Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/402

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388
french protestant exiles.

Camomile Street, was born in 1774, and died in 1850; his daughter, Mary Louisa, was married to Richard Grellier, Esq., and her brothers were William and James Peter André (the latter being the father of James Lewis André).

XV. Olivier.

What I have to note regarding this family I owe to “Burke’s Landed Gentry,"” and to my correspondent, Henry Wagner, F.S.A. The Oliviers were an old family of Nay — a father, son, and grandson, Laurent (1520), Bernard (1550), and Pierre 0575) begin the pedigree. Pierre’s son Isaac was born in 1600, and married in 1630 a lady of noble birth, named Isabeau de Masselin; he died in 1671. Their son was Jourdain Olivier, pasteur of Pau, married in 1677 Anne Day; he became a refugee in Holland in 1683; his sons were Jerome (born 1687) and Daniel, minister at Amsterdam (born 1694). Jerome married a lady, the niece of a Huguenot martyr, Julie, daughter of Joseph de la Motte. Jerome’s son was Daniel Josias Olivier, banker in the house of Vanech (also described as a merchant of London), born 19th July 1722, married 30th June 1750 Susanne, daughter of Jaques Massé, by Marie, daughter of Jaques Louis Berchère. Mr. Olivier died in 1782; his son was Rev. Daniel Stephen Olivier, Rector of Clifton, Bedfordshire (born 1755, died 1826), who was succeeded in his rectory by his son, Rev. Daniel Josias Olivier (born 1789), who had five sons and seven daughters, the third son being John Josias Conybeare Olivier (born 1825), father of Charles. The junior rector’s second son became a landowner, and was Lieut-Colonel Henry Stephen Olivier of Potterne Manor House, Wilts (born 1796) and now represented by Rev. Henry Arnold Olivier, M.A., Rector of Poulshot (born 1826), and by other children and grandchildren. (See Burke.)



Chapter XIX.

REFUGEES BEING CONVERTS FROM ROMANISM.

1. Rev. John Francis Bion was born at Dijon, 24th June 1668. He was curate of Ursy, in the province of Burgundy, and thereafter almoner of the convict galley La Superbe. The torments inflicted on the Protestants, and the fortitude, patience, and humility of the sufferers, led him to inquire into their faith. “It was wonderful to see (he writes), with what true Christian patience and constancy they bore their torments, in the extremity of their pain never expressing any rage, but calling upon Almighty God, and imploring His assistance. I visited them day by day. . . . . At last, their wounds, like so many mouths, preached to me, made me sensible of my error, and experimentally taught me the excellency of the Protestant religion.” On his conversion, in the year 1704, he retired to Geneva. Thence he came to London, and for a time he was rector of a school, and minister of a church in Chelsea. He published at London, in 1708, his Relation des tourmens que l’on fait souffrir aux Protestans qui sont sur les galères de France. And in the same year and place he issued an English translation entitled “An Account of the Torments the French Protestants endure aboard the galleys.” Ultimately he settled in Holland as an English chaplain.

2. Charles Charlot, called D’Argenteuil, was a Romanist curate in France, and on his conversion to Protestantism he took refuge in England. He was pastor in several of the French churches in London. In 1699 he preached in the church called Le Tabernacle. He was also an author. (Smiles’ Huguenots.)

3. John Gagnier was born at Paris about 1670. He was educated at the College of Navarre, being a Romanist by birth; and, in due time, he took orders in the Romish Church, and was a canon-regular of St. Genevieve. Becoming convinced of his errors, he left France for England, and embraced Protestantism. He was certified to be a fine oriental scholar, specially in Hebrew and Arabic, and received degrees both from Oxford and Cambridge. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, made him one of his chaplains, and in 1715 he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Oxford. His writings were on rabbinical lore, Mahometanisin, and other subjects connected with his chair, which he filled with honour, he died 2nd March 1740, and left a son, John, of Wadham College, Oxford, B.A. in 1740, and M.A. in 1743, Rector of Stranton, in the diocese of Durham.