Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 25 - Masères
Masères. — The head of this family, and one brother, a physician, remained in France as “new converts.” But the other three brothers, all officers in the French army, left their native country on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. One of these rose to the rank of Colonel in the British army, and was the grandfather of Francis Masères.
Colonel Masères served in Ireland under King William III. and his generals, and afterwards in Portugal. He was the father of Dr. Masères, a physician in London, whose son Francis was born on the 15th December 1731. Francis was educated at Cambridge University, and became a Fellow of Clare Hall; he took his B A. degree in 1750 with honours. He obtained the first classical medal; Beilby Porteous being second in order of merit. It appears, however, by his subsequent publications, that mathematics was the favourite study of Francis Masères, his great work on that subject being “Scriptorcs Logarithmici.” As a barrister, his early professional life was spent in Canada, where he filled the office of Attorney-General of Quebec. He was very zealous in promoting a good feeling towards the British Government, when the revolt of the Southern Colonies might have proved infectious. In 1773 he was rewarded with the office of Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, and returned to England to enter upon its duties.
His behaviour in the colony had obtained for him the confidence of the inhabitants, and at their request he acted at home as agent of the Protestant settlers in Quebec. In their interest he published, “An Account of the proceedings of the British and other Protestant Inhabitants of Quebec, in order to obtain a House of Assembly,” 1775, 8vo, and “The Canadian Freeholder, consisting of dialogues between an Englishman and a Frenchman settled in Canada,” 1779, 3 vols. 8vo.
The Baron also took an active interest in the welfare of people at home.
Mindful of the steadfastness of his ancestors, he published some works relative to the spirit and persecuting career of popery. Also in 1791 he wrote against “pluralities,” or the holding of more than one ecclesiastical office by a clergyman, and against “temporary incumbencies” in parish churches, the incumbent retiring on a patron’s protegé coming of age or becoming eligible for the living. These were the principal topics of his book entitled, “The Moderate Reformer, or a proposal to correct some abuses in the Present Establishment of the Church of England,” 1791. His strong Protestant convictions were unalloyed with hostility to the persons of Romanists — so much so, that at the period of the French Revolution, his house was open to the refugees from France; and French Archbishops, and bishops, and numerous priests, might be seen at his hospitable table.
He was a diligent student of the books and pamphlets of the days of the Stuarts, and the cavaliers and parliamentarians, and printed at least three volumes of reprints and extracts bearing upon the constitution of England upon civil and religious liberty.
He was a great patron of poor authors, whose meritorious works he was often at the expense of printing. Watt and Haag give a list of his publications. He was thought worthy of admission among the Fellows both of the Royal Society of London, and of the Society of Antiquaries. He lived unmarried, and in his last days he was affectionately tended by his nearest relative, Mr. Whitaker. He died on May 19, 1824, in his ninety-third year. (His relationship to the Whitakers is explained in Chap, xv.)
The Gentleman’s Magazine exhibits his habits linked with the olden time. “French,” says the writer, “was the language of the paternal roof, and he spoke it with the utmost fluency and propriety. But it was the French of the age of Louis XIV., not of modern times, and it was amusing to contrast his pronunciation with that of the new refugees. He himself used to mimic with great success the Parisian dialect.” But the writer, who volunteers to give the world the most information concerning Baron Masères, is William Cobbett (in his Rural Rides). “I knew the Baron very well,” says this writer, “he was a most conscientious man. He was, when I first knew him, still a very clever man; he retained all his faculties to a very great age. . . . He had always been a very sensible, just, and humane man, and a man too who always cared for the public good; and he was the only man that I ever heard of, who refused to have his salary augmented.” When Cobbett was imprisoned for writing a newspaper article, the Baron frequently visited him in Newgate; and “he always came in his wig and gown, to show his abhorrence of the sentence.” As to Baron Masères’ money matters, Cobbett is partly mistaken. The following is the correct statement. He had a pretty house and grounds at Reigate, a house in Rathbone Place, London, and also chambers, No. 5 King’s Bench Walk, Inner Temple. In his Will he bequeathed £10,000 to “my near relation, Mr. Whitaker, a farmer at Pembury, in the county of Kent,” £10,000 to Elizabeth Whitaker, and £10,000 to Charlotte Whitaker. He left £800 and some books to “Mr. Anselm Donisemount, a French gentleman of note, formerly Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris before the French Revolution in 1789;” £500 to Mr. Richard Pooler of Reigate, formerly a seller of Mathematical Instruments in London; £200 to Mrs [Miss] Webster of Reigate, “who is constantly employed in doing good offices to her neighbours;” £200 to Francis Polhill, “my godson, second son of the late Charles Polhill, Esq., of Chipstead, Kent;” £300 to Mr. Ambrose Glover, the attorney at Reigate, for his own use, and £200 for a foot pavement in the High Street; £200 to Mr. Martin, the apothecary at Reigate. There are several legacies to servants, and the whole remainder is left to Rev. Robert Fellowes, of Cumberland Place, Marylebone, who proved the Will, as sole executor, on 19th June 1824. The effects were sworn under £100,000. The Baron also left books to the Inner Temple Library, and his unsold publications in sheets to Mr. William Frend, of Bridge Street, Blackfriars.
The following epitaph is on his monument in the churchyard of Reigate:—
H. S. E.
Franciscus Maseres, armig.,
Aul. Clar. apud Cantab, olim socius,
quinti Baronis in curiâ seacearii munus
L. annos executus est.
Viri hujus egregii et amabilissimi
fides, integritas, aequalitas, liberalitasque
omnibus quibuscam erat versatus, innotuêre.
Eximiis his virtutibus accedebant
tanta sermonis morumque suavitas, tanta comitas facilitasque,
ut nihil suprâ.
Humanitatis studiis et literis reconditioribus colendis
omni praeconio dignissimus,
Exemplaria Graeca et Latinorum, quorum juvenis fuerat perstudiosus,
senex in deliciis habebat.
Sui seculi Mathematicorum clarissimis parem indubitanter dixeris.
Multa quae accuratè, copiosè, cogitatèque scripserat,
prelo dedit et in communem fructum attulit.
Articulos fidei (qui dicuntur) in minimum reduxit,
Deum unum, ens entium, omnium patrem, Christo duce, sanctissimè adoravit.
Quam immortalitem toto pectore cupierat
placidâ lenique senectute et integrâ mente consecutus est
Anno Domini mdcccxxiv., aetat. suae xciii.
Vale, vir optime! Amice, vale, carissime!
et siqua rerum humanarum tibi sit adhue conscientia,
Monimentum,
quod in tui memoriam, tui etiam in mortuis observantissimus
Robertus Fellowes ponendum curavit,
solita benevolentiâ tuearis.