Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 16 - Section IX
VIII. Rev. John Armand Du Bourdieu.
There were two ministers of the French Church in the Savoy of this surname until 1720. Malard in his “French and Protestant Companion” mentions “Jean Armand Dubourdieu, Ministre de l’Eglise Franchise de la Savoie,” and “Jean Dubourdieu, son, oncle, Ministre de la même église.” The clan, Dubourdieu, seems to have been numerous, and the names of Isaac and John-Armand seem to have been common among them. The family in the Patent-Roll of Naturalizations (see List x.) seems not to have been a clergyman’s household, nor was the John-Armand in it the junior Savoy pastor, unless two brothers (his father and his uncle) had the same name, John. The Ulster Journal of Archaeology informs us that our junior pasteur was the son of Jacques De Brius, Seigneur (or Sieur) Du Bourdieu, who died before the Revocation. His widow and the boy became refugees in London, she was of the family of De la Valade. She had set out on her circuitous and perilous journey, “disguised as a peasant, with her boy concealed in a shawl on her back, and accompanied by a faithful domestic.” The party effected their escape through the frontier guards into German Switzerland. If we have correctly affiliated him, the young pasteur of the Savoy cannot have the date of his birth fixed later than 1680. Under the superintendence of his aged grandfather, and afterwards of his uncle, his school and college education was thoroughly English and with a view to the Anglican Church. This accounts for his lack of reverence for Louis XIV., of whom the older refugees spoke with melancholy awe and romantic regard. He attracted the attention of the Duke of Devonshire, who made him his chaplain,[1] and in 1701 presented him to the Rectory of Sawtrey-Moynes (now called Sawtrey-All-Saints) in Huntingdonshire. On the fly-leaf of the old Parish Register it is stated in Latin that to Richard Morgan, in 1701, succeeded Johannes Armandus Dubourdieu, Monspelliens: Gallus, et Ecclesiae Gallo-Sabandiens: apud Londinenses Pastor. This church, during Du Bourdieu’s incumbency, was served by his curate, the Rev. W. Corke, who afterwards succeeded him in the benefice. He printed a number of sermons and pamphlets; I make a note of those which I have seen; bibliographers having confused uncle and nephew, and having attributed the writings of both en masse to one ideal person whom they name John.
He preached in 1707 a sermon on Ex. ix. 16, in which he was supposed to allude to Louis XIV. as a Pharaoh to the oppressed Protestants of France. This discourse was published, and the consequence was that he had the honour to be singled out by the French king, at the time of the Peace of Utrecht, as the one victim whose punishment would soothe his chagrin on being prevailed upon to release so many Protestant slaves from the galleys. Mr. Prior wrote to Lord Bolingbroke that the king of France desired that young Du Bourdieu might be punished. Bolingbroke communicated with the Queen, who answered to the effect, that “that was none of her business, but the Bishop of London’s.” The French Ambassador, Le Duc d’Aumont presented a written memorial to Her Majesty, who formally referred it to the Bishop. On the 17th May 1713 the pastor received a summons, which he cheerfully obeyed, the French Savoy Church being under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan Bishop; and on the 19th, accompanied by four elders, he went to Fulham Palace, and the Bishop showed him the memorial, which was as follows:—
“Whatever reason the King may have hitherto had, not to abate his just severity against those of his subjects who have been condemned to the galleys for contravening his orders in matters of religion, His Majesty, nevertheless, in consideration of the Queen of Great Britain, has given his orders to release the least guilty, and to let them enjoy the grace from which they were more and more excluded by the conduct of the refugees, and particularly of their ministers, towards His Majesty. They made the punishment of some private persons the concern of the whole body, and her Britannic Majesty, moved by their clamours and their representations, was pleased to intercede in their behalf with the King; but they will certainly render themselves unworthy of that favour which she has procured for them, if they continue to talk with so little regard of a Prince to whom they owe profound respects. But what appearance is there of keeping them in duty, if those very persons, whose position obliges them to give others an example of moderation, launch out even in public into passionate and injurious discourses, and (if one may say so) into blasphemies? It is a matter of importance to inflict an exemplary punishment on those who have abused the ministry of the pulpit, to disperse their malice, bitterness, and animosity against the King. Whereas nobody has expressed himself with more rage and scandal than Mr. Armand du Bourdieu, Minister of the Church of the Savoy, whose whole religion is reduced into declamations against France and against the person of the King (he thinking by that means to gain the esteem of parties and to conceal his scandalous life) — and forasmuch as such a turbulent temperas his, being a man moved by the spirit of party and faction, cannot but be disagreeable to the Queen, to the consistory, and to the nation, who have already set a mark upon him, — therefore the punishment of Armand du Bourdieu is the only thing that Monsieur le Duc d’Aumont takes the liberty to demand from Her Britannic Majesty. At a time when the King, out of his sole complaisance for Her Majesty, is induced to give his subjects the marks of such extraordinary clemency, it is right that she should suppress calumny and irreligion, covered with the mask of apostolic zeal, and should, by the punishment of one man only, impose silence on others as to the sacred person of a Prince so strictly united to Her Britannic Majesty by the ties of blood.”
