Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 17 - Section II
II. Officers.
1. Old Schomberg wrote to King William in January 1690:— “If your Majesty gives Hewet’s regiment to Mr. Beyerley, it would be desirable that you would put a good lieutenant-colonel under him. Several suitable persons might be found among the French officers; but I never of my own accord put any French among the English, unless they desire it.” (Despatch, No. 16.)
2. Jean La Borde, a military officer, fought at the battle of the Boyne. His wife was of the family of La Motte Graindor, which possessed a beautiful property in Languedoc. This young lady, during her earliest years, witnessed the relentless persecution which her family and relations had to endure, and which she often narrated to her own descendants. “A young girl, her cousin, they tied by the heels to a cart, and then they drew on the horse through the streets until her brains were clashed out; a young man she was to be married to went after the cart, imploring them to stop.” The family of Cassel, having undergone fearful tribulation, were the first of her relations to fly into Holland, and they took her with them. The La Hordes suffered as much, many being imprisoned and stripped of their property. Jean La Borde escaped out of prison in an almost miraculous manner, and after great privations, contrived to let his parents know where he was, hiding in fields, afraid to enter his own home, where there was plenty of food, and he starving. At length he fled to Holland, met the Cassels, and married Anne La Motte Graindor. There he joined the army of the Prince of Orange, whom he followed into England. He retired on a lieutenant’s half-pay, and settled at Portarlington, in which town the Cassel family also had representatives. In the register there is the baptism of a son of Jean La Borde and Anne Graindor, the parents being sponsors, who was born 16th December 1703, and named Jean. Another child, Anne La Borde, was married to Isaac Cassel, and Abe? Cassed, their son, was baptized on 12th August 1736. In 185S a daughter of Abel Cassel was alive, the last of her family, and very aged; she dictated the substance of the above narrative to Sir Erasmus Borrowes. (Ulster Journal, vol. vi., p. 345,)
3. Captain Rene de la Fausille, formerly of the French royal regiment of La Ferté, was a captain in La Caillemotte’s Foot, and served in Ireland. At the Boyne he received no less than six wounds, and King William took special notice of his ardour and courage, so that he received a pension of ten shillings per day, and the post of Governor of Sligo. His two sons were British officers; one died with the rank of captain, unmarried. The other being in 1758 Lieut.-Col. John Lafausille of the 8th foot, was promoted to the Colonelcy of the 66th; he became Major-General in 1761, and died on his voyage home from Havannah in 1762. The day of his death was November 27. Two days thereafter the ship, H.M.S. Marlborough, foundered, but the crew was rescued by H.M.S. Antelope. The General was survived by an only child, Mrs. Torriano.
4. Major Isaac Cuissy Mollien left a holograph memorandum dated 6th June 1692, willing the destination of his property, “If God should dispose of me in the dangers of war or otherwise.” On 4th October 1698 this document was sworn to by Charles Moreau, of St. Martin’s-in-thc-Fields, gent., and was administered to by Susan, wife of James de Mollien. This lady and her husband were to inherit his small means, on condition of their maintaining the Major’s two nieces, named Denandiere, which nieces were to succeed to the whole upon the death of Mr. and Mrs. de Mollien without issue. Otherwise, surviving daughters of the De Molliens should have it in equal shares; if, however, the De Molliens left a son, he was to have one half, and the daughters to share the other half between them. [The major is perhaps the same person as Captain de Moliens of Schomberg’s Horse]
5. Major Henry Foubert was aide-de-camp to William III. at the Boyne; he is said to have warned old Schomberg against mingling in the fight without his cuirass. He was a son of M. Solomon Foubert, founder of the Riding Academy, From List xi. of Naturalizations and from other sources I compile the following:—
| Solomon Foubert | = | Magdalene. | ||||||||||||
| Henry | = | Mary Legard, m. 16th Oct. 1701. |
Peter. | Judith | = | Nicolas Durrell. | ||||||||
| Solomon Durrell. | ||||||||||||||
As to the Riding Academy between Swallow Street and Regent Street (where Foubert’s Alley became monumental) the following extracts from Evelyn’s Diary may be given:—
“1681. Sept. 17. I went with Monsieur Foubert about taking the Countess of Bristol’s house for an academy, he being lately come from Paris for his religion, and resolving to settle here.
