Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 16 - Section IV
IV. Rev. Charles Daubuz, M.A.[1]
The surname of D’Aubus, or Daubuz, was taken from the Seigncurie of Aubus in Poitou. Records of the honours and noble alliances of the ancient Seigneurs are abundant, but we begin with a branch of the family at Auxerre, the head of which was Charles D’Aubus (born 1550, died 1639). He seems to have spent his life at Nerac, in the province of Guienne, probably as a pasteur, and to have been succeeded in the pastoral charge by a son and grandson. Charles (sen.) published, in 1626, a tractate against the Capuchins, especially as begging friars; and his son Charles (jun.), who was born about 1600, also was an author. The grandson was Isaye, born in 1637, pasteur at Nerac, and his wife’s Christian name was Julie. He was happy in having powerful friends at court, and he accordingly obtained the king’s permission to sell his property and to retire to England with his family.
The following is a translation of the royal permit, the original of which is still in the possession of one of his descendants; it is signed by Louis XIV., and by the younger Colbert (Marquis de Seignelay):—
“To-day, the second day of July 1685, the king being at Versailles, and taking into consideration the very humble petition made to him by Isaye D’Aubus, heretofore minister of the Pretended Reformed Religion at Nerac, praying leave to retire into Fngland with his wife and four children, and to sell all their property in France, His Majesty is graciously pleased to grant them his permission to that effect, and in virtue of this his decree releases them from the rigour or penalty of any of his Ordonnances to the contrary. To which it is His Majesty’s pleasure to affix his own signature, and at his command this is countersigned by me his Councillor and Secretary of State and of his Commandments and Finances.”
The emigrants took their departure accordingly; but perhaps from agitation in the prospect of exile, he died at Calais in an inn. He was aged forty-eight only. Dreading any insult from priests or people, the widow begged the innkeeper for leave to bury her husband in his garden privately. The good man helped her to dig his grave, and there the pasteur was buried during the night. She remained at the inn until a brother of her husband arrived, and he, personating her husband, as named in the royal passport, got the whole party safe into England; it is said that this brother-in-law had joined them from York, where he himself had settled; at all events it was to York that Madame D’Aubus came with her fatherless children. These children, according to my information, were three sons and one daughter — this daughter lived to marry Monsieur La Roche, who took the name of Porter, and she was the mother of Sir James Porter, Ambassador at Vienna; the youngest son was named Louis; but we are concerned with Charles, the eldest (or eldest surviving) son.
I began my list of the ancestry of this family with Charles D’Aubus, or “Charles, sen.”; (I cannot for the purposes of this new edition remember my authority), but probably I ought to have begun with Jean, perhaps a brother of the said “Charles, sen.” For Ralph Thoresby was informed by the refugee Charles that his great-grandfather was Jean DAubus, Doctor of the Civil Law. (Thoresby’s “Diary,” vol. i., page 416, note) According to this information, the refugee boy ought to be described as Charles, son of Isaye, son of Charles, son of Jean.
Charles Daubuz was born at Agen in the province of Guienne, in July 1673, and was thus a refugee at the age of twelve. His early education was at a private school in York. From his birth he was destined for the Christian ministry, and Providence placed him in the Church of England. He was admitted as a sizar to Queen’s College, Cambridge, on ioth January 1689, and he took the degree of B.A. on 13th January 1693 (both of these years are perhaps according to old style). On 21st March in the latter year he was appointed Librarian of his College, and held that appointment till ioth August 1695. He was elected to the mastership of the Free Grammar School in Sheffield (in succession to Thomas Balguy, B.A.), on 23rd September 1696. This office he held for a short time only; for he soon departed to undertake the duties of a Vicar-Choral at Southwell. In the spring of 1699 he was presented by the Dean and Chapter of York to the Vicarage of Brotherton in the West Riding, and on July 22 of that year he took the degree of M.A. Ralph Thoresby, who always calls him “Parson Daubuz,” had a sister, Mrs. Rayner, who lived in the village of Brotherton, and secured him as a learned correspondent — also, as a contributor to his collection of autographs and coins; “he gave me some original papers subscribed by eminent statesmen of the French nation, and one by Louis-le-Grand himself.”
