The French Settlers in Ireland - No 6

The Huguenot Colony at Portarlington, in the Queen's County.

(Continued.)

by Sir Erasmus D. Borrowes, Bart.

"Le sang des Martyrs avoit été la semence de nos Eglises; et nôtre Religion, malgré les fureurs des guerres, les cruantez des persecutions, et les violations fréquentes des Edits, sembloit renaitre tonjours, comme un Phénix de ses cendres."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

As the breeze from the North swept o'er our Southern plains with its invigorating and refreshing influence, there reached us in its dying cadences, a sound both solemn and significant, -- a voice proclaimed "the memory of the Refugees;" we paused and listened, then words somewhat like these fell on our anxious ear, and the strain was sweet and touching:--

"The Kings of old have shrine and tomb,
In many a minster's haughty gloom;
And green along the ocean's side,
The mounds arise where heroes died ;
But show me on thy flowery breast,
Earth, where thy hidden martyrs rest."

We knew a verdant spot thus hallowed; and, as the pleasures of memory are ever present, as the mind recounts the joys, even the sorrows, of youth, so the reminiscences of our early days crowded thickly upon us, and we called to remembrance how the first and dearest associations of our schoolboy days were interwoven with the French emigrants, ere yet their little city of refuge had altogether lost its Gallic aspect, its light become dimmed, its foreign society absorbed, or its Athenian^a fame abated. Therefore it is, like the minstrel of old, -- the master-hand that swept the cords, who could not to a cherished theme "so foul so false a recreant prove," as to withold in its latest lay the sweet tribute of his feudal song, -- so have we essayed this brief sketch, imperfect though it be, a free but slender offering, a mite in the Treasury of honor due to the respected memory of the unbought dauntless refugee.

Some few years before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, an important decree was issued bearing date the 28th July, 1681. This proclamation was well calculated to smooth the thorny path of the French Refugees; the Royal voice was heard to herald their approach with honor, and to excite the hospitable and generous feeling which welcomed their arrival in England, and which indeed distinguished their advent in every refuge. We find this decree of Council in the Gazette de Londres of Sept. 1681; and how urgently the wound required the balm, the following extract from the same Gazette significantly shows. -- "Plymouth, 6 Sep^r., 1681. An open boat arrived here yesterday, in which were 40 or 50 French Protestants, who resided outside La Rochelle. Four others left with this boat one of which is said to have put into Dartmouth, but it is not yet known what became of the other three." Many of the Portarlington settlers had experienced the kindness and hospitality of the inhabit ants of Exeter and Dartmouth. -- The decree sets forth that Letters Patent of denization under the Great Seal will be granted to the Refugees free of expense, with power to exercise freely their arts, sciences, and commerce, that his Majesty will recommend Parliament in its next Session to pass an Act of naturalization, by which they shall enjoy all the advantages of English subjects; that "all officers military and civil, shall receive with honor and kindness all the aggrieved Protestants who shall arrive in the ports of the kingdom; they shall grant them passports gratis, and all kinds of succour and assistance to facilitate their arrival at whatever places to which they may wish to retire; and the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury shall give orders to the Commissioners to allow the said Protestants to pass freely with their furniture and clothes, of whatever value they may be, their instruments, and other things belonging to their trade, arts, looms, &c, generally, and everything connected therewith, and that can be brought into the kingdom according to law, without exacting any duty on any of those articles. And to succour, aid, and encourage those Protestants that may be in want, his Majesty decrees that authority shall be published in the Principality of Wales and town of Berwick, to collect the contributions of all charitable and well-disposed persons for the relief of those Protestants who may be in need. And to the end that all Protestant strangers may know on their arrival whom they are to address in order to make known their wants and wishes to his Majesty, it has pleased his Majesty to name his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Bishop of London, or one of them, to receive all the demands of the said Protestants, and to present them to his Majesty, that the necessary orders may be given." The Duke of Ormond favored with all his power the establishment of French Refugees in Ireland, of which he was viceroy under Charles II. In reply to the petition of twelve French clergymen that "his Majesty would please to grant them leave to exercise their ministry according the manner as they did in France " James II. granted its prayer by Letters Patent, dated 1689. Two of these names refer to ministers subsequently settled in Portarlington, viz., Daillon, the first on the list, and Gillet. The total change that afterwards occurred in the conduct of the King towards the Refugees is well known. Several Protestant noblemen followed the example of the Duke of Ormond, by encouraging the new colonists. As the advent of the Refugees to Ireland approached, besides being cheered and encouraged (as we have already noticed) by the countenance and aid of King William and his illustrious commander De Rouvigny, they received the hearty welcome of the gentry of the country; and a nobleman in the South of Ireland evinced his praiseworthy zeal and generous liberality, by having advertisements circulated in France offering to the persecuted the most encouraging terms if they would colonise his estates in this country.

In the first year of the reign of Queen Anne the Royal favor was again extended to them, and an Act of parliament was passed in England to confirm the Protestant settlement at Portarlington: we regret we cannot give the substance of this act, as the title alone is to be found on the statute-book. The colony was now in its infancy , and though intervening proprietors had had a brief hold of the district since the rule of the great O'Dempseys, the foreign settlers found it much in its ancient condition, and somewhat similar to those districts described in the Hamilton and Montgomery papers on the settlement of those families in Ulster. The wolf^b and the wild cat, the martin and the red deer, were beating an orderly retreat; while the O'Dempseys had bequeathed to their successors, in the Irish names in the immediate district, (though "inconvenient" to Lord Arlington to pronounce,) memorials significant of the wild animals, and indicative of the household of an Irish prince. Thus we have Kilbracken, the wood of wolves; Ballybrittes, the judge, or Brehon's land; Ballisabole, the poet's land; Ballyadden, the dower land; Graighnesky, the fishers' town; Loghmansland, the priest's land; Ullard, the physician's portion, &c.^c In a letter dated 1697, addressed to "the Right Hon^ble Robert Molesworth, P.C. and M.P. in England and Ireland, on "the true way to make Ireland happy and secure," the writer urges the advantages of encouraging French Protestants; he refers to the vast improvement imparted to the woollen trade by the encouragement given by Queen Elizabeth to the Walloons to take shelter in England from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva; and he then proceeds to give the following proofs of the vast improvements in Ireland derivable from Protestant colonization:-- "There is in the North of Ireland an estate which was the Lord Conway's, which the Lord Marquis Normanby enjoyed the other day in right of his Lady, but now belongs to Mr. Popham Seymour. This estate was formerly purchased by S^r. Foulke Conway, uncle to the late Lord, for about Five Hundred Pounds. The rent roll of this estate is now about five thousand per annum; though there are many great and profitable leases in it, some worth about Four Hundred Pounds per annum clear. The land does not lye upon the sea; the ground but very indifferent, 'twas altogether a wood, as the name of Kilulta (the wood of Ulster) denotes, and yet in the memory of men now living has been thus improved by a colony of Yorkshire people, and others brought over and settled here by the Lord Conway, and managed by Sir George Rawdon. The same remarke may be made on the neighbouring Country of Clan Hugh Boy or O'Neele's Country, about Belfast and Carrickfergus, the former of which towns is the third in Ireland for number of people and trade, and yet grew up to what it is from nothing, in the memory of people who lived but t'other day, since Sir Arthur Chichester got the estate." And in another place -- "Ulster, which before could only afford food to the Kernes of the country and some military men, from the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and the Reign of James the 1st. began to thrive, and alter its condition for the better." And elsewhere -- "English colonies improving the lands of Chichester and Conway, and neighbouring places, and the concourse of the Scotch from Scotland; these were only the first dawnings of happiness." -- "The French Protestants have many men of letters among them, and they are generally remarkable for their good breeding and civility. 'Tis not to be doubted, then, that they living in towns and villages among the ruder Irish will in time help greatly to improve them both in manners and religion; teach them a more human way of living, and thus drive them from that native barbarity which has been one great cause of their former rebellion." In regard to the Linen manufacture the anticipations of the writer have been fully realised by the French colony at Lisburn. -- "This is a manufacture in which the French do excel, and therefore Ireland may very reasonably promise themselves great advantages by the commencing of the French and their improvement of it." He then proceeds to eulogise their gardening. Among the colonists of Portarlington were French gardeners, skilled in the cultivation of the luxuriant fruits of the southern provinces of France. With the many improvements introduced in the extensive and charming pleasure-grounds and gardens, which afforded (as we have already remarked) such recreation to their owners, the "Espalier" was an especial favourite, an interesting memento of their abandoned homes, and employed in various forms in their adopted refuge. D'Audilly, writing in the 17th century, tells us his countrymen had discovered its benefits in its early part: -- "The advantage of the new plan of espaliers was soon established by its success. By it one sees a wonderful abundance of fruits quite suddenly in districts where they were previously rare, and to which it was necessary to bring them from remote provinces. By this process they now have in France fruits which required a warmer climate than ours to ripen, and they can collect on one wall the different productions of various climates. We are no longer obliged to go to Touraine for the Bon-Chrétien, to Burgundy for the Amadotte, to Poitou for the Portail, to Anjou for the Sainte Lezin: all grow with us at present; and the environs of Paris furnish them all in abundance, which all the other cantons possess only separately and in detail. "C'est ce que nous appellons aujourd'hui, palisser à la longue." We have still in Portarlington the venerable remains of the French pear-trees; and some thirty years ago we recollect being told by a lady of the colony, the descendant of a Chevalier from Poitou, that having supplied her own wants from two French pear-trees, she sold the residue of the fruit from these two trees to a Dublin fruiterer for £3. The writer of the letter to Molesworth combats the alleged poverty of the Refugee's purse by estimating the intrinsic value of the man:-- "People are wealth, and have rates set upon them; the value of people in England, one with another, some have computed to be seven pounds a head; in Ireland I account the value of such Protestants as the French are (for I do make a difference) to be much greater; because in Ireland you are not only to value them as people who improve the country, but as souldiers also who are to secure you and your interest. You may therefore (and 'twill be but an ordinary civility to do so) set as great a rate on them as we usually do on slaves and negroes viz., £15 one with another; men being sold for £25, and children at £5 each, the mean rate is £15." He then proposes that registers should be kept in each province, in which are to be inserted the different kinds and degrees of encouragement the landed proprietors may be willing to tender to the Refugees; the registry book for Ulster, he adds, "need not be large, because foreigners will have little or no encouragement in this Province, which is indifferent full of people already."

