The refugee colonel took up his abode at the Hague with his young and increasing family. The Lefroy family have preserved an extract of the baptism in that town of his daughter Julia, presented by Messire Nicolas Monceau de l’Estang and Demoiselle Julie Pelissary on the 25th March 1688. When the Huguenot infantry, officers and privates, presented themselves at the Hague in order to join in the descent upon England, Colonel La Melonière enrolled them. The officer who enrolled the Huguenot cavalry is called Colonel d’Estang, probably his kinsman, Monceau de l’Estang.
In 1689 Lamellonière, or Lamellonier (such are the English forms of his name), was Colonel of one of the foot regiments raised by Schomberg and Ruvigny. The former he accompanied to Ireland, and during the Irish campaigns he held the local rank of Brigadier; he was inserted as such in a list given to King William, 18th June 1690; Story calls him La Millionière. On the day of the victory at the Boyne, Lamellonier was sent by King William with 1000 horse and some foot to summon the town of Drogheda. The Governor, having a good store of ammunition and provisions, and a garrison of 1300, received the summons with contempt. The king, however, sent him word that if he should be forced to bring cannon before the town, no quarter would be given. The summons was then obeyed, and the garrison marched out. On the 20th September, Lamellonier accompanied the Duke of Wirtemberg, with 4000 men, to reinforce the Earl of Marlborough for the siege of Cork. He had charge of some Dutch and French infantry, and arrived before Cork, September 26; the town capitulated on the 28th. “Wirtemberg and Marlborough being both Lieutenant-Generals, a warm dispute arose between them about the chief command, each claiming it in right of his rank. Marlborough was the senior officer, and led the troops of his own nation, whereas Wirtemberg was only at the head of foreign auxiliaries. Lamellonier interposed, and persuaded Marlborough to share the command with Wirtemberg, lest the king’s service should be retarded by their disagreement. Accordingly the Earl commanded on the first day, and gave the word 'Wirtemberg;' and the Duke commanded the next day, and gave the word ‘Marlborough.’”
It was resolved to open the campaign of 1691 with the siege of Athlone, and the troops rendezvoused at Mullingar on May 31st. The sudden attack and storming of Athlone on the 1st of July is notorious; Lamellonier took part in the perilous fording of the Shannon, under Major-General Mackay, and was honourably mentioned. He received the substantive rank of Brigadier in July 1692. He afterwards served in Flanders, and rose to be a Major-General. In July 1697 he was tried by court-martial in Flanders, being accused by several officers of illegal practices in his regiment; he was honourably acquitted.
On the disbandment of his regiment, Major-General Lamellonier received an annual pension on the Irish establishment of £303, 15s., which was paid up to the year 1715. This was probably the date of his death. Captain Florence Lamellonier, who had the annual half pay of £91, 5s. in 1719, and of £155, 2s. 6d. in 1723, was probably his brother. We may also conjecture that Anne Lamellonier, who lived in London on an Irish pension of £91, 5s., was his sister.
Two of his daughters were married. On 15th October 1707 Marc Anthoine Ravaud (son of Marc Anthoine Ravaud and Susanne Seignoret) was married to “Demoiselle Susanne De Monceaux de la Melonnierre” in Hungerford French Church, London. The other marriage was solemnized in London, at the French Church in the Savoy, on 17th November 1712; the names are registered thus: “Mr. Pierre Langlois and Mademoiselle Judich De Monceau La Melonniere;” but the baptismal certificate produced by the Lefroy family from her marriage papers, as well as all successive documents, prove that her name was Julie. Her husband was a merchant at Leghorn, and there she died on 26th March 1727, aged thirty-six. Her sister, Mrs. Ravaud, died in 1731 as a widow, her husband having died at Hammersmith in 1728.
The Major-General’s son, Louis Isaac, is said to have returned to France and to have “inherited from an uncle the family estates.”[1] But a younger son, Anthony, was born in England, and served in our army. He was in the Grenadier Guards, with the rank of Major in the army, in 1736. In July 1737 he was made Lieutenant-Colonel of Churchill’s Dragoons. He also held at Court the office of “Gentleman Usher Quarter Waiter” to the Queen [Wilhelmina Dorothea Carolina, consort of George II.]. Her Majesty died on 20th November 1737, and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Lamellonier was made a Groom of the Bedchamber to H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland. He was wounded at the Battle of Fontcnoy in 1745. He died in
- ↑ “Notes and Documents relating to the Family of Loffroy” [by General Sir J. H. Lefroy], page 50.
