Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Vignoles
Vignoles. — De Vignolles, or Vignoles, was the name of a noble family in Languedoc. From Jean de Vignoles, who was married in 1559, sprang the chiefs of four branches. The grandson of Vignoles de Prades, the oldest chief, was the first Protestant of the race; he was a Major of Cavalry, Jacques de Vignoles, Sieur de Prades. He married, in 1637, Louise, daughter of Louis de Baschi, Seigneur d’Aubais, and his wife, Anne Rochemore. Two of his daughters died in Ireland, namely, Louise, who died in Dublin in 1720 aged sixty-seven, and Marguerite, widow of Pierre Richard, Sieur de Vendargues; endeavouring to take refuge in Switzerland in 1686, she was robbed of 62,000 livres, and imprisoned in a convent, from which she escaped penniless (she died in 1730, aged seventy-eight). Another daughter was Madame Boileau. Charles de Vignoles, brother of these ladies, was a military officer, who was born in 1645, and married, in 1684, Marthe de Beauvoir du Roure, and with his wife fled to Holland, and afterwards to England; their only surviving child, Margaret (born in London in 1692), was married to her cousin, Scipio Duroure, and died in Dublin in 1721 . Vignoles married, in 1694 (having become a widower), Gabrielle d’Esperandieu, daughter of Jacques, Sieur d’Aiguesfondes. Their daughter, Marie (born 1694, died 1730), became the wife of a refugee from Poitou, Joshua Du Fay, a Captain of cavalry. Charlotte (born in 1696) was married to Cornet Charles Nicolas, who emigrated to Philadelphia. Vignoles died at Dublin on 16th December 1721, in his seventy-seventh year. His heir was his son, Colonel Charles Vignoles (born at Dublin 1701), who married at Southampton, in 1741, Mary, daughter of Captain Isaac Gignoux, of Nismes, but did not leave posterity. Another son, Maurice (born 1705, died 1745), left a son, Charles William, who died at Jamaica in 1758, aged twenty-seven, and without heirs. The thirteenth child, Major James Louis Vignoles, of the 31st regiment, founded a British family. He was born in Dublin in 1702, and married at Portarlington, 17th March 1737, Anne Marie de Bonneval, sister of the deceased refugee pasteur of that town, Rev. Anthoine Ligonier de Bonneval. [I have seen no evidence that this Monsieur De Bonneval was a brother of Earl Ligonier; no such title in connection with the Earl’s ancestors is on record.] The son and heir of Major Vignoles was John (born in 1740); he also rose to be a Major in the 39th Foot. After the death of his father (which took place 21st February 1779), he entered the ministry of the Irish Church, and was minister of the French Church of Portarlington from 1793 to 1817. The Rev. John Vignoles married an heiress, Anna Honora Low of Cornahir, County Westmeath. On his resignation in 1817, his son succeeded him in the French Church. This venerable divine was Charles Augustus Vignoles, D.D., Dean of Ossory (born 1789, died 1877). The heir-apparent of Cornahir was the Dean’s grandson, Charles Howard Vignoles, the present proprietor. Dean Vignoles was the proprietor of Dumont de Bostaquet’s precious manuscript; the writer’s heirs had probably deposited it with their pastor, Monsieur De Bonneval, among whose heirlooms it had been preserved and transmitted; [or, as I have already suggested. Monsieur De Bonneval may have been the second husband of Judith Julie, De Bostaquet’s daughter].