Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 23 - Bishop Majendi

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

Layout 2

Bishop Majendi. — It is remarkable that during five centuries the patronymic “De Majendie” was linked with the territorial designation of De Bezing; the property of Bezing remained with the family till 1874. The name and designation, thus united, occur in French archives as early as 1365, between which year and 1538 three representatives are on record, having the Christian name of “Bertram” With the third, who was pasteur of Orthez, the extant De Majendie pedigree begins. He had a younger son, Bertrand de Majendie, who married Mademoiselle de Casenave. But we are concerned with his eldest son, André, born 20th April 1801, who was the pasteur of Navarreins, afterwards of Sauveterre. He was an eminent divine, and preached twice before the Provincial Synod of Beam. On the first occasion it met at Lembege, and his sermon was printed with the title, “L’Enfant Flottant, ou Sermon fait au Synode de Lembege le 21 Aoust mdclxi., par A. de Majendie, M.D.L., P.D.D., en l’Eglise de St. Gladie — contre les incertitudes et scrupules inseparables de la Communion de Rome. Imprime par l’ordre du Synode en MDCLXI.” (the text was Eph. iv. 14). He also printed a sermon or pamphlet entitled, “Defense de l’Union,” the existence of which is known only through the sentence of condemnation passed against him in 1666. In that year he preached before his Provincial Synod at Nay on the nullity of Papal excommunications, and the immoralities arising from the enforced celibacy of the clergy. A warrant for his apprehension was obtained from the Parliament of Pau, and on 19th December he was banished from the province for six years, and for ever interdicted from the exercise of the pastorate. He retired to Holland. There, at the request of the burgomasters of Amsterdam, he wrote a reply to the Annals of Baronius. A folio volume was published in 1675, with the title, “Anti Baronius Magenelis, seu Animadversiones in Annales Cardinalis Baronii, cum epitome lucubrationum criticarum Casauboni in tomi primi annos xxxiv., quibus accesserunt quaedam ad Baronii animadversiones Davidis Blondelli. Auctore Andreâ Magendeo, Ecclesiasta Benearnensi.” The pasteur returned to France in 1675, and resided at Pau. His wife’s name was Marie Dejorad; at his death, 14th April 1680, he left sons, Jean, Jacques, Pierre, and André. Of these, the eldest, Pasteur Jean de Majendie, was banished from France, but returned and exercised his ministry in defiance of persecution, until he died in inward and outward peace in the year 1688. Jacques de Majendie, his next brother (bom 4th December 1637), married Charlotte de Saint-Leger, and left two sons,^[1] one of whom became a British subject in 1700, coming to us from Leeuwarden. This was Rev. Andréw Majendie, pasteur at Exeter for forty years; he had been educated at Amsterdam; his congregation continued to meet in St. Olave’s Church, Exeter; he also taught French and mathematics, and lectured on the reasonableness of Protestantism and the errors of Popery; he died in 1740. At Exeter, in 1702, he married Suzanne, daughter of Rev. Louis Mauzy of Barnstaple, and had eleven children. His eldest son, Rev. John James Majendie, D.D.,^[2] (born at Exeter, 14th March 1709, and educated at Leyden), was minister of the French Church in the Savoy in London, Domestic Chaplain of the Earl of Grantham, also Rector of Stoke Prior, Prebendary of Salisbury, Canon of Worcester, and afterwards of Windsor, author of “Le But des Afflictions” (1741), “The Yoke of the Church of Rome” (1745), and “The Double Deliverance” 1755). Dr. Majendie was Queen Charlotte’s instructor in the English language, and tutor to her sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. He was deeply and actively interested in the Waldenses,^[3] he died at Weston, near Bath, 7th August 1783, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and fifty-fifth of his ministry. He married, in 1753, Elizabeth Prevost, and his sons were Henry-William and Lewis (afterwards of Hedingham Castle). Henry-William Majendie, D.D., was born 7th October 1754, was tutor to Prince William Henry, afterwards Duke of Clarence and King William IV.; became successively Canon of Windsor, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul’s, Bishop of Chester (in 1800), Bishop of Bangor (in 1809); he died 28th July 1830. The Bishop’s sons we have noted in chapter xx. His sister was Susannah, Mrs. Unwin Clarke (born 20th August 1757, died 28th April 1846). The Bishop’s daughters were Mary Ann, wife of the Dean of Bangor (Cotton); Isabella, wife of the Dean of Salisbury (Lear); Catherine, wife of Henry Eyncs Clinton, Esq., M.A., and M.P., author of “Fasti Hellenici,” and Louisa, Lady Hewett.

1. The other son was Jeremie de Majendie, whose descendants possess the ancient Maison de Majendie at Sauveterre, in the Department of Gironde.
2. Another son was Lewis Arnold Majendie, born 1710, died 1781, buried at Marylebone.
3. As Agent for the Vaudois Churches, he printed an appeal for a collection in their behalf, dated 18th April 1768, containing a historical account of the Waldenses, which modern research has verified. According to him, the Vaudois, or Waldenses, are the representatives of “those worthy confessors” who gradually separated themselves from the Church of Rome as its corruptions increased, till they abandoned it entirely about the beginning of the ninth century.