Such a country as Ireland, from the extraordinary abundance of its produce, and cheapness of all kinds of work, was well suited to the diminished resources of its new colonists. While the French settlement in Portarlington was yet in its infancy, the English parliament passed an Act empowering it to resume the forfeited estates granted by Wm. III. This event at first gave a stunning blow to the gallant emigrants; it came over the Refuge like a dark cloud, blighting the prospect of ease and retirement for the remainder of their days, which they fondly hoped had succeeded the direful scenes and painful vicissitudes of their past lives. The author of a pamphlet entitled "Jus Regium, or the King's right to grant Forfeitures, 1700." thus notices the calamity so much apprehended by the colonists:-- "Having entered on this melancholy subject, I can't but take notice of the deplorable condition of the poor French Protestants at Portarlington, which is part of the Lord Galway's grant. Those poor people, by the encouragement they had from the compassion and goodness of that Lord, built about one hundred and thirty neat tenements in that place, which must now become the habitations of Irish papists, since they are the people who (whatever they pay) will promise the greatest rent to the new purchaser. If neither the services of that noble person in Piedmont and Ireland, nor his piety towards his distressed countrymen, nor the greatness of his title, and the smallness of the fortune he has to support it, will seem motives sufficient to restore him to his estate, which he is deprived of by the Resumption; it must seem a very extraordinary hardship, to people who have any bowels of compassion, to see such a number of miserable people, who were a long time afflicted with severe persecution, find such treatment in a country to which they fled for refuge." About this time, the Trustees for the sale of the forfeited estates in Ireland, in their second report, laid before parliament the condition of the colonists, and the following petition was presented:-- "To the honourable the Knights &c., in Parliament assembled. The case of the distressed Refugees settled in and near Portarlington, in the Queen's County, Ireland. That, in the Report made to the Honourable the Commons of England, last summer, by the Trustees appointed to all the Forfeited Estates in Ireland, it is set forth in the words following; paragraph 29:--

We presume humbly to lay before your Honours one further object of compassion. There are about 150 families, English and French Protestants, planted in the lands of Portarlington, the forfeiture of the late Sir Patrick Trant, who have laid out their whole substance in purchasing small leases now in being; which lands were part of the grant of the Right Hon^ble the Earl of Galway, who hath thereon erected an English and French church and two schools, and endowed them with pensions amounting to near £100 per ann., which hath been constantly paid till the said lands were vested in us. That afterwards, viz. 7th May last, the said Trustees in answer to a question put to them by the said House, further reported, as followeth, viz:-- 

Mr. Speaker. -- You lay before the House the miserable condition of the French Protestants; and whether you have anything further to say to that. 

Trustees. -- The whole value of these is but little; I believe few of the leases themselves are above £20 a year, and the whole value of all is not above £500 that would come to the Publick.

To which the said Distressed Refugees do in most Humble manner crave leave to add, that if they be not relieved by the Clemency and Compassion of this Honourable House, their case will be unspeakably miserable, and therefore they would Humbly Beseech your Honours, that they may be allowed a clause in some Bill for confirming such Leases as they have, of any part of the lands or tenements in or near Portarlington, which were forfeited by the attainder of Sir Patrick Trant; or that they may be relieved in such other manner as to your Honours may seem meet."

The storm past harmless over the heads of the gallant colonists, and as, of old, the significant symbol on the door-ways turned aside the sword of the destroying angel, so the sufferings and sorrows of the Refugees were to the senate the signal of forbearance; they were confirmed in the safety and security of their new possessions, their houses increased, their undertakings prospered, and the town became singularly eminent. In 1703 the Hollow Sword Blade Company^d of London purchased from the Government, at the sale held in Dublin, at Chichester House, 8,312 acres surrounding Portarlington, for which, with other lands in the barony of Portnahinch, they paid £28,422, and £536 to Sir Patrick Trant.

The establishment and exercise of their religion became, if possible, more endeared to the hearts of the Refugees from the losses, vicissitudes, and trials, they had endured for its maintenance; hence we find the Consistory in operation in 1694, and their church erected in 1696. Immediately after their settlement, the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Registry became an object of especial attention; many of the high-sounding names enrolled in this volume, which is still extant, recall to mind the Anglo-Norman period, the Roll of Battle Abbey, (a higher Record enrols the martyrs' names,) and the best and brightest days of the feudal chivalry of France. The cruel havoc of the dragonade, and the exterminating torrent of the persecution had told how

"The noble blood of Gothic name,
Heroes emblazoned high to fame,
In long array;
How in the onward course of time,
The landmarks of that race sublime
Were swept away."

The records of their names, families, and the localities in France whence emigrated these interesting strangers, have been carefully preserved in the Portarlington books; and happily it is so, for in their native land

"The still sad glory of their name
Hallows no mountain into flame;
No, not a tree the record bears
Of their deep thoughts and lonely prayers.
So let it be! like him whose clay
Deep buried by his Maker lay;
They sleep in secret, but their sod,
Unknown to man, is marked by God."

To be continued...


[a] The Portarlington schools, though far from being so numerous as formerly, still maintain their high character for classical education and polite literature.

[b] We have seen an order of Cromwell's time "to send to Greenhills, near Kilcullen, for the toyles of the wolves." J. Howel, Alderman of Cork, in a letter dated 1698, writes thus:-- "Wolves indeed we have, and foxes, but these are now rather game and diversion, than noxious or hateful." The wolf-hunting implied by Howel terminated in 1714, by the death of the last of the race.

[c] These translations are taken from Mason's "Parochial Survey of Ireland."

[d] This corporation is described in their leases as "the Governor and Company for making Hollow Sword blades in England," and were commonly called "the Hollow Blades." The name arose from their manufacture of swords having hollow backs, in which quicksilver was placed, which, by its descent, gave impetus to the blow. Their lease, now before us, is signed "By order of the Court of Assistants, Alex. Mee, Secy." They had several agents in Ireland, who at the above sale made large purchases in several counties. [One of their purchases was in the county of Antrim -- EDIT.]

The above article is reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 3, 1855.

The French Settlers in Ireland - No 5 (pt 2)

The Huguenot Colony at Portarlington, in the Queen's County

by Sir Erasmus D. Borrowes, Bart.

Continued

The storms and struggles of the many ages through which the O'Dempseys upheld their ancient name and noble inheritance having at length ceased, this extensive territory passed from the hands of these Irish chieftains, the "Duces" of the Plantagenet Kings, to the possession of a gay courtier of Charles the 2nd, whose long-continued and zealous service caused him to bask in the sunshine of the merry monarch, and to enjoy a valuable and substantial reward. This was Sir Henry Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, to whom Charles II., on the 27th July, 1666, granted by patent, (having in 1662 received a Privy Seal grant) 10,837 acres in the King's and Queen's Counties, surrounding the present town of Portarlington. At this period extensive forests overspread the country, and long after (1687) decrees regarding oak bark collected in the immediate neighbourhood are on record, among the "Original Orders" of the Exchequer. Sir Henry Bennet was a distinguished statesman in this day, a member of "The Cabal," Secretary of State for twelve years, and then Knight of the Garter and Lord Chamberlain until his death, in 1685. Sir Henry belonged to a Berkshire family of the order of decent gentry; in the spring of 1644 he was at Oxford College, in which city Charles the 1st established his court for a considerable time, to which he became introduced, and where his future destination was established. He enrolled himself in the royal military service as a volunteer, and attracted the notice of Lord George Digby, the Secretary of State, and was appointed his under-secretary. While a soldier he was seldom absent from the field, was engaged in the skirmishes near Oxford, and received several severe wounds at Andover. His portrait by Sir Peter Lely represents him handsome, and good-humoured, but a sad blemish abates his comeliness; the eye rests on a formidable black patch, which (pity to say it) bridges in its amplitude the fair outline of his Grecian nose: the scar beneath, however, was gallantly acquired, for he had fought for the martyred Charles in his youth. This indelible memorial of his prowess in the field, among the evil spirits of his day brought him sarcasm instead of honour: on the failure of his mission to Holland, his credit was so much sunk that several persons at court took the liberty to mimic and ridicule his person and deportment, as had formerly been done against Lord Chancellor Clarendon; and it became a common jest for some malicious courtier to place on his nose the ominous black patch, and, having his hand dignified with the white staff of office, to strut in the royal presence to make "the Monarch merry." In 1649 he was appointed Secretary to James, Duke of York, which office he filled with a sagacity and faithfulness that fixed him firmly in the confidence and esteem of the king. Charles writing to his brother 13th July, 1654, adds, -- "You must be very kind to Harry Bennet, and communicate freely with him, for as you are sure that he is full of duty and integrity to you, so I must tell you that I shall intrust him more than any other about you, and cause him to be intrusted at large in those businesses of mine, when I cannot more particularly write to you myself." In 1663 he was advanced to the peerage as Baron Arlington, taken (as Clarendon says) from a little village of that name in Middlesex, which had once belonged to his father, but was then in possession of another person; so totally destitute was he at that time of landed property, when ten thousand acres of the O'Dempseys were awarded him, probably through the interest of the Duke of Ormond, and his son Lord Ossory, brother-in-law of Arlington. In consequence of a petition from Lord Arlington to the Privy Council, in which he stated among other things, his intention to introduce English settlers on his new estates, King Charles granted him, in 1667, a charter constituting into a borough one hundred acres surrounding a spot then called "Beladrite," ("the mouth of the ford of the bridge,") where the bridge now stands in the centre of the present town, in place of Lord Arlington's ferry. His lordship also stated therein that he would build a town for his new English colonists, and as the Irish names would be inconvenient to them in their orthography and pronunciation, he prayed that new ones might be substituted, and his request was granted. --

"Old times were changed, old manners gone,"

and "Cooletoodera" ("the woody nook") and the O'Dempseys became as things "whose memory was not." The gallant courtier, however, found a local name shorter and less "inconvenient," and that he took as an ingredient in the new name. The castle of Lea, already referred to, with its ancient village annexed, was the parent of Portarlington, and was called by the old Irish "Port na hince," ("the fort of the island,") and being the chief stronghold of the district, the present barony acquired the name of Portnahinch. The first syllable of the name given to the old Irish castle of the O'Dempseys and Fitzgeralds was then taken, and with a slight modification annexed to that of the Middlesex village, and the produce was "Portarlington." An erroneous impression exists, in supposing the name arose from a small port or landing-place on the river Barrow, which is not here navigable for any description of boat. From the reason already assigned, the neighbouring town of Maryborough was anciently called "Port Laghois," ("the fort of Leix") where no river, and consequently no port could have existed. The charter incorporated one sovereign, two portreives and twelve burgesses, and allowed the admission of freemen to the Corporation. Francis Leigh, the first burgess, was attainted, and the estates in the county Kildare were purchased by a distinguished French refugee of Portarlington, Col. Charles De Vignoles.

