descendant of his (though from neglect of registration we cannot tell which) was the ancestor of the modern Dombrains. We have a conjectural succession thus:—
- 1. Jean Dambrines, of Lille, before 1600.
- 2. Nicolas Dambrine, one of his sons, who, as a refugee, married Francoise Desbouverie in 1631.
- 3. The sons of Nicolas — four whom we have already named (and other two who may have been his sons):—
- (1) Philippe, he has no marriage or offspring on record.
- (2) Jean, married Magdelaine De Visme, and had Marie, b. 1687; Elizabeth, b. 1689; Andre, b. 1691; Judith, b. 1693; Jeanne, b. 1694; Susanne, b. 1696; Daniel, b. 1698.
- (3) Abraham, has no marriage or offspring on record.
- (4) Isaac, married Ester Millon, and had Marie, b. 1687; Abraham, b. 1698; Sara, b. 1702.
- (5) Samuel, married, first, Marie Lizy, by whom he had Samuel, b. 1682; and Rachel, b. 1687; secondly, Marie Six, by whom he had Anne, b. 1696.
- (6) Francois, married Elizabeth Tramet, and had Abraham, b. 1686.
The refugees were exposed to many anxieties and struggles for subsistence, and this family subsided for a time among the working classes, as appears from a list of burials in Canterbury of persons named Dombrain, shown to me by a learned correspondent. At last their industry was rewarded by their reappearance as a family of note, under the chieftainship of Mr. Abraham Dombrain, who was the head of a prosperous posting establishment in Canterbury; he was born in 1762, and died in 1837, aged seventy-five. Mr. Dombrain married, first, on 7th January 1783, in St. Michael’s, Canterbury, Elizabeth Dyne (who died in 1789), and secondly, on 30th January 1793, in St. Mildred’s, Canterbury, Elizabeth Aldridge. Sir James Dombrain, Knight, was a son of the second marriage; he was baptized at St. Mildred’s, 5th January 1794. He entered the Royal Navy, and rose to the rank of Commander. In 1817 he became Deputy Comptroller-General of the Coastguard of the United Kingdom. On 19th December of this year he married Mary, daughter and heiress of Robert Furly, of St. Alphage, Canterbury, by Jane Seguin, his wife. In 18 19 he was promoted to the rank of Comptroller-General of the Coastguard, upon receiving a commission to organize the Coastguard service on the coast of Ireland. For thirty years he presided over the force which he had introduced and organized. He received the honour of knighthood from the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1844. Lady Dombrain died at the Hill, Monkstown, County Dublin, on 15th September 1864, aged sixty-seven. Sir James died in September 1871. His son, the Rev. Henry Honywood Dombrain, was incumbent of St. George’s, in Deal, and afterwards vicar of Westwell, Kent; he is the author of a very fair, simple, and thorough reply to Professor Maurice (author of “Theological Essays,” and “Doctrine of Sacrifice”), entitled, “The Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus in type and fulfilment, viewed in connexion with recent statements on the subject,” London, 1858. Sir James’s grandson is the Rev. James Dombrain, rector of St. Benedict’s, Norwich.
X. De Lillers.
“The family of De Lillers,” says Sir Edmund Du Cane, “traced descent from Raoul de Lillers, who lived in 1348. In Heralds’ College is the pedigree down to 1663, extracted by M. Le Blon, Pursuivant of Arms at Valenciennes, and attested before the officers of the Court of Haynault and Mons. It mentions Jean de Lillers, natif de Basse Flandre, 1430, his son, Jean de Lillers, native of Lille, whose epitaph is in the church of St. Stephen’s, Valenciennes; also, about 1500, Francois de Lillers, who married Jenne Le Maire.”
The family first appears among refugees in Canterbury in the government return of 1621. The names are Jean de Lillers l’aisné, Jean de Lillers le jeune, and Arnold de Lillers. The first two refugees, father and son, appear in the Visitation of London in the year 1664. The father is styled Jean de Lillers of Canterbury, County Kent, in which city he probably spent his refugee life and died; his wife’s maiden name was Marie de Sauchuns, of Cambray, in Flanders. The son becomes John de Lillers, of London, merchant. He had a brother of the same occupation, Isaac de Lillers, who married Jeanne Du Ouesne, of Valentia [Valenciennes], and had two sons, Isaac and Jacob, and a daughter, Mary, wife of Nathaniel Denew [De Neu]. Arnold de Lillers (named in the Canterbury list of 1621) was probably another brother. He married Marie le More, in the city of London French Church, in the year 1669.
