9 th S. II. Oct. 15, 98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
317
Thomas Robinson, and his friend John
Olding, of London, banker. He appears to
have been a son of Samuel Ashburner, of
Olney, flaxdresser, whose will, dated 16 April,
1778, and proved 19 May, 1780, discloses his
wife Mary, his son Edward Ashburner, and
his daughter Mary, wife of Thomas Robin-
son, of Olney, carpenter. I am indebted to
a relative for the above information.
REGINALD STEWAKT BODDINGTON. Constitutional Club, Northumberland Avenue.
" THROUGH OBEDIENCE LEARN TO COMMAND " (9 th S. i. 105). An earlier authority than Pliny can be cited. Plato, in his 'Leges,' 762 E, has the following words : A? 8rj TTCIVT' avSpa Siavoticrdai irepl aTrai/rcov av^ptuVcov, cos o fur) SovAevcras ovS' civ SeoTroTrjs yevotro a^cos CTTCUVOU. ALEX. LEEPER.
Trinity College, Melbourne.
DE LIANCOURT (9 th S. ii. 248, 275). It would be a difficult matter to establish the relation- ship desired by your first correspondent. The name of Liancourt is, of course, inextricably mingled with the greater one of La Roche- foucauld.
The " husband " of Gabrielle d'Estre'es was probably the uncle of Charles du Plessis, Count of Beaumont and Governor of Paris, who became, through the influence of Henry IV., husband of Madame de Guerche- ville, and may have been the father of Roger du Plessis, Due de Liancourt, the husband of Jeanne, the celebrated duchess. Jeanne had one son, who entered the army and was killed, leaving a daughter, who married the Prince de Marcillac, and died at the age of twenty-four. If this daughter was the mother of Fra^ois, eighth Due de la Rochefou- cauld and Marquis de Liancourt, it is possible to trace the line through Alexandre, son of Francis. He left no son to succeed him, and the Due de Liancourt of revolutionary fame was the son of the younger of his two daughters.
Of Nicholas Dumersal, the complaisant husband of Gabrielle, very little is or deserves to be known. He was at the time a widower, "ugly and elderly," with eleven children. From the edifying particulars of Mile, de Conti it is obvious that the mar- riage, disgraceful to all concerned^ was never consummated. When Henry laid siege to Chartres Gabrielle followed nira, and M. de Liancourt disappeared from the scene, to reappear for a moment in the indecent "divorce" which followed the birth of the Due de Vendome. "Fair Gabrielle" really seems hopeless. She was impudent, ignorant, and inconstant, and her family were as in-
famous, and in their day as notorious, as
Gabrielle herself.
Of Madame de Liancourt it is happily possible to say everything that is good. She was Jeanne de Schomberg, daughter of Marshal Henri de Schomberg, and married, at the age of twenty, Roger du Plessis, Due de Liancourt. She loved "les belles-lettres, les beaux-arts, et les sciences," and was an exemplary wife and woman. Her husband lived at first in great dissipation ; but she gradually drew him to his home, with its gardens and fountains of her own design at Liancourt, and her influence completely transformed him. They became prominent members of the Porte-Royal group. As a Jansenist her husband was refused absolu- tion by a priest of Saint-Sulpice. Arnauld's 'Lettres a un Due' resulted from this refusal they were addressed to the Due de Liancourt. The " proces " in which madame engaged was surely the least remarkable thing in a good life. Her granddaughter married_the Prince de Marcillac, son of the great prince better known as the Due de la Rochefoucauld, the author of the 'Maximes.' Madame herself wrote some " maximes " of which the Abbe Boileau spoke well. He published them as 4 R^glements donne par une Dame de Haute Qualite,' &c. (Paris, 1698). She died in 1674, and was followed in less than two months by her husband.
The Due de Liancourt of revolutionary fame is well known. It may, however, be mentioned that on the murder of his cousin, in 1792, he took the title of Due de la Roche- foucauld, and as the friend of vaccination and the enemy of Bourbon reprisals after 1815 is better known under this name.
GEORGE MARSHALL.
Sefton Park, Liverpool.
REV. MR. MARRIOT (9 th S. i. 249 j ii. 116), On the wall of the south aisle of the nave in Worcester Cathedral is a tablet in memory of Randolph Marriott, Esq., eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Marriott, Rector of Darfield, co. York, and of the Right Hon. Lady Diana Feilding, daughter of Basil, fifth Earl of Den- bigh. He died 2 June, 1807, aged seventy-one. Elizabeth his widow, daughter of the late Dr. Christopher Wilson, Bishop of Bristol, and granddaughter of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, died 27 February, 1821, aged severity-four. W. C. B.
HERALDRY: BADGE OP ULSTER (9 th S. i. 188 ; ii. 153). With reference to MR. SLATER'S query, " What rule in heraldry governs the position of the arms of Ulster in the chief of a baronet's shield?" which has not yet, I think,
