the Protector of the afflicted will never permit) necessity should force the Prince to suspend payment of the Royal Bounty, beware of murmuring at that. Remember that the love of religion commands you to prefer the conservation and prosperity of that august House to your own subsistence — to life itself; and say with Mephibosheth, Let them take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house.”

The death of this Divine occurred in the latter part of the year 1726, soon after which his curate succeeded to the Rectory of Sawtrey Moynes. From the proceedings in the Court of Probate, on nth July 1727, it appears that at the time of his death he was a widower, and that he left one son, Samuel [Saumarez?], and two daughters, Margaretta-Henrietta, and Esther. These children having declined to serve themselves heirs to his estate, a commission was granted to Peter Quantiteau, the principal creditor of John Armand Dubourdieu, late of the Parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. In 1727 Luke Stokoe, auctioneer, of Coventry Court, Haymarket, issued a sale-catalogue entitled, Bibliotheca Dubourdienana.

Mr. John Armand Dubourdieu had a wife named Charlotte.[1] The Ulster Journal says she was Comtesse d’Espuage. Their son was named Saumarez, after M. Saumarez, Bailiff of Guernsey (the above-quoted Letters of Administration call him Samuel, a clerical error). He was born on 1st September 1717; and the baptism is entered in the register of Les Grecs on the 4th, of Saumarez, fils de Monsieur Jean Armand Dubourdieu, ministre de la Savoye, et Charlotte. He was taken to Ireland on his father’s death by his refugee grandmother’s relations. He was minister of the French Church of Lisburn for forty-five years.



Chapter XVII.

GROUPS OF REFUGEES — (1.) LADIES. (2.) OFFICERS. (3.) CLERGY. (4.) MEDICAL MEN. (5.) MERCHANTS.

I. Ladies.[2]

1. Mademoiselle Guichard was the governess in the Chateau of St. Jean de Gardonenque, to the family of the Marquis de Montvaillant, in the year 1689. The castle was used as a prison, and in that year one of the prisoners was a Huguenot preacher, Monsieur Roman, described as a proposant or divinity student. One day she heard that the following morning was appointed for his execution. She planned his rescue and attempted it at midnight. “It required (says a narrator) that she

  1. Probably she was his second wife. In the Parish Register of Hammersmith there is the following register of a burial:— 1705, May 21st, Charlotte Eliza, dau. of Mr. John Harmand Debourdieu, a French minister, and Esther.
  2. This group includes worthy female descendants of refugees.