“1682. Aug. 9. The Council of the Royal Society had it recommended to them to be trustees and visitors or supervisors of the Academy which M. Foubert did hope to procure to be built by subscription of worthy gentlemen and noblemen for the education of youth, and to lessen the vast expense the nation is at yearly by sending children into France to be taught military exercises; we thought good to give them all the encouragement our recommendation could procure.”
On 17th December 16S4, Evelyn mentions Mons. Foubert and his son, provost-masters of the Academy, persons skilled in horses and “esteemed of the best in Europe.”
On 20th January 1728, King George II. made Henry Foubert and Peter Voyer Richaussée, Esquires, equerries of the crown stables. That the Major Foubert, who was at the victory of “The Boyne,” was a son of the founder of the Riding Academy, appears from the obituary notice in the Gentleman’s Magazine:— “Died, 13th Feb. 1743, Major Foubert, who signalized himself at the Battle of the Boyne and to the end of that war [1698], when by King William’s command he took on him the management of the Royal Academy.”
I find the following letter to the Earl of Bute in the British Museum (Musgrave Collection of Autographs):—
“My Lord, The last time I had the honour and happiness of seeing your Lordship I then took the liberty to mention my pension of an one Hundred and fifty Pound pr Annm which His Majesty was most graciously pleased to grant me when Prince of Wales. You was then so good and so very obliging as to assure me you would take care of it, and as my Lord Bathurst’s office is at an end, and hearing that some gentlemen had received their pensions on that List, encouraged me to wait on Mr. Walcup yesterday, but to my great disappointment he told me my name was not on the list. As your Lordship is no stranger to the many difficulties that attended me in regard to my Uncle Foubert’s disappointments which all fell on me — which I hope will plead my excuse in presuming to give this trouble, and to most humbly beg your Protection and Favour. I am, with the greatest respect imaginable, &c.
“Fryday, May 15, 1761.
I find a Lieutenant, Peter Foubert, quartered at Tilbury Fort on 22nd October 1762. (The surname is in the Portarlington register.)
6. Captain Louis Geneste Pelras de Cajare fought at the Boyne in Cambon’s regiment. His surname was Geneste. On retiring from the service he lived at Lisburn till his death, except during the interval between 1724 to 1731, when he resided in the Isle of Man, where his son, Louis Geneste, afterwards settled. The son of the latter visited Beargues in France, the estate belonging to his ancestors, and found Genestes in possession of one half of it in 1792.
[The Rev. Hugh A. Stowell informs me that it is a mistake to credit the Stowells with Geneste blood, though they have repeatedly been in affinity with members and connections of the Geneste family. My reverend correspondent’s eminent father was the late Rev. Hugh Stowell, Canon of Chester, whose father, the Rev. Hugh Stowell, Rector of Ballaugh, in the Isle of Man, published a Memoir of Francis de la Pryme Geneste. That lamented youth, who died in 1826, aged twenty-one, was the fourth son of Lewis Geneste, Esq., by Catherine De la Pryme: the other sons were, Lewis, Charles, and (Rev.) Maximilian. Commander Lewis Geneste, R.N., was the son of Charles, and married Mary, a daughter of Maximilian ]
7. Major Abel Pelissier was the son of Abel Pelissier and Anne-Nicolas, of Castres in Languedoc. When he retired from the service, owing to the disbanding of the French regiments, he was Aide-Major and Mareschal-des-logis in Galway’s Horse. He had hardly found a home in Portarlington, when in 1698 he married Marie, daughter of Caesar de Choisy, a refugee from Poitou, by his deceased wife, Marie Gilbert de Chef-boutonne. Their children were Abel, Alexandre, Jean, Jacques, Angelique, and Marie. The second son, born in 1701, was Alexander Pelissier, merchant, of Dame Street, Dublin.
8. Peter Petit, Esq. was Quartermaster-General of the Light Horse of France. He married Madame du Quesne, née Susanne Monnier, who had a son to her first husband, named Abraham Du Quesne, “Captain of one of the King of France his ships.” Monsieur and Madame Petit, “being gone out of France through the persecution exercised against those of the true reformed religion, were forced to leave there almost all their estates.” They retired to the Hague, where on 18th April 1687 he made his Will, being then a Major of horse in the army of the States-General. All his own and his wife’s property was declared to be the property of the survivor unconditionally. And it was directed that the children, Armand Louis Petit and Isaac Francis Petit, should have “a good education, and in the fear of God;” and that in the survivor’s ultimate settlement the young Du Quesne should have an equal share with each of the two Petits. The Will was proved in London by Mrs. Petit on the 12th January 1698.
