The following is Lord Nelson’s evidence on 7th February 1803, at the trial at the Session-House, Newington, Surrey, before Lord Chief Justice the Right Hon. Lord Ellenborough and a bench of judges:—
The Right Honourable Lord Nelson was sworn and examined by Mr. Gurney.
“Q, How long has your Lordship known Colonel Despard?"
“A. It is twenty-three years since I saw him. I became acquainted with him in the year 1779 at Jamaica. He was at that time Lieutenant in what were called the Liverpool Blues. From his abilities as an engineer I know he was expected to be appointed. . . .”
[Lord Ellenborough here said, “I am sorry to interrupt your Lordship; but we cannot hear, what I daresay your Lordship would give with great effect, the history of this gentleman’s military life; but you will state what has been his general character.”]
“A. We went on the Spanish Main together; we slept many nights together in our clothes upon the ground; we have measured the height of the enemies’ wall together. In all that period of time no man could have shown more zealous attachment to his Sovereign and his country than Colonel Despard did. I formed the highest opinion of him at that time as a man and an officer, seeing him so willing in the service of his Sovereign. Having lost sight of him for the last twenty years, if I had been asked my opinion of him, I should certainly have said — If he is alive he is certainly one of the brightest ornaments of the British Army.”
Among the Irish proprietors in last century I find the name of William Despard, Esq., of Coulrane and Curtown (Queen’s County) at Killaghy Castle (County Tipperary); he had a large family, of whom the fifth son, John, was Adjutant-General in the war with America, and rose to high rank. This Lieut-General John Despard married Harriet-Anne, daughter of Thomas Hesketh, Esq., and sister of Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, third Baronet of Rufford Hall, and had an only child, Harriet Dorothea, who was married in 1816, to Vice-Admiral Henry Francis Greville, C.B. (a kinsman of the Earl of Warwick); she died in 1856, leaving five daughters and a son, Major Henry Lambert Fulke Greville. The Despard family is creditably represented among the clergy.
IX. Six.
This refugee family is best remembered in Canterbury. The surname first occurs in the account-book of the refugee French Church of Sandwich, described by Mr. J. S. Burn. In that book it is recorded that in February 1569, Jan de la Laye and Salomon Six were commissioned to buy 12 bushels of grain for distribution among the poor. Like the Des Bouveries the Six family seems to have removed to Canterbury from Sandwich. One of them was an ancien, and died in Canterbury in 1603.
The family survived in Canterbury until the end of last century. There is a singular resemblance of surnames in the French Churches of Norwich and Canterbury. This may have arisen (as Mr. Burn suggests) from the migration of refugees from Sandwich to Norwich. In both register-books the name of Six occurs frequently at early dates, but without suggesting a starting-point for a long pedigree until the year 1624. Without multiplying extracts I note the earliest entry of a baptism, which is a child of Jean Six, 22d June 1597, born at Norwich. Barthelemi Six became the head of the Canterbury stock; we have an indication that he had died before 15th August 1624, the day of the marriage of his son Jacques to Marie Le Poutre (also a Norwich surname), a daughter in a refugee family of Canterbury. In the Canterbury register (more communicative than that of Norwich) we are told that the family of Six came from “Andre près de Guine.” Jacques Six became an ancien of the French Church, and died in office on 28th March 1678, aged sixty-eight. He left three sons, Barthelemi, baptized 20th January 1628 (n.s.), Jean, baptized 13th December 1629, and Abraham, baptized 11th September 1636. It is from Barthelemi that the longest-surviving descendants sprang; therefore in the following memoir we shall begin with the youngest and end with the eldest.
(1) Abraham Six married Elizabeth Le Keux; he became a diacre of the church and died in office on 27th September 1670, in his thirty-fourth year, leaving an infant family. The elder son was Jacques, born 1665, who in 1686 married Elizabeth Despaigne, and died on 7th April 1701, leaving a son, Guillaume, and two daughters, from which three children there were no recorded descendants. The younger son of Abraham Six was also named Abraham, born 1667, who married Susanne Despaigne. He was a silkweaver, as probably his ancestors were. But the fact is noted in reference to him because he removed to London and carried on that industry at Booth Street, in the parish of Stepney and county of Middlesex; he had four children baptized in Canterbury — Elizabeth, born 1696; Susanne, born 1697; Abraham, born 1699; and