Shortly before the memorable year 1688, Sir Patrick Trant, who had been created a Baronet by James II., in 1686, purchased from Lord Arlington his extensive estates round Portarlington, preserving the same boundary as granted by Charles II. The rule of Sir Patrick Trant was short, and must have been distasteful to Lord Arlington's English colonists, (if any had been so planted,) from the violent party spirit and sectarian bigotry of the lord of the soil. His family had been long settled at Dingle, in the county Kerry, and in the year 1585 [sic] Thomas and James Trant were summoned to the parliament held before Sir John Perrot, for the borough of "Dengene Choyse" -- Dingle I Cowsh -- ("the fortress of O'Cuis";) Sir Patrick's residence about this time, 1686, was at Brannockstown in the county Kildare. He was a Commissioner of the Revenue, and in a manuscript of that time he and his brother officers (we are told) "managed all matters about absentees' goods and estates, and all yt ye people are robbed of." He sat in the parliament assembled in Dublin in 1689, for the Queen's County, summoned by writs of the abdicated King James, along with Captain Edmond Morris, who was made sheriff of the Queen's County in 1687, (it was said) "for having murdered a poor piper." A writer of 1716 informs us "when the injured Protestants pressed Sir P. Trant to assign a reason for seizing their goods, he said 'he would not give any reason to such rogues,' and when they humbly repeated their request, he told them 'it was because they were Protestants.' This Sir Patrick Trant was one of King James's most busy officers; he affected to be extremely well versed in the affairs of the Revenue, and before that king ran away, it was talked of that he would be sent for to model the Custom House of England. He had scraped together some money, and purchased a considerable estate in the Queen's County, and other counties in Ireland. After the reduction of the kingdom Sir Patrick fled to France and died there." A letter from Chester dated May 1, 1689 contains as follows:-- " The nobility, gentry, and clergy are all robbed and plundered of their personal estates, and Sir Patrick Trant and the rest of the Commissioners for sequestering their real estates have been so effectually zealous therein, as not to leave them power over one penny rent, or arrears of rent, but appropriated to the use of their army."

These violent proceedings produced the usual result; on the 26th of April, 3rd of William the Third, Sir Patrick Trant was outlawed and attainted of treason, and dispossessed of his extensive estates surrounding Portarlington. On the 26th June, 1696, William the Third granted these lands by letters patent to his favourite and distinguished General, Henry De Massue, Marquis De Rouvigny. He had previously received a Custodiam grant for three years, and immediately commenced to carry into effect the will of his royal master, in founding in Portarlington a colony of French Refugees, composed almost exclusively of retired officers and soldiers, who, in the prestige of their recent successes, were ready to act again in defence of the crown, should their services be required. The noble founder of this distinguished settlement is thus described in his dignified offices, in Crosley's Irish Peerage of 1725 -- "The most noble and puissant Henry De Massue, Marquess De Rouvigny in France, Earl and Viscount Galway, Baron of Portarlington, Lieut.-General of his Majesty King William's armies, Envoy Extraordinary to the Duke of Savoy (from his Majesty King William) to Piemont, one of the Lords of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, and three times one of the Lord Justices of his Majesty's kingdom of Ireland, General and Commander-in-Chief of her Majesty's forces in Portugal, and Colonel of a regiment of Horse in the reduction of the Kingdom of Ireland by King William, 12 July, 1704, 2nd of Queen Anne. -- Creation. -- Baron of Portarlington and Viscount Galway, 2 March, 1691: Earl of Galway, 12 May, 1697. One of the Lord Justices, with the Marquis of Winchester, 13 May, 1697. Sole Lord Justice in 1698. Lord Justice 2nd time, 18 May, 1699, with Archbishop Narcissus March, Primate, and Metropolitan of all Ireland; 3rd time 22nd August, 1699, with Charles Earl of Berkeley. -- N.B. His Lordship would not allow any of his French titles to be mentioned, and told me he was only Marquis of Rovigné in France." His father had been Ambassador from Louis the Fourteenth to Charles the Second, and occupied a villa at Twickenham, where Evelyn visited him. He had filled the delicate post of deputy-general of the Reformed Church of France, which office had been previously held by his father. After the venerable and gallant Schomberg, he perhaps was the refugee who rendered William the most brilliant and various services. Alternately a military leader and diplomatic negotiator he evinced a rare capacity for business, and a valour that nothing could daunt. Whilst his younger brother, Colonel Caillemotte-Rouvigny fell on the banks of the Boyne encircled with glory, and exclaiming to his refugee countrymen as they crossed the river "a la gloire mes enfans, a la gloire," he fought and triumphed at the battle of Aughrim, where his regiment of horse bore down all before them; their daring exploits causing a loss of two captains, nine lieutenants, nine cornets, forty troopers, and 26 horses killed; and two captains, one lieutenant, one cornet, nine troopers, and 45 horses wounded. Mon^r. Weiss informs us -- "At the battle of Nerwinell, where Marshal Luxembourg, the victor of Fleurus and Steinkirk, the Tapissier de Notre Dame, put the key-stone to his military reputation by his victory over William's veterans, Rouvigny kept at bay, almost unsupported, the entire force of the French cavalry. He was made prisoner for a moment, but the French officers let him go, their chief affecting not to perceive it, and he continued to cover the retreat of the English, fighting like a hero." He was then accredited as Ambassador to Duke Victor Amadeus at Savoy. At the siege of Badajoz, in 1705, his right arm was carried away by a cannon shot as he raised it to show General Fagel the spot he intended to attack. He had previously commanded the allied troops sent to Spain against Philip the Fifth, and on the 26th June, 1706, entered Madrid and proclaimed Charles the Third. In 1708, he made a public entry into Lisbon as Ambassador Extraordinary, which highly pleased the Count and the people. At the battle of Almanza, in 1707, Lord Galway received two sabre wounds in the face, which, though not dangerous, prevented him from seeing, or giving orders. In 1693, on the death of the young Duke of Schomberg, who was killed at the battle of Marsagla, Lord Galway succeeded him in command of the British troops in Piedmont. Some time after the death of Sir Patrick Trant, his son, Sir John, visited England for the purpose of soliciting the crown for the restoration of the estates about Portarlington which had been granted to this distinguished refugee; his request having been refused, he sent to Lord Galway and represented to him his destitute condition. The Earl, who was of a frank and generous disposition, and whose humanity gained him universal affection, said in reply "that he owed the estate he held to his Majesty's bounty, in consideration of his services in Ireland, that he himself had a much better estate in France, which was taken from him, and as he doubted not Sir John's interest with the French King, he (Lord G.) would very readily give him an equivalent out of it, for his estate in Ireland." Such is a faint sketch of the gallant Ruvigny, who came forward nobly to aid in their hour of need his expatriated countrymen, who having forfeited for conscience sake "their house, their home, their heritage, their lands," and having retired from the horrors of war, sought in a peaceful and enlightened seclusion a rest from labour in their advancing years, which from his unbounded philanthropy they experienced at the hands of this distinguished man. On the termination of the wars in Ireland by William the Third, the disbanded French refugee officers of the regiments of La Melloniere, La Caillemotte, and Du Cambon, and especially those of Lord Galway's own regiment of horse, together with the French officers who held commissions in English regiments, commenced the foundation of a settlement in Portarlington about 1694, which, of all the rural colonies, became the most important in Ireland, in the ancient status of its foreign inhabitants, and their high military rank and service. The town may be said at this date to have had no existence, there being no trace of buildings, English settlers, or trade, as set forth by Lord Arlington in his charter: nor was there accommodation there for the early settlers; for we find them located on their first arrival in the surrounding neighbourhood of Doolough, Monasterevan, Cloneygown, and especially in the ancient adjoining village of Lea, which fell to decay on the growth of Portarlington. Lord Galway immediately commenced to settle his companions in arms on his newly-acquired territory, the infantine town of Portarlington forming the nucleus: placed in "Cooltoodera," or the Woody Nook, formed by a bold curve of the Barrow, the site in every respect was found to answer the purpose intended. With the great bog of Allen sweeping past it like the ocean, it escaped the imprecation of the disappointed tourist, invoked upon the other peaty towns of the extinct chieftains the O'Dempseys,

"Great bog of Allen, swallow down
That odious heap called Phillipstown;^dAnd, if thy maw can swallow more,
Pray take (and welcome) Tullamore."

The refinement of the French colony was spared the sweeping malediction, and the "great bog," instead of indulging its voracity, proved to the colonists, in fulfilment of the expressed concession of its illustrious lord, a boon of the most comforting and consoling kind, warming their new hearths with the never-ending blaze of its incomparable fuel, a worthy substitute even for "le fagots de bon bois" of Languedoc and Poitou, and brightening with its cheering influence the social circles in which were discussed the horrors of the "dragonade," the perils of the "sortie de la France," and the glories of "Aughrim and the Boyne."

