the post of Lieutenant-Colonel of the first troop of Horse Guards, at London, 13th November 1761. He left no descendants. A memorial of him was preserved by the Lefroy family, namely, his sword, made of steel, inlaid with gold, with a very valuable hilt; he had received it, on account of his influence with the Royal Duke, as a present from Colonel Folliott, but with the Duke’s leave. The signature of his will is spelt thus — Anth. La Meloniere. His charitable bequests were “£100 to be paid, applied and distributed to and among such poor French Protestants, objects of charity, as my executor and executrix shall in their discretion think fit;” and “to the ministers and churchwardens for the time being of the parish of St. Marylebone, in the county of Middlesex, the sum of £50 for the use of the poor of the said parish.” The witnesses were Danl. Boote and Fran. Duroure.
Last century the La Melonieres were represented by both the Ravaud and Lefroy families. The Lieutenant-Colonel, in his will dated 27th February 1760 [proved 19th January 1762], named as his executors his nephew, Stephen David Ravaud, and his niece, Margaret Ravaud. The former died in 1776 unmarried; the latter (Margaret Mary), celebrated as the beloved friend of Mrs. Delany, died at Bath in 1800. Two other Ravaud nieces, Mrs. John Cooke and Elizabeth, Mrs. Columbine Le Carre had died before the making of his will. [One of the brothers went to America, and his grand-daughter was married to General Skinner of the United States Army.] The Lieutenant-Colonel had female cousins, on the mother’s side, of the name of Addee, living in 1760 at Imbert, near Warminster, in Wiltshire. In the present century the Lefroys are the sole representatives, at least in England and Ireland, of the family of La Melonière.
The following tablet to Julie La Melonière, Mrs. Langlois, is at Leghorn:—
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Hic jacet pars mortalis
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summâ in amicos benevolentiâ,
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III. Brigadier-General Pierre Belcastel.
The noble family of Belcastel held a good position in Languedoc on the eve of the Great Reformation of the sixteenth century, being represented by Raymond Belcastel and his wife, Jeanne de Montvaillant. Their son was one of the first adherents of the Reformed Church, namely, Jean de Belcastel, Signeur de Montvaillant et de Castanet, and a leader both in war and in counsels. He married, 4th January 1553, Jeanne de Belcastel de Pradelles, and left a daughter, Marguerite, and a son, Pierre de Belcastel de Montvaillant, Signeur de Pradelles.
The Seigneur de Pradelles married Louise de Vabres, and from him our refugee general undoubtedly descended, although the links have fallen out of memory. Pierre Belcastel first appears at the Battle of the Boyne, and after it he succeeded La Caillemotte as Colonel of a French infantry regiment. He opened the siege at Limerick in 1690. “About two in the afternoon of the 20th August, the attack began by 120 grenadiers, commanded by four captains, who advanced from the trenches to the fort, nearly 150 paces, and received the enemy’s fire from the counter-scarp and fort, still reserving their own till they came near enough to make it take place with greater certainty and effect. Colonel Belcastel put himself at the head of these men by the time they had advanced to the outside of the fort, and rearing a ladder against it, he immediately got up and was followed by the grenadiers, who leaped in after him, and killed sixty of the defenders of it, making one of the captains that commanded there, prisoner.”
He took part at the capture of Athlone and at the victory of Aughrim; he was wounded at the latter engagement. He accompanied his regiment to Flanders. About the beginning of 1695 he and a young officer, Captain De Loches, fell into the hands of the French at Brest, and were detained as prisoners. Lord Galway
