Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 22
Chapter XXII.
THE RABOTEAU GROUP OF FAMILIES.
The majority of families of this group did not leave France till after the Revocation, but all (with one exception). came to our shores during the reign of Louis XIV. The surname of Raboteau is connected with a hairbreadth escape and with chivalrous conduct, and it linked together the families of Chaigneau, Barré, and Lefanu; Chaigneau introduces Tardy, and Tardy brings before us Du Bedat.
Persecutions, varying in amount and intensity, according to the tempers of the officials in the districts, were the lot of the resident French Protestants after 1685, who refused to apostatize. The engrossing attention to foreign war, which was often required from the heads of government in Paris, was usually favourable to the Huguenot worshippers. When the king was negotiating peace with the Grand Alliance in 1697, it was thought opportune to draw up a Requete, or Memorial, praying for religious toleration. Monsieur Mathieu Du Bedat, late an advocate in the parliament of Paris, undertook to draft the Memorial, and the original draft which is still preserved, was brought to Ireland by his descendants.
The above-mentioned Du Bedat M.S. is endorsed by one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal Dublin Society, thus:—
“I received this Draft of a Petition from Willm. Dubedat, Bank of Ireland, 16 December 1834.
“Presented to the Royal Dublin Society on the 18 December 1834. I. B., V.P.”
A lithographed facsimile was circulated among correspondents and friends. I translated it for my second edition; but as there was a cotemporary English translation in one of the numerous and useful compilations of that time, I do not reproduce it here; the French original was printed at Paris, 12th August 1697. It is evident from an examination of the draft that M. Du Bedat dictated it to a clerk. It was dictated by an able pleader, but the very good penmanship and the very bad spelling, betray the handiwork of some clerk, whom the advocate, being forbidden as a Protestant to practise his learned profession, had found for the occasion. The pleas are familiar to my readers. What is special to its date I will quote:—
“to the king.”[1]
“Sire, — Your subjects who profess the Religion, which the Edicts name The Pretended Reformed, and whereof you have, for some years, interdicted the public exercise, come to throw themselves at your Majesty’s feet to make their very humble remonstrances, and to entreat your royal pity for their miseries which are so frightful, that your Majesty will not be able to cast your eyes on their deplorable state without having compassion on it.
“Sire, his Majesty has always done himself the honour of arresting the progress of his arms, and of suspending the course of his victories, in order to give peace to Europe. Must it be that your own subjects who have never violated the fidelity which they owe to you, and which the religion that they follow prescribes to them, that they alone shall be deprived of your royal bounty?
“What have they done, Sire? (permit them to use these terms). What have they done, and what vile pencil have people been able to employ in order to blacken them before the eyes of your Majesty?
*****
“But finally, your Majesty is not immortal. Perhaps, Sire, on the bed of death his Majesty will have some alarm and regret for having been pleased to constrain the conscience of his subjects, who give him, with obedience and respect, a reason for their faith whenever required by his Majesty to do so. In the name of God, Sire, we entreat your Majesty to reflect that perhaps in the last hours of life the frightful miseries of such a large number of your subjects, into which some spurious devotees have engaged your Majesty to precipitate them, will come before your eyes to disturb the repose of your soul.
“We have lived in silence while your Majesty was occupied in a great war. At present, when the peace of Europe is the work in hand, vouchsafe your approbation, Sire, when, with all the respect which we owe you, we demand the peace of our consciences. Some of us entreat your Majesty to restore to them their wives and children; some ask you for their fathers and mothers; some pray you to release them from cloisters, from prisons, and from barbarous lands, where they are imprisoned among savages; and others to set them at liberty from the chains and oars where they are fastened along with slaves.
“That we may not be the only individuals, Sire, to whom your throne and your benevolence are inaccessible, we ask from you to live peaceably as subjects, submissive and faithful to your Majesty, with liberty to serve God according to our conscience. Permit, Sire, oh! permit a great number of your subjects, whom religion has constrained to depart from your States, to return to finish their days there under your royal authority, in order to invoke God along with us, as we have done heretofore.