The leases were such as to afford much encouragement to these interesting strangers; the land occupied by their houses, gardens, and farms, was let on lease of lives renewable for ever, at rents averaging about half-a-crown an Irish acre, and a small renewable fine, with an unlimited supply of convenient turbary for their own consumption. The earliest lease from Lord Galway is dated 1692, when he must have held the fee under the Custodiam grant; the other leases almost exclusively bear the date of 1699, and the tenor of all is the same. The colonists having exchanged the sword for the plumb-rule, the pruning hook, and the ploughshare, found the spot convenient for their new operations, and well suited to the small remnant saved from the cruel wreck of their inheritance; for the district afforded every facility for the construction of their newly-found dwellings, and the "woody nook" at the hall door, and the extensive forests stretching along the Barrow supplied the oak, still remaining in the foreign-looking roofs of the earlier houses. The timber then growing was oak, ash, elm, and yew; and the fossil timbers abundant. The taste displayed in the arrangement of the rooms, and the planning of the pleasure-ground and garden, are all significant of the country whence came the owners and the artists. The high-pitched roof, with its oaken beams and purlines, the dormant windows, whose light was long since extinguished by the desolating window-tax, and the tall and massive chimney-stacks elevated from the ridge, and reflected in broken outline in the smooth waters of the Barrow, clearly intimate that the Huguenot tradesmen had brought with them reminiscences of the chateaux of Garonne and Charente; and that La Borde the mason, Capel the smith, and Gautier the carpenter, had lent the foreign handicraft that characterised their construction. The aspect of the reception-rooms, instead of facing the street, looked to the gardens, and these latter were arranged in plots of pleasure-ground in rere of the houses, then in ample departments for vegetables and fruit, in which the black Italian walnut-tree stretched its massive arms, and memorials of La Belle France were abundant in the "jargonelle pear." Some of these latter remain to the present day, fresh and vigorous in a green old age, whose planter was at the Boyne, a youthful ensign in the regiment of La Melloniere. In some instances the walls contained bricked recesses for bee-hives.

The cultivation of the garden afforded the refugees a constant source of interest and recreation. Forest and fruit trees were cultivated in "the harchard," whence they were also transplanted to the gardens of the small tenants; hops, peas, and vetches, &c., were produced on the farm. A bill of seeds, plants, &c., brought from the Hague by a Portarlington refugee, in 1722, contains as follow: "Esparagus, raadishes, ramolas, sencitive plants, several sorts of latices, and about 60 sorts of flower seeds, leamon or citron trees, yppaticas, orange trees, mhirtle balls in pots, and turnep seed," Some sunny spot, as the back wall of a kitchen fire-place, with an aspect to the south, raised the hopes of the colonist from the wine district, that by care and patience, and tender cultivation, his cherished vine might take root in the soil, and that a scion from some choice stock from Languedoc or Saintonge, saved from the wreck of his plundered vineyard, might become acclimatised in its change, and taught to fructify in the breeze from Slievebloom and the moor of Allen. About this period a Florist's Club was established in Dublin by the refugees.

In a future paper we purpose giving further details of these interesting colonists, including extracts from their ecclesiastical registries, which consist of two compendious volumes complete, dating from 1694; these contain genealogical and topographical records illustrative of family history, and decriptive of the professions and trades of the parties to which they refer.

Signature of Lord Galway

[d] The ancient Dangan, or "Governor of Offaly."

The above article is reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 3, 1855.

The French Settlers in Ireland - No 5

The Huguenot Colony at Portarlington, in the Queen's County

by Sir Erasmus D. Borrowes, Bart.


Early History of the District.

Although the town of Portarlington, so distinguished as the happy home and refuge of the disbanded Huguenot officers of the victorious army of William the Third, may be said in point of fact to have no earlier origin than the foundation laid in 1694 by those gallant settlers, the surrounding district, however, is rich in historic associations of an early and interesting period. Seven miles south of the town stands the remarkable isolated rock of Dunamase -- the "Drachenfels" of Leix, -- inaccessible on all sides except the east, still crowned in imposing grandeur with the huge remains of its Anglo-Norman fortress

"Proud, massive, high, and stretching far,
And held impregnable in war,"

which frowned into obedience the minor powers of the surrounding plain. This commanding rock is said to have been the Dunum of Ptolemy, and to have been made a fortress by Laighseach O'More, about the beginning of the third century; from which time it continued to be the patrimonial residence of the chiefs of the district. In 843 the Danes took the fortress of Dunamase by storm, and cruelly put to the sword the Abbot of Tirdaglas, Prior of Kildare, and many other persons of note who were then sojourning there. It was frequently the residence of the King of Leinster, and on "the coming of the English" it was in the possession of Dermot Mac Murrough. Strongbow having possessed it through his wife Eva, it passed to the Marshalls through his daughter Isabel, wife of "the noble and renowned William Marshal," Earl Marshall of England, the greatest subject of the British crown, and one of the most distinguished personages in Europe. On the death of Strongbow in 1177, William Marshal became Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Leinster, &c., and seems also to have inherited from his renowned father-in-law the Marshalsy of Ireland. In 1207 King John granted Leinster (by patent) to this Earl to hold by the service of 100 knights; in right of which he, his sons, and co-heirs, afterwards erected almost all the corporate, with many of the monastic establishments in Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, and Wexford. The brevity of this important charter, consisting of only a few lines, forms a remarkable contrast to the absurd and wearisome repetitions introduced into the legal conveyances of modern times. As a specimen of such laconic instruments, we transcribe, from that curious and valuable book "Excerpta Historica," this singular and unique mandate of the same king. -- "The King to G. De Marisco, Justiciary of Ireland, Health. -- We wonder very much that you have not executed the mandate which we gave you to deliver up the castle of Dunmas to W. Marshal Earl of Pembroke. We command you, therefore, to deliver it up without delay to the deputy of the Earl, bringing this letter together with the Earl's letters patent by this token, that you informed us by brother Nicholas, the Hospitaller, that you would perform our command respecting that castle by delivering it to the Earl, by such token as this, that we took you or you took us by the thumb or arm, but we know not which; nevertheless although we are uncertain upon this point, fail ye not to deliver up the castle to the bearer of these presents. Witnesses, P. Bishop of Winchester. W. Earl of Salisbury. R. Constable of Chester. Ph. De Albin. G. De Neville, Chamberlain. Folkstone, 14 May, 1216." -- This great personage died in 1219, was interred in the new Temple and on his tomb were inscribed the following lines:--

"Sum qui Saturnum sibi sensit Hibernia; Solem Anglia; Mercurium Normannia; Gallia Martem."

Matthew Paris informs us "he was a severe tamer of the Irish, a great favourer of the English, achieved much in Normandy, and was an invincible soldier in France." Elsewhere he is called "Miles strenuissimus, ac per orbem nominatissimus." The office of "Marshal" in its early and remote exercise seems to have had special reference to the superintendence of the farriers, and was of this nature when held from William the Conqueror; illustrative of which the seal of Walter Marshal who died in 1246, and was one of the five issueless sons of William, represents the badge of the horse-shoe, having 4 nail-holes at each side, and a nail lying lengthways within the shoe, encircled with the legend "S. Gaulter Le Marechal D. Macl." The office of Marshal of Ireland was granted by King John in 1208 to John Marshal, nephew of the great William, to be held by knight service; and besides the duties which were exercised by the Marshal of England, other public services of great trust and consequence devolved on the Marshal of Ireland. Under the care and superintendence of this great officer were placed all the castles and fortresses, not only of the King, but of all minors and others whose estates were in the hands of the Crown; these he was bound to inspect, and always to have duly guarded and munitioned. The Marshal of Ireland with the King's Justiciary laid out the bounds and assigned the districts and territories granted by the King to the Barons, and exercised many other high functions: thus we find the same John, in the exercise of his office of Marshal of Ireland, witnessing a survey of the metes and bounds of the city of Dublin. The historical castles of Leix (Lea) and Geashill, (the former one mile east of Portarlington, and the latter eight miles west), are connected with William Marshal's renowned name so early as 1204, and were most probably built by him. In that year King John orders fines to be taken for the escheats then in his hands, and Wm. Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, obtains a grant of the wardship of the heir of Gerald Fitz Maurice, and of his castles of Leix and Geashill, because they were held of the fee of the said Earl. On the death of William Marshal, son of the first William, in 1231, the King ordered his castles including that of Dumas (Dunamase) to be handed over to "Waleran the German;" and, in 1245, the title of "Lord Dumas" was borne by William Braose, Lord of Brecknock, in right of his marriage with Eva Marshal, fifth and youngest daughter of the great Earl. Lord Roger Mortimer, having married Wm. De Braose's only daughter, became proprietor of Dunamase, and in 1335, having appointed Lysagh O'More, "to be his Captain of war in Leix," became an Irish absentee, and resided on his extensive estate in England. The warlike agent himself, however, was the descendant of the ancient regal race who held it before the Normans, and being roused by his sept to recover possession, he sallied forth with his men of war, and in one evening recaptured eight castles^a destroyed Dunamase, and regained the surrounding district. The O'Mores subsequently held it for centuries, with occasional alternations. In 1650 this remarkable fortress, unsurpassed in Ireland in the strength of its position, its commanding site, its singular and picturesque beauty, and the feudal chivalry of its noble lords, was doomed to destruction; long since

"Its knights were dust,
Their good swords rust,
Their souls lay with the saints, I trust."

The garrison encountered the avenging sword of Cromwell; Colonels Hewsen and Reynolds blew up the castle; and little remains now but ponderous masses of disjected masonry to testify to its ancient grandeur, and exemplify the power of its Irish and Anglo Norman chieftains.

Descending into the plain from this beautiful hill-country, and the Rock of Dunamase, -- "the Rock," which far surpasses its famed sister of Cashell in picturesque and precipitous outline, -- and wending our way a few miles northward, we find ourselves in the immediate vicinity of Portarlington, the principal town of the district, which from a very remote period constituted the extensive territory of the great family of O'Dempsey; over it they held sway long antecedent to the invasion of Ireland; and, on the arrival of Earl Strongbow they were in full force, and ready to march their legions into the field. The Anglo-Norman poem in the Palace of Lambeth, on the Conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second, rendered into English by Francisque Michel, makes frequent allusion to the O'Dempseys. The author who is anonymous and unknown, had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with the events he commemorates, for he sates at the commencement of the poem that he learnt them from the mouth of Maurice Regan, interpreter to King Dermot.

