Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 18 - Section IX
IX. Du Boulay.
The family of Du Boulay were refugees who adopted Holland as their home. Their arms, as they appear on a three-sided silver seal, one of the few relics preserved in their flight, are “argent, a fess wavy gules,” surmounted by a helmet, full faced, with open vizor of five bars, and a plume of three feathers. The tradition is so established in the family of its descent from a French nobleman with a marquis’ title now extinct, that it is probably founded on fact.[1]
Benjamin François Houssemayne du Boulay, after studying theology in Holland, was elected, in 1751, to the fifth place among the ministers of the French Church in Threadneedle Street. M. Du Boulay insisted on receiving ordination at the hands of Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London. He married, in 1756, Louise, daughter of Jean Lagier Lamotte, and his wife, Louise Dalbiac. (A niece of Mrs. Du Boulay, grand-daughter of Jean Lagier Lamotte, married, in 1795, Charles Abbott, first Lord Tenterden.) The pasteur died, and was buried at Southampton in 1765. A sermon, preached by M. Durand, on the occasion of installing his successor, says of him — “Il avait cette eloquence vive qui va au coeur, parcequ’elle en vient;” and again, “la seule façon de nous le faire oublier sera de nous en faire souvenir sans cesse.”
He left one son and four daughters, of whom three died unmarried, the fourth was married to James Cazenove, Esq., the English representative of a Huguenot branch of a noble family. The only son, François Jacques Houssemayne Du Boulay, married, in 1708, Elizabeth, daughter of Archibald Paris, Esq.; he lived at Walthamstow, and became wealthy by business during the war with France, His name stood for some years first on the list at the Bank of England as holder of the largest amount at that time of government stock. He died in 1828, leaving eight children, all of whom married and have had families. The three daughters were married to Isaac Solly, Esq., and the Rev. Messieurs John and William Blennerhassctt. The eldest son (born 1801, died 1836), the Rev. James Thomas Houssemayne Du Boulay, rector of Heddington, Wilts, is now represented by his son Francis Houssemayne Du Boulay, also rector (and patron) of the same living; and the youngest son, John (born 1811), who married Mary Farr, daughter of the Rev. Harry Farr Yeatman of Stock House, Dorsetshire, became, in 1851, the owner of Donhead Hall, Wiltshire (once the residence of Sir Godfrey Kneller), and is now also the proprietor of Avishayes House, Dorsetshire. His sons are Arthur Houssemayne, Ernest de Vismes, and Digby de la Motte, and his daughter is Bertha Dalbiac, Mrs. Lane.
This family is at present largely represented in the Church, and is established in several of the southern counties. It exemplifies the manner in which the French colony clung together, though perhaps it is only a coincidence, that by the marriage of the widow of the Rev. J.T.H. Du Boulay of Heddington, with the Rev. G.J. Majendie, son of the Bishop of Bangor, the Rev. Henry William Majendie, at present the representative of the Majendies, is half brother to the present head of the Du Boulays (1874). The next brother of the Rev. Francis Houssemayne Du Boulay (born 1828) is Rev. James Thomas Houssemayne Du Boulay (born 1832), Assistant Master of Winchester College.
- ↑ Burke’s Landed Gentry says that Francois Houssemayne Boulay, the Father of the Reverend Benjamin, was a son of Le Marquis d’Argenson.