Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 17 - Section IV
IV. Medical Men.
1. We may begin this section with a Huguenot martyr who would have been a refugee if he could, and whose ancestor fled from a persecution of English Protestants. Pierre Baril, maitre-chirurgeon, was a son or grandson of an English medical student, named Barry, who fled from the fires kindled by our Bloody Queen Mary. Dr. Baril married Madelaine Caillard, and had a son, Josias, who was born at Houdan, and a daughter, Elizabeth; both children emigrated to England. At the date of the marriage of the daughter, ioth August 1684, Dr. Baril was maitre-chirurgeon and apotecaire to Louis XIV., residing with his wife at “Neauphen-le-Chastel,” near Paris; the son-in-law was Nicholas Ghiselin, native of Havre-de-Grace, son of Nicholas Ghiselin, merchant, and the late Anne Gonté; the marriage was solemnized in the City of London French Church, Threadneedle Street. But in the rapid progress of persecution, Baril, as a Huguenot, was prohibited from practising medicine and surgery. This prohibition he obeyed, until, having been called in by a lady of quality, in whose case a moment’s delay might have been fatal, he could not refuse his aid. For this offence he was thrown into the Bastile. His wife had died before 1689, in which year, on 16th June, Josias married Susanne, daughter of Louis Berchère. The next year the father died in the Bastile, and was buried in the prison-yard. (The surname re-appears in London in 1767, when James Baril became a Director of the French Hospital.)
2. Several French physicians are memorialized in Munk’s Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Vol. I., namely:—
(1.) Philip Guide, M.D., of Montpellier, admitted a Licentiate of the College on 2nd April 1683. A medical author.
(2.) Lewis Le Vasseur, a Parisian, M.D. (12th January 1654), of Montpellier, admitted a Licentiate of the College on 2nd April 1683.
(3.) John Peachi, M.D., of Caen, admitted an Extra-Licentiate on 26th July 1683. A voluminous medical author from 1692 to 1706.
(4.) Sebastian Le Fevre, M.D., of Anjou, a Frenchman, was admitted a Licentiate of the College on 22nd December 1684.
(5.) “John Dufray, M.D., was a doctor of medicine of Montpellier of 1668. He was a French Protestant refugee who lost all he had by the persecution in France. He applied to the College on 5th June 1688, praying to be examined and admitted, and to have his subscription money forgiven; which was readily agreed on in favour to such a distressed foreigner. He was admitted a Licentiate of the College, 1st October 1688.”
Viro eruditissimo Doctori Dufray e Galliâ ob Reformatae Religionis professionem fugienti, post tres examinationes approbato et hodie in ordinem Licentiatorum admisso, Solutiones Collegio debitae, charitatis ergo, nemine contradicente, remittuntur.
(6.) “Joseph Mauclère, M.D., was a French Protestant refugee, and a doctor of medicine of Montpellier (of 1681). He was proposed for examination and admission without fees, 1st March 1689, and had passed as a Licentiate of the College on 8th June.
“8th June 1689. Dr. Mauclare was presented to the College by Mr. President and Dr. Colladon, as of their knowledge a Protestant fled from France for his religion. He brought his diploma from Montpellier, but some of the College moved, that (hereafter at least) if any name himself a Protestant who comes to be admitted into the College, he should bring certificates of his being such. However, upon the testimony of Mr. President and Dr. Colladon, Dr. Mauclare was accepted to be admitted in formâ pauperis, and was balloted for, there being two negatives, the rest affirmative. He was this day admitted permissus intra urbem, and promised to pay future fees, if able.”
3. Dr. Peter Silvestre was born at Bourdeaux, about the year 1662, being the son of Daniel Silvestre, procurator to the Parliament of Bourdeaux; he and all his family were Protestants. His college education commenced at Guienne, where he passed his philosophy under Mons. Vaudrel. He studied at Montpellier under Mons. Barberiac. He excelled in anatomy, and took his medical degree at the age of twenty-one. He was then sent by his father to Paris to gain experience in the hospitals, and there he staid until the Revocation. Happily he had the opportunity of quietly removing to Amsterdam from Paris in the company of some German noblemen. He was made physician to the Prince of Orange, whom he accompanied into England. Marshal Schomberg solicited of King William the favour that Dr. Silvestre might accompany him to Ireland, which was agreed to; and to Ireland he went. How ever, having neglected to obtain a military commission, he found himself adrift after the Duke of Schomberg’s death. His Dutch pension he retained, and being known to the Duke of Montague, he was attached to the household of the Prince of Valdee. He obtained an extensive private practice in London, having been admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians on 26th June 1693. It is stated that he was also commissioner of the sick and hurt. To the latter duke he dedicated St. Evremond’s collected works, in the publication of which he was associated with Des Maizeaux in 1703. He died 16th April 1718. He had no heirs, but Sir John Baptist Silvester, lent, M.D. (died 1789), was his nephew. A son of the latter became, in 18 15, Sir John Silvester, bart , Recorder of the City of London (died 1822); the baronetcy expired in 1828 in the person of Captain Sir Philip Carteret Silvester, Bart., C.B., R.N.
