Thomas Pening, Esq., of London (I pass over at present his brothers, Thomas Hillesden Bulteel and Henry Bellenden Bulteel). Hitherto dates have been scarce, and I have not the date of the death of the John Bulteel, Esq., just mentioned; he had three daughters and two sons, John-Crocker, and Courtenay-James-Cooper. But we have dates as to the elder of these two sons, namely, John Crocker Bulteel, Esq., of Flete and Lyneham. He married, on 13th May 1826, Lady Elizabeth Grey, second daughter of Charles, second Earl Grey, K.G., known as the father of the Reform Bill. After the passing of that Bill, which gave additional members to Devonshire, Mr. Bulteel sat as M.P. for South Devon. He was High Sheriff of Devonshire in 1841. He died on 10th September 1843, while Lady Elizabeth Bulteel survived till 8th November 1880.
Their only son, John, born 26th June 1827, was only sixteen years of age at his father’s death. Much of the ancestral property seems to have been sold, and he is now styled John Bulteel, Esq. of Pamflete. He married, on 23d March 1854, Euphemia Emily, daughter of the late Lieut-Colonel Parsons, and has a son and heir, and other children.
The daughters of Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Bulteel are — (1) Mary Elizabeth, (2) Georgiana Frances, (3) Louisa Emily Charlotte. The eldest was a Maid of Honour to the Queen, and was married, on 30th April 1861, to the Right Hon. Sir Henry Frederick Ponsonby, K.C.B., Private Secretary to the Queen. On the same day her youngest sister was married to Edward Charles Baring, Esq., now Lord Revelstoke.
IX. D’Ambrin, or Dambrine (now Dombrain).
In my Chapter I. I have traced up this surname to Ambrin (or Ambrines) in Flanders. The mistake of picturing its cradle in Embrun (then spelt Ambrun) led to the conjecture that the first refugee fled from the St. Bartholomew Massacre. But Rouen was a natural rendezvous for fugitives from Flanders. Flight from Embrun would have been in the direction of Switzerland or the Mediterranean. Rouen, it is said and may be believed, was a stage in the first refugee’s journey. But the idea that he had first made a pilgrimage through the whole length of France from south to north is plainly erroneous. We have to look further back than 1572. In the London census of 1 571 John Dambrum, who came over in 1564, is described as a Burgundian, and William Dambrune, who came in 1570, is said to have been “born in Pallensen.” We have no early vouchers of the propagation of the family in the metropolis. We find a Joseph Dambrin in London in 1683 as a witness to the baptism of Joseph Longuet. In 1675 there was a Jaques Dambrin, of London, whose son, Josué, married, in Canterbury in that year, Marie, daughter of Jean Vandebroucq, of Sandwich (the lady’s maiden surname is sometimes spelt Van de Brocke, or Van de Brouke); they seem to have taken up their abode in Canterbury, where their children were baptized — viz., Elizabeth, in 1682, Juditcq, in 1686, and Rachel, in 1689. In passing I may mention refugees of the name from Picardy. On 13th November 1684 Francois Dambrin, son of F. D’Ambrin, native of Verin in Picardy, married in Canterbury, Elizabeth, daughter of Adrien Duhamel, and there are recorded baptisms of three of his children, Isaac, in 1688, Jean, in 1689, and Elizabeth, in 1691.
The probability seems to be that our family of Dombrain springs from Lille, and appears in the Canterbury registers for the first time in 1625. At the end of the previous century we may locate Jean D’Ambrines at Lille. The refugee named in 1625 is his son, Jacques Dambrin. Two other Dambrins, namely, Nicolas and Pierre, are registered as natives of Lille, and may be decided to be brothers of Jacques and sons of Jean.
Jacques Dambrin married in Canterbury, in 1625, a widow, Madame Bauchart (née Pasques Descarpenteries), and having became a widower he married, in 1629, Marie, daughter of Venant de Labye. There are no children of his upon record — and none of his brother, Pierre, who married, in 1645, Madame De la Cueillery (née Marie Desmarets), a native of Norwich.
Nicolas Dambrine married in Canterbury, in 1631, Francoise, daughter of the late Jacques Desbouverie. He resided in Canterbury for about three years, and there two of his sons were baptized, Philippe (9th December 1631), and Jean (20th January 1633). After this he removed to London, and two more sons were baptized in the French Church in Threadneedle Street, Abraham (31st August 1634), and Isaac (8th May 1636). He appears to have been a widower, and to have re-married in London, in 1638, with Madame Marcschal (née Claire Faucon). It seems that a
