Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 24 - De Bernière
De Bernière. — The Baron Guillaume de Bernière proved his nobility in 1644, and his pedigree is preserved in the Archives Royales in Paris (Rue Richelieue). A Lucas de Bernières is mentioned in 1288. In 1444 two Messieurs de Bernières (whose family was then regarded as très ancienne et noble) distinguished themselves in the army of Louis XI. One of them (according to Philip de Confines) saved the king’s life, in the circumstances of which Sir Walter Scott, by a poetical license, makes Quentin Durward the hero. From the above-mentioned Baron Guillaume descended the gallant Huguenot refugee, Jean Antoine de Bernière. He came over to Ireland. He is reputed by the present French representatives of the family to have been the chief of his name. For conscience sake he left the estate of Bernières near Caen; he is called in the Crommelin Pedigree, “gentilhomme d’aupres d’Alencon.” The refugee served under the Earl of Galway at the battle of Almanza; he was wounded and lost a hand; his life was also in danger, but by means of an ancient ring which he wore, and which had been the gift of a French king to one of his ancestors, he was recognised by a tenant on the Bernières lands and received quarter. On his return to Ireland he married Madeleine Crommelin, only daughter of the great Crommelin. His grandson was Captain De Bernière of the 30th Regiment, who died from exhaustion after the siege of Senegal in 1762, leaving an only son and heir, Henry Abraham Crommelin de Bernière, who rose to be a Major-General in the British army.
Major-General de Bernière, was bom in 1762, and joined the 10th regiment in 1777, at once entering upon active service in America under General Burgoyne. In 1796 he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 9th Foot. He was in Holland with the Duke of York in 1798, and with Sir James Pulteney in 1800, and afterwards he was sent out to join Sir Ralph Abercromby. Lord Cathcart placed him upon his Staff at Dublin as Assistant Adjutant-General in 1805, but in 1807 he resolved to sail with his regiment to Holland to serve in the Allied Army as Brigadier. The transport was wrecked on the French coast, near Calais, and he, with the staff officers, was sent a prisoner to Verdun. Great interest was made to have him exchanged, and with apparent success, Colonel Lefevre Desmouettes being released by our Government on that understanding; but Napoleon refused to sign Colonel De Bernière’s release. During his imprisonment he was bereaved of his only son. The entry of the allied armies into Nancy (in 1813), where Major-Gentral De Bernière (for he had been promoted) then was, seemed to assure him of liberty, but at that very time he died. An illness, not apparently alarming, proved fatal through the want of medical aid, the surgeons being overworked by attendance upon wounded and dying soldiers from Moscow.
The General was married to Miss Longley, sister of Charles Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1862 to 1868. His only surviving child, Francoise Charlotte Josephine, was married to the Rev. Newton Smart, Prebendary of Salisbury and Rector of Withesham. Their son, a military officer, is the male representative of the De Bernières.