“Receive, Sire, with your accustomed benevolence, this Memorial, which would be signed by several thousand persons if your Majesty gave permission. Listen to our just demands. We address ourselves to your Majesty. We entreat your Majesty to cast your eyes upon our miseries and on the tears which we shed with our families. Our fidelity is known to you. Render to us, Sire, your protection and the effects of your benevolence, and of your justice, which lias been withdrawn from us by surreptitious dealing [par surprense[2]], by false representations whereby your Majesty has been prejudiced. We pray to God, as in the past, for the prosperity of your Majesty’s reign and sacred person: and we shall bequeath to our children those illustrious sentiments of obedience and fidelity.”
Matthieu Du Bedat, whose family was originally of Agen, in the province of Guienne, died in France, but his son, or grandson, Jean, born at Lacepede, in Guienne, was sent to Ireland to a “Friends’” School at Ballitore, in County Kildare, taught by Abraham Shackleton. His education being completed, Mr. John Du Bedat established himself in Dublin, and founded a sugar-refining factory — the first in Ireland. There he married, and his daughter Anne is on record, who was married in 1771 to Elias Tardy, Esq. Mr. Du Bedat died in 1780, aged sixty-four; he had been a leading member of the French Church in Peter Street; his grandson was William Du Bedat, Esq., Transfer Officer of the Bank of Ireland, who presented the priceless Huguenot State Paper to the Royal Dublin Society, and his great-grandson is Peter Du Bedat, Esq., Secretary of the Bank of Ireland, who, with other representatives of the family, cherishes and adorns the memory of a good Huguenot ancestry.
The surname of Raboteau is of high antiquity; the first member of the family on record is Jean Raboteau, an advocate at St. Jean d’Angely in 1397, and its members have occupied a good position in Saintes, St. Jean d’Angely, La Tremblade, and La Rochelle. In 1592, in the Protestant temple of La Rochelle, Pierre Raboteau married Marguerite Faye. In 1670 there was an influential Protestant physician named Jean Raboteau. The refugee John-Charles and his sisters seem to have descended from Josué Raboteau — (son of Jean, and husband of Marie Meschinet), Procureur-au-Presidial to Saintes in 1615, father of a Jean Raboteau, a widower in 1681, whose deceased wife’s maiden name was Rebecca Meschinet. John-Charles’ father was of Puy-Gibaud, by La Rochelle. He himself became a wine-merchant in Dublin. His parents had landed in Ireland as refugees, and he was born during their journey to Dublin in a hotel at Carlow. He had two sisters married to the brothers Phipps of Sligo. Another brother was probably born in Ireland, for in the Carlow Register there is the burial, on 29th July 1785, of “Mr. James Rabbittoe, aged seventy-six years.” [In the Naturalizations at Westminster, List xxv., there are “Peter Robateau, and Susan his wife; John Robateau and Anne his wife.” Two female cousins, also named Raboteau, escaped from their relatives, who were New Catholics]. These ladies owed their deliverance to J. C. Raboteau. He traded with French wine-growers, and often sailed in his own ship to La Rochelle, and was the guest of the Raboteaux in France. During one visit the young ladies confided to him that they had been sentenced to take the alternative either of marrying two Roman Catholic gentlemen or of being shut up in a convent. He planned their flight. It was hot weather, and the horses were tied to trees in the lawn. By night he carried off his fair cousins upon two of the horses, and lodged them with a widow of La Rochelle; he returned with the horses unobserved. Next morning he apparently shared in the consternation of the family, and no suspicion fell upon him. After some time his visit ended, and he came to La Rochelle to embark for Ireland. He was in the habit of taking home large casks of French apples. In two of these casks the ladies were carried on board. For some time after their becoming denizens of Ireland their former guardians had no clue to their whereabouts. This is a narrative handed down by tradition; the only correction suggested by family papers is, that the casks were empty brandy puncheons.
