Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 17 - Section V
V. Merchants.
1. Many of the refugees brought considerable sums of money; some who had not money had good knowledge of business and inventive talents, thus they contributed greatly to public prosperity, and some made private fortunes and founded British families. It was a custom in London, regularly observed till 1723, for elders of the Dutch and French Churches, who usually were merchants, to be sent in December of each year on a deputation to the new Lord Mayor; this I infer from a paragraph in the Gentleman’s Magazine for December 1738:— Thursday 14th — “The elders of the French and Dutch Churches, in number about twenty, attended by their ministers, waited on the Lord Mayor (Micaiah Perry, Esq.) to beg his protection, and presented two large silver cups. His lordship received them in an obliging manner, and assured them of his favour. This custom has been neglected fifteen years, and we cannot guess why it is revived.”
2. “A London merchant, Mr. Banal, a good refugee,” was once in 1713 in the French café near the Exchange, when he heard an officer of the French embassy insulting the Protestant refugees, saying that they ought to be hanged. The French Papists had great hopes from the Harley-Bolingbroke ministry, as secret sympathizers with Louis XIV. in his quarrel with the Huguenots, and the French Ambassador’s household were in the habit of speaking in this insolent style; so that this officer had no regard for verbal remonstrances, but went on to say, “Think you, gentlemen, that the king of France has not arms long enough to reach you beyond the sea? I hope that you will soon find that out.” Mr. Banal could stand this no longer, but rushing forward with uplifted hand, shouted, “This arm, which is not so long as your king’s arm, will reach you from a nearer place,” and gave him a tremendous box on the ear. A row ensued, in the midst of which the landlady obtained for the officer the favour that he should be turned out by the door instead of being thrown from the window. (Marteilhe.)
3. Paul Durand (perhaps Paul Darande) was a merchant of good reputation. His conduct greatly impressed Mr. Anthony Lefroy in his youthful days. In 1770 Mr. Lefroy discovered that he had lost £30,000, and anticipated that he might be judged as deficient in sagacity. “But (he writes) I thank God not any person can with reason call in question my sentiments of honour and honesty, who have always in view the example of one Mr. Paul Durande, who failed about fifty years ago when I was an apprentice to Mr. Mark Weyland, and who afterwards, having met with great success, paid all his creditors near cent, per cent., which was of more honour to him than if his statue had been erected in marble.” (Sir J. H. Lefroy’s Notes and Documents.)
4. Paul Lewis La Caux, Esq., who, according to the Historical Register, died on 10th July 1728, made his Will on June 6th of that year, which was translated from the French and was proved by his widow and Mr. Paul Dufour on July [8th. Her Christian name was Claude. He had a cousin, John Lewis La Caux, and two sisters, Mesdames La Colombine and Sigier, the former being either the wife or mother of Paul La Colombine. Mr. La Caux left two sons, Michael and Peter, and four daughters, Anne, Magdalen, Elizabeth, and Olympia Claude, wife of Captain Thomas Eaton; the portion of each of his children was £2000. He left to the Governor and Directors of the Hospital for French Protestants, for the use of the poor of the said hospital, £100; to the French Church in the Savoy, for use of the poor French Protestant Refugees, £100; to the Church La Patente, for the use of the poor French Protestants of said church, £50; to the Charity House in Soho, commonly called La Soupe, for the use of the poor French Protestant Refugees, £50; to the House of Charity in Spittalfields called La Soupe, for the use of the poor French Protestant Refugees, £50.