The pastor and elders examined the memorial, and after Mr. Pujolas had read it, the Bishop asked Mr. Du Bourdieu, “What he had to say to it?” He answered, “That, the memorial containing only general complaints, he had nothing to say, except that during the war he had, after the example of several prelates and clergymen of the Church of England, freely preached against the common enemy and persecutor of the Church; and the greatest part of his sermons being printed with his name affixed, he was far from disowning them; but since the proclamation of the Peace he had not said anything that did in the least regard the person of the French King.” The Bishop made him repeat the words, “since the proclamation of the Peace,” and asked the elders, “Is that true?” They answered, “It is, my lord.” The Bishop said that he would make his report to the Queen. Mr. Du Bourdieu requested that a copy of the memorial might be granted to him, and the Bishop promptly complied. The memorial, with an account of the interview with the Bishop, was printed both in French and English. No further steps were taken.
The sermon most calculated to offend Louis XIV. was one entitled, “The Silence of the Believer in Affliction,” which was printed both in French and English. The following is the title of the French edition:— “La Silence du Fidelle dans l’Affliction, ou Sermon sur le Pseaume xxxix. 9 prononcé dans la Chapelle des Grecs le Dimanche de la Trinité 1712, a l’occasion de la Persecution renouvellée en France, avec un ample preface pour la justification du Sermon.” The preface extended to 112 pages. On the occasion of the Scotch Rebellion, he took occasion to expose the dogmata of Dr. Sacheverell and the Jacobites, in a sermon preached on 7th June 1716, on the day of thanksgiving for the success of our arms:— “La Faction de la Grande Bretagne caracteriseée et confondue — sur ces paroles de St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 26, En perils entre faux frères, ou l’on refute cc qu’il y a d’essential dans le Discours du Docteur S___l sur ces mêmes paroles.” In 1718 (says Paynes) he published, “An Appeal to the British Nation, or the French Protestants, and the Honest Proselytes [from Romanism], vindicated from the calumnies of Malard and his associates; with an account of the state of the French Churches in this Kingdom.” His last printed sermon was on an occasion of the King having returned from Hanover; Du Bourdieu thought it expedient to hint to the English that the refugees could observe their prejudices and the fickleness of their hospitable resolves. The sermon is entitled:— “Mephiboseth, ou le caractère d’un bon sujet — sermon sur 2 Sam. xix. 30, prononcé le 5 Janvier 1724 (n.s.), sur le retour du Roi de la Grande Bretagne dans son royaume et dans son palais.” I translate the following sentence which provoked many remarks (as doubtless the preacher intended that it should):— “But if (which God the Protector of the afflicted will never permit) necessity should force the Prince to suspend payment of the Royal Bounty, beware of murmuring at that. Remember that the love of religion commands you to prefer the conservation and prosperity of that august House to your own subsistence — to life itself; and say with Mephibosheth, Let them take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house.”
The death of this Divine occurred in the latter part of the year 1726, soon after which his curate succeeded to the Rectory of Sawtrey Moynes. From the proceedings in the Court of Probate, on nth July 1727, it appears that at the time of his death he was a widower, and that he left one son, Samuel [Saumarez?], and two daughters, Margaretta-Henrietta, and Esther. These children having declined to serve themselves heirs to his estate, a commission was granted to Peter Quantiteau, the principal creditor of John Armand Dubourdieu, late of the Parish of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. In 1727 Luke Stokoe, auctioneer, of Coventry Court, Haymarket, issued a sale-catalogue entitled, Bibliotheca Dubourdienana.
Mr. John Armand Dubourdieu had a wife named Charlotte.[2] The Ulster Journal says she was Comtesse d’Espuage. Their son was named Saumarez, after M. Saumarez, Bailiff of Guernsey (the above-quoted Letters of Administration call him Samuel, a clerical error). He was born on 1st September 1717; and the baptism is entered in the register of Les Grecs on the 4th, of Saumarez, fils de Monsieur Jean Armand Dubourdieu, ministre de la Savoye, et Charlotte. He was taken to Ireland on his father’s death by his refugee grandmother’s relations. He was minister of the French Church of Lisburn for forty-five years.
- ↑ The Ulster Journal quotes the title-page of a Sermon which gives him another ducal patron; the discourse is called “L’Indigne Choix des Sichemites;” and the preacher is styled Chaplain to the Duke of Richmond and Lennox; the date of publication is 1733, seven years after our J.A.D.’s death. This led me to say in my second edition that there were two John Armand Dubourdieux; but the subsequent discovery of the baptism of Saumarez Dubourdieu in London has changed my opinion.
- ↑ Probably she was his second wife. In the Parish Register of Hammersmith there is the following register of a burial:— 1705, May 21st, Charlotte Eliza, dau. of Mr. John Harmand Debourdieu, a French minister, and Esther.