These Mesdemoiselles Raboteau inherited from their ancestors great personal beauty. One of them was married to Stephen Chaigneau, second son of a refugee. Josias Chaigneau, the refugee, was of a family of eminence in the neighbourhood of St. Jean d’Angely, and within a rural district which has been spelt variously, but which I believe to be St. Savinien. His residence was the chateau of Labellonière; but he forsook home and lands and his native country for the sake of the Reformed religion. He and his family retired to Youghal in Ireland; his wife was Jeanne Jennede, and his sons by her were Lewis, Stephen, and Isaac; he had a fourth son, John, by his second wife, née Castin. Lewis, being a successful merchant in Dublin, purchased the estate of Corkage, in the same county; he married in 1688 Elizabeth Ducoudre, and his son and successor was David Chaigneau, Esq. of Corkage, M.P. for Gowran, High Sheriff of Count)- Dublin in 1717. He was buried at Youghal, where, in the south transept of St. Mary’s Church, a stone of remembrance bears: “Here lie the remains of David Chaigneau, Esq., and his wife Elizabeth.” She was the daughter of Colonel Renouward, and their daughters were Elizabeth (wife of James Digges La Touche, Esq.), Henrietta (Mrs. Hassard), Mary Ann (Mrs. Pratt), and Charlotte (unmarried); the sons (all unmarried) were Rev. Peter Chaigneau, the first Secretary of the Royal Dublin Society (died 1776), James, and Theophilus. The refugee’s second son, Stephen, founded the Chaigneau family, which still subsists; but let us dispose here of the descendants of his brothers. Isaac married Helena King, and had a son David (probably Rev. David Chaigneau of Carlow — see chapter xx.; Article, Daillon). John married in 1707 Margaret, daughter of Colonel Martyn; his surviving sons were Colonel William Chaigneau, Army-Agent in Dublin, and John Chaigneau, Esq, Treasurer of the Ordnance. The latter married in 1745 Susannah Smith, and had a son and daughter, namely, Rev. John Clement Chaigneau of Dublin, and Hannah, wife of William Colville, Esq., ancestress of the family of Chaigneau-Colville. We return to Stephen Chaigneau and his lovely wife, née Raboteau, whose portrait is at Benown; they had two sons, Peter and Daniel. The younger son was married, but left no recorded descendants. Peter married in 1729 Marie Malet, a descendant of an exiled fugitive from the St. Bartholomew massacre; they had many children, but the third son was the only founder of a family. John Chaigneau, Esq., merchant and freeman of Dublin, had that distinction; he married in 1775 Alicia, daughter of Charles Napper, Esq., and died in 1779; his widow re-married in 1790 with Elias Tardy, Esq. The heir of John was Peter Chaigneau, Esq. (born 1776, died 1846) of Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, and Benown, near Athlone; he was of Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the bar in 1798; he rose to eminence as a Chamber Counsel, and spent his old age at Benown. By his wife Anne, daughter of Arthur Dunne, Esq., he had John (who predeceased him in 1825), and Arthur Dunne, his heir, also three daughters, Margarette, Alicia, and Anna, now co-heiresses of the latter, who cherish the memory of their brother with the greatest love and esteem. Arthur Dunne Chaigneau, Esq. of Benown (born 1809, died 1866), educated at Trinity College, and (in 1830) called to the Irish bar, was a magistrate for County Westmeath, and Captain in the Westmeath Militia. He married in 1855 Jane, daughter of Rev. Richard Butler Bryan, but left no children; as a Christian gentleman he is lamented by a large circle of friends, to whom his kindly heart, unblemished honour, and generous hospitality had endeared him.
The other Raboteau heroine of the flight from La Rochelle was married to Pierre Barré, afterwards Alderman Peter Barré of Dublin, whose ancestors were, like the Raboteaux, most devoted anciens in the Protestant Church of Pont-Gibaud. This surname is memorable and historical through the vigorous and varied talents of their son, the Right Honourable Isaac Barré, a member of the British Parliament, commonly called Colonel Barré. In Burton’s Collection of Letters addressed to Hume by eminent persons, Isaac gives all the known information concerning his father, and I must make room for the following extracts:— “Rocheforte, 3rd August 1764. — Since my arrival in this part of France I find that an uncle of mine (younger and only brother to my father) died lately possessed of about £10,000 sterling, which (as there was no will) has been very rapidly divided amongst a number of my very distant relations who supposed me dead.” “Toulouse, September 4. — I stated my case, or rather my father’s, to a lawyer at Bordeaux, who thinks he has no right, and grounds his opinion upon several of the king’s Declarations, and particularly upon one of 27th October 1725. He makes the whole turn upon my grandfather being a Protestant. This I have alleged, though without any positive proof, to be the case. May I beg of you to take some lawyer’s opinion at Paris simply upon this case as I state it:— Barré dies in France about twenty-five years ago, leaving two sons, Peter and John. Peter went over to Ireland about the year 1720 or 22, young and unmarried, but afterwards married and settled there. John, being upon the spot at the time of his father’s death, divided the property very nearly as he thought proper. John dies in September 1760 intestate and childless; Bonnomeau, a maternal uncle of his, takes possession of his estate as nearest heir. This Bonnomeau died in the month following, and his whole fortune was divided between sixteen nephews or nieces, who stood in the same degree of relation to him as the deceased John Barré. At the time of John’s death it had been reported that Peter and his children were dead. Now I wish to know what right Peter has to the estate of his brother John, considering the circumstances of his having left France and his living so long in Ireland professing the Protestant religion; and whether that right is affected by his father being a Protestant. John was generally thought to be a Protestant, though his heirs contrived to have him buried as a Catholic.” The alliance between Monsieur Barré and Mademoiselle Raboteau probably took place about 1725, their son, Isaac, being born in 1726, as appears from the entry in the books of Trinity College, Dublin, on the matriculation of the latter:— “1740, Novembris 19o Isaac Barré pens: filius Petri mercator: annum agens 14, natus Dublinii, educatus sub Dno Loyd, tutor Ds Pelissier.” Barré, senior, became a prosperous merchant, and in 1758 was an Alderman of Dublin; in 1766 he is known to have had a warehouse in Fleet Street and a country house at Cullen’s Wood; he died about 1776, and his son inherited from him a property yielding £300 per annum.