The early promise of scholarship and biblical learning which characterised Mr. Daubuz had perhaps been fostered by the refugee divine and author, De la Mothe, as I find that he married one of the connections of that family, Anne Philota, daughter of Philippe Guide, M.D. They had eight children, of whom I have the names of five, — Stephen, perhaps the eldest son; Claudius (perhaps named after Monsieur de la Mothe), born 1704; Charles, born 1710; and Theophilus, who founded the modern families of Daubuz in England; and John, a posthumous child. The living of Brotherton yielded only £60 or £70 per annum, so that the learned vicar “was under the necessity of engaging himself in the education of several gentlemen’s sons, in the neighbourhood. Notwithstanding his contracted income he made some additions to the vicarage house; in 1789 part of it was repaired, and three gold coins of the reign of Louis XIV. were found in the wall, which were no doubt placed there by him.” He was a diligent student and writer; he published, in 1703, a translation of a French brochure, “The Maxims of Popish Policy in England,” and in 1706 a treatise entitled, Pro testimonio Flavii Josephi de Jesu Christo. On 30th April 1712 Mrs. Thoresby “called at the vicarage; viewed two large volumes [in manuscript] of parson Daubuz’s learned and curious commentary upon the Revelation.” Mr. Daubuz died in the prime of life, and he is described as “tall and graceful in his person — of a strong and healthy constitution — of a swarthy complexion — wearing his own black hair flowing in curls — his voice full of energy, with a persuasive and impressive delivery of his sermons” — as to his character, “pious, humble, and benevolent,” according to the testimony of his parishioners, whom he served for eighteen years. He left in manuscript a magnificent commentary on the Apocalypse, which was published in 1720; it is entitled “A Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John,” and extends to 1068 closely-printed folio pages. Upon it have been founded all the modern Dictionaries of Prophetic Symbols. It is a valuable book of reference, if studied by the help of an analysis, published in 1730, whose title-page is an abridgement of the folio title-page, containing Mr. Daubuz’s name as author, and adding that the new edition is “new modell’d, abridg’d and render’d plain to the meanest capacity by Peter Lancaster, A.M., Vicar of Bowden in Cheshire;” the abridgment occupies 630 quarto pages. This precious and darling offspring of Mr. Daubuz’s sacred learning and consecrated labour may be said to have been the innocent occasion of his death. There are two explanations. Dr. Zouch, writing in 1792, says:—
“When he had finished his Commentary he went to Cambridge to consult Dr. Bentley, the great critic of the age, who (as is supposed) thinking that Mr. Daubuz would outshine him in learning and eclipse his glory, or, which is more probable, knowing that works of that kind, however excellent they might be, were little relished in those times, did not encourage him to publish it; upon which, Mr. Daubuz returned home, wearied in body and unhappy in mind, sickened of a pleuretic fever and died in a few days.”
Another writer, who seems to have possessed more information regarding the family, says:—
“Rev. Charles Daubuz died June 14th, 1717, of a pleuretic fever caught by sleeping in a damp bed, when returning from London, where he had been on the subject of printing his Commentary on the Revelations.”
His mother survived him for six months, and died aged seventy-seven.
A marble slab in the church of Brotherton is thus inscribed:—
“Near the east window in the church-yard lie interred the remains of Charles Daubuz, formerly vicar of this parish, who departed this life 14th June 1717, aged 43 years. And of Claudius Daubuz, his son, late Rector of Bilsthorpe and prebendary of Southwell in Nottinghamshire, who died the 13th of September 1760, aged 56 years. Both [were] eminent for piety, virtue and learning; they lived beloved and died universally lamented.
“Also, Julia Daubuz, widow, and mother of Charles Daubuz (who, with her family, in the year 1686, left France, their native country, to avoid the severe persecution against the Reformed), died the 8th of December 1714, aged seventy-seven years.
“Also, John and Charles, sons of Charles Daubuz. John died June 21st 1723, aged eight years; and Charles, 18th November 1728, aged eighteen years.”
With regard to the above-named Reverend Claudius Daubuz, he was Rector of Bildesthorpe in Nottinghamshire, to which he was presented by Sir George Savile, Bart. He was ten years of age when his father died, but obtained the favourable notice of the Ramsdens of Byrom in his father’s parish; it was perhaps through their assistance that he was enabled to study at Cambridge, where he was a member of Catherine Hall, and took his degree of B.A. in 1726; he was for some time Vicar of Huddersfield, in which town he was much esteemed, and long remembered as a clergyman of learning and merit. He took his degree of M.A. in 1749. He obtained the rectory of Bildesthorpe in 1752. It was at Pontefract that he died, and he was buried at Brotherton, near his father, in the year 1760. The auctioneers, John Whiston and Benjamin White of Fleet Street (London) sold the library of “the learned and reverend Mr. Daubuz” in 1763.
Stephen Daubuz, Esq., was an influential citizen of London, and paid his fine to be excused acceptance of the office of sheriff; he died 23rd June 1746.
Theophilus Daubuz, Esq., merchant of Falmouth, kept the honoured refugee surname in remembrance (see Chapter xx.).
- ↑ The printed authorities for the refugee life of Mr. Daubuz are the Rev. Dr. Zouch and others in “Nichols’ Literary Anecdotes,” vols, ii., v., and viii., articles which must be carefully compared together; also Thoresby’s “Diary and Correspondence.”