4. The greatest medical surname belonging to the refugees is Martineau. Gaston Martineau, maitre-chirurgeon, son of Elié Martineau and Marguerite Barbesson, was a refugee from Dieppe in 1685; in the same ship was another refugee, Marie Pierre. To her he was married in 1693, their annonces being published at the City of London FVench Church, Threadneedle Street, on September 3, and the wedding being in the French Church of Spitalfields on the 26th. They settled at Norwich in 1695. Their son, David Martineau, surgeon, married Elizabeth Finch, and died 29th May 1729, aged thirty-two, leaving two daughters and one son, the second David Martineau, surgeon (born 1726, died 1768); the latter, by Sarah Meadows, his wife, had five sons — Philip Meadows Martineau (born 1750), surgeon, David (born 1754), Peter Finch (born 1755), John (born 1758), and Thomas (born 1764, died 1826). The fourth of these, John Martineau of Stamford Hill, Middlesex, was the father of Joseph Martineau of Basing Park, Hants, who married, in 1823, Caroline, daughter of Dr. Parry of Bath. The Martineaus are now considerable, both in numbers and in reputation, and all descend from the five sons of the second David Martineau. The public, however, divide them into two branches, the Church of England and the Unitarian. A good representative of the former was Rev. Arthur Martineau, M.A., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Rector of St. Mildred’s, 1864; Prebendary of St. Paul’s, 1866; Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Tait), 1869, who died in 1872, aged sixty-five; he was the author of “Church History in England from the earliest times to the period of the Reformation,” London, 1853; at that date he was Vicar of Whitkirk, near Leeds, and Rural Dean. The well-known representative of the latter communion is the Rev. James Martineau, D.D., born in 1805; his sister was the celebrated authoress, Harriet Martineau, born at Norwich in 1802, died at Ambleside, in the Lake district, in 1876. The two latter were children of Thomas, manufacturer of bombazine and camlet, the fifth of the second David’s sons; and Harriet’s eldest brother was Thomas Martineau, surgeon in Norwich, born in 1795, “a man of qualifications so high as to promise to sustain the honour of his name and profession in the old city,” but who died before the age of thirty. Philip Meadows Martineau, already named, “was considered the most eminent provincial surgeon of his day;” he was baptized at Norwich on 28th November 1752, and died in 1828, the last survivor of a succession of surgeons that had continued for above 130 years. There is a separate memoir of him, with his portrait as the frontispiece of the volume.
5. Dr. James Reynette, of Waterford, was a son of Henri De Renet, a Huguenot landed proprietor in Vivarais in Languedoc. Five sons became refugees, of whom the youngest, Gabriel, turned Roman Catholic, and got back the estate; two went to the Cape of Good Hope, and from their vineyards came a wine called Graf de Renêt; and two remained in Ireland, one of whom was Jacques. His fame as a physician reached Dublin, aad he received an offer from that capital of £200 a-year for life if he would accept the charge of their greatest hospital. His refusal was regarded as a great compliment at Waterford, and he received the freedom of that city for himself and his heirs for ever, and also (tradition says) more substantial rewards. The Parish Register contains, under date 23rd July 1719, the marriage, in Doctor Reynette’s house, of Captain John Ramsay and Miss Charlotte Reynette; but too soon after there is this entry:— “Jan. 23rd 1720. Doctor James Reynette was buried by Mr. Dennis in the French Church.” The French descendants of Gabriel fled from France during the first French Revolution. Napoleon I. included their surname among many others in a list to be read by the clergy in Roman Catholic chapels everywhere, communicating his imperial invitation to them to return to France. Some one reported this in England to the Rev. Henry Reynett, D.D., who obtained information from the French Ambassador that the old Languedoc estate was in the possession of a family of his name. Accordingly, General Sir James Reynett wrote to his distant relatives, who replied that they had got safe home, but had found their house damaged by soldiers, who had been quartered in it. The refugee Reynettes, descendants of the good physician, have prospered. In 1755, James Henry Reynette was sheriff, and he was twice Mayor of Waterford. From him the above-mentioned clergyman and general officer sprang.
6. Dr. Pierre De Rante was another Huguenot physician in Waterford. His first wife was of the influential family of Alcock (she died in January 1716, aged thirty-three), and, partly for her sake, the Town Council gave him the care of the sick poor, with £10 per annum, and he was known as “the French doctor.” In December 1717 he married Miss Anne Pyke; he had several children, and lived till January 1756. He was buried beside his first wife, on the 26th day of that month.
7. James Augustus Blondell, a native of Paris, was naturalized at Westminster, 5th January 1688 (see List xiv.). He studied medicine at Leyden, where he took the degree of M.D. on 17th July 1692, the title of his thesis being Dissertatio de crisibus. He settled as a practitioner in London, having been admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians, 26th March 1711. He obtained celebrity by his treatise (London, 1727) on “the strength of the imagination of pregnant women,” demonstrating it to be “a vulgar error” that “marks and deformities” in infants are occasioned thereby. This was contrary to the published opinion of Dr. Daniel Turner, whose strictures called forth a second publication entitled “The power of the mother’s imagination on the foetus examined,” London, 1729. Dr. Blondell’s original book on this subject passed through several editions, and translations appeared in Germany and Holland. He died on 5th October 1734.
8. John La Serre, M.D., was a French refugee in Guernsey. He was born in 1682 at Ville Magne, in Languedoc; he married Esther, daughter of Peter Whitehead of Guernsey, and died in St. Peter’s Port, 10th January 1774. — (Camden Society Lists.)