5. Gabriel Tahourdin, a Protestant refugee from the province of Anjou, was naturalized in 1687 (see List xiii.), and became a London merchant; he died in 1730, and was buried at Wandsworth. His eldest son, Gabriel, was unmarried. His second son, René Tahourdin, Esq., merchant citizen and grocer, dying in 1750-1, left an only son, Richard. (Mr. René Tahourdin married Mary, daughter of Mr. Richard Wright, merchant, and lies in the same grave in the church of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook.) From Peter, the refugee’s third son, the English families spring. The refugee had four daughters, of whom Dorothy was married to Maximilian Western, and is thus an ancestress of the Western and Larpent baronets; Cassandra was married to John Graydon, and is an ancestress of the Earls of Milltown. Peter Tahourdin (born 1720, died 1784) was the father of two clergymen and of Henry Tahourdin, Esq., of Olveston, in Gloucestershire (born 1752, died 1816). The latter, who was the youngest son, left six daughters, of whom Anne was married to Sir Hanson Berney, Bart, and Mary Henrietta to Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. Savile Henry Lumley. The younger of the clerical sons was Rev. Charles Tahourdin, B.D., rector of Stokc-Charity, Hants (born 1750, died 1819), father of the late Rev. William Tahourdin, M.A., Fellow of New College, Oxford. The eldest clergyman, and chief of his name, was Rev. Gabriel Tahourdin, M.A. (born 1743, died 1814): he married Mary, daughter of Stephen Le Bas, Esq., and was the father of Peter Tahourdin, Esq., of London, solicitor (born 1771, died 1844), whose eldest son is Peter Le Bas Tahourdin, and the second son, from whom the apparent heirs-male spring, is Charles Tahourdin, Esq., of Westminster, solicitor (born 1805). The eldest son of the latter is Charles John Tahourdin, Esq., B.A., Oxon, barrister-at-law; the second son, Harry Tahourdin, Esq., who married, in 1868, Bridget, daughter of Robert Hannay, Esq., of Rusko, died in or about 1872.
6. Stephen Seignoret was a London merchant in the parish of St. Gregory. He was a Huguenot refugee, and was naturalized at Westminster, with his wife Elizabeth, on 20th March 1686 (see List xii.). Narcissus Luttrell mentions one of his early transactions thus: — “9th June 1693. — Mr. Seignoret, a merchant of London, paid in £2000 on the fund act on the life of the Duke of Burgundy, eldest son of the Dauphin of France.” In 1698 Luttrell alarms us by tidings of a State Trial impending over seven French merchants who had pleaded not guilty, and were to be arraigned at the tremendous bar of the House of Lords. But on looking back we come to the less painful information — “19th May 1698. — Seven French merchants were impeached before the House of Lords for trading to France.” In those days all leading Englishmen were monopolists, and furious ones; however, the refugee merchants, of whom Mr. Seignoret was one, escaped a trial by withdrawing their pleas of not guilty. The British Chronologist says:— 4th July 1698. — The Commons having impeached John Goudet and others for importing French lustrings [glossy silks], they confessed the facts, and this day the Commons demanding judgment against them at the Lords’ bar, they were condemned in very great fines.” Luttrell notes that the fines were fixed on July 2nd, viz., John Goudet, £1500; Barran, £500; Seignoret, £10,000; Baudouin, £3000; Santini, £1500; Deherse, £1000; Dumaistres, £1000, “and to lye in Newgate till paid” (i.e., till they have paid). Mr Seignoret was not ruined. He was one of the original Directors of the French Hospital, named in the royal charter, 24th July 1718, but died in the following year; his Will was proved on 22nd October 1719. He left £600 to said hospital, £100 to James Robethon, and £100 to John Le Clerc Virly. His wife’s maiden name was Elizabeth Got. Being a childless widow, she interested the newsmongers, so that her death was recorded in the Historical Register in June 1734, “Mrs. Seignorett, a French lady, reckoned worth upwards of £30,000” — the Gentleman’s Magazine raised the figure to £40,000, and her Will seems to dispense about £50,000. Mr. Seignoret had a sister Susanne, wife and (in 1718) widow of Marc Anthoine Ravaud, a refugee from Lyons to Geneva; it was his son and namesake who married Susanne, daughter of Major-General La Melonière. Mr. Seignoret’s brother (Christian name not known), perhaps, had been a refugee in Switzerland, but was deceased in or before 1718, and was in that year represented by a son (Mr. S.’s nephew), Pierre, or Peter Seignoret of Greenwich, who married, first, Sara Marie Couvreu (sister-in-law of Henri Gaultier), and secondly, Marguerite Allix (see the pedigree of Seignoret, Ravaud, &c, by Henry Wagner, F.S.A.).