9. Brigadier Louis Petit (I give the rank to which he rose in our army) was a refugee from the neighbourhood of Caen, and a member of the Norman family of Petit des Etans. Some of his services were chronicled by Narcisus Luttrell:—
1708. Major-General Stanhope took the island of Minorca and Castle of Port Mahon; we had about fifty killed in the expedition, and among them Captain Stanhope of the Milford man-of-war (brother to the General), who was very instrumental in animating the seamen, and had a great share in the execution of it. And Brigadier Petit, for his great services there and at the Siege of Barcelona, is made Governor of the Isle.
Oct. 28. Brigadier Petit, a French refugee, Governor of the Island [of Minorca] is adding new works to it, and making the same as strong as possible.
This gallant General died in 1720, and his Will was proved in London by his widow, Marianne, daughter of John Meslin De Glatigny. Their daughters died unmarried, and their son, John Peter, founded a family. (See Chapter xx.)
10. Colonel Rieutort was a native of Montpellier, and of a good family. He served in Ireland under William III., and afterwards in Piedmont. In 1703 he assisted in the defence of Landau. In 1704 he was sent by the Earl of Galway to co-operate in the relief of Gibraltar. He then went to Barcelona with King Charles III., who gave him a regiment of dragoons, but Count Lichtenstein insisted on his becoming a Roman Catholic, and as he could not comply, he resigned his command. He was afterwards Chamberlain to the Elector-Palatine. He had a house in Chelsea, where he died on the 24th January 1726, in his sixty-sixth year. — (Faulkner’s Chelsea.)
11. Brigadier Mark Antony Moncal, promoted to that rank in our army on 12th February 1711, was no doubt the officer who distinguished himself in Gibraltar in 1705, as is recorded in the Annals of Queen Anne. On the 27th January, “Colonel Moncall, Major in Lord Barrymore’s regiment, a French refugee, by a vigorous charge drove the enemy from the round tower which they had held for an hour. The next day his leg was shot off, as he was in attendance upon the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt in the new battery.” He died on 25th March 1729.
12. Louis Hirzel, Comte D’Olon, an old French refugee officer, attended the Earl of Galway as aide-de-camp and secretary at the battle of Almanza. He became Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Jersey. The noble family of Hirzel, to which he belonged, was of St. Gratien, near Amiens in Picardy. His daughter and heiress, became the second wife of Thomas Le Marchant, Esq. of Le Marchant Mann, Guernsey. She had no children; but her step-son, John Le Marchant, a retired officer of the British army (who died in Bath in 1794), married her relative and heiress, Maria Hirzel, of St. Gratien, eldest daughter of the Comte de St. Gratien, a marechal-de-camp of the Swiss Guards in the French service. This is the ancestry of Sir Denis Le Marchant, Baronet. — (Duncan’s Guernsey.)
13. Colonel La Fabreque (military rank superseded Christian names in most of the lists) had a long career. In July 1689 he was a lieutenant in Schomberg’s Horse with the rank of captain; when the regiment in 1698 (then Galway’s) was disbanded he was a captain with a company under his command. He was afterwards in the British cavalry, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of Carpenter’s Dragoons at the Battle of Almanza in 1707. After our defeat Lords Galway, Tyrawley, and Carpenter made good their retreat into Catalonia under his escort, fighting their way with characteristic impetuosity (see Tindal’s Continuation of Rapin, where his regiment is erroneously called Guiscard’s). It appears that he was promoted to be a full colonel of dragoons; it is certain that there was a regiment called La Fabréque’s Dragoons in 1708, which the almanacks misspelt, La Fabrique’s.
