Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 27 - Durand
Durand.
The family of Durand, in the island of Guernsey, bear the arms of Brueyx in addition to Durand, on account of their descent from a gallant and reverend refugee who married a Brueyx heiress. Francois Guillaume Durand, son of Jean Durand, a Protestant gentleman of Montpellier, was born nth Sept. 1649. Having studied at Geneva, he became pasteur of Genouillac about 1673. In 1689 he married the heiress of Baron Brueyx de Fontcouverte, a nobleman of the diocese of Usez. At the date of the Revocation he had became a refugee at Schaffhausen, his family remaining in France. His zeal for religious liberty led him to join the army of the allies in Piedmont, and in 1691 he was appointed chaplain of Aubussargues’ regiment, under the name of Monsieur Durand de Fontcouverte. He had previously been successful in recruiting the regiments of Loches and Balthasar [Balthazar?], and had even accepted a commission as captain in Balthazar’s Dragoons, but he returned to his spiritual office by the advice of the pasteurs of Geneva. After the peace of Ryswick he settled at Nimeguen. His son, Francois, appears at Nimeguen in 1722. Francois Durand was educated a Romanist; in 1700 he began to practise as an advocate at Montpellier, and in 1701 he married Marguerite d’Audifut. In July 1705 he obtained a passport without difficulty; but in Holland he adopted the religion of his ancestors. He was living in 1750, aged probably about sixty-six. He had a son, Francois Guillaume Esaie Durand, who was admitted as a Proposant in May 1738 by the Synod of Breda, but settled in England in 1743 as minister of the Dutch Church at Norwich. He married Marthe Marie Goutelles. Leaving Norwich he became pasteur of the French Church in Canterbury, besides holding the living of the united parishes of St. Sampson and the Vale in Guernsey; he died in 1789. His son was Rev. Daniel Francis Durand, rector of St. Peter Port and Dean of Guernsey, born 1745, died 1832. (See the Guernsey Magazine for 1873.)