"Morice Regan iert celui,
Buche â buche parla a lui.
Ki cest jest endita,
L'estorie de lui me mostra."

He informs us that while King Henry remained in Dublin, and after his departure from Ireland Earl Richard, the gentle Count, "Li gentil queus" with his friends and all his forces sojourned at Kildare. When at Ferns Earl Strongbow had one of his daughters married, in the sight of all the Baronage, "veant tut le barnage" to the gallant crusader, Robert de Quincey; to whom he also gave the Duffrey as a marriage portion, with the constableship of Leinster with its standard and banner. At this period the chief of the O'Dempseys was Dermot son of Conbrogda O'Dempsey, Lord of Clanmalier, and the only man of his name that obtained the chieftainship of all Offaly; he founded on the site of an ancient church, about 1178, the great Cistercian Abbey of Rossglass, now Monasterevan, which he richly endowed. The "gentle Earl," having a tender regard for the commissariat department, conceived he could not replenish it more abundantly than by a foray on the herds of O'Dempsey. The Rhymer informs us, that for this purpose he often went into Offaly, of which O'Demsey was called the Lord and Chief.

"Sovent alad en Offali
Pur rober O'Dimesi --
O'Dimesy iert dunc clamé
De Offali sire e avué."

Immediately following he adds, that the Earl with all his chivalry marched forth for this purpose,

"With all their banners bravely spread,
And all their armour flashing high,
Saint George might waken from the dead
To see fair England's standards fly;"

and that O'Dempsey was so proud he would not deign to parley with the Count, nor deliver to him hostages, nor did he wish to come to a peace, and that he with his people bore himself right vassally towards the Count who owned Leinster.

"Li queus alad en Offailie
Od tut la chevalerie
Pur preer e pur rober
O'Dymesi ki tant iert fer
Que al cunte deignout parler,
Ostages ne li volt liverer,
Al cunte ne volt à pès venir.
O'Dymesy od la sue gent
Mult se contint vassalment
O'Dymesy lores, san mentir,
Contre li queus veraiment
A qui Leynestere apent."

The Earl Strongbow, however, on this occasion met with a sad reverse in the loss of his gallant son-in-law, the Constable De Quincey. We shall tell the story, which is not without interest, by giving a literal translation of the lines of the poet:--

"When the Count with all his meyne
Into Offaily had made his entry
Robert (De Quincey) had the whole land
In wood and plain searched for its cows.
When he had collected
The prey of the whole country,
Towards Kildare did they repair
These worthy English Barons.
The Count was in the front forwards,
With a thousand of his vassals doing battle;
The Constable (De Quincey) was with the reserve
Placed in the rere guard.
Exactly at their issuing from the pass
There was an attack made on them on all sides,
An attack by O'Dymesy^b
And the Irish of Offaily.
The rear guard have they assailed
All the people of the country.
On that day was slain the gentle Robert De Quincey
Who held the standard and the Pennon
Of the region of Leynester
To whom the Count had given
The Constableship as an inheritance.
Much was he deplored upon my word
The Baron Robert De Quincey;^c
And in much deep grief
On account of his death was his worthy Lord. --
 -- "Mult fu depleint, sachez de fi
Le Barun Robert de Quenci
E mult esteit en grant tristur
Pur sa mort sun bon seignur." --

Thus fell this gallant soldier of the cross, "of chivalry the flower and pride," who had accompanied Richard 1st to the Holy Land, in 1191, and was also with the Lion-hearted King in his expedition to Normandy.

"O'er better knight on death bier laid,
Torch never flamed, nor mass was said."

The writer proceeds to inform us of the conquests in Leinster of "Li queus gentis de grant valur," and his distribution of its lands; and that he had then on his side, among many others whom he names,

"Omorthe e O'Dymesi
O'Duvegin le veil flori."

To be continued...


[a] These were the minor castles of the surrounding feudatories, or "Baronets" as they were then called; they were garrisoned for the defence of the Lordship.

[b] The Annals of the Four Masters thus record the death of Dermot O'Dempsey "A.D. 1193. Dermot son of Conbroghde O'Diomusaigh, a long time chief of Clan Macilughra a lord of Hy Failge died." [Clanmalier and Offaly.]

[c] He was son of De Quinci, Earl of Winchester. Robert De Quinci bore on his own banner "De gules ung quinte foil hermyn."

The above article is reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 3, 1855.

The French Settlers in Ireland - No 4

The Settlement at Youghal, County Cork.

by Rev. Samuel Hayman, Youghal.

The Huguenot settlers in Youghal appear to have established themselves in that town immediately after the accession of the Prince of Orange. The Corporation, now thoroughly Protestant, warmly welcomed the fugitives; and among its records appears an order, dated in 1607, "That Protestant refugees might be enfranchised on payment of sixpence; but that they should not vote for seven years, nor be qualified until then to serve as Church-wardens." As was the case everywhere, the new settlers brought with them industry, intelligence, and (in some instances) considerable wealth; and the towns that threw open their franchise to them were largely benefitted by the spirit of enterprise their presence soon created.

The Huguenots who settled at Youghal (unlike those at Cork, who were chiefly merchants) seem to have been mostly military persons. The Parish Registers frequently prefix to their names "Cornet," "Ensign," "Levt.," or "Captain," indicating no doubt the rank conceded to them by the Prince of Orange, when they took up arms in his service; a rank equal to that which they had enjoyed in the French army. There is no evidence of their having had at Youghal a separate service in their own tongue; but it was a common thing, a few years since, to find on the book-shelf of many of the inhabitants a Genevese French Bible or New Testament of the seventeenth century, handed down in the family the owner could not tell exactly how; and, sometimes the fly-leaves were inscribed with names and figures, written in a pale yellow ink, almost illegible from time, and (may we not apprehend?) from tears. If the date of the book did not reach the fatal year when home and friends were lost for ever, it at all events nearly approached it; as though the refugee would fain have preserved in his family, in all their solemn services, the language of his own ever-precious country.^a These books are now rarely met with; change, that has been always resistlessly working in Ireland, has mostly swept them away. Those in whose eyes they once had value, are themselves long since gone; and why should the frail mementos continue? In Youghal the Huguenots have, with hardly an exception, become extinct; like exotics that could not flourish in a soil not their own.

The names which we have been able to recover are as follows:--
BOISROND; CHAIGNEAU; COLUON; D'ANVERS; DEHAYS; DELAPPE; DEZIERES; DUCLOS; FALQUIERE; GENU; LABATTE; LEGARDERE; LEMPRIERE; MARVAULT; MAZIERE; PERDU; RICARD; and ROVIERE.

Of these we shall now give some few notices.

Boisrond.

Théophile Boisrond, who settled in Youghal, seems, from the dates in the Parish Register, to have been rather the son of Huguenot exiles than to have been himself expatriated. His child, Ann Henrietta, was baptized, 28 Sept., 1755; and, two years after, a lady of his name was married, who is believed to have been his sister, e.g.

"1775, Feby. 17. Mr. Legardere and Miss Benin Boisrond."

Chaigneau.

Mr. David Chaigneau, with Elizabeth his wife, and Mary Ann, his daughter, settled in Youghal about the same time with Theophile Boisrond; and the simplest way of telling their story is to give an extract about each from the Parish Register. We find, under the head of "buried in Youghal:" --

"1749. May 8. Elizabeth, wife of Mr. David Chaigneau."

A few years more and her husband is laid by her side:

"1753. Jany. 21. David Chaigneau, Esq."

Their tombstone is in the South Transept of St. Mary's Church, adjoining the nave. It bears the simple record:--

                  "HERE LIE

             THE REMAINS OF

       DAVID CHAIGNEAU, ESQr.,

             AND OF HIS WIFE

                 ELIZABETH."

In the year after her father's decease we have Mdlle. comfortably settled:--

                    Marriages in Youghal, 1754.
"Jany. 14th. Mr. Simon Green : Miss Mary Ann Chaigneau."

Coluon.

The only record of this name we can find, is the following, taken from the Burials:--

"1738. July 28. Cornet Daniel Coluon, a Refugee."

D'Anvers.

Arthur and Jaques D'Anvers settled in Youghal about the year 1730; the former was in holy orders, and may have been an officiating minister among his exiled brethren.^b The Parish Register gives us the baptism of "Thomas, son of James D'Anverse," on the 23d Oct., 1737: and records the burial of "Mr. James D'Anverse," 14 June, 1740; and of the "Revd. Mr. Arthur D'Anvers," 23 July, 1754.

Dehays.

The Corporation of Youghal, in 1728, demised a part of the strand at the South of the town to Mr. John Dehays, a Huguenot Refugee, who embanked it, and formed the demense now called Green Park. James Dehays, brother of the foregoing, in 1757, bequeathed to the Protestant poor of Youghal £100, which has since accumulated to £217; interest, £13 0s. 4d. per annum. The name, now corrupted into Hayes, is still found among the Protestant population of Youghal.

Delappe.

This name appears but once in the Register, and may have been that of a sojourner rather than of a settler. Michael, son of William Delappe, was buried at Youghal, 27 Augt., 1769.

Dezieres.

This is one of the military names. "Captain James Dezieres" was buried at St. Mary's, Youghal, 8 January, 1746-7.

Duclos.

M. Perot Duclos, when he settled in Youghal, brought with him a son, Guillaume, and a daughter Marguerite; and, after his establishment there, had a child born to him, whose baptism by the name of Hanna took place 2 April, 1710. His surname was a difficult one for the scribe in the Parish Register, who sometimes spells it "Deu Clos," at other times, "Dewcloe," and lastly, "Ducros." Marguerite Duclos married, 9 October, 1718, Mr. William Parker. Her brother William died unmarried, in Nov., 1753.

Falquiere.

