Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 13 - Section VII
Puissar.
The Marquis de Puissar was an officer in the French army, and came over to England a little before the Revocation Edict. His surname was Le Vasseur-Cougnéc. On the 20th July 1685, James Louis, Marquis dc Puissar, in the kingdom of France, was married in King Henry VII.’s Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, to Catherine, second daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knt, and sister of Edward Villiers (afterwards created Earl of Jersey), of the Countess of Portland, and of the Countess of Breadalbane. According to the army lists, Louis James, Marquis de Puissar was in 1695 appointed Colonel of the 24th regiment, which thereafter served in Flanders. On 25th September 1697, the king granted several forfeited estates, yielding £607 per annum, to “James Puissar, Esq., commonly called Marquis de Puissar.” And the said Louis James Puissar empowered Lieutenant-Colonel William Tatton “to set by leases of lives renewable for ever all his lands in Ireland, as also to receive all his rents.” In 1699 he resigned “Terence Coghlan’s estate,” and got other lands in exchange. He died in 1701. His widow married her cousin, Colonel the Hon. William Villiers, second son of George, third Viscount Grandison. In the Irish Establishment for 1702 there is a pension of £200 to Mrs. Catherine Puissar, now married to Colonel Villiers. Because he was a Frenchman, his regiment is sometimes named conjecturally as a French regiment, and called Pisar’s or Pizar’s — but it was the 24th foot, which was Marlborough’s from 1702 to 1704, and was then given to Lieutenant-Colonel Tatton.
The researches of Colonel Chester revealed his pedigree. The widow of our Marquis made her Will in 1706 (proved by her second husband in 1709), through which his names were ascertained. She does not call him a Marquis; but it must be remembered that his Marquisate was a French courtesy-title, which could not be retained in English society by his widow on her re-marrying; her legal title as a widow was Mrs. Catherine Puissar (she is so styled in the Irish Pension List). It is stated in official documents that her husband was “commonly called Marquis de Puissar.” His name was Louis Jacques Le Vasseur-Cougnée. His father was George le Vasseur-Cougnée, Marquis de Thouars, as to whom Haag states that he married a Dutch lady, and had a son, Charles Gaspard. The title of Marquis de Thouars was also a courtesy-title. Joachim le Vasseur, Seigneur de Coigners, alias de Coignée, alias de Cognée, alias de Cougnée, was killed in the St. Bartholomew massacre. His first wife’s name was Louise de Thouars, and she was the mother of his children. The eldest son was Jacques le Vasseur, Sieur de Coigners, Thouars, and Fargot, whom Anselm calls Seigneur de la Coignée au Maine; but he dying childless, the representation of the family devolved on his brother, Joachim le Vasseur, Sieur d’Aillieres, who died in 1629, and was styled “Le Vasseur-Cougnée.” His son and successor, Louis le Vasseur, Seigneur de Coigners, married Susanne de Mallery, and had seven children; of whom the eldest son, Jacques, Marquis de Coigners, abjured Protestantism and continued the family in France; the second son was Georges, Marquis de Thouars, father of De Puissar [or Des Puisars].