102
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. AUG. 10, 1007.
Chevalier de St. George, as stated by
Madame de Boigne, but her grandfather,
Roger Dicconson, who had been Treasurer
to Mary of Modena, queen of James II., and
accompanied the exiled family to St.
Germains. His wife was Margaret, daughter
and heiress of Edward Petre of Margaretting
in Essex, a cousin of Lord Petre ; and it
was through this marriage, as well as that
of her grandfather with Mary Blount, that
Madame de Boigne became connected with
the principal Roman Catholic families in
England. On p. 95 she calls Lady Clifford
her mother's cousin. The Lady Clifford
of those days was Eleanor Mary, a daughter
of Lord Arundell of Wardour, and the
cousinship was rather remote, as it dated
back to a marriage of Elizabeth Blount,
first cousin of Mary Blount, with Hugh,
third Lord Clifford. The writer is, however,
correct in calling Lady Legard (p. 82) a
cousin german or first cousin of her mother.
Catherine Dicconson, a sister of the second
Mrs. Dillon, had married Mr. Henry Hervey
Aston, of Aston in Cheshire, and her
daughter Jane was the wife of Sir John
Legard, the sixth baronet of Ganton, in
Yorkshire. There was no issue of this
marriage.
After the sudden death of Robert Dillon, Madame de Boigne narrates the story of her mother's marriage to the Marquis d'Osmond. She says that the Archbishop of Narbonne, Arthur Richard Dillon, recognized the young Madame d'Osmond as a near relation. The relationship was exceedingly remote. The Archbishop, who was a nephew of the eighth Viscount Dillon, belonged to the main stock of the family, from which the Kilcornan branch had separated early in the sixteenth century. In character he resembled an Irish squire of the ' Castle Rackrent ' days rather than a dignified ecclesiastic. He was devoted to hunting, and swore consumedly, though he set his face against such practices in the inferior clergy. In point of morals he was perhaps more French than Irish, and his relations with his niece, Madame de Rothe, unhappily gave rise to scandal. In this connexion Madame de Boigne has made a slight error. She says (p. 30) that the Archbishop's niece, to whom the chateau of Hautefontaine belonged, was the daughter of his sister, Lady Forester. At that period Lady Forester was a non-existent personage. Laura Dillon, the Archbishop's sister, was the second wife of Lucius Henry Gary, fifth Viscount Falkland. She died in 1741 at an early age, leaving an only daughter, Lucy Gary, who married Lieut.-General de Rothe,
colonel of the Irish regiment of Rothe in
the French king's service. Mr. J. G. Alger,.
in his ' Glimpses of the French Revolution,'
1894, calls the general " Rothes, a Scotch
refugee " ; but I have not been able to
trace his authority. Madame de Boigne
gives a vivid picture of this lady's death,
which occurred in Somerset Street, Portman
Square, where the Archbishop then resided,
on 7 Feb., 1804. Her daughter Lucie de-
Rothe married in 1769 the Hon. Arthur
Dillon, a nephew of the Archbishop, and had
one daughter, Henriette Lucie, who was
born in 1770, married in 1786 the Comte de
la Tour-du Pin Gouvernet, and died at Pisa
in 1853.
Arthur Dillon, who was the second son of the eleventh Viscount Dillon, is frequently mentioned by Madame de Boigne. There is an excellent account of him in Mr. Alger's ' Glimpses,' pp. 185-99. His first wife, who had attracted scandal by her flirtations- with the Prince de Guemenee (misspelt Guemen6 in the 'Memoirs'), died, while quite a young woman, in 1782. In 1785 Dillon married for his second wife Anne Laure Girardin, widow of Franois Alex- andre Le Vassor de la Touche Longpre, and cousin of Josephine, the future Empress. By her first husband Madame Dillon had a daughter, Elizabeth Alexandrine, who was born in 1775, and married in 1798 Edouard, fourth Due de FitzJames, the grandfather of the amiable nobleman who died last year. The death of Madame de FitzJames, which is described by Madame de Boigne, p. 202, took place at Wey bridge in 1806. By her second husband Madame Dillon had also one daughter, Francoise Henriette Laure, usually known as Fanny Dillon, whose forced, but happy marriage to General Bertrand is amusingly related in the ' Memoirs.' She died in 1836.
On p. 173 Madame de Boigne's memory has, I think, slightly failed her. She speaks of " that Dillon who married Mile, de Rothe, and who was killed when acting as general in the army of the Convention." Here she apparently confuses General Arthur Dillon, who was guillotined on 14 April, 1794, after having been out of employment for a con- siderable time, with General Theobald Dillon, who was murdered by his own. troops at Lille in 1792, when actually holding a command. The relationship between the two Dillons has never satisfactorily been leared up. The late James Roche, who- was in France during the revolutionary period, and who was one of the band of" scholars who helped to start ' N. & Q.' on.