Henriette Raboteau, a sister of the fair fugitives, took refuge in Ireland at some other opportunity. She was married to William Le Fanu, a gentleman of a noble Huguenot family (born 1707); the Le Fanu certificate of noblesse has been preserved by his descendants, who also have Madame Henriette’s portrait, by Mercier.
Mr. Smiles gives the following account of their refugee ancestor:— Etienne Le Fanu, of Caen, having, in 1657, married a Roman Catholic lady, her relatives demanded that the children should be brought up as Romanists. Le Fanu nevertheless had three of them baptized by Protestant ministers; the fourth was seized and baptized by the Roman Catholic vicar. Madame Le Fanu died, and her brother claimed the children to be educated by him. The magistrates of Caen made an order accordingly, which was confirmed on appeal by the Parliament of Rouen in 1671. Le Fanu refused to give up his children. He was therefore tried, and sentenced to imprisonment, and was shut up for three years. At last he fled to England, and eventually settled in Ireland.
The refugee’s son became the husband of Henriette Raboteau. Their two sons married the two sisters of the Right Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Joseph being the husband of Alicia, and Captain Henry Le Fanu of E_____. The son of Joseph was Thomas Philip Le Fanu, D.D., Dean of Emly, author of “An Abridgement of the History of the Council of Constance” (Dublin, 1787). The Dean had a son eminent in literature, author of “The Wyvern Mystery,” “Guy Deverell,” “Haunted Lives,” “Uncle Silas,” &c.
Owing to his want of leisure, the eminent representative of the Le Fanu family furnished to my informant no genealogical minutiae; hence his Christian name was wrong in my second edition. The death of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (on 7th February 1873) has been the mournful occasion of more correct information, an obituary account having appeared in the Dublin University Magazine, of which he was editor and proprietor.
| William Le Fanu | = | Henriette Raboteau. | |
| Joseph Le Fanu, Clerk of the Coast in Ireland, | = | Alicia Sheridan. | |
| Very Rev. Thomas Philip Le Fanu, D.D., | = | Emma Dobbin. | |
| Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (born 1814, died 1873), | = | Susan, daughter of George Bennett, Q.C. (died 1S58). | |
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was called to the Irish Bar in 1839, but forsook law for literature. His first novel was “The House by the Churchyard;” his last was entitled, “Willing to Die.”
From a private letter from him, dated 23rd April 1866, I quote the following : —
“My dear father recollected Henriette Raboteau, his grandmother — he a very young child — she an old woman, a good deal past eighty, muffled in furs. I have her portrait by Mercier — pretty and demure, in a long-waisted white satin dress, and a little mob cap (I have gone and looked in the parlour at it; the cap is graver than that, but her young pretty face and brown hair confused me; she has also a kerchief with lace to it over her neck and shoulders, a little primly placed). The portrait altogether has a curious character of prettiness and formality; and she looks truly a lady.”
