Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 16 - Section II
II. Rev. Israel Anthony Aufrère, M.A.
The Rev. Israel Antoine Aufrère was a great-great-grandson and the senior representative of Pierre Aufrère, Procureur du Roi au siège-royal a Paris (i.e., one of the highest law-officers of the crown of France), about the beginning of the sixteenth century. This Pierre, according to tradition, was son of the celebrated author on French law, both civil and ecclesiastical, Etienne Aufrère, President of the Parliament of Tolouse. Pierre Aufrère bought the castle and estate of Corville in Normandy, and by his wife, Claire Macetier, was the father of Antoine Aufrère, Marquis de Corville, and Procureur du Roi. In 1622 the Marquis married Catherine Le Clerc, and was the father of another Antoine, who in his turn (in 1622) married Marie Prêvot, and was the father of the third Antoine Aufrère, Procureur du Roi, the first refugee, and father of the refugee minister.
Antoine (the third) was a zealous and intelligent Protestant. On the 11th November 1644 he married Antoinette Gervaise. His high position in Paris enabled him soon to see that the Protestants were doomed, and to foresee that exile in foreign lands would be their lot. His business talents were useful to him in effecting from time to time the sale of all the property that he could prudently bring into the market, and remitting the proceeds to Holland; it is said that altogether he realised £9000[1] sterling. He and his family made their escape to Holland soon after the Revocation, in circumstances of the greatest peril. His family consisted of his wife and two sons, Israel Antoine, and Noel Daniel; they took up their abode in Amsterdam. On 30th April 1688 the good man of the house summoned to his bedchamber Henry Rams, Notary Public, and his visitor describes him as being “sick a-bed but of sound mind and understanding.” The notary at his dictation wrote a disposition of his estate, to be shared between his two sons, “after it shall have pleased God to retire him out of this world for to introduce him into the life eternal which he hopes to enjoy with the blessed, through the only merit of Jesus Christ his Saviour and redeemer.” He bequeathed 1000 florins to “Jesus Christ’s poor persecuted in France for the truth of His Gospel, and to whom God hath given grace to come to glorify Him in these Provinces.” Monsieur Aufrère’s illness did not prove fatal, and on 1st July 1690 he made a will, substantially confirming the above settlement, but amending and adding to it. The preamble is as follows:—
“I, Anthony Aufrère, considering the certainty of death, and the uncertainty of the time and moment of its coming, which cannot be prevented and expected too soon by every person who will lessen the surprisal and the fear of its approaches and its seizing, and put himself better by that means in a condition to think on the eternal;alvation prepared for all the faithful elected for whom it was acquired and merited by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ our divine Saviour and Redeemer to which I do aspire by the grace of my God, though I have wholly rendered myself unworthy thereof by the number and enormity of my sins, hoping through the grace and merciful bounty of that great God that he will grant me the pardon thereof according to my earnest prayers and supplications, very often re-iterated and accompanied with a sincere and serious repentance for having so much, so often, and so unworthily offended his holy and divine Majesty. Finding myself in that good disposition, and besides sound of body and mind, having escaped from a fit of sickness which it pleased Gpd to send me two years and two months since, which was short but nevertheless dangerous,” &c.
One alteration in the will is to reduce the legacy to poor refugees to 500 florins. In neither document does he make any allusion to his wife, so that we conjecture that she died before 1688. Monsieur Aufrcre lived to emigrate with his eldest son to London in 1700. To this son we return.
Israel Anthony Aufrère was born in 1677. Though only eighteen years of age when he fled from France he was not a mere follower in the train of his father, but deliberately defended his faith against the. Romanists and refused to recant. He studied for the ministry in Holland, and was ordained there. On May 2nd, 1700, he married Sarah Amsincq, “one of the daughters of a gentleman belonging to a family of great distinction both at the Hague and at Hamburgh, where they filled the highest posts.” This marriage connected the Aufrère family with the distinguished Dutch families of Boreel and Fagel. It is more germane to this volume to observe that it connected them with the glorious Huguenot family of Basnage. In later years we find the Rev. Mr. Aufrère obligingly managing the English part of the property of Marie Basnage de Beauval, alias Amsineq (1752), and Susanna Basnage, alias Dumoulin.
This marriage probably decided in the affirmative the question as to removing into England. Through this union of hearts and hands our king, William of Orange, may have been informed of the young divine’s talents and excellence. There was also an intimacy between the Aufrères and the Robethons, James Robethon (resident in Amsterdam in 1688), having been one of the advisers named by old Mr. Aufrère for his sons’ interests. Among the naturalisations at Westminster, and near the end of List XXIV (dated 11th March 1700), we have the names of Anthony Aufrère and Israel Anthony Aufrère (clerk).
