“We who are in a country so remote from our own, only for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, — let us study to render our confession and our faith glorious by discreet and modest conduct, by an exemplary life, and by entire devotedness to the service of God. Let us always remember that we are the children and the fathers of martyrs. Let us never forget this glory. Let us strive to transmit it to our posterity.”
XII. The Messrs. Mesnard, Brothers.
The senior Mesnard (alias Mesnart) was, with some of his family, a refugee first in Holland, and then in England. The name is pronounced like the English surname Maynard, and is (according to modern orthography) spelt Ménard. He was one of the pastors of Charenton at the date of the Edict of Revocation, and received a passport for Holland. There he was at once patronised by the Prince of Orange, and accompanied him to England. His Majesty made him a Canon of Windsor on the 11th June 1689; he is styled S.T.P., i.e., Professor of Theology. Anthony Wood informs us:— “1689, June 15. John Mesnard was created Doctor of Divinity, by virtue of the Chancellor’s letters, which say, ‘that he had been sixteen years minister of the Reformed Church of Paris at Charenton, and afterwards chaplain to his Majesty when he was Prince of Orange, for some years; in which quality he came with him into England; that he has his Majesty’s warrant to succeed Dr. Isaac Vossius in his Prebendary of Windsor,’” &c. The first names of naturalised subjects from abroad, in the first year of William and Mary, are John Mesnard, clerk, Louisa, his wife, Mary, Susan, and Peter, their children, 31st January (List XVII.).
Dr. Ménard held all his appointments under King William and under the three succeeding sovereigns. He died on 13th September (another account says 26th August) 1727, in his eighty-fourth year. He was succeeded in his canonry of Windsor by Dr. Waterland.
Philippe Ménard was styled Le Sieur d’Aïr. He was Pasteur of Saintes, and his church, like that of Charenton, was levelled to the ground, he himself being fined 10,000 livres. He took refuge in Denmark; Queen Charlotte Amelia made him her chaplain, and pastor of the French Church in Copenhagen, on the 1st December 1685, where he remained till the year 1700. Although we have not been able to discover the ancestry of the brothers Ménard, we believe that Philippe’s father-in-law has been found, namely, Monsieur Pierre Guenon de Bcaubisson [in our patent-rolls spelt Beaubinson], to whom our King granted the office of “Gentleman of the Bows,” with an annual fee of £58, 5s., on the 20th February, 2 William and Mary [1690, new style].
There was a chapel within the precincts of St. James’s Palace in Westminster, which had been lent both to the Dutch and to the French Protestants for public worship. It was originally a Roman Catholic chapel, having been erected in connection with a convent by Catherine of Braganza. Misson tells a story about it, combining pleasantness and pleasantry. During the uncontrollable tumults on King James’s abdication, the Queen Dowager’s chapel was plundered. A French officer found and appropriated a curious little box of relics. The Queen Dowager implored him to restore the prize. “Your Majesty cannot have it for nothing,” said the officer; “my brother is a martyr chained in one of the galleys of France, and his religion is his only crime. Do you petition the King of France for his release; restore me my brother, and I will restore your box.” She petitioned and secured the brother, and her relics were returned. “If this anecdote be true,” says Misson, “these relics may really be said to have wrought a miracle.” In 1700 the chapel became the French Chapel Royal of St. James’s; Philippe Ménard was brought over to be its minister, and the king granted him a salary of £160. There was no consistory, but Protestant ordinances were administered in it, in the French language, by one or more ministers. In 1727 Mr. Aufrere was associated with Mr. Ménard. The Historical Register sometimes confounds him with his brother, John. It was Philippe Ménard who was so influential among the Directors of the French Hospital, and who preached the opening sermon in 1718. He died in 1737, at a very advanced age, “at his lodgings in St. James’s.”
The Cheque-book of the Chapel-Royal contains the following entry:—
“1737, May 27.— By virtue of a warrant from the Rt. Rev. Edmund, the Lord Bishop of London, I have sworne and admitted the Revd. Mr. James Serces into the place of Minister of the French Chapel in St. James’s Palace, vacant by the death of the Revd. Mr. Philip Menard. Geo. Carleton, Sub-Dean.”
