Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Harenc
Harenc. — “This family,” says the Gentleman’s Magazine, “came originally from the south of France, the first ancestor in England having been one of the numerous Protestant gentlemen who were driven to find an asylum here from the folly and bigotry of their own Government, on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. A branch of the family still exists in France, one of the members of which was the amiable and accomplished Madame Harenc, of whom mention is made in the memoirs of Baron Grimm.” Benjamin Harenc lived in London in the middle of last century, where he was well known in literary and fashionable society, and his house was the resort of the most distinguished foreign residents. He was elected a Director of the French Hospital in 1765. He bought the estate and mansion of Footscray Place, in Kent, in 1773, and resided there till his death. He also bought land in the county of Kerry. Benjamin, his son, took a degree at Cambridge, with honours, being one of the Wranglers of the year 1803. In 1804 he married Sophia Caroline, daughter of Joseph Berens, Esq. of Kevington. He was a prominent County Magistrate and Justice of the Peace, Commander of the Chislehurst troop of Yeomanry Cavalry, a constant visitor of the County Gaol at Maidstone, founder of National Schools for the parishes of Footscray and Chislehurst, founder of the Bromley Savings’ Bank, and first Secretary of the District Branch of the Christian Knowledge Society. “Among the latest of the benevolent objects to which his attention was directed, was the formation of a Society supported by voluntary subscriptions for the assistance and support of discharged prisoners, with a view of facilitating their return to habits of industry, by affording them the means of communicating with their friends, and by relieving them from that feeling of destitution and abandonment which had been found in too many instances to drive them to a repetition of crime.” He sold Footscray Place to Lord Bexley in 1821, and died at Seven Oaks at the early age of forty-five, on 13th September 1825. His death was hastened by his involving himself in great labour and anxiety, by accepting shares, and the provisional management of a scheme for establishing Steam Communication with America from the western coast of Ireland, in the neighbourhood of his county Kerry estate. He was buried amidst evident and universal lamentation, in the family vault under Footscray Church. Having ceased to hold land, his descendants are not recorded in books of reference; but I observe the names of (1.) Lieut.-General Archibald Richard Harenc, who formerly commanded the 53rd Foot. He served with the 97th in India, and was at the siege and capture of Lucknow. His death is recorded as having occurred on 5th August 1884, when he is styled "of Kimpton House, Herts." (2.) Major Charles Edward Harenc (born 17th July 1842), entered the army as a cornet in the 5th Lancers, in 1861, and became a lieutenant in 1863, in which rank he was transferred in 1869 to the Bengal Staff Corps, where he has continued, having become a captain in 1873, and a major in 1881. He served in the Lughman Valley Expedition in the Afghan War of 1880, and received a medal. (3.) Sub-Lieutenant Archibald Kempt Harenc was in the Navy List several years ago.