married, and had a son, William, who was in 1731, being of the age of fourteen, admitted a pupil of Westminster School. William Fraigneau was elected from Westminster to the University of Cambridge in 1736. “William, son of John Fraigneau of London, aged nineteen, pupil of Westminster Public School under Dr. Nichols, was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, 24th June 1736, Mr. Holme, tutor.” He became B.A. in 1739, M.A. in 1743, and a Fellow of Trinity College. The Cambridge Professor of Greek, Walter Taylor, M.A., died on 25th February 1744, and Mr. Fraigneau succeeded to his chair. Cole, the University Chronicler, describes Professor Fraigneau as “a little man of great life and vivacity,” and we may therefore conclude that he was not undistinguished during the six years of his professorship, although disinclined to settle. In 1750 he resigned his chair, and left Cambridge to become tutor to Frederick, third Viscount St. John, who, in 1751, became second Viscount Bolingbroke. By that nobleman he was made Vicar of Battersea in 1758, and he became also the Rector of Beckenham in 1765. He died at Brighton (then called Brighthelmstone) on 12th September 1778, where there is a tablet to his memory:—
H. S. E.
Reverendus Gulielmus Fraigneau, A.M.
olim Coll. S.S. Trin. Socius et Linguae Graecae
professor in Academiâ Cantabrigiensi
nuper Rector de Beckenham in com. Cantii et
Vicarius de Battersea in com. Surriae.
Demainbray. — A noble Huguenot family, bearing the surname of Triboudet and the title of De Mainbray, took refuge in Holland, and a son was made a page of honour to Princess Mary of Orange. This young man came over to England in 1688-9, and was page to Queen Mary. This was the first Mr. Triboudet Demainbray in this kingdom. He married a daughter of Rev. Alexandre Descairac, late one of the refugee pasteurs of Bristol. His son, Stephen Charles Triboudet Demainbray, was born on 20th February 1710, n.s.; he was highly educated, and becoming an eminent man of science, he received the degree of LL.D. He was appointed tutor to George III., when Prince of Wales, to the Duke of York, and others of the Royal Family, in the departments of natural history and the physical science. He gave his instructions in the form of lectures on natural philosophy, chiefly electricity and astronomy, in the year 1753. When his senior royal pupil had passed from education, and as king had become engaged to his future queen-consort, Dr. Demainbray wrote to the Earl of Bute in the following terms[1]:—
My Lord, — I most humbly hope for the pardon of my presumption in troubling your Lordship with my petition to be employed as a Teacher of English to the Princess whom His Majesty has declared his intentions of espousing. If your Lordship thinks me deserving of so great an Honour, I shall use every possible Endeavour to justify your Lordship’s Recommendation.
I am, My Lord, with the most dutiful Respect and Submission, Your Lordship’s most faithful and most obedient humble Servant,
Though this petition was unsuccessful, yet it resulted in his gaining, as an astronomer, the notice and confidence of Queen Charlotte; the Observatory which was built for him was named Their Majesties’ Observatory. It is thus described by Frederic Shobert, writing in 1813, in “Brayley’s Beauties of England and Wales”:—
“Richmond Observatory was erected in 1768 and 9 by Sir William Chambers, under the direction of the late Dr. Demainbray for the astronomical part Here is a mural arch of 140 devices, and 8 feet radius; a zenith sector of 8 feet; a transit instrument of 8 feet; and a 10 feet reflector by Herschel. On the top of the building is a movable dome, which contains an equatorial instrument. Here, also, is a collection of subjects in natural history, an excellent apparatus for philosophical experiments, and a collection of ores from the mines in His Majesty’s Hanoverian dominions.”
Dr. Demainbray, by his first wife, had an only child, Mary, who was married to Stephen Rigaud, gentleman. The doctor was the Astronomer, or Superintendent (or Director, as it might now be expressed.) Mr. Rigaud was the Observer, on Dr. Demainbray’s recommendation, in or about 1769, and the marriage took place in or about 1773. I have no list of the staff, but Mrs. Rigaud became the “housekeeper.” The pecuniary rewards of pure science in England have always been parsimonious and insufficient; so that, in order to render the doctor’s income sufficient, the king procured him a remunerative post in the revenue department. Accordingly in the
- ↑ “Musgrave Collection of Autographs in the British Museum,” vol. iii.