*⁎* The Will of Mrs. Elizabeth Seignoret, alias Got, “translated out of French by Ph. Crespigny,” was proved by the two executors (each of whom received £500), Peter Seignoret, Esq. (the nephew named above), and James Gaultier, Esq. (brother of Henri), on 2nd July 1734. She says, “I recommend my soul to God, my Creator, hoping that after my death it will be received in His holy Paradise, in consideration of the merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, who died for the remission of the sins of all those who, like me, believed in Him, and put their whole confidence in His mercy.” Her legacies were — £1000 to the French Church of St. Martin Orgars, to be invested for the support of the ministers, and £200 for the poor French refugee members of that church; £2000 to the Hospital erected for poor French Protestant Refugees, to be invested for its maintenance; £50 to the poor of the parish of St. Gregory: £50 to the Charity School of Richmond, in Surrey; £200 to the poor of the French Church in Threadneedle Street; £20 to John Brugneirolle; £100 to Mr Peter Dugua; £100 to Mrs. Susanne Passavant; £500 to Mr. Alexander de la Gorce; £200 to Elizabeth, wife of Mr. John Anthony Merle, and £200 to his daughter Elizabeth; £200 to Miss Elizabeth Gaultier; £200 to Mrs. De Virly; £500 to Mr. James Robethon; an annuity of £50 “to my friend, Mrs. Crommelin, widow;” an annuity of £200 to Elizabeth Blany, daughter of Widow Juvenel of Wandsworth; an annuity of £200 to Mr John Martin Couvreu, residing at Vevay, in Switzerland.
As to relations, there are the following bequests:— £6000 to her nephew, Stephen Seignoret, son of Peter; £12,000 to her niece, Elizabeth Seignoret, daughter of Peter; £11,000 to her nephew, John Lewis Couvreu, son of Mr. John Martin Couvreu; £9000 to her niece, Susanne Bernardine Couvreu, wife of Mr. De Bondeli; £1000 to each of the children of her nephew and of her last-named niece, “who shall be living at the time of my death;” £200 to Mrs. Susanne Kearny, daughter of Mrs. Ferdinand Ravaud, deceased; £1000 to Mrs. Elizabeth Julia Carre; £200 to Mrs. Susanne Anne Ravaud; £200 to Mr. Stephen David Ravaud; £200 to Mrs. Margaret Ravaud. “My silver toilet, my gold repeating watch and chain, set with diamonds, and all my rings, pearls, and jewels, and other trinkets whatsoever,” to the aforesaid Elizabeth Seignoret. The deceased lady had a house in Richmond as well as in London, coachman, footman, and two gardeners. Her residuary legatee was her niece, Marianne Couvreu, wife of Mr. Henry Gaultier.
7. In the Gentleman’s Magazine a death is recorded, 23d November 1739 — “Paul Dufour, Esq., Treasurer of the French Hospital, to which he left £10,000.” He was one of the original directors, and was treasurer for twenty-one years (a period of service which was exceeded only by Richard Hervé Giraud, Esq., who officiated for twenty-two years, having previously been secretary for twenty years, and is now the Deputy-Governor). By reference to Mr Dufour’s Will, he seems to have been a man of rank and wealth, and to have lived to a good old age, as his marriage took place in 1681; but that the Hospital received £10,000 is more than doubtful. He bequeathed to the "corporation of the Hospital of the French Protestants £300, in order to pay them what is coming to them by the marriage-contract passed with my ' wife at Paris, the 24th September 1681, by Soyer, a royal notary."
He left to his cousin, James Dupin, an annuity of £56, and the residue of his estate after the payment of legacies; to his cousin, Dina Dufour, £1000, and an annuity of £49; to his cousin, Margaret Guichery, wife of Mr. Henry, the silversmith, £1000, and an annuity of £49; to Mr. James Triquet, £16 per annum; to the widow Charlotte Bleteau, his servant, £10 per annum, which annuity shall, after her death, be paid “to the little Thomas Dufour, son of Captain Thomas Eaton;” to the widow Claud La Cana, £500; to Captain Thomas Eaton, £500; to Mr. Stephen Guyon, £500; to Mr. Peter Le Maistre, £500; to Mr. Caesar Le Maistre, £500; to Captain Amand Lalloue Duperron, £500; to his cousin, Abraham Guichery, living at Loudun, in France, £500; to his cousin, Martha Dupin, £500; to his cousin, Mary Anne Dupin, of Loudun, £500; to Paul Aubrey, the younger, of Loudun, £100; to Renauchon Aubrey, £100; to his cousin, the widow Des Illes Morteault, of London, £500; to the two daughters of the late Mr. Malherbe, who died at