Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Cassan

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

Layout 2

Cassan. — The family of Cassan of Sheffield House, near Maryborough, Ireland, claims descent from a French Protestant, Etienne Cassan, native of Montpellier (born 1659). This pious ancestor became a refugee in Holland in 1685, and served there as a military officer, and came to England with William III. He served in the Irish campaigns, and married in 1692 Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Joseph Sheffield, Esq. of Navestock, Essex, and Cappoly, Queen’s County. His only son, Matthew Cassan (born 1693), is styled “of Cappoly or Sheffield,” because he rebuilt the mansion of Cappoly, and named it Sheffield, after his mother’s family. This Mr. Cassan was twice married; by his first wife he had Stephen, his heir, and Richard Sheffield Cassan (born 1729), barrister-at-law; by his second wife he had Rev. Joseph Cassan, of Stradbally, who died in 1830, aged eighty-eight, and Captain John Cassan, who died in 1805. The above-named Stephen of Sheffield House died 26th April 1773, aged forty-eight, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Matthew (born 1754, died 1837). Stephen’s second son, named Stephen, a barrister-at-law (born 1757, died 1794), had an only son, Rev. Stephen Hyde Cassan, M.A., F.S.A.,^[1] Vicar of Bruton and of Wyke, Somerset, who died in 1841. Matthew’s successor was Stephen Sheffield Cassan (born 1777), father of Matthew Sheffield Cassan, Esq. of Sheffield House (born 1813), whose sons and collateral heirs will not let the family die.

1. Author of “Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury,” 1 vol. (1824); “Lives of the Bishops of Winchester,” 2 vols. (1827); “Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells,” 1 vol. (1830); and of several pamphlets. He was born at Calcutta, 27th October 1789, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford; he was chaplain to the Earl of Caledon, and served the curacies of Frome, Somerset, and of Were, Wiltshire, during which period he sometimes felt that preferment is dispensed on the principle, “They who ask, shall not have; and they who don’t ask, don’t want.” He died 19th July 1841.