14. Lieutenant Gaspard Lanalve was “a native of France, which he left on account of religion at fifteen years of age” — i.e. in 1688-9. He served in the wars in Ireland after the Revolution, also in Flanders and Spain, and received several wounds. So says the Scots Magazine; and the Gentleman’s Magazine adds, “Though never promoted higher than lieutenant, he had served in five battles and several sieges, and was in the castle at the blowing up of the Rock of Alicant.” He probably belonged to Sibourg’s regiment. He died on half-pay at Canterbury on 17th September 1754, aged eighty. He is the same person as Mr. Gaspard La Naive registered in the London French Church in the Savoy, in 1715, on the occasion of his marriage to Mlle. Magdelaine Charles.
15. Brigadier Lalo, “a French refugee in great favour and esteem with the generals,” was killed at the battle of Malplaquet. There was a noble sufferer in France in 1687, Monsieur De Lalo (or De l’Alo), of the house of Epeluche, a councillor in the parliament of Dauphiny. The refugee in Britain was Samson de Lalo; he became Colonel of the 28th Foot in 1701. In 1706 he exchanged with John, Viscount Mordaunt, and thus obtained the 21st Regiment, called the Royal Scots Fusiliers. In 1707 the Duke of Marlborough wrote thus:— “Colonel Lalo is acquainted that his officers must conform themselves to other regiments, and use pertuisans as those of the regiment of Welsh Fusiliers.” The Colonel received a letter, dated 7th December 1708, in which the Duke says:— “I thank you for your letter of the 3rd inst., and the account you give me of the siege. I hear so seldom from thence that I should be very glad if you would write to me every evening, when the post comes away from Brussels, how it goes forward. Your letters may be left at Oudenard, from whence they will be forwarded to me by express. I would readily oblige you in your request of going for England, but that, having sent twice already, I do not think it proper to send you. However,” &c, &c. He was promoted to be a Brigadier, 2nd April 1709, and on the 11th September following, he was killed in action. He was unmarried, and his estate was administered to in London by female relatives.
[The anxiety manifested to administer to his estate has given us some information as to the relations of General De Lalo. It appears that his full name was Samson De Vesc De Lalo. In 1709 (November 29), his aunt, Mary, wife of Jacob de Drevon, in the kingdom of France, obtained letters of administration as his next of kin; but these were revoked in 1716 (June 14) in favour of John Le Clerc De Virly, attorney of Francis de Vesc De Lalo, brother of the deceased, and of Judith Roux, alias Judith de Vesc De Lalo (wife of Stephen Roux), sister of the deceased, both residing in France. The above proceedings were in the Prerogative Court in London. There was also a process before the Commissary Court at Edinburgh, on 23d June 1715, when Mary Johnston, relict of Mr. Alexander Montgomery, merchant, a creditor, was confirmed his executrix, and an asset was minuted, viz., arrears amounting to £41, 2S. 3d. sterling, due to him as captain-lieutenant of the first battalion of foot-guards.]
Luttrell says:— “October 1700, Monsieur La Loo, a French Huguenot, is made standard-bearer to the yeomen of the guard.” The name occurs frequently. On 10th September 1705 was baptised at St. Peter’s, Chichester, Richard De Lalo Spicer, son of Luke Spicer and Elizabeth [De Lalo?]; Susanna Spicer, a daughter of the same couple, was married at Chelsea on 22nd September 1724, to a husband of Huguenot name, Peter Lefebur. On 16th April 1726 Philip Laloe of St. Clement Danes, London, married Jane Judith Delpech. On 7th February 1749 a “Miss Laloe, with £10,000,” was married (see the Gentleman’s Magazine).
16. A cavalry field-officer also fell at Malplaquet, named Antoine Du Perrier, son of Mark du Perrier, a refugee of noble birth, who settled in Ireland about 1685. From this officer descends the family of Perrier of Cork. Three of his great-grand-sons were Sir David and Sir Anthony Perrier, knights, sheriffs, and mayors of Cork, and George Ferdinand Perrier, merchant in that city. The elder son of the last-named was Sir Anthony George Perrier, C.B., British Consul at Brest (born 1793, died 1867); his official connection with Brest was of forty-three years’ duration, and he was respected and beloved. He was made a C.B. in 1859 for his conduct in Paris as British Delegate to the European Sanitary Conference of 1851-2, on which occasion the Prince-President (Napoleon) had given him a gold medal. It was in 1843 that he was knighted for his services in the International Commission on Fisheries.
