Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 26 - De Crespigny
De Crespigny, Baronet — The knightly Norman family of Champion, Sieurs dc la Fleurière, acquired, by marriage with an heiress, the estate of Crespigny. Its representative at the epoch of the Revocation was Claude Champion, Sieur de Crespigny, an officer of the French army. His wife was Marie, Comtesse de Vierville, and he had eight children. He fled to England along with his wife and children, two of whom were concealed in baskets, and they were hospitably received by the Pierpoints, to whom his family was allied by marriage. He was enrolled in the British army as a Colonel. He died in 1695 (aged seventy-five), his wife in 1708 (aged eighty); thus, after escaping from Gallic persecutions (to use the elegant words of their epitaph), tandem in caelum veram patriam transntigrârunt. His sons, Peter (who died in 1739, member of the committee of the London French Churches), Gabriel (an officer in the Guards), and Thomas (Captain in Sir Charles Hotham’s Dragoons), were naturalized in 1690. In 1691 it was certified by the London College of Arms that “we have seen and perused an old book of the pedigree of the said Champions, from Messire Mahens Champion, knight, who lived in the year of our Lord 1350, down to the said Claude de Champion, their father, deceased, in the city of London, 10th April 1695, and buried in Maribone.” Captain Thomas Champion alias Champion de Crespigny, married Magdelaine (who survived him), daughter of Israel Granger, escuyer, of Alencon, and dying in 1715, left a daughter, Jane, afterwards married to Gilbert Allix, Esq., and two sons, Philip and Claude (the latter died in 1782, unmarried). Philip Crespigny, Esq., King’s Proctor in Doctors Commons, died on 11th February 1765; he was the husband of Anne Fonnereau,[1] and the father of Philip Champion de Crespigny, for some time King’s Proctor, M.P. for Aldborough, who died on 1st January 1803, and of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, Baronet, so created on 31st October 1805. The first baronet, who was the elder brother, born 19th December 1734, was a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and his name was further adorned by his beautiful and accomplished wife, Mary Clarke, who was a considerable heiress, and who, as Mrs. Crespigny, is handed down to posterity in glowing terms in “Public Characters.” Their house and grounds, Champion Lodge, Camberwell, were much admired. The first Baronet’s names were borne by the third Baronet, who was the grandson of Sir William, the second Baronet, and son of Captain Augustus James De Crespigny, R.N., a heroic officer, who saved nine men from a watery grave at the risk of his life. Captain De Crespigny’s last feat was his “taking to a small boat, and pulling into the very muzzles of the enemy’s guns, whereby he saved five men who were near drowning through the Achilles barge being sunk;” he died off Port Royal, Jamaica, on board of H.M.S. Scylla, 24th October 1825. The third Baronet (born 1818, died 1868) was succeeded by Sir Claude De Crespigny, present Baronet, formerly styled of Wivenhoe Hall, Essex, now of Champion Lodge, near Maiden.
- ↑ Anne Fonnereau was born on 12th October 1704, and was married in St. Paul’s Cathedral on 5th February 1735 (n.s.) to Philip Champion de Crespigny; the latter date is given in the pedigree, but Burke says 1730, apparently on better authority.