Chelsea Hospital. His will was proved on 11th November 1712 by his widow, Susanna Maria, Lady Colladon. This lady was a great benefactress of the refugees. We find the Earl of Galway and Mr De la Mothe taking counsel with her regarding the Huguenots released from the galleys in 1713; and as late as 1749, when the Earl of Lifford leaves £500 to the refugees, the chosen almoner is Lady Colladon.
Miss Colladon, Sir Theodore’s only child, was appointed sub-governess to the princesses on 28th May 1718. Her marriage settlement was dated 10th April 1725; her husband was Charles Montagu, Esq. of Papplewick, in the county of Nottingham, and of the parish of St George, Hanover Square. Her son, Right Hon. Frederick Montagu, was born on 4th January 1726, and succeeded to Papplewick in 1759; he was one of the Lords of the Treasury, became a director of the French Hospital on 4th October 1775, and died unmarried on 30th July 1800. But Dame Ann Colladon is still represented through her only daughter Anne (born 1728, died 12th September 1786) by her great-great-grandson, Andrew Fountayne Wilson, now Andrew Montagu, Esq. of Papplewick.
XI. Primerose.
The pasteur, Gilbert Primerose, was a Scotchman, and a preacher of the Church of Scotland, who, when his native country was disturbed by royal intermeddling with his church, chose to remove to France, and to undertake the office of the Christian ministry among the Huguenots. So far he cannot be classed among French refugees. But in Du Moulins case, we have seen how King James, who was a practical enemy of Protestantism in Scotland, chose to figure as a Protestant champion in France, so as to offend Louis XIII., and to occasion the banishment from France of Huguenot pasteurs who were of Scotch extraction.
Gilbert, son of Gilbert Primros, surgeon (afterwards principal surgeon to James VI.), was born in Edinburgh, in or about 1573.[1] His father, preferring a more ancient university to the infant College of Edinburgh, sent him to St. Andrews in 1587. In that year his name appears among the nomina intrantium as Gilbertus Primrosus. He left college with a diploma of M.A. The date of his removal to France is not known, but it must have been about 1598. He betook himself to St. Jean d’Angely, in the province of Saintonge. Having exercised his gifts as a preacher with high and general satisfaction, he was appointed to the church of Mirambeau. While serving this rural pastorate, he continued to live at St. Jean d’Angely, and in that city two of his sons were born. His fame soon reached the city of Bourdeaux, which was in the adjacent province to the south. That congregation was an unusually important charge, and in 1598 the National Synod of the French Churches, assembled at Montpellier, decided that there was at its disposal “no pastor sufficiently qualified for the church of Bourdeaux,” and appointed the Colloquies [presbyteries] of Albret, Higher Agenois, and Perigord to fill the pulpit provisionally for a year, i.e., each colloquy to provide for four months’ supply. In 1601 the case came before the National Synod at Gergeau, which came to the following decision:— “The Synod does not count the demand of the church of Bourdeaux reasonable, which requires Monsieur Primerose to be given them for their pastor, because he cannot be taken from the church of Mirambeau, whereunto he is appropriated.” Ultimately, however, the “demand” (which is not so strong a word in French as in English) was granted; and in the first roll of ministers which Mr Quick printed, and which is dated 1603, he is found as one of the ministers of Bourdeaux, in the colloquy of Lower Agenois, and provincial Synod of Lower Guienne. He had signalised his admission to the French pastorate by spelling his name Guilbert Primerose. He sat in the National Synod of La Rochelle in 1607 as a representative of his province. At one of its meetings he presented a letter to the Synod from the magistrates and ministers of Edinburgh, and also from His Majesty the King of Great Britain, recalling him to his native country to become a minister of Edinburgh. Mr Primerose stated that he had never absolutely engaged himself to the Church in France, or to any French congregation, but had always reserved a liberty of departure if he should be duly recalled. The Synod acknowledged this, but entreated him to consider all the circumstances, and to have a tender care and
- ↑ The earliest extant baptismal register of Edinburgh begins with 1595, and therefore we cannot give the date of our Gilbert’s birth. A family group appears near the beginning of the register:— “Baptism on Sunday, 28th September 1595. James Primros, writter — a son named Gilbert. Witnesses, Gilbert Primros, chirurgener, and Mr George Tod, writter ." [James was the great surgeon’s nephew, and father of Archibald, ancestor of the Earls of Rosebery.]