17. In the Artillery and Engineers Goulon and Cambon have been already named. Luttrell says, “Monsieur Le Roch, the Huguenot engineer, did more execution before Lisle in three days than D‘Meer, the German, in six weeks.” Weiss says, “The refugee John De Bodt, devoted his whole life to the defence of the cause for which he was proscribed. Born in Paris, he fled to Holland at the age of fifteen, and was recommended to the Prince of Orange by General De Gor, chief of the Dutch artillery. He accompanied the Prince to England, was made captain of artillery in 1690, and was afterwards placed at the head of the corps of French engineers. William III. employed him in eight sieges, and four great battles — those of the Boyne, Aghrim, Steinkirk, and Nerwinde. At the siege of Namur, it was he who, in the capacity of chief of Brigade, directed the triumphant attack on the castle. In 1699 he removed to Brandenburg.”
18. Pierre Carle was born at Valleraugue, in the Cevennes, about 1666. He first took refuge in Geneva, next in Holland, next in England. Next he went back to Holland on the invitation of a powerful patron, on whose death he studied mathematics, and in six months qualified himself as a military engineer. He came to England with William, and served under the King in Ireland and Flanders, and was wounded before Namur. He was fourth engineer in the service, and received a pension of £100. He accompanied Lord Galway to Portugal, and was present at the taking of Alcantara. John V. made him Lieutenant-General in the Portuguese army (and afterwards a full General, it is said), and engineer-in-chief, and pressed him to settle in Portugal. Peter Carle was a naturalized subject of England, and was true to his adopted country; but he consented to reside as a foreign visitor in Portugal till 1720, when he returned to London, and renounced arms for agriculture. He died at London, 7th October 1730; his wife’s maiden name was Aubertine Prunelay; his surviving family consisted of three daughters; his only son had died of an accident in hunting, and had predeceased the gallant and talented veteran. Of the daughters, Susanne Albertine (born 1697), was the wife of Daniel Dupont; Mary, or Marianne (born 1702), was the wife of Hon. Henry Wolverton, second son of the first Viscount Longueville; Anne, was the wife of the second son of the sixth Earl of Lincoln, Admiral the Hon. George Clinton, C.B., M.P. for Saltash, Governor of Newfoundland in 1732, Governor of New York in 1741. Collins’ Peerage says that Mrs. Clinton had three sons and three daughters, but that two only, Henry and Mary, were surviving in 1756.
19. Colonel Dubourgay was the officer sent to King Charles III. (so-called in 1706) to announce the arrival of the allied army at Madrid; he had a four days’ ride by a rather circuitous route to Saragossa. His baptismal name is not mentioned, but I conjecture that Colonel Charles Dubourgay was not the same man. Our colonel had a regiment which was named after him, which was disbanded on 25th October 1718. It was announced on 9th September 1721 that Colonel Charles Dubourgay was appointed Lieut-Governor of Jamaica. On 28th June 1723, Colonel Dubourgay was made colonel of a regiment of foot, late Brigadier Borr’s [this was the 32nd regiment, and the colonel’s Christian name was Charles]. On 3rd March 1724, Colonel Charles Dubourgay was appointed Envoy-Extraordinary to the King of Prussia; he was recalled in 1726, and succeeded by Brigadier-General Richard Sutton on the 1st of April. He re-appears in 1736, as Brigadier Charles Dubourgay, serving in Scotland under General Wade, having been promoted to that rank on 11th March 1727, according to Beatson’s Political Index.