Isaac Falquiere married, according to the Youghal Register, Elizabeth Cary, on the 27th June, 1699; and, no doubt, was the first settler of the name. We have further the burial of Jane Falquiere, widow, 22 Nov., 1730; and the marriage of Elizabeth Falquiere, with Thomas Banks, 8 June, 1731. The name was used as a baptismal name in the Banks family, subsequent to this marriage; and, it would appear that Elizabeth Falquiere was an heiress, and sole representative of the family at the time.

Guin.

This name (which like so many others) seems to have suffered by alien attempts to write it down, is conclusively established to be that of one of our Refugees, from the following "Burial":--

"1733. April 4. John Guin, a Huguenot."

M. Guin [Jean?] left a widow, who was buried at Youghal, 16 Feb., 1752. By her he had a son, Peter, who married Mary, and had numerous offspring, viz., John, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, and Ann. M. Peter Guinn was buried 28 March, 1774.

Labatte.

Isaac and Joseph Labatte, brothers, settled in Youghal as merchants, in partnership, about the year 1740. The Register records the name of some of their children. Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Labatte, was received in church, 18 June, 1750; and, Peter, son of the same, was buried 10 Feb., 1754. John, son of Isaac Labatte, was received in church, 27 Dec, 1750; and, was buried 1 Sept., 1751.

Joseph Labatte served as Bailiff of Youghal in 1750, and as Mayor in the two successive years 1751 and 1752. In the second year of his Mayoralty, the Corporate Books show that he was actively mixed up with the question then much agitated in the borough, viz., the admission of freemen. M. Labatte refused to admit several claimants to their freedom at large, but offered to make them free of trade, which modified honor (as it did not confer the right of voting at parliamentary elections) the claimants declined, and they ultimately succeeded in obtaining their full privileges.

In 1755, the two brothers met a reverse of fortune, and failed in business. In the early part of 1756, they petitioned the Irish House of Commons (vide Journals) to insert clauses for their relief, in an Act about to be passed for the relief of insolvent debtors, which clauses were ordered to be placed in the Bill. On the 16th of January, Mr. Humphrey Minchin, agent for the insolvents, attended at the bar of the House, and handed in a list of debtors in the Marshalsea, among whom were Maxwell Olive, and Joseph Labatte, both of Youghal.

The Register records the burial at Youghal of Mr. Isaac Labatte, 27 Jan., 1765. We have no particulars relative to his brother's decease.^c

Legardere.

We have but one record of this name, in the marriage, 17 Feb., 1757, of M. Legardere, with Miss Benin Boisrond. [see Boisrond.)

Lampriere.?

This name is, we suppose, the one intended in the following record of a burial at St. Mary's, Youghal:--

"1761. March 15. Clement Lampier.

Marvault.

The Register gives us the burial of Ann, daughter of John Marvault, surveyor, 26th September, 1766. There is an individual of the name still resident in Youghal, in humble circumstances, a Protestant.

Maziere.

Pierre Maziere, a lieutenant in the French army, settled in Youghal about the year 1740. His son David, was baptized 4th Oct., 1744, and was buried on the 6th of the same month. The Register records his own burial thus:--

"1745-6. March 3. Levt. Mazuere, a French refugee."

Madame Maziere was buried 9th March, 1747-8.

Perdu.

We find this name in the Register, in the burial of David Perdu, 5th Jan., 1734-5. One of the name lately resided in Youghal, a young woman, a Protestant.

Ricard.

Robert Ricard migrated to Youghal early in the eighteenth century. The Register records the baptism of his son, Alexandre, 5th Nov., 1727, and the burial of his son, Michael, on the 16th of the same month. We have also the marriages of his sister, Jane, 24th Sept., 1728, to Wm. Daly, and of his sister, Hannah, 9th Feb., 1729-30, to James Mansfield; and the burial of his son, John, 18th July, 1734.

In all these places the name is spelled correctly; but in a very little while we find it ridiculously corrupted. When M. Ricard's son, Robert, comes to be married to Ann Fortescue, 9th Aug., 1744, the Parish Clerk writes him down as "Robert Rickett;" and under this pseudonym his children's baptisms are concealed:-- Robert (1) was baptized 23rd Sept., 1744; Ann, 9th July, 1750; Mary, 19th April, 1761; Thomas (1), Samuel, and Robert (2) were received in church 17th July, 1763. Some of these children died in infancy. Robert (1) was buried 26th March, 1747; Thomas (1) 25th July, 1760, and Mary on the day after her baptism; and in the record of the burials the same erroneous adaptation of the name continues.

It may be that M. Ricard, jun., became so far denationalized as to have adopted the mal-pronunciation; but, when the old Huguenot comes himself to be buried, the Register reverts to the true spelling, or to something like it, and records:--

"1758. May 8. Robert Riccard."

Roviere.

Jean Roviere, a sous officier in the French service, and subsequently in King William's army, was also one of the Huguenot settlers at Youghal. The Register gives us the baptism of Susanna, daughter of "Levt. John Roviere," 10th July, 1728, and her marriage with Thomas Day, 16th April, 1745. It also furnishes the time of the fugitive's own burial:--

"1735-6. January 30. Ensign John Roviere, a refugee."

M. Roviere seems to have rented, or owned, ground at the South end of the Town of Youghal. The site of the present residence of Matthew Hayman, Esq., called "South Abbey," from its standing on part of the ground of the ancient Franciscan Friary, is entered in the Duke of Devonshire's leases, "Roviere's Holdings."




[a] One of these interesting volumes is in the writer's possession, and now lies open before him. It is a small pocket New Testament printed at Amsterdam in 1699. The title page is:-- "LE NOUVEAU TESTAMENT; C'EST A DIRE La Nouvelle Alliance de Nostre Seigneur JESVS CHRIST. N, Edition Reveue Par les Pasteurs et Professeurs de Genève. A AMSTERDAM, chez PIERRE MORTIER, Anno 1699." To this are subjoined Clement Marot's well-known version of the Psalter, with a musical score; several Forms of Prayer; a Catechism; and the Confession of Faith, agreed on "d'un commun accord parles Eglises Reformées du Royaume de France."

[b] He must have acted as pastor here, but was not supported by any government salary, as the number of refugees in the settlement did not exceed fifty. The Irish House of Commons, in an address to the crown, presented on the 14th October, 1697, proposed "to endow a foreign clergyman in every parish where Protestant foreigners exceeded that number, in order that religious worship might be performed in their own language."

[c] As the family of Labatte also settled in Kilkenny, some other particulars will be given in the notice of that colony.

The above article is reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 2, 1854.

The French Settlers in Ireland - No 3 (pt 2)

Guillot.

The Guillots were officers in the navy of Louis XIV., but, being driven from France by the religious persecutions, escaped into Holland, where they were kindly received by the Prince of Orange, and presented with commissions in his navy. On more than one occasion they performed important services. Some members of the family settled in Lisburn, and two of the ladies married sons of Samuel Crommelin, brother of Louis.

Another family, named Jellett, which resided for many years near Moira, (a few miles from Lisburn,) is also of French extraction, but of different origin from the Guillot family above mentioned having settled in Ireland previous to 1685. The first of the name of whom the present representatives have any record is William Jellett, who was born in England about 1632, and settled at Dromore Co. Down, before 1687; in which year he married the daughter of Captain James Morgan, one of Cromwell's aides-de-camp, a Welsh settler from Garth, in the parish of Llandovery, in Caermarthenshire, and proprietor of Tully-ard, in the County of Down. It is thought possible that he may have been a relative of the Protestant clergyman of the same name who preached in the Cathedral of Durham in 1656, on which occasion there appears a charge in the Church Books of three shillings "for saek for Mr. Jellett." [See Quarterly Review, January, 1829, p. 386.] A little incident which occurred while King William III. was at Hillsborough, may be mentioned in connection with the Jellett family settled at Moira. Being Protestants living in a district surrounded by Roman Catholics, Mr. Jellett the elder being then in feeble health, and his son probably serving in the army under Sir George Rawdon, his wife presented herself to King William., and requested him to leave her two soldiers as a protection to her house. The King received her graciously; but, perceiving a great tankard, of fully a quart measure, attached to her girdle, he humorously asked for an explanation. He was informed that this vessel was one highly prized in her family, and handed down as an heir-loom, being formed of "blood-stone," mounted in silver-gilt, and believed to be of great efficacy in curing haemorrage; and that she was afraid to leave so valuable an article behind during her absence. His Majesty thereupon called for wine, filled the tankard, and drank the lady's health: then presented it to her to drink to his success, and afterwards kindly granted her request. The two soldiers accompanied her home, with orders to remain until required; but, as they never were called on, they eventually became settlers on the property, and were long the only Protestants there. The tankard is still preserved, and in the possession of the Rev. John H. Jellett, F.T.C.D. -- it had no doubt been brought from Wales along with the Morgan family. A Captain Henry Jellett served in General Monk's army in Ireland, in 1642, and was one of three who were deputed by the General Officers of the army to demand from Monk his reasons for not signing promptly the "Solemn League of Covenant" which had already been signed by all the officers but himself. One of the originals of this League and Covenant, now in the Belfast Museum with a number of signatures attached, was presented to that institution by the late Morgan Jellett, Esq.,^h and was believed by him to have come into the possession of his family through this Captain Jellett.

In England there are numerous families who write their name Gillett, and Gillot, all of French extraction: the former at Glastonbury, Exeter, and Banbury, the latter at Birmingham and Sheffield. It is probable that these names, as well as Jellett and Guillot, have all been originally the same, namely, Gillot, the diminutive of Gilles, the French form of Giles.

Saurin.