the French Hospital in London, living at Spitalfields, £200; to Captain James Philip Moreau, £100; to the two daughters of the late Mr. Francis Mariette, of Spitalfields, £100 each; to the two children of his late cousin, Paul Dupin, Sieur de la Mothe, of Loudun, named Paul and James Dupin, £50 per annum; to Madame Desclouseaux, widow, £100; to Captain Alexander Desclouseaux, £100; to Dr. George Cantier, £100; to Dr. Bernard, £100; to Mr. Caudere, minister, £50; to Mr. Laval, minister, £50; to Mr. Peter Mariette, £50; to the widow Beaurepere, £50; to Mrs. Le Maistre, widow of Mr. Nicholas Rousselet, of Amsterdam, £200; to Mary Roussel, now at Amsterdam, £100; to Martha Dufour, of Loudun, wife of Mr. Dovalle, £500; to his maidservants, £150, to be equally divided; to the widow Charlotta Bleteau, “one room furnished, and a silver cup with two handles, which my wife formerly used;” to his nephew, Lewis Gervaise, £100; to Elizabeth Gervaise, £100; to Mrs. Amiot, widow of Isaac Gervaise, £100; to Michael, Anne, and Peter La Caux, children of Madam La Caux, £50 each; to Louisa Mariette, £50; to Mr. Francis Mariette, £50. — Dated 21st September 1739. Proved at London, 4th December 1739, by the executors, Captain Thomas Eaton, Captain Amand Lalloue Duperron, and Mr. Caesar Le Maistre. [The names of the second executor are not recorded quite correctly. I find in the register of the French Chapel-Royal, under date 24th November 1722, the marriage of Amand Lalloutie Du Perron to Susanne Royrand des Clouseaux.]
8. “March 1734, died, Mr. Loubier, a French merchant, worth £20,000,” says the Historical Register. The Will of Anthony Loubier was dated London, 9th March, and signed in the presence of D. Chamier, Peter Thomegay, and Isaac Delpech, N.P.; it was translated from the French by Charles [Philip?] Crespigny, N.P., and proved on 4th April by the testator’s two sons and executors, John Anthony and Henry, who were recommended to conduct themselves by the advices and directions of their uncles, Lewis Loubier and Charles Loubier. The testator was survived by his sister, Mary, by his two sons named above, and by his two daughters, of whom the elder, Mary, was wife of Mr. John Noguier of Leeds (and had two children, Anthony and Jane); the younger, Charlotte, was the wife of Mr. James Teissier (and had three children, Stephen, John-Lewis, and Elizabeth). He left £100 to the poor of the French Church in Threadneedle Street to be distributed by the elders and deacons, and £20 to be distributed to the poor Protestant Refugees of the Society of the Children of Nismes, erected in London.
9. “November 1733. Died, Philip Moreau, Esq., possessed of an estate of £50,000,” says the Historical Register. His Will, dated 10th March, and translated out of French by Philip Crespigny, N.P., was proved on 17th November by his son, Captain James Philip Moreau, and Paul Dufour, Esq. His son was his heir, and at the date of the making of the Will, had a wife, as to whom it was stipulated that if she became a widow she was to receive an annuity of £50. The testator’s daughter, Louisa Elizabeth, Mrs. Hubert, was apparently a widow, having a son, Michael, who was already well provided for by the Will of her late father-in-law, Michael Hubert. To the Captain were left “my gold watch, and my silver shaving basin, and silver pot and box for the wash-ball which belongs thereto;” and to Mrs. Hubert, “my small silver Hungary water-bottle;” two-thirds of his plate to the former, and one-third to the latter. He had a gardener and maid-servants, but does not appear to have been as wealthy as reported. He desired to be buried in the church or vault of Kensington. He left £100 to the “French Hospital in Bunning Fields;” £50 to the French Church in the Savoy, “either to acquit the debts of the Church or to distribute to the poor as the ministers and elders shall think fit;” £50 to the Charity which is called La Soupe at Les Grecs.
10. Two London merchants of the name of Baudouin were named in the patent granted on 24th July 1718 by George I., for the French Protestant Hospital of London — namely, René and Jaques, the former as a Director, and the latter as Deputy-Governor. Their biographies are written in their monumental epitaphs which I am about to quote. If, however, the Deputy-Governor is the James of the epitaph, he resigned his office in 1720, the year of the death of the Earl of Galway, the Governor named in the patent.