So much for the cousins of John Charles Raboteau; next as to his two sisters. The surname of their husbands was Phipps (often in Ireland spelt Phibbs), two brothers, resident in County Sligo. Esther Raboteau was married to Robert, son of Matthew Phipps, of Templevanney, and Marie Raboteau was married to Matthew Phipps, junr. Esther’s son was Colonel Isaac Phipps, father of the Rev. Barré Phipps, Rector of Selsey, Canon of Chichester (died 1863); and of Arabella Margaretta, wife of Hugh Rose, Esq. of Glastullich. The eldest son of the venerable clergyman was Thomas Phipps, Esq., who married his cousin, Rebecca, daughter of Hugh Rose, Esq., and whose son, Henry Hugh Thomas Rose Phipps, Esq. of Lincoln’s Inn, is the nearest male-heir of Esther Raboteau. The Rev. Barre Phipps’ second son, Captain Henry Barre Phipps (who has had four sons), and Commander William Hugh Phipps, R.N., are brothers of the late Thomas Phipps, Esq. Marie Raboteau, had three sons, William, John Charles, and Robert (Senior Fellow, T.C.D.); she had four daughters, of whom Anne, wife of Thomas Holmes, Esq.[3] of Rockfield, County Sligo, was the ancestress of the celebrated whipper-in of the Tory party, William Holmes, Esq., M.P. William Phipps had a son, Isaac Barre Phipps, and four daughters, of whom I name Betty, wife of Colonel Grogan, and Anna, wife of George Wilson Boileau, Esq. (son of John Theophilus Boileau, seventh son of Simeon), the mother of Colonel George Wilson Boileau and of the late Isaac Barre Phipps Spencer Boileau. The Elwoods of Cams, county Sligo, are descended from a daughter of Marie Raboteau.
John Charles Raboteau married Miss Thornton, daughter of an Irish clergyman, Rector of Tully; he died, aged eighty, and is represented by descendants in the female line. His daughter Rebecca was married at Carlow to Samuel D’Arcy, and had a son, John Charles D’Arcy (born 1775), who died young, and a surviving son, Lieutenant Isaac Raboteau D’Arcy of the 60th Rifles, who wore the Peninsular medal; also a daughter, Abigail, wife of James Smythe of Carlow. The descendants of the latter are Captain James Griffith Smythe, late of the 50th Regiment, honourably mentioned in the despatches concerning the Battle of Sobraon, and decorated with the Punjaub medal; and Rebecca Raboteau Smythe, Mrs. Torpie, author of “Grace Leigh of Darlington,” and of the article in Sunday at Home (1862), entitled, “The Fugitives of Rochelle.”
The ancestors of the family of Tardy were Huguenot gentlemen, whose residence was near La Tremblade, in Saintonge. Jacques Tardy fell at the Battle of Jarnac, in 1569, along with the Prince of Condé. Although his representatives did not become refugees in 1685, yet they cast in their lot with their persecuted brethren in France. One incident connected with their perils is preserved. A retired glade in one of the few forests near La Tremblade had long been the trysting-place where a little band of worshippers was wont to meet to engage in joint prayer, in hearing the Scriptures read, and in having brought to their remembrance by a faithful pasteur the gospel-truths which they loved. They assembled from divers points unobserved. But there was one treasure ever needed, the transport of which on those occasions hazarded both its loss and their own discovery. It was their Bible — their sole remaining Bible! a large old folio volume, cumbrous to bear, and difficult to conceal. Yet rarely was it absent in that sylvan temple; its bearer was the wife of Monsieur Tardy. She was a daring and accomplished rider, often seen upon her fleet steed traversing the champaign country in the locality of their chateau, and therefore unexposed to any special observation when she came to the Huguenot assembly, which for many years she devotedly frequented. She had furnished her capacious side-saddle of ancient guise with a large loose leathern lining, which safely enclosed the Bible. Unsuspected she brought it to her delighted and grateful fellow-worshippers, and the huge old saddle was a ready lectern for the sacred volume. In the year 1750 the representative of the family was a youthful grandson of the heroic lady. He acquired a taste for the sea while at school at La Rochelle, and having friends in high places, he was in that year admitted to the French Navy as a cadet — a very rare favour to be granted to a Huguenot. All the happiness of Elias Tardy in the navy arose from his zeal for the service; for in other respects his life was embittered by ill-treatment as a solitary Protestant among Popish comrades. He served nine years under Admiral Conflans, and in November 1759, at the famous action off Belleisle, he was taken prisoner by the English. Though suffering from a severe wound, he found that he had made a welcome exchange of circumstances, while he was cared for and kindly treated by his