m’en mêle que par les prières que Dieu me commande de faire pour la paix de l’Etat et de l’Eglise, je vous avoue que je vois bien que le dessein des ennemis de notre religion est de l’extirper, ainsi que vous m’avaz marqué par votre lettre [de 17 Mars 1680]; mais je n’ai pas assez de veux pour penetrer dans les evenements. Je sais que la reformation de la religion est un oeuvre de Dieu; peut-être il ne voudra pas la detruire. Sa colère n’est pas à toujours et ses misericordes sont eternelles. Quoiqu’il soit, nous ne pouvons mieux faire que de le prier de nous preserver, et de lui demander qu’il ait pitié de son Heritage, qu’il ne nous abandonne point, et qu’il nous donne la grace de demeurer fermes dans sa maison et dans sa service.”
Thomas Papillon,[1] Esq., bought the manor of Acrise in Kent, in 1666, and lived in the mansion, as did the next four generations of his family. He was M.P. for Dover 1679 to 1681, and 1688 to 1695, and for London from 1695 to 1701. He married Jane, daughter of Thomas Brodnax, of Godmersham. He was celebrated as a champion of civil and religious liberty in the reign of Charles II.; he had been a Sheriff of London 1681-2. It was the two Sheriffs’ duty to name the Grand Jury, and during his year of office, the corrupt government failed to induce them to tamper with the lists of names. The Lord Mayor was therefore employed in a plot to change the mode of election of Sheriffs, which had hitherto been by an open poll. The plot proceeded on the custom of nominating a candidate by drinking his health, and the Lord Mayor claimed that by thus drinking to a man, he not only proposed him, but absolutely elected him. Mr. Papillon, disregarding the plot, opened a poll; at its close Papillon and Dubois were found to be duly elected Sheriffs for 1682-3. His Lordship having decided in favour of two other nominees, Mr. Papillon formally demanded that he should attend and swear him and Dubois into office, and legally arrested his Lordship for non-compliance, an arrest having been granted by the Judges. For this alleged offence Mr. Papillon was brought to a jury trial and fined £10,000. He retired to Holland, and did not return to England till 1688-9. Under the new dynasty he became First Commissioner of the Victualling Office. He had been apprenticed to the Mercers’ Company of London in 1638, became a freeman in 1646, and was elected Master in 1682; he bequeathed £10,000 to that company “to relieve any of his family that might at any future time come to want.” He had married Miss Jane Brodnax (or Broadnax), in 1651, in Canterbury Cathedral. One of his daughters was Elizabeth, Lady Ward, wife of Sir Edward Ward, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; another daughter was Mrs. Rawstorn, and a third, Anna Maria,[2] was the wife of William Turner, Esq., of Gray’s Inn, afterwards of The Friers, Canterbury. His successor was Philip Papillon, Esq., of Acrise (born 1660, died, 1736); he was for some years Treasurer of the Victualling Office. He sat as one of the members of Parliament for Dover from 1700 to 1715. [He at first contested this seat unsuccessfully at a bye-election. Secretary Vernon wrote, on December 16, 1697, “Aylmer is chosen Parliament-man for Dover; he had 111 votes, and Papillon but 90.”] He married first, in 1689, Anne, daughter of William Jolliffe, Esq., of Carswell, Staffordshire, whose only surviving son was David, his heir. He married secondly, in 1695, Susanna, daughter of George Henshaw, Esq., by whom he had five children. [One of these was Philip[3] Papillon, Esq., of West Mailing (born 1698, died 1746), who married, first, Marianne de Salvert, and secondly, Gabrielle de Nouleville.] David Papillon, Esq., of Acrise and of Lee (born 1691, died 1762), was a Commissioner of Excise from 1742 to 1754; M.P. for Romney from 1722 to 1728, and for Dover in 1734. He died at Canterbury. His wife was Mary, daughter of Timothy Keyser, Esq. (She died on 6th February 1763, having survived her husband exactly a year.) Their son was David Papillon, Esq., of Acrise (born 1729, died 1809), Commissioner of Excise from 1754 to 1780, and Chairman of the Board of Excise from 1780 to 1790; he married, in 1753, Bridget, daughter and heir of William Turner, Esq., of the White Friers (grand-daughter of William Turner, and Anna Maria Papillon), by whom he had Thomas, his heir, and other children; he died at Lee. [A younger son was John Rawstorn Papillon, Esq., of Lexden Manor, in Essex, born 1761, died 1837; another son was Rev. William Papillon, M.A. of University College, Oxford, who published at Norwich, in 1801, a volume, dated from Wymondham, entitled, “The Sacred Meditations of John Gerhard, translated into blank verse.”] Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Papillon, of Acrise, com-
- ↑ The French pronunciation of this gentleman’s surname had not disappeared in his generation. Narcissus Luttrell invariably calls him Mr. Papillion.
- ↑ Anne Marie Papillon was married, in 1669, in the French Church of Threadneedle Street, London, to William Turner, Esq., “fils de Thomas Turner, ecuyer.” The baptisms of her children are in the registers of the French Church of Canterbury — viz., Thomas (1690), William (1691), Henry (1693), Jeanne (1694), Anna Maria (1696), Philippe (1697), and Elizabeth (1699). See my Historical Introduction, Sect. VII.
- ↑ This “Philipe” was baptized at Threadneedle Street, on 4th January 1699 (new style). His father is described as Philipe Papillon, gentleman, of Fenchurch Street.