The date of the father’s death is not known. The career of the son was highly influential. He was enrolled as an M.A. of Cambridge. As to his talents and acquirements, we are informed that he was a proficient in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew — also in German, which he spoke with ease. He understood English, but conversing chiefly with French refugees, he never attained to any tolerable pronunciation of the language of his adopted country. As to French, his native language, his composition was very pure and elegant, and in preaching he was sometimes eloquent. A manuscript memoir says that he was a preacher at the Savoy French Church. He does not appear in any of Mr. Burn’s lists until 1727, when he was promoted to be one of the ministers of the French Chapel Royal, St James’s.
In February 1720 Mr. Aufrère was appointed one of the Secretaries of the General Assembly of the French Churches of London, among whom he was a leading minister. In 1736, on occasion of the Prince of Wales’s marriage, the Duke of Newcastle introduced at Court Mr. Aufrère and other ministers of the French Protestant refugees, to present four congratulatory addresses to the King, the Queen, the Prince, and the Princess. These addresses, written in French, were printed at full length in the Gazette, Nos. 7506 and 7508, May 1736. At a meeting of the General Assembly, 17th February 1744 (n.s.), Mr. Aufrère reported that he had communicated with the Duke of Newcastle, venturing to assure the Government that the French refugees would be willing to make some demonstration of loyalty on the threatened invasion in favour of a Papist Pretender. On the following 22nd February an address was signed, testifying, along with their loyalty, their devotion to the Protestant religion pour laquelle ils out souffert, and their sense of obligation to the illustre et genereux nation among whom they were naturalized. An opportunity for action was given to them, which they assembled to embrace on March 7th, by the letter from the Baron of Saint-Hippolite. Besides ecclesiastical matters, other interests occupied much of Mr. Aufrère’s attention. He was the father of the poor of his district, and the firmest of friends. As an adviser in business matters and an executor of Wills, his generosity was in constant exercise. The Hervarts, the Robethons, the De La Mothes, the De Gastines, the Deslauriers, and many other refugee gentlemen and ladies were among the friends whom he obliged. And he had friends also among the English clergy and literati, among whom is mentioned Archdeacon Robinson, of Northumberland.
In domestic life, his memory is fragrant and evergreen. He was comparatively rich; and, raised above the fear of penury, he kept up the style of a gentleman. Yet “for his children’s sake” he not only denied himself things suitable for his station in life, but even stripped himself for them, and for some of his grandchildren, so as to leave nothing but what was necessary for his decent maintenance. His dear wife, a woman of most exemplary virtue, was entirely of the same way of thinking, so that their frugality and economy were remarkable, and their contempt of everything that looked like show or grandeur. He built a noble house in Charles Street, St. James’ Square; but on the death of his brother, who left a widow and six children destitute, he let the house for £100 per annum, and rented another at £40, to enable him to maintain these distressed relations.
Mr. Aufrère was remarkable for the perfect health which in Providence was granted to him. At the age of eighty-six he was not sensible of any decay of nature, but the death of Mrs. Aufrère in the year 1754 reminded him to make his Will, which he did. About two years after he felt a weary disinclination for public business, and we are told that, “on account of his great age,” on the 21st March 1756, he resigned the books of the Chapel Royal to the Rev. James Serces. He continued to walk about London, and to read without spectacles for about two years more. In March 1758 nature failed all at once. He revised his Will, and added a short codicil on the 23rd March. He met death like one of the ancient patriarchs, calling his family around him, and giving them an edifying farewell, sending a message to his congregation, declaring that he prayed for them, and asked their prayers for himself, and sending, from his bed, money to the sick and the poor of the neighbourhood. He expired on the 24th March 1758, in his ninety-first year. I add his Will and Codicil:—
JE, Soussigné vie voyant agé de 86 ans accomplis, &c.,
