Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/D'Auvergne, Edward
D'AUVERNE, EDWARD (1660–1737), military historian, belonged to the Jersey branch of the D'Auvergne family, claiming descent from a cadet of the house of the last reigning Duke of Bouillon. He was son of Philip d'Auvergne of Jersey, and born in that island in 1660. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, at Michaelmas term, 1679, and took his degree as B.A. 1684, and M.A. 4 May 1686. Wood (Athenæ Oxon.) speaks of him as holding the living of St. Brelade in Jersey. In 1691 he was chaplain to the Scots guards, and served with that regiment throughout the wars in Flanders under William III, of which he became the historian. Afterwards he was made one of the king's domestic chaplains. Narcissus Luttrell records his appointment to that post, in the room of Dr. Willis, in 1699, and that ‘Dr.’ D'Auvergne, as he styles him, was about to accompany the king to Holland (Relation of State Affairs, iv. 322). On 11 Dec. 1701, upon the preferment of Dr. Huntingdon to the bishopric of Raphoe, D'Auvergne was given by the king the rectory of Great Hallingbury, Essex, which he held up to his death. In 1729 D'Auvergne married Esther, daughter of Philip Le Geyt, lieutenant bailey of Jersey, and by her had one child, Philip. The latter had a large family, and lost a son, a midshipman, in the Royal George at Spithead in 1782. D'Auvergne died at Great Hallingbury 2 Dec. 1737.
He was author of:
- ‘History of the Campaign in Flanders, 1691;’ printed 1692.
- ‘Relation of the Last Campaign of the Confederate Army, 1692,’ London, 1693.
- ‘History of the Last Campaign, 1693,’ London, 1693.
- ‘A History of the Campaign in the Spanish Netherlands in 1694. With a Journal of the Siege of Huy,’ London, 1695.
- ‘A History of the Campaign in Flanders for 1695. With an Account of the Siege of Namur,’ London, 1695.
- ‘A History of the Campaign in Flanders in 1696,’ London, 1696.
- ‘A History of the Campaign in Flanders in 1697,’ London, 1698; and, it is believed, other works.
A sermon, delivered by him and printed in 1705, is in Lambeth Palace Library.
[Payne's Armorial of Jersey, p. 55; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. 1721), ii. 1111; Morant's Essex, vol. ii., under ‘Great Hallingbury.’ In Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 28880, pp. 186, 190, 28904, p. 48, are three unimportant letters from D'Auvergne to J. Ellis, written about 1697, when the troops were returning home from Flanders.]