20. Many gentlemen served as privates in our Huguenot refugee regiments. In Schomberg’s (afterwards Galway’s) cavalry regiment, some of these were honoured with employment as non-commissioned officers, and, according to French nomenclature, were called brigadiers,[1] being next in rank to quartermasters (Mareschaux-des-logis). One of these brave and zealous gentlemen was Pierre Malié. His father was Le Sieur Pierre Malié of Cernis near Nismes, of whom there is a portrait dated 1676, and an impression of whose seal with coat-of-arms is preserved; his mother’s maiden name was Françoise Sabollie; it is said that they were refugees, and that the father was killed at the Boyne. The younger Pierre Malié was born in 1660; he served under Schomberg and Galway as a brigadier, and was promoted to be a quartermaster in 1694. In 1699 he had, owing to the disbandment, to retire on half-pay. He went to London, where he married, in 1700, Anne, daughter of Thomas Devaux Michel of Caen, and Judith le Coq, his wife. He settled in Dublin in 1708-9, and died there in 1740, aged eighty. The following is copied from his own statement of his services, half-pay, &c.:—
Suivant l'ordre du gouvernement du 26e Decembre dernier le soubsiné declare quil a servy Sa Majesté depuis lannée 1689, dans le regiment du Duc de Schomberg et ensuite de Millord Galloway en qualité de Brigadier pendant toute la guerre d’Irlande et jusques en 1693. Il a servy Depuis 1694 en qualité de Mareschale de logis jusques en 1699 que le regiment a este cassé. Il est agé de 54 ans; il a une femme et cinq anfans, et cinq cens livre sterling sur lettre Dengleterre; il a une pension de dix huit sous que sa majesté a en la bonté de luy ausit continuer jusques appresent en foy de quoy me suis signé à Dublin le 12 fevrier 1713-4.
His family consisted of eight sons and three daughters; one of whom, Andre Malié, became an attorney in Dublin, and died in 1779, aged seventy, leaving a daughter, Anne, who died unmarried in 1781. The eldest son was an M.D., of No. 2 New Pye Street, Westminster; had been Surgeon of the 1st Dragoon Guards, Surgeon-General to the Forces in the West Indies, and of the Army in Flanders,. Thomas Malié, M.D., died in March 1789, in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried at Paddington. He is represented collaterally.
*⁎* I bring up the rear of this group with an array of officers’ names, which are or seem to be Huguenots.
In 1704, at the Battle of Schellenberg, were wounded Ensign Denys Pujolas of the Foot Guards, Ensign Bezier of Webb’s, Ensign Pensant of Hamilton’s, Lieut Jeverau of Ingoldsby’s, Lieut. Tettefolle of the Cavalry. At the Battle of Blenheim, Major Chenevix of Windham’s Horse was killed, and the following were wounded : — Captain La Coude of Marlborough’s, Capt Pennetiere of Hamilton’s, Captain Villebonne of How’s, Lieut Boyblanc of North and Grey’s, Lieut. Beiser of Webb’s, Cornet Creuseau of Schomberg and Leinster’s Horse. In 1707, at the Battle of Almanza, Captain Justeniere of Southwell’s, Capt. Cramer and Lieut. Doland of Hill’s, Captain Digoine and Ensign Ferrer of Wade’s, and Lieut.-Col. Deloches of Pierce’s were killed, and the following were made prisoners:— Lieut.-Col. Magny of Nassau’s, Capt. Saubergue of the Guards, Lieut. Morin and Champfleury of Mordaunt’s, Capt. Berniere of Gorge’s, Capts. Latour and Hauteclair, and Ensign Lamilliere of Wade’s, Lieut. Labastide of Montjoy’s, Lieut. Gedouin of Britton’s. (Colonel Armand de la Bastide was Governor of Carisbrook Castle in 1742.)
The Dutch had Huguenot refugee regiments which served the common cause in the Grand Alliance against the Bourbons. In the reign of Queen Anne, refugees who had belonged to regiments in English pay, removed their residence to Holland, that they might have the sea between them and the Bourbon-loving Jacobites. In Dumont de Bostaquet’s lists of officers, we meet with the name Vesansay, or Vesance. At the Battle of Almanza we read of Visonse’s regiment. Perhaps the colonel was the same man as the captain named by De Bostaquet, and the regiment may have been raised in Holland.
Perhaps we should mention Major de Labene of Sir Richard Temple’s Foot; after the town of Ghent had been taken by the French in July 1708, he held out in the castle with great resolution, and was granted a very honourable capitulation. He was made Lieutenant-Governor of Tynemouth Castle in 1718, and died with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1722.
