Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 18 - Section VII
VII. Prevost.
The family of Prevost was represented among Huguenot refugees in Geneva at the period of the Revocation Edict. There Augustine Prevost was born about 1695, married Louise, daughter of Gideon Martine, first Syndic of Geneva, and dying in January 1740, was buried at Besinge. His son, Augustine, removed to England, and entering our army rose to the rank of Major-General. He and his brother, Colonel Jacques Marc Prevost, served together in America. The motto of this good French family was j’ai bien servi.
| Major-General Prevost (died 1786). |
= | Anne, daughter of Chevalier George Grand, of Amsterdam. | |||||
| Sir George Prevost Bart., (so created in 1805), died 5th January 1816. | Admiral James Prevost. | Major-General William Augustus Prevost, C.B., died 9th August 1824. | |||||
| Venerable Sir George Prevost, Bart., Canon of Gloucester, born 1804. | Admiral James Charles Prevost. | ||||||
As to the first baronet I insert the following paragraphs:—
Whitehall, September 3, 1816. — His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, taking into his royal consideration the distinguished conduct and services of the late Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Bart., during a long period of constant active employment in situations of great trust, both military and civil, in the course of which his gallantry, zeal, and able conduct were particularly displayed at the conquest of the island of St. Lucie, in 1803, and of the island of Martinique in 1809; as also in successfully opposing, with a small garrison, the attack made in 1805, by a numerous French force, upon the island of Dominica, then under his government; and while Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the British Provinces in North America, in the defence of Canada against the repeated invasions perseveringly attempted by the American forces during the late war; and His Royal Highness being desirous of evincing in an especial manner the sense which His Royal Highness entertains of these services, by conferring upon his family a lasting memorial of His Majesty’s royal favour, hath been pleased, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, to ordain that the supporters following may be borne and used by Dame Catharine Anne Prevost, widow of the said late Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, during her widowhood, viz., “On either side a grenadier of the 16th (or Bedfordshire) regiment of foot, each supporting a banner, that on the dexter side inscribed West Indies, and that on the sinister, Canada,” and that the said supporters, together with the motto ‘Servatum Cineri,’ may also be borne by Sir George Prevost, Bart., son and heir of the said late Lieutenant-General, and by his successors in the said dignity of a Baronet, provided the same be first duly exemplified according to the laws of arms, and recorded in the Heralds’ Office. And his Royal Highness hath been also pleased to command that the said concession and especial mark of the royal favour be registered in his Majesty’s College of Arms.”
“Sir George Prevost was the eldest son of Major-General Augustine Prevost, who served under General Wolfe, and was severely wounded on the plains of Abraham, and who afterwards so eminently distinguished himself in the first American war, by his defence of Savannah. The surviving brothers of Sir George are both in his Majesty’s service, the eldest a post-captain in the Royal Navy, and the other a colonel in the army. Sir George Prevost married, in the year 1789, Catharine, daughter of Major-General Phipps, who survives him, together with a son, a minor, who succeeds to the title, and two daughters.” — Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1816.