annum granted to “Frederick William, Earl of Lifford — lives in England — a French refugee — had a regiment broke in Ireland after the Peace of Ryswick.” The committee considered him to be entitled only to a colonel’s half-pay, £223, 11s. 3d. The £500 pension was, however, paid until October 1725, but his name was omitted from the Irish Estimates of Lady Day 1727.
He spent his remaining years in private life, living in London, in the parish of St. George’s, Hanover Square. He comes forward to perform the last offices of affection in 1732 and in 1743 for his sisters, who seem to have shared his home. His own death took place on the 24th February 1749, at the age of eighty-two. A marble slab to his memory is in St. James’s Church, Jermyn Street, Westminster, with the following epitaph:—
FREDERICK WILLIAM DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT,
A younger son of Frederick Charles, Comte De Roye and De Roucy; he came into Great Britain with his father in the year 1687, when the Protestants of France were obliged to fly from the cruel persecution that raged against them. At his arrival he was made Guidon of the Horse Guards of King James II. After the Revolution he followed King William into Ireland, attended him in all his enterprises, and was near his person at the famous battle of the Boyne. He was made colonel of one of the French regiments which the King raised at the beginning of the war. He served at the head of it till the peace was concluded at Ryswick. He was made Earl of Lifford in Ireland. His merit was acknowledged and rewarded by King William and King William’s successors, particularly by his present Majesty. In a military and public life he acquired honour — in a civil and private life he gained the affections of all who knew him. He died on the 24th February 1749, aged four score and two, leaving by his will £4000 in charitable legacies.
As he was esteemed and loved whilst he lived, so he has been regretted since he died.
To do justice to his memory, this Monument has been erected by his grateful friend,
William Elliot.
The codicil of his will was signed at Bath on the 24th May 1748; the body of the will was signed and executed on the 3d November 1746. He bequeathed to St. George’s Hospital, near Hyde Park Corner, £500; to the Foundling Hospital, £500; to the minister and churchwardens of St. George’s, Hanover Square, for the poor, £1000; to the Bishop of London, to be distributed in donations to public charities, £1000; to Lady Colladon, for poor French Protestant refugees, £500; to the new infirmary at Bath, £500; the residue to William Elliott, Esq., equerry to his Majesty, whom he appointed his executor.
III. Francois De la Rochefoucauld, Marquis De Montandre.
Genealogical authorities write Montendre, but the geographical orthography is Montandre, which was a fortress in Saintonge, and this is the spelling which our Marquis followed. He stood in the relationship of great-great-grandson to Louis, Seigneur De Montandre, who was a younger son of Francois, the first Comte De la Rochefoucauld (this Comte died in 1516). The second Seigneur of Montandre (also styled of Montguyon) was named Francois, and died in 1600. The third was Isaac. The fourth was Charles, styled Marquis De Montandre; he was the father of Charles Louis, second Marquis, and the grandfather of the refugee. The refugee’s mother was Madeline Anne Pithou, daughter of Pierre, Seigneur De Luyeres. Francois was the second son, but his elder brother, Isaac Charles, died without issue, 15th August 1702, when the refugee assumed the title of Marquis. His next younger brother, Louis, a captain in the French navy, was by French law the head of the family, and the true Marquis, but he died childless. The same tale has to be told of the youngest brother, Paul Auguste Gaston De la Rochefoucauld, who died 19th December 1714, and was styled (in right of his wife) Le Comte De Jarnac. These Montandres were afterwards represented by the posterity of their grand uncle, Francois, Seigneur De Surgcres, Marquises De Surgères.
The Montandre branch had been Protestant, but the apostacy of Isaac, the third baron, made it a Romanist family. The refugee was born in September 1672. He was educated in Popery, and was a Regular Canon in the Abbey of St. Victor at Paris.[1] But he became a convert to the religion of the open Bible, and fled to
- ↑ Mr. Smiles believes that he was a Protestant, and only a prisoner in the Abbey, with a view to his conversion to Romanism. Neither in the Romanist nor in the Protestant authoritative books of reference have I observed any such statement, which, however, I would very much like to believe.