I, the underwritten, being eighty-six years of age complete, though |in perfect health of body, and of sound mind, have thought it proper to make my Will, wherein in the first place, I return thanks to God for having caused me to be born in the Christian Church, reformed from the gross superstitions and idolatries of Popery, and when the same was cruelly persecuted in my native country, to have drawn me happily from thence, after having refused to dissemble my faith, having conducted me at the time of the highest danger, a few months after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and brought me into the countries of liberty, and there honoured me with the ministry of the Gospel, which I had destined myself for by my first resolutions, that I might more constantly employ my thoughts on the importance of a future life and the little worth of the present life, and in order to persuade other men, and for having accompanied me during my whole life with the protection of His divine Providence, and having caused me to enjoy, during my whole life, an uninterrupted health, notwithstanding the weakness of my constitution. I most humbly prostrate myself before Him, being sensible of my sins, which I condemn and also deplore, but whereof I hope for the remission through His infinite mercy, by the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for us. I entreat Him to sanctify me entirely, and to grant me a happy death, and to admit me one day, in pursuance of His promise, to the enjoyment of a better life and to an eternal felicity. I order that my body be interred with much simplicity in the churchyard of Paddington, to remain there as a deposit for the day of resurrection. As to my temporal affairs, I will that after my debts are paid and discharged (if there be any), that my executor, hereafter named, do dispose of my effects and estate in the following manner: First, As by the Marriage Settlement of Anthony Aufrère, my eldest son, with Susanne de Gastine, his first wife, I engaged myself to assure to him, and to the children who should be born of that marriage, the house which I caused to be built in Charles Street, in the parish of St. James, Westminster, to enjoy the same after my decease, and that of my wife, I do declare that I do confirm by these presents the said settlement. And whereas I have obtained a prolongation of the first term which was to expire in the year 1766, I give and grant to him all the said ulterior term which has been so granted to me, with all the rights thereto belonging, to him, and to his son after him. In conformity to the directions of Sarah Amsincq, my deceased wife, who by her marriage settlement had a right to dispose of the plate and household goods which should belong to me at the time of my decease, I do order that my daughter, Marianne Du Val, may have a share of that plate, to wit, two candlesticks, also a case with twelve knives and as many spoons and forks, also twelve other large knives with silver handles, pursuant to her mother’s intentions; moreover, I give to my said daughter all the household goods, linen and clothes, which shall be found in my house on the day of my decease. As to the remainder of the plate, I leave the same, to wit, a silver kettle, the porringer, and all the remainder, — I leave the same to be equally divided between the four daughters of my daughter Jane (deceased), who was married to Balthazar Regis (also deceased). I give to the two daughters of my deceased brother, Catherine and Dorothy, fifty pounds sterling, to be equally divided between them, and which shall be paid to them within three months after my decease at furthest. And I do order that all the remainder of my estate, after the payment of the above-mentioned legacies, as also whatsoever shall come in by succession, donation, or otherwise, be divided between my children or representatives into four equal portions, whereof one shall be for my son Anthony, the second for my son George, the third between the four daughters of Jane Regis, representing their mother, and lastly, the fourth for my daughter Du Val, for her and her children. I leave to my grandson Philip Du Val, all the books which he shall find in my house. I give him also the watch which I caused to be made by G. Lindsay. He shall also take my sermons and other manuscripts. The gold watch was given to his sister by my wife. I give to the servant who shall be in my service, and who shall have taken care of me during my last illness until my death, besides his wages, a reward of ten pounds sterling, which shall be paid to him fifteen days after my decease. I give to my granddaughter, Catherine Potter, a leathern purse, wherein are seven guineas of divers reigns, and forty shillings of West Friesland in silver of Holland. I nominate my son, George Aufrère, to be executor of this my last Will and Testament, and I give him twenty pounds sterling for his trouble in the execution of my Will, thus done and settled to be my last Will, London, the 3rd July 1754.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of John Fagg, An. Newcomb, Martha Smith.
As the things which I had promised and left by the aforesaid Will to Catherine Potter are not now in being, I leave her as an equivalent twelve guineas. In witness whereof I have subscribed my name in London, 23rd March 1758.
Proved, 20th April 1758.
- ↑ This is the estimate given in a MS. lent to me by Geo. A. Carthew, Esq. In 1688 an Inventory was made and attached to Mr. Aufrère will, in which his property is estimated in florins:— Florins.
1. Six Bonds on the Treasury of Amsterdam, yielding 3 per cent, per ann., 14,300 2. Three Bonds upon the Counter of the City of Amsterdam 4 per cent., 11,922 .10 3. Two Bonds on the East India Company of Amsterdam, 9,740 4. Debt due by Mr. Barnardus Muyskens, 16,980 5. An Action in the West India Company of Amsterdam, 6,720 6. Another of the same, 6,712 7. Another — not paid, 0,000 8. Twenty bales of Pepper, 5,032 .13 9. Twenty bales of Pepper (value not given), 0,000 10. Profits of speculations in merchandize by Mr. Tourton, with money furnished by Mr. Aufrère, 8,900