The family of De Saurin resided in Languedoc, and was strongly attached to the Reformed church, ranking among its members many individuals distinguished for their piety and learning. At an early period we find them taking a prominent part in the affairs of the church, the names of two appearing in the Synod Roll of Alençon, viz., -- Saurin, pastor of Aymarques, and Peter Saurin, pastor of Uxeaux. The branch of the family settled in Ireland derives its origin from the noble Charles de Saurin, of Calvission, in the Diocese of Nismes, who served for a long time in the army. He had two sons, John and James.ⁱ The eldest, John, was page to the Constable de Montmorency, Maitre de Camp of a regiment of Infantry, and subsequently appointed Governor of the Castle of Sommières by Letters Patent dated at St. Germain's, the end of October, 1597. He left three sons, Antoine,  N--------- , and Daniel.^j The eldest succeeded his uncle, James, in the governorship of the town of Sommières, and his appointment was accompanied by a letter from the Constable and the Duc de Vandadour, expressing their high sense of his father's merits. He left two sons who embraced the military profession, and died without issue: and three daughters, two of whom became nuns, and the third married. N--------- de Saurin became Captain of the Guard to the Duc de Royan, and was killed in the service, leaving a very young son who settled at Nismes, and went to the Bar. He became an advocate of great reputation, and a member of the Royal Academy of Nismes. He had three sons Jacques, Louis, and a third (name unknown) who became Captain of Cavalry, in the service of England. The father, notwithstanding his high position in Nismes, retired to Geneva at the first outbreak of the "Revocation," where he died. Jacques Saurin, his eldest son (born at Nismes 1677) entered, at the age of fifteen, a regiment raised by the Marquis De Ruvigny, for the service of the Duke of Savoy, then engaged in the European coalition against Louis XIV., and on that prince's defection retired to Geneva; where, having resigned a profession for which he never was designed, he resumed his theological studies, under the direction of the celebrated Turretin Pictet and others, he soon became distinguished for his oratorical powers. Numbers flocked to hear him and on one occasion it was found necessary to throw open the cathedral to accommodate the crowd that pressed for admission. On receiving orders, he was nominated Minister to the French Protestant Church in London, and here, taking the celebrated Tillotson as his model, he perfected the admirable talents bestowed on him by nature. It was then perhaps, that Abbadie^k having heard him for the first time, exclaimed:-- "Is this a man or an angel who speaks!" -- After five years' residence in England he was summoned to the Hague with the title of "Minister Extraordinary" to the French community of nobles, and preached there with immense success, in the chapel belonging to the Prince of Orange. He possessed all the qualifications of a great orator and preacher, extensive knowledge, fervour of imagination, powerful argument, and luminous arrangement of thoughts, with a purity of style, which, combined with the physical advantages of a noble countenance, and a sonorous and thrilling voice, rendered him one of the most remarkable men of his time, and attracted crowds of enraptured auditors. His sermons, some of which have been published, abound with the noblest specimens of modern eloquence. Among his admiring hearers were the Prince of Orange, and the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline. So deeply impressed was the latter with his character and his abilities that on her return to England she ordered Dr. Boulter (preceptor of Prince Frederick, father of George III.) to write to him, with a request that he would draw up a treatise on "the Education of Princes." This work was prepared, though never printed; but the author received a handsome donation from the Princess, and afterwards a pension from George II., to whom he dedicated a volume of sermons. He died in 1730.

Louis Saurin, second son of N. de Saurin, and brother of the celebrated Jacques, also entered the church. He became Dean of St. Patrick's, Ardagh, in March 1726, and also Chanter of Christ's Church, Dublin. Previous to his leaving France he had married a daughter of the Comte de la Bretonnière, a Norman Baron, and had a son and four daughters. He died in 1749, in Dublin.

James Saurin, his son, became a Minister of the established church, and was appointed Vicar of Belfast in June 1747, where he continued for 26 years. His memory was so respected that, 50 years afterwards, when St. George's Church, (Belfast) was being built,^l the workmen engaged in making the foundations, on meeting with their former pastor's grave, arched over his remains, which now rest under the communion-table. He married a Mrs. Duff, and left four sons, Louis, Mark Anthony, William and James: of these only the two latter have left issue, viz., the Right Hon. William Saurin, and James, late Lord Bishop of Dromore.

The Right Hon. William Saurin was born in 1758, received his early education at the school of the Rev. Mr. Dubourdieu (in Lisburn), and entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1775, where he obtained the highest academic distinctions. In 1780 he was called to the Irish Bar; but for several years experienced the fortune of many able men whose "moral and intellectual tendencies being strictly professional withheld them from all irregular and indiscreet short cuts to notice." It was during this interval that he married Mary, relict of Sir Richard Cox, Bart., niece of the late, and sister of the present, Marquis of Thomond, by whom he had a large family. The marriage took place in 1786. He was engaged in the election contest in the County of Down, in 1790, when Lord Castlereagh was one of the candidates; and he made his debut on behalf of Mr. Ward, another candidate, in so successful a manner as to obtain at once a reputation for ability. He was soon extensively employed, and he rose steadily to the highest professional distinction. In 1796 he was elected, by the members of the Bar, Captain-Commandant of their corps, which affords ample proof of the estimation in which he was held. In 1798 the office of Solicitor-General was pressed upon him with much earnestness, but declined; as it was his determination to oppose the measure of the Union, then in agitation. In 1803 he was again urgently solicited to take the same office, but peremptorily refused. In 1807 he was once more applied to by the Government, and at length yielded to the influence of his attached friend, Mr. (afterwards Lord) Downes, and accepted the office of Attorney-General for Ireland, which he held for 14 years. Previous to this he had been elected a member of the House of Commons, and soon became distinguished as a speaker. On the retirement of Lord Downes from the Bench, the Government wished to raise Mr. Saurin to the vacant seat, but he refused the promotion. A peerage was added to the offer but it was still declined. He continued "in great Chancery practice, till at length having become father of the Bar, and beginning to feel the weight of years, he took leave of the profession in 1831." His death took place on the 11th January, 1839.

The Right Rev. James Saurin, Lord Bishop of Dromore, was born in Belfast, 18th December, 1759. He was the fourth son of the Rev. James Saurin, rector of St. Ann's; and in early life was for a short time at the school of the Rev. Mr. Dubourdieu, in Lisburn. On the death of his father he left Belfast, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of 14; unusually early in those days. He was a distinguished classical scholar, obtained a scholarship, and read for fellowships; but the close application necessary for this having injured his health, he was obliged to relinquish the pursuit, and was ordained in 1783 to the curacy of St. Doughlass, where he continued 17 years. In 1800 he was nominated to the rectory of Rosenallis, in Queen's County, and in 1807 to that of Donaghmore. He was appointed Dean of Cork in 1812, Archdeacon of Dublin, in 1813, and Dean of Derry in 1817. In 1819, when about 60 years of age, he was consecrated Bishop of Dromore. He presided over that diocese for 22 years, and died the 19th April, 1842, in his 83d year. He had thirteen children, of whom twelve are living. On leaving each of his preferments, he received complimentary addresses; and, when resigning the Archdeaconry of Dublin, he was presented with a service of plate. During his residence in the Diocese of Dromore he maintained a cordial intercourse with all denominations of Protestants. He was one of the Irish prelates deputed to wait upon George IV., at the period of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, in 1829, and voted against that measure in the House of Lords. It is creditable to his memory that he evinced a strong desire to sacrifice a portion of his income, in order that the Rectorial titles of four parishes appropriate to the Bishopric might be transferred to their respective incumbents. For this purpose a bill was to have been introduced into parliament, and he was willing to bind himself never again to renew the leases of the aforesaid tithes; but unforeseen obstacles, over which he had no controul, baffled the design. -- A monument to him is erected in the cathedral church of Dromore.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Of the other French families who joined the settlement at Lisburn all that can now be ascertained is their names. The following have been collected from various authorities, chiefly from the old Vestry-books, and the lists of deaths, marriages, and baptisms at Lisburn. The dates subjoined to some of the names are those at which they appear in these Registers.

Brethet,	De Berniere	Foguy	Nebur
Bulroy	Druet (1723)	Gornal	Nois
Birrel	Drewet (1723)	Garran	Noblet
Bonace	Drued (1723)	Gothard	Prorié
Burto	Druid (1723)	Higuet	Petticrew, (1722)
Bourto	Drufan	Labady (L'Abbadie?)	Purdee, (Purdue) (1662)
Blosset	Defou	Lefevre	Rothell, (1718
Bonley	Darele	La Briol	Réné
Comière	Dufore	Labrel, (1727)	Stalliard
Colbert	Dela Hyde	Ledrue	Touchamp, (1723)
Covart, (1728)	Deluze	Languel	Trimullete
Quavert, (1727)	Driffet	Lascelles, (1698)	Tremmule
Chartres, (1703)	Treufet	Leroy, (1676)	Treufet
Chaters, (1799)	De Armine	Maskue	Taverner (1723)
	Duliez (1718)	Marret	Vandas
	Duard	Merret	Vagieux
	Denmar, (1738)	Morrell	Valentin
	Dalton, (1722)	Merron
	Domville, (1758)	Martine (1698)
	Dumvill, (1662)	Maslin
	Dumbill, (1664)
	De Lap, (1698)
	Dulap, (1671)
	De Vanny

[There is a possibility that several of the above names may not be French.]

The foregoing particulars, relative to the French Protestant families settled at Lisburn, scanty as they may appear, are all that can be now collected, and have not been obtained without much trouble; so completely have the descendants of these settlers become incorporated with the population of the district, or disappeared amidst the eventful changes of the last hundred and fifty years. That their settlement, however, exercised a powerful influence on the character of the locality, there can be no question. They added one energetic element to a population already strongly Protestant in its tendency; and, as many of the original colonists were of high family and liberal education, and all of them of industrious and peaceful habits, they contributed in no small degree to the respectability for which the neighbourhood of Lisburn is now so deservedly noted. From the time of their arrival the Linen Trade began to assume a new importance. Its elements had of course existed in a crude form for a long time previous; but the improvements and systematic arrangements introduced by them led the way to that wonderful expansion of the manufacture which has since rendered the Province of Ulster celebrated throughout the world. The factories and bleach-works of the present day are no doubt infinitely superior to the infant establishments of Crommelin and his colonists; but we must remember their own French proverb, "C'est le premier pas qui coute," and acknowledge that, if political events had not driven these unfortunate men into exile, our Linen Trade might still have been rude and unimportant, or might even have been extinguished by the competition of other countries.

