LAMONT, JOHN (fl. 1671), chronicler, was probably son of John Lamont, who was described in 1612 as 'destitute of any means for his wife and children, having been chased out of Ireland by the rebels,' and died at Johnston's Mill in 1652. His grandfather, Allan Lamont or Lawmonth (d. 1632), was minister of Kennoway, Fifeshire, in 1586, and afterwards of Scoonie conjointly. His great-grandfather, Allan Lawmonth (d. 1574), second son of Lawmonth of that ilk in Argyllshire, entered the college of St. Andrews in 1536, settled in the city of St. Andrews about 1540, and was the first of the family to associate himself with Fifeshire. The intimate acquaintance shown by Lamont in his extant 'Chronicle' with the affairs of the Lundins of that ilk has led to the suggestion that he was factor to that family, and his interest in and knowledge of the prices paid for properties purchased in Fife support the theory that he was a landed estate agent of some kind. The 'Diary' by which he is known ostensibly begins in March 1641) and terminates in April 1671, but it is evident that both the beginning and end are incomplete as published. It supplies dates of the births, marriages, and deaths that occurred not only in Fifeshire families, but also among the nobility of Scotland, and is of great value to the Scottish genealogist. It also gives accounts of Lamont's brother Allan, and of his sisters Margaret and Janet, and of their families. The absence of any reference to his own marriage implies that he died a bachelor, probably about 1675. His brother's eldest son, John (b. 1661), was his heir, and doubtless inherited his uncle's manuscripts, including the 'Diary.' This John was at one time a skipper of Largo, but in 1695 acquired the estate of Newton, in the parish of Kennoway. The 'Diary' was first published, under the title of the 'Chronicle of Fife,' by Constable in 1810, and was ascribed to John Lamont 'of Newton,' a confusion of the nephew with the uncle, the real author. Another edition from early manuscripts, then in the possession of General Durham of Largo and James Lumisdaine of Lathallan, was issued by the Bannatyne Club in 1830.
[The Rev. Walter Wood of Elie, in his East Neuk of Fife, 1888, first distinguished accurately between the two John Lamonts, uncle and nephew, and identified the former with the author of the Chronicle.]
LA MOTHE, CLAUDE GROSTÊTE de (1647–1713), theologian, was born at Orleans in 1647, and was the son of Jacques Grostête de la Buffière, a member of the Paris bar, and an elder of the protestant church at Charenton. He assumed, according to custom, the name of one of his father's estates. He graduated in law at Orleans University 1664, and in the following year joined the Paris bar; but in 1676, having abandoned law for theology, he became protestant pastor at Lizy, near Melun. In 1682 he accepted a call to Rouen, but returned to Lizy on finding that no successor could be obtained, and was secretary of the provincial synod held there. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, he sought refuge in London with his wife. Marie Berthe, daughter of a Paris banker, was naturalised in 1668, and was minister first of the Swallow Street, and then, from 1694 till his death, of the Savoy Church. In 1712 he was elected a member of the Berlin Royal Society; in 1713 he collected subscriptions in England for the Huguenots released from the French galleys; and he died in London 30 Sept. 1713. La Mothe's father abjured protestantism, and his brother, Marin des Mahis, an ex-pastor become a canon of Orleans. La Mothe published 'Two Discourses relating to the Divinity of our Saviour,' London, 1693, 'The Inspiration of the New Testament asserted and explained,' London, 1694, and several treatises in French, one of them in defence of the Camisard prophets.
[Biography prefixed to his Sermons sur divers Textes, Amsterdam, 1715; Agnew's Prot. Exiles from France, 3rd edit. London, 1886; Haag's La France Protestante, Paris, 1855; Encyc. des Sciences Religieuses, v. 749, Paris. 1878.]
LA MOTTE, JOHN (1570?–1665), merchant of London, born about 1570, was the son of Francis La Motte of Ypres in Flanders, who come over to England about 1562, took up his residence at Colchester, and died in London. La Motte was sent to a school in Ghent under the Dutch protestant church. His master, Jacobus Reginus (Jan de Konink), in a letter dated 11 July 1583 to Wingius, the minister of the Dutch Church at London, mentions him as a very promising pupil, excelling his schoolfellows in talent and diligence (Ecclesiæ Londino-Batavæ Archivum, ed. Hessels, ii. 754–6). He appears to have finished his education at the university of Heidelberg (ib. i. 372).