A book was published at the Hague in 1718 entitled, Histoire du Whigisme et du Torisme, composée par Mr. de Cize, cy-devant Officier au service d’ Angleterre; the dedicatory epistle is signed Emanuel de Cize. A learned correspondent informs me that there is an earlier edition printed at Leipsic in 1717, in which the author says that he found a refuge in England from the persecution in France. Major Duquery, of the Earl of Stair’s regiment, died on 2d July 1724. On the following September 1st, a house in Conduit Street, near Hanover Square, London, was burnt, and Captain Barbut, a Frenchman and half-pay officer, perished in the flames. On 6th February 1730, Colonel John Orfeur was appointed Governor of Southsea Castle. In September 1734 Major Pujolas was made Lieutenant-Colonel of Sir Charles Hotham’s regiment, and Major Duroure, Lieutenant-Colonel of Whetham’s.
The following promotions were announced in December 1735:— To be a General, the Marquis de Montandre; to be Major-Generals, Francis Columbine, Paul de Gualy, John Peter Des Bordes, David Montolieu, Baron de St. Hippolite; to be Brigadiers, John Cavalier, Balthazar Foisac, Andrew De Boismonell, John Ligonier, John Orfeur.
Two officers are to be found in the list of names on the Lafitte tombstone in the Huguenot Cemetery at Wandsworth. I quote the list:—
Captain Timothy Lafitte died 21st May 1737, aged sixty-three.
Mrs. Catherine Lafitte died 7th April 1740, aged nineteen.
Mrs. Timothy Lafitte died 1st July 1741, aged nineteen.
Colonel Peter Lafitte died 1742.
Mr. Peter Lewis Lafitte died 1742-3, aged twenty-six.
Mrs. Louisa Lafitte, wife of Captain Lafitte, died 18th July 1759, aged seventy.
In July 1737 Major-General Francis Columbine was made Colonel of a foot regiment, late Grove’s, and in August Albert Desbrisay became Captain Lieutenant in Oglethorpe’s. Captain Peter Ribot was buried at Wandsworth in 1738, Captain Samuel Clavis (aged sixty-nine) in 1743, Captain Peter Fraxinet (aged eighty-four) in 1746, and Captain John James Caches (aged seventy-six) in 1747. In the same Huguenot Cemetery, there is this memorial:—
Here lyeth ye body of Captain Lewis Dangilboud, who departed this life on ye 2 2d of November, in ye year of our Lord 1748.
In December 1738 there died in Virginia, Major Abraham Nicholas, for many years Adjutant-General of that colony.
Wolfe’s biographer mentions Captain Charles Desclouseaux, “an officer of skill and capacity,” who was wounded at Fontenoy; he was made Fort-Major of Berwick in 1755.
In the “Ulster Journal,” vol. iv., the admirable article on French settlers in Waterford (by Rev. Thomas Gimlette), notes the following officers:— Major Sautelle (whose heiress was Mary), Quartermaster Peter Chelar, Captains Louis du Chesne, Abraham Franquefort, John Vaury, and Louis Belafaye; Lieutenants Emmanuel Toupelin Delize and Besard de Lamaindre. A similar article on Youghal notes the deaths of Cornet Daniel Coluon (1738), Captain James Dezieres (1747), Lieut. Pierre Maziere (1746), Ensign John Roviere (1736); a site in Youghal is still called “Roviere’s Holdings.”
Major Achiles La Columbine was long resident in Carlow; he was very zealous from the , year 1731 and downwards for the spiritual interests of the parish and the rebuilding of the parish church; he died on 31st August 1752, and was buried in the Carlow churchyard.
A young officer, named Desmaretz, entered our army in 1709, and served under the Duke of Marlborough. After the Peace of Utrecht he was sent to Dunkirk to survey the works, and was appointed the Commissary of the Court of England in that celebrated port. There he lived for fifty-five years, and rose by regular promotion to the rank of Colonel. So that the sum of his uneventful record was that Colonel Dumaresq, the first British Commissary at Dunkirk, died in October 1768 at Dunkirk, having been sent there by Queen Anne, and having there “resided ever after.”
- ↑ “Ils sont subalternes,” says Father Daniel, under the heading Des brigadiers d’une campagnie de cavalerie, in the Second Volume (p. 72) of his Histoire de la Milice Françoise. Paris, 1721. “Les brigadiers dans une compagnie de cavalerie vont poser les vedettes; ils tiennent un registre des ordres qu’ ils recoivent des mareschaux-des-logis pour les distribuer ensuite aux cavaliers. Il y en a deux en chaque compagnie, et ils marchent a la droite du premier rang en l’escadron.”