Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 13 - Section VIII
Du Quesne.
The Du Quesnes were a Norman family, renowned through one of its sons, the greatest naval hero of France. The father of the historic Du Quesne was Abraham Du Quesne, an earnest Protestant, born at Blangy in the Comté d’ Eu, but by residence a citizen of Dieppe; he died in 1635, having the rank in the French Navy of Chef d’Escadre. His merits having been recognised by Gustavus Adolphus, he for a time had quitted the French for the Swedish service; perhaps it is a memento of his wandering life that has been found in the City of London French Church register, which records the baptism of Etienne, fils de Abraham du Quesne and Marthe De Caul. Louis XIII. recalled him from Sweden with honour, and gave him employment and promotion.
Abraham Du Quesne, surnamed “Le Grand,” was born in 1610. He was thus seventy-five years of age when the Edict of Revocation came out. On being urged by Louis XIV. to change his religion, if he would escape banishment, he nobly pleaded that, having for three-score years rendered to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, he should be unmolested in his old age in continuing to render to God the things that are God’s. The king granted him this toleration; he died at Paris on the 2d February 1688. Monsieur Perrault says of him:—
“He was born and died a Huguenot. ’Tis not to be doubted, had it not been for this obstacle to his fortune, but that the king would have rewarded him in a more conspicuous manner than he did during the whole course of his life, though he gave him a very illustrious mark of his favour — namely, a grant of 300,000 livres to purchase an estate, which was named Bouchet (near Estampes), but which his Majesty erected into a marquisate under the name of Du Quesne, to make his name immortal, as it deserves to be.”
The French family descends from his brother. The admiral’s sons were refugees.
The eldest son, Henri, Marquis Du Quesne, was born in 1652. He spent his refugee life in Holland, in Switzerland, and in England. When his father died, he petitioned that his body should be given up to him, he having bought the estate of Aubonne in Switzerland chiefly for his burial. The king refused the petition; and having secured that the interment should take place in France, he also refused to erect a monument. The Marquis succeeded in possessing himself of the heart of his father, which he buried within the temple of Aubonne in the Canton de Vaud: the epitaph is in gilded letters on a black marble tablet:—
Siste gradum, Viator!
Hie conditur cor invicti herois,
Nobilissimi ac illustrissimi Abraham Du Quesne
Marchionis, Baronis, Dominique du Quesne, de Walgrand,
de Quervicard, d’Indrette, &c.
Classium Gallicorum Praefecti —
Cujus anima in coelis,
Corpus nondum ullibi sepultum,
Nec unquam sepelientur praeclara gesta.
Si a te ignorari queant tanti viri
Incorrupta erga principem fides,
Imperterritus in proeliis animus,
Singularis in consiliis sapientia,
Generosum et excelsum pectus,
Ardens pro verâ religione Zelus,
Interroga aulam, exercitum, ecclesiam,
Imò Europam, Asiam, Africam, utrumque pelagus.
Verùm si quaeras
Cur fortissimo Ruitero superbum erectum sit mausoleum,
Ruiteri Victori nullum,
Respondere vetat latè Regnantis reverentia.
Hoc sui luctûs ac pietatis ergà patrem triste momumentum maestus
et lacrymans posuit Henricus ejus primogenitus,
hujusce toparchiae Dynasta et ecclesias Patronus.
Anno 1700.
The junior marquis took up a good position in public life as a friend of the French Protestants. Luttrell writes on Tuesday, 14th June 1709, “Monsieur du Quesne, a French Protestant, presented on Sunday a letter to Her Majesty from the King of Prussia about the reformed churches in France, and a petition in the name of above a million of these poor people who groan under a most severe persecution. She assured him that she had already given her ministers abroad instructions concerning the same, and will do further whatever lies in her power.” “19th July — The Marquis du Quesne, having received a letter wrote by Her Majesty to the King of Prussia in answer to one she lately received from him in favour of the reformed churches in France, goes hence for Berlin with all expedition.”
When Philip V. of Spain aspired to the Regency of France, and employed Scipion Soulan as an emissary to stir up rebellion in the south of France against the Regent (Duke of Orleans), that shivering and dastardly Duke invoked Protestant aid, got a refugee officer from England to deal with the French Protestants of the south, and implored the influence of Pastqur Basnage of the Hague, and Professor Pictet of Geneva. The Marquis du Quesne happened to be in Paris; and the Regent sent for him and consulted. This was in May 1719. By Du Quesne’s advice, M. Genac de Beaulicu, a Protestant nobleman of Dauphiny, was selected as an envoy, to obtain assurances of the loyalty of the Protestants and to suggest a temporary suspension of their assemblies for Public Worship. The spokesman of the Protestants of the south were the pasteur Antoine Court, and the Sieur Benjamin Du Plan, a gentleman of Alais. They satisfied M. de Beaulieu that their loyalty was unimpeachable, that their worshippers did not carry arms, and that if Soulan came among them they would deliver him up to justice, on condition that he should not be put to death; a report to this effect was sent to the Marquis du Quesne. The government declared it to be satisfactory; and De Beaulieu assured Du Plan that the cessation of the assemblies would no longer be insisted on.[1]
In 1718, Henry, Marquis Du Quesne, was Lieutenant and Lieut.-Colonel of the first troop of Horse Grenadier Guards, commanded by Colonel Fane. He died at Geneva in 1722.
The second son of the French Admiral was Abraham Du Quesne, Capitaine de Vaisseau, who died in England, a Protestant refugee. Gabriel Du Quesne, his son, probably a military officer, was in 1725-6 Commissioner of Fortifications in the English service at Port-Royal, Jamaica; he defended his conduct in a pamphlet published in 1728. He was living in 1735 in Old Bond Street, London. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Bradshaugh, Bart., of Haigh, Lancashire, and was the father of the Rev. Thomas Roger Du Quesne (born 1717, died 1793), Prebendary of Ely and Vicar of East Tuddenham, Norfolk. This reverend gentleman lived a bachelor, and left the bulk of his fortune to the Hon. Charles Townshend.
Another refugee son of the great Du Quesne was styled Le Comte Du Quesne; he died at St. Domingo.
- ↑ Bonnefon’s Benjamin Du Plan; London, 1878; chapter 6.