Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 18 - Section XI
XI. Menet.
The family of Menet was at an early date established in the domain of Royas, near Beauchastel in Le Vivarais; its members were staunch Protestants, who remained in France as members of the Church in the Wilderness (Eglises du desert). As to their pedigree, the first names on record are Nicolas Menet and Marguerite Besson, his wife, who had two sons, François and Pierre. On 20th April 1600 the Duc de Ventador granted to the elder son, Francois Menet, the domain of Royas by the tenure of a lease renewable for ever. Francois’ son was Charles Menet, who married Louise de Lhomme, and had three sons, the eldest of whom was the father of Jean Menet. Jean Menet married, on 3rd December 1708, Marie Torras of Riou-de-bel, near Beauchastel, and was the father of Jean-François, François, Isabeau, and Jeanne (the latter was born in 1720).
Isabeau became the wife of François de Fiales. The devoted couple were worshipping with a congregation in the desert on 29th March 1735 when they were surprised and arrested by a company of dragoons; the husband was condemned to the galleys for life; Isabeau was imprisoned in the dismal Tower of Constance, where she was kept in durance for fifteen years. Jeanne was also arrested, but escaped to Geneva where, in the course of years, she was married to François Augustin Lombard. (Some of her letters are preserved, addressed to refugee correspondents in England — to her cousin, Pierre and Jean Gaussen; to Colonel Marc Antoine Saurin, condoling on the death of Rev. Louis Saurin, Dean of St. Patrick; to M. Saint-Féreol of Dublin; to M. Pelletreau, French pasteur of Dublin; and especially to her cousin, Francoise Portal, a refugee lady in Ireland. A volume was privately printed at Geneva in 1873, entitled Isabeau Menet, prisonnière à la Tour de Constance, 1735-1750).
Isabeau’s brothers founded the firm of Francois Menet et Cie., silk manufacturers in Turin. Francois came to London on the business of his firm in 1764, and was naturalized as a British subject in 1766. In one of his letters he expressed his joy that now his descendants would be possessed of a nationality which was denied to them in the land of their fathers. He does not seem to have taken up his abode with us, for he became a burgess of Yverdon in Switzerland on 23rd November 1771. His wife, a native of Geneva, was Charlotte Albertine Achard; their children were a daughter, Antoinette Marie (Madame Pictet), and a son, Jean-Francois, of whom we must now speak as John Francis.
John Francis Menet married Louisa, daughter of James, and sister of Philip Cazenove, Esq. He founded a house of business in London, and took his brother-in-law, his junior in age, into partnership. As to Mr. Menet, I have no further information, except that he died at Hampstead on 1st September 1835, and left a son, the Rev. John Menet, M.A., Oxon., ordained in 1849, and since 1852 Vicar of Hockerill, and Rural Dean, late Chaplain of the Hockerill Training College, Hertfordshire, author of “Short Notes for Lessons on the Church Catechism,” published by the Christian Knowledge Society, London, 1876.