Many of the Huguenots of Lisburn long cherished hopes of recovering their properties in France, and of returning to reside in their native country; but their expectations gradually declined, and their descendants, losing the amor patrice of the first settlers, intermarried by degrees with the natives. They joined the Established Church in numbers, so that by this means, as well as by the removal of many to other districts, the French Chapel, which was at one time numerously attended, became almost deserted. Finally, the Rev. Saumarez Dubourdieu, the last of the French pastors, was appointed to the neighbouring parish of Lambeg, and the Chapel was closed. It continued so until the year 1798, when it was converted into a guard-house. After the country became quiet its occupancy was again changed, and it became, what it still is, the Court-house of Lisburn. The only memorials that now remain of this colony are some tomb-stones in the church-yard, and a few vague traditions and kindly recollections among the old inhabitants.

Additional Notes.

The ardent desire felt by the Huguenots to return to their own country, and the sacrifices they were willing to make for that purpose are illustrated by the following incident, the account of which we transcribe from the Belfast News-Letter, January, 1707. It is there given on the authority of the Count de Maisonville who, thirty years before, had been Plenipotentiary and Envoy from the Elector of Treves to the Court of France and elsewhere, and was intimate with the Dukes of Bellisle, Estrées, and Choiseul, Ministers at Versailles.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

In the reign of the late French King, when France was groaning under the weight of taxes, and the people struggling against the complicated horrors of tyranny and heavy exactions, Mareschal de Bellisle, then Minister, was one day informed that a person solicited the favour of an audience with all possible eagerness. The request was acceded to. A man wrapped up in a cloak appeared before the Minister, whom he thus addressed:-- "My lord, deign to listen to me. I am a Protestant and a preacher, nor am I ignorant of the danger to which the latter quality exposes me; but I own it because I know that your closet must be an asylum for those who are admitted to it." -- "Your confidence pleases me," answered the Mareschal, "and it shall not be deceived: speak to me candidly, and tell me what you want" -- "Deputed by my brethren, the Refugees, who, notwithstanding the rigorous edict of Louis XIV., still regret their banishment from France, I come in their name to offer you the pecuniary assistance of which the country stands so much in need." -- He then opened a pocket-book, and showed the Minister notes, to the amount of 40 millions of Livres, on the best banking-houses in Europe; and then continued his address:-- "This is only an earnest of the sacrifices we are ready to make to France, if she consent to re-admit us into her bosom, and annihilate the "Revocation of the Edict of Nantes," which hypocrisy and avarice extorted from the King. Seventy years of exile have not been able to eradicate from our hearts an affection for this country which our fathers ordered us ever to cherish. There are still alive some venerable witnesses of those days of horror and desolation, when wives were torn from their husbands arms; when tender infants were snatched from their mother's breasts; when methods equally repugnant to nature and reason were employed to force them to abandon the religious tenets of their ancestors. These evils, the work of barbarous prejudices, have not effaced from our hearts the desire of returning to France. We were obliged to export our industry and talents along with us: we now petition to bring them back improved by the assiduous exertions of seventy years. All we want is liberty of conscience, and a civil existence. Deign, my lord, to lay our proposal at the foot of the throne and become our protector."

The minister, astonished and flattered, answered the deputy with much kindness, and left him alone in his closet, while he went to acquaint the King with what had taken place. An Extraordinary Cabinet Council was summoned immediately, where the subject was debated with much warmth. Pride and Hatred were opposed by Reason and Humanity; but Pride and Hatred triumphed. The Minister was scouted for having even listened to a proposition which, according to the apostles of intolerance, was a crime against religion. They alleged that to grant such a request would be the signal for a civil war and all its attendant horrors, and that it would be selling France to heresy. Louis XV. signed the decision: and then for the first time, in an affair of importance, did he exhibit proofs of a weakness which served as a pledge for the other evils he afterwards hurled on his wretched subjects. The Mareschal, having returned, answered the preacher:-- "The King does not consent to the proposal of his refractory subjects. He will never grant a residence in France to those who stubbornly profess and propagate error. Go away; and be grateful for the King's clemency, which allows you 48 hours to quit the kingdom." -- The honest man retired without a murmur; for the "Bastille" was then in existence, and so were "lettres de cachet."

This occurrence, which is little known, took place about 40 years ago. What a progress has reason made since that period! -- [Belfast News-Letter, January, 1797.]

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

In the old Vestry-book of Lisburn, at I8th June, 1699, there is a sum of £24 10s voted for the relief of the distressed Vaudois.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

The following is a copy of a certificate to two Huguenot ladies (who afterwards joined the Lisburn colony) from the minister and elders of a church in Holland, on the occasion of their leaving the place; a precaution probably usual in those times:-- "Nous soussignéz, Pasteurs et Anciens de L'Eglise Walonne de Lejde, certifions, que Mesdemoiselles Judith et Louise de la Cherois, natifues de la Ville de Ham en Picardie, après avoir abandonné en France toutes choses pour la cause de l'Eglise, et avoir passé quelques années a Boisleduc, d'où elles ont remporté un avantageux témoignage, se sont rétirées a Lejde, où elles demeurent depuis quatre ans; pendant lesquels elles se sont conduites d'une manière très-chrétienne et très-édifiante, donnant des marques de leur piéte et de leur zèle en fréquentant avec assiduité vos saintes assembleés, participant á toutes les occasions au sacrement de la Sainte Cène du Seigneur, et faisant paroistre, dans tonte leur conversation, une sagesse, une humilité, et une modestie, qui leur ont acquis l'estime de tout le monde.

"C'est le témoignage que nous rendons á la vérité, afin qu'elles puissent s'en seruir en temps et lieu. Fait au Consistoire le 5 de Juillet, 1693. Et pour tous.

"GODEFROY VAN KEMPE, Pasteur.
"GUERIN, Pasteur.
"JEAN BONVLA, Ancien.
"JEAN CARLIER, Ancien.
"ELIE DEL TOMBE, Ancien.

[Translation]

"We the undersigned, Pastors and Elders of the Walloon Church of Leyden, certify that the ladies Judith and Louisa De la Charois, natives of the town of Ham, in Picardy, after having given up everything in France for the sake of the Gospel, and having passed several years at Bois-le-Duc, from whence they brought a favourable certificate, retired to Leyden where they have lived these four years; during which period they have conducted themselves in a most Christian and edifying manner, giving proof of their piety and zeal by frequenting assiduously our holy assemblies, participating on all occasions in the Sacrament of the Lord's Holy Supper, and exhibiting in all their conversation a degree of wisdom, humility, and modesty, which have won for them the esteem of every one.

"This testimony we give in all truth, in order that they may be able to make use of it in due time and place.

"Done at the Consistory, the 5th July, 1693; and in the name of all."

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Among the few relics preserved by the descendants of the Lisburn Huguenots is a little portable spinning-wheel, of which we annex a wood-cut, one third of the actual size. It is neatly made of polished brass, and was worn at a lady's girdle, who could thus, without inconvenience, spin while superintending other domestic matters. The little machine consists of a pair of multiplying wheels (contained in the oval case shown in the outline) moved by a handle, and giving considerable velocity to the "spool" round which the spun yarn is wound. The "rock" carrying the unspun flax is also shown, but stood at right angles to the position in which it appears in the sketch. This article was brought from France by one of the ladies of the De la Cherois family, and is still preserved as a relic of old times.


[ERRATA. -- Owing to the difficulty of reading the M.S. documents which contained some of the foregoing particulars, several names of places, &c., have been erroneously printed. In page 167, for "Godefrey" read "Godefroy," for "Sanoctal," read "Sauvetal," and for "Blangar," read "Blanzac." In page 168 for "Londure" read "Loudure."]^h In a MS. autobiography of this gentleman he mentions a little trait of his youthful days, illustrative of the manners of the time. When he went to serve his apprenticeship in 1785 to a solicitor in Lisburn, the boys wore hair-powder and a cue!



[i] James, after the death of his brother, was appointed in 1601 to the same offices which he had held. On resigning the Governorship he retired into Lorraine, and there occupied several offices of distinction. He was deputed by the Duke on a mission to the Court of France to negotiate some important matters. He had two sons, who were both captains of cavalry, and lost their lives at the battle of Seness. His widow inherited all his property, and subsequently married the Marquis of Courcelles.

[j] Daniel de Saurin was a Minister, and it is probably his name that appears in the Synod of Alençon. He had two sons and a daughter, who were educated in the Reformed faith. Louis, the eldest, received his education at the Academy of Saumur: but, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, having occasion in his flight from France to pass through Moulins, he could not resist the desire of calling to see his relations there, two of whom had become nuns, and at the same time of visiting the Duchess de Montmoreney; and he was so influenced by their solicitations to change his religion that he subsequently returned to France from Lausanne and embraced the Roman Catholic faith. He performed the duties of an Abbé for some time, but was obliged by weak health to relinquish the office. He went to Paris "where his bright parts, and his great skill in Natural Philosophy and Mathematics procured him a pension from the King, and a place in the Royal Academy of Sciences. He is partly the author of the elegant and learned Journal of Paris." [Dubourdieu's Appeal, p. 144.] He was frequently employed by the King in secret negotiations with the Princes of Germany during one of his journies in Italy he was received into the Academy of Padua: he was also a member of the Royal Academy of Nismes. He wrote several French poems, among the rest one addressed to the Dauphin on the Campaign of 1690.

[k] James Abbadie was born at Nay, in Béarn, in 1654. He was educated by the distinguished La Plucette, and afterwards studied at the University of Sedan, whence he went to Holland and Germany, where his fame as a divine led to his appointment as Minister of the French Church at Berlin. In 1690 he came to England, and after officiating for some time in London, was appointed Dean of Killaloe, in Ireland. He afterwards returned to London, and died in 1727, at Mary-le-bone, at the age of 75.

[l] St George's church was built on the site of the old parish church of Belfast, which was taken down in 1775, as being unfit for public worship; the ground on which it stood had been converted into a burying-place.

The above article is reproduced from the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 2, 1854.