René Baudouin’s monument is in the Church of St. Mary Aldermary, in the City of London. The Rev. Dr. White, the present Rector, kindly sent me a copy:—
Near this Place
Lyeth interred the Body of
Rene Baudoin,
Late of London, Merchant, who departed this life the 4th day of February 1728,
In the 79th year of his Age.
He was born at Tours in France, the 27th of March 1650, n.s. And came into England in January 1677/8, and by coming over avoided the Persecution carryed on for many Years by Subtile Popish Devices, against the Protestant Subjects of that Kingdom, and which at last openly broke out in the reign of King Lewis the 14th. Who in October 1685, repealed the Edict of Nants, and caused his Protestant Subjects to be cruelly persecuted for their Religion, many whereof fled into foreign parts, and the greatest numbers into this Kingdom of England, where they were received with a true Christian love and charity; to the immortal praise of this nation, which God for ever preserve.
In the Huguenot Cemetery at Wandsworth (says Sunday at Home, No. 1295), “a tomb, shaded by a tree which grows within and has twisted itself about the rails, bears this inscription:” —
James Baudouin, Esq., born at Nismes in France, but in the year 1685 fled from France to avoid Tyranny and Persecution, and enjoyed a Protestant Liberty of Conscience, which he sought, and happily found, and was gratefully sensible of, in the Communion of the Church of England. He constantly answered this pious resolution in his life, and went to enjoy the blessed fruits of it by his death, the 2nd day of February 1738-9, aged ninety-one.
11. In the end of February 1744 (new style) the merchants of the City of London presented a loyal address to the king in consequence of his majesty’s message to the Houses of Parliament regarding designs “in favour of a Popish pretender to disturb the peace and quiet of these your majesty’s kingdoms,” and declaring themselves resolved to hazard their lives and fortunes “in defence of your majesty’s sacred person and government, and for the security of the Protestant succession in your royal family.” Among the 542 signatures, the following French names, chiefly Huguenot, occur:—
Jacob Albert, Gilbert Allix, William Alvauder, George Amyand, Francis Arbovin, Claude Aubert, George Aufrere, J. Auriol, Nathaniel Bassnet, Allard Belin, Claude Bennet, James Lewis Berchere, Herman Berens, John David Billon, John Blaquiere, John Peter Blaquiere, Henry Blommart, John Boittier, Samuel Bosanquet, John Boucher, James Bourdieu, Stephen Cabibel, Peter Callifies, James Caulet, James Chalie, Honorius Combauld, Peter Coussirat, Daniel Crespin, Abraham Dafoncell, Peter Davisme, Gabriel De Limage, Joseph De Ponthieu, Peter Des Champs, C. Desmaretz, Andrew Devesme, Philip Devesme, Isaac Fiput De Gabay, Ph. Jacob De Neufvrille, John Dorrien, Libert Dorrien, Peter Du Cane, Samuel Dufresnay, J. Dulamont, Henry Durell, Charles Duroure, Alexander Eynard, William Fauquier, An. Faure, Abel Fonnereau, Zac. Phil. Fonnereau, John Furly, Peter Gaussen, Francis Gaussen, James Gaultier, J. Gignoux, James Godins, Benjamin Gualtier, G. T. Guigner, Joseph Guinand, Henry Guinand, Stephen Guion, William Hollier, Isaac Jalabert, John Jamineau, Stephen Theodore Janssen, John Lagiere Lamotte, P. Lefebure, Thomas Le Blanc, Charles Le Blon, Gideon Leglize, Ctesar Le Maistre, David Le Quesne, Benjamin Longuet, Samuel Longuet, John Lewis Loubier, Henry Loubier, Charles Loubier, Jo. L. Loubier, J. Ant. Loubier, Peter Luard, William Minet, William Morin, Fulcrand Mourgrue, Francis Noguier, Peter Nouaille, Francis Perier, Pearson Pettitt, John Pettit, Joseph Pouchon, Philip Rigail, Hugh Rou, Cypre Rondeau, Stephen Teissier, Matth. Testas, Peter Thomas, Thomas Thomas, Ant. Vazeille, Dan. Vernezobre, Dan, Vialers, Thomas Vigne, William Vigor, Peter Waldo.
The first in the above list, Jacob Albert, was born in 1700, son of Pierre Albert, merchant of Swithin’s Lane, and Marianne, his wife; he was baptized in Threadneedle Street Church on 6th November, his parents being the registered witnesses. He was elected a Director of the French Hospital on 6th October 1756, and became the Deputy-Governor on 4th August 1779. We may say that he died in his eighty-fifth year, as Francis Duroure was appointed on 11th May 1785 to the vacant Deputy-Governorship.
