masters of the Academy, persons skilled in horses and “esteemed of the best in Europe.”
On 20th January 1728, King George II. made Henry Foubert and Peter Voyer Richaussée, Esquires, equerries of the crown stables. That the Major Foubert, who was at the victory of “The Boyne,” was a son of the founder of the Riding Academy, appears from the obituary notice in the Gentleman’s Magazine:— “Died, 13th Feb. 1743, Major Foubert, who signalized himself at the Battle of the Boyne and to the end of that war [1698], when by King William’s command he took on him the management of the Royal Academy.”
I find the following letter to the Earl of Bute in the British Museum (Musgrave Collection of Autographs):—
“My Lord, The last time I had the honour and happiness of seeing your Lordship I then took the liberty to mention my pension of an one Hundred and fifty Pound pr Annm which His Majesty was most graciously pleased to grant me when Prince of Wales. You was then so good and so very obliging as to assure me you would take care of it, and as my Lord Bathurst’s office is at an end, and hearing that some gentlemen had received their pensions on that List, encouraged me to wait on Mr. Walcup yesterday, but to my great disappointment he told me my name was not on the list. As your Lordship is no stranger to the many difficulties that attended me in regard to my Uncle Foubert’s disappointments which all fell on me — which I hope will plead my excuse in presuming to give this trouble, and to most humbly beg your Protection and Favour. I am, with the greatest respect imaginable, &c.
“Fryday, May 15, 1761.
I find a Lieutenant, Peter Foubert, quartered at Tilbury Fort on 22nd October 1762. (The surname is in the Portarlington register.)
6. Captain Louis Geneste Pelras de Cajare fought at the Boyne in Cambon’s regiment. His surname was Geneste. On retiring from the service he lived at Lisburn till his death, except during the interval between 1724 to 1731, when he resided in the Isle of Man, where his son, Louis Geneste, afterwards settled. The son of the latter visited Beargues in France, the estate belonging to his ancestors, and found Genestes in possession of one half of it in 1792.
[The Rev. Hugh A. Stowell informs me that it is a mistake to credit the Stowells with Geneste blood, though they have repeatedly been in affinity with members and connections of the Geneste family. My reverend correspondent’s eminent father was the late Rev. Hugh Stowell, Canon of Chester, whose father, the Rev. Hugh Stowell, Rector of Ballaugh, in the Isle of Man, published a Memoir of Francis de la Pryme Geneste. That lamented youth, who died in 1826, aged twenty-one, was the fourth son of Lewis Geneste, Esq., by Catherine De la Pryme: the other sons were, Lewis, Charles, and (Rev.) Maximilian. Commander Lewis Geneste, R.N., was the son of Charles, and married Mary, a daughter of Maximilian ]
7. Major Abel Pelissier was the son of Abel Pelissier and Anne-Nicolas, of Castres in Languedoc. When he retired from the service, owing to the disbanding of the French regiments, he was Aide-Major and Mareschal-des-logis in Galway’s Horse. He had hardly found a home in Portarlington, when in 1698 he married Marie, daughter of Caesar de Choisy, a refugee from Poitou, by his deceased wife, Marie Gilbert de Chef-boutonne. Their children were Abel, Alexandre, Jean, Jacques, Angelique, and Marie. The second son, born in 1701, was Alexander Pelissier, merchant, of Dame Street, Dublin.
8. Peter Petit, Esq. was Quartermaster-General of the Light Horse of France. He married Madame du Quesne, née Susanne Monnier, who had a son to her first husband, named Abraham Du Quesne, “Captain of one of the King of France his ships.” Monsieur and Madame Petit, “being gone out of France through the persecution exercised against those of the true reformed religion, were forced to leave there almost all their estates.” They retired to the Hague, where on 18th April 1687 he made his Will, being then a Major of horse in the army of the States-General. All his own and his wife’s property was declared to be the property of the survivor unconditionally. And it was directed that the children, Armand Louis Petit and Isaac Francis Petit, should have “a good education, and in the fear of God;” and that in the survivor’s ultimate settlement the young Du Quesne should have an equal share with each of the two Petits. The Will was proved in London by Mrs. Petit on the 12th January 1698.
9. Brigadier Louis Petit (I give the rank to which he rose in our army) was a refugee from the neighbourhood of Caen, and a member of the Norman family of Petit des Etans. Some of his services were chronicled by Narcisus Luttrell:—