captors. He therefore remained under British rule, sold his French property through the intervention of friends, and settled in Dublin. There he invested largely in “sugar baking,” and made a considerable fortune. He was an ancien of the French Church, a trustee of the chapel and burying-ground in Peter Street, a merchant prince full of hospitality and good works. In 1771 he married Anne Du Bedat, who at her death in 1786 left three sons; he visited France for his health, having with him a certificate of naturalization in Britain, dated 28th April 1788. In 1790 he married his second wife, Alice, relict of John Chaigneau, Esq.; her only son, Peter Chaigneau, thus joined Mr. Tardy’s sons, and he and they, being brought up together, continued through life to regard each other as brothers. The eldest son of the refugee was Francis Tardy, Esq. (born 1773, died 1836), unmarried; he was a scholar and a gentleman, an ornament to society, a conspicuous loyalist, and also an advocate for the removal of the political disabilities of Roman Catholics. The second son, Elias Tardy, M.D. (born 1777, died 1843), after serving in the Navy, obtained through his merits a lucrative practice in London. Dr. Tardy, having anticipated the discoveries of modern science regarding the treatment of the insane, was persuaded to found a private asylum, of which the Duke of Kent was patron; but he thus lost £10,000, therefore emigrating to Trinidad he made another fortune there. The third son, James Tardy, Esq. (born 1781, died 1835), satisfied with his patrimony, devoted his life to the study of natural history, and to the encouragement of that study; and he has been justly styled “the Father of Irish Natural History.” Dr. Drummond in his “Thoughts on the Study of Natural History,” published in 1820, speaks of it as a neglected study, yet congratulates Ireland on possessing a few distinguished naturalists, one of whom, “James Tardy, Esq., of Dublin, to a knowledge in every department of the science unites an enthusiastic zeal for entomological enquiry.” In entomology he discovered several new species, one of which received the name of Cossonus Tardii. His cabinet of insects is now in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. James Tardy, Esq., had married, in 1813, Mary Anne, daughter of James Johnston, Esq., of Rockfield, in the parish of Aughnamullen, a scion of the noble house of Annandale, and his son and successor is the Rev. Elias Tardy, whom he himself educated at home, and who graduated as BA. of the University of Dublin. This gentleman, being curate of East Farleigh, in Kent, was presented by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst to the Vicarage of Grinton, in Yorkshire, which he resigned in 1850 on being preferred by the late Lord Primate (Beresford) to the Rectory of Aughnamullen in County Monaghan, a parish with which his mother’s family were connected for several centuries, and in which his monument, erected in his lifetime, is the new and handsome Parish Church. The Rev. Elias Tardy, who is a Justice of the Peace for the county, married, in 1837, Sarah, daughter of Edmund Charles Cotterill, Esq., of the Grove, Essex, and has had two sons, James Francis Barham (born 1841 ) and Charles Joseph Hill (born 1849) — also two daughters, Elizabeth Mary (died 1863) and Lucretia Anne. He is the namesake of his good and gallant grandfather, and is also, like him, a Trustee of the Dublin Huguenots’ Cemetery.
It is interesting to observe how the refugees have intertwined among the old families of their adopted country. The Tardy family furnishes an illustration. James Tardy, Esq., the refugee’s son who founded a family, married, in 1813, Mary Anne, daughter of James Johnston, Esq., by Jane Lucretia Fisher, his wife, a lady descended from the Lord Primate, Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, by the Lady Lucretia Hyde (daughter of the first Earl of Clarendon, sister of Anne, the first consort of James II., and aunt of Queen Anne). To Lady Lucretia Marsh Queen Anne bequeathed a valuable oak cabinet, having on its doors the arms of the family of Hyde, surmounted by the Earl’s coronet, finely blazoned, and bearing the date 1660. This precious relic was brought by the above-named Mrs. Tardy into her husband’s possession; and as an heirloom from the great statesman and historian, it is still preserved and justly valued by the Rev. Elias Tardy.
- ↑
au roy.
Sire, —
Vos Subjetz quy professent La Religion que les Editz nomment P.R.:— Et De Laquelle Vous aues Interdit Les Exercices publieqs depuis quelques années Viennent Se Jetter aux pieds de Vostre Majeste, Pour Lui faire L’eurs tres humbles Remonstrances Et La Supplier d’auoir pitié De L’eurs Mizeres, quy Sont Sy affreuzes — Que V.M.N. Pourra Jetter Les yeux Seur Leur deplorable Estat Sans En auoir Compassion.