James Bourdieu may have been the youngest son of John Du Bourdieu (Naturalization List x.). He was an influential insurer, and named as such in 1746 along with Jasper Mauduit.
Eynard was the name of a family in Dauphiny, allied to the house of Monteynard. Jacques Eynard, Chatelain (i.e., Lord of the Manor) of La Baume-Cornillaine, had, for becoming a Protestant, been disinherited by his father, and seems to have earned his new position for himself. He was very zealous in founding and maintaining a Protestant church on his manor; he died in 1666, and his son, Antoine, inherited his zeal. Antoine Eynard removed to Lyons in 1676, married Sara Calvier, and had four sons. The third and fourth were refugees in England, and died unmarried. Anthony (who died in 1739) was an officer of merit in the British army. Simon Eynard was a merchant in London, and made a fortune. Their sister, Louise, and her husband, Gideon Ageron, were also refugees in England. A nephew, John Anthony Eynard, a son of an elder brother, Jacques, passed most of his life in England, but died in the Canton-de-Vaud in 1760, unmarried.
The Le Maistre family were very decided Huguenots. Haag informs us that Pierre Le Maistre, who probably came from Orleans, married at Canterbury in 1691, Marie, daughter of Mr. Ambrose Minet, French Pasteur of Dover; also, that Erancoise Le Maistre was married at London, 1695, to David Pouget, and that a lady in France, of the same name (perhaps the same person), having fled, a description of her was sent to all the civil authorities, and she was arrested at Valenciennes in May 1685, and was shut up in the Bastile till 1688, when she was banished. Caesar Le Maistre is the signature of one of the London merchants in 1744; he certainly was a Huguenot, as he was one of Mr. Dufour’s executors in 1739. The marriage of Stephen Caesar Lemaistre, Esq. of Queen Street, Westminster, to Miss Roche, was recorded in April 1760. The surname was Anglicised into Masters. Mr. Matthew Le Maitre died in Carlow on 7th December 1782, aged ninety. Stephen Caesar Le Maistre, Esq., was a Judge of the High Court at Calcutta from 1774 to 1783.
12. A refugee minister, styled Le Sieur Francois Joseph Alexandre L’Herondel d’Anglecqueville, married in London, in 1701, Helene Nezereau. The surname, Lherondel, survived in the next generation, but exposed its owners to the trial of being addressed as Sherondel. In the beginning of the reign of George III. there was a merchant in London named Francis Lherondell, and in 1762 he wrote to a gentleman with regard to his application to be admitted to subscribe to a Government loan.
Sir! — As you have pleased to assure me that Lord Bute will mention my affair to Mr. Fox, I cannot but flatter myself with hope of success, both from his Lordship’s generosity and that gentleman’s friendship and integrity. But as the Earl of Bute’s great engagements may occasion a concern of so inferior a nature as mine to be sometime forgotten, I hope you will forgive the liberty I now take to entreat you to mention me again to his Lordship if there should be a necessity for so doing. It may likewise be not improper to observe that my name begins with L, and not with S. I observe it, as a misnomer may occasion mistakes and trouble, and I am most respectfully, Sir ! your obedient, humble servant,
13. In 1763, January 17, Peter Laprimaudaye applied to be allowed to subscribe £5000 to the Government Loan, “having always had the honour of being concerned in all former subscriptions!” His letter was addressed to the Earl of Bute, as also were the following:—
My Lord, — We beg the favour of your Lordship to be admitted subscribers to the New Loan for the sum of Forty Thousand pounds. — We have the honour to be, with the most profound respect, &c, &c.
London, 17th January 1762.
My Lord, — Having had £2000 in last year’s subscription in Mr. Maginn’s List, I take the liberty, on his intimation, to apply to your Lordship, desiring the favour of a proportionall share in this year’s subscription. — I am, &c.
17th January 1763.
[All the letters to Lord Bute are copied from the Musgrave Collection of Autographs in the British Museum.]
- ↑ David Godin, merchant in London, died on 11th September 1740; his son, David, was his executor, and was confirmed as such by the Commissary of Edinburgh on 20th July 1745, a debtor to the estate being resident at Pittenweem.