Vostre Majesté Sire, C’est toujours fait honneur d’arrester Le progret de Ses Armes, Et de Suspendre Le Cours de Ses Victoires Pour donner La paiz a L’Europe, faudroit Il que Vos propres Subjet qui n’ont Jamais Viole La fidelité quils Vous doiuent, Et que La Religion quils Suiuent Leur ordonne, feussent Seuls priues de Vostre bonté Royalle.
Qu’ont ils fait, Sire, Permettes L’eur d’uzer de Ces Termes qu’ont ils fait, Et dequel M’auuais pinceau a t’on peu Se Servir pour Les Noireir aux yeux de V.M.
Mais, Enfin, V.M. N’est pas Immortelle Peut Estre, Sire, qu’ au Liet de La Mort Elle aura quelque Crainte Et quelque regret d’auoir vouleu Constraindre La Conscience de Ses Subjetz, qui Luy rendent raison de leur roy avecq obeissance, Et avecq respect toutes Les fois quelle La requis deux.
Au Nom De Dieu, Sire, Nous supplions V.M. de faire Reflexion, que peut Estre aux dernieres heures de Sa Vie Les mizeres affreuzes d’ un Sy grand Nombre de Ses Subjetz dans Lesquelles de faux devots on Engage Vostre Majesté De Les precipiter, Viendront a Ses yeux pour troubler Le repos de Son ame.
Nous Sommes demeures dans Le Silence pandant que V.M. Estoit occupée d’Une grande guerre, presentemant qu’on trauaille a la paix de Leurope, Trouvez bon, Sire, que nous Vous demandions avecq tout Le respect que Nous Vous deuons, La paix de Nos Consciences, Les uns Supplient V.M. de leur rendre Leurs femmes Et Leurs Enfans, Les autres Vous demandent Leurs peres Et Leurs meres, Les uns Vous prient de Les tirer des Cloistres, des prisons, et de Les terres barbares, ou Ils Sont Confinés parmi des Sauuages, et Les autres de Les deliuerer des Chaines et des Raimes ou ils sont attachés avecq des Esclaues.
Que Nous Ne Sojons pas Les Seuls Sire a qui Vostre throsne Et Vostre bonté Soient Inaccessibles, Nous Vous demandons, de Viure paisiblemant Comme de Subjetz Soumis Et fidelles a V.M. auecq La Liberté de Seruir Dieu Selon Nostre Conscience, permettés, Sire permettés a Un grand nombre de Vos Subjetz que La religion a Constraint de Sortir de Vos Estatz, d’y retourner pour y finir Leurs Jours Soubs vostre authorite royale affin d’inuoquer dieu avecq nous Comme nous Lauons fait Cy deuant.
Receues Sire, auecq vostre bonté ordinaire Cette Requeste qui seroit signée de plusieurs Milliers de personnes Sy V.M. Nous En donner La permission, Ecoutés Nos Justes demandes, Nous nous adressons a V.M. Nous La Supplions de Jetter les yeux Sur Nos mizeres, Et Sur Les Larmes que nous repandons En Secret dans nos families, Nostre fidelité Vous Est Cogneu, Rendes Nous Sire Vostre protection, Et Les Effects de Vostre bonté Et de Vostre Justice, quy Nous a Esté Euleuée par Surprinse, Et par de faux Exposés dont on a preuenu V.M. Nous prions dieu, Comme Nous L’auons fait pour La prosperité de Son regne, Et de Sa personne Sacrée, Et Laisserons a Nos Enfans Ces Illustres Sentimans dobeissance Et de fidellité.
- ↑ Surpendre (obtenir frauduleusement), to get surreptitiously. Le Clergé a surpris quantité d’Arrêts contre les Protestants — The clergy have surreptitiously got several orders against Protestants. — Boyer. [This phrase is taken from Miege, who had given also:— Surprendre la Justice du Roi — To abuse the King’s equity, to overreach his justice, to impose upon it.]
- ↑ Connected with the Holmes family was the family of Tittar. Pittar, however, was a Huguenot refugee family, and would have had a separate place in this chapter, if I had had the requisite knowledge.