Rapin, Seigneur de Thoyras, was one of the founders; the brothers of Rapin’s wife had been his fellow-students at Montauban. The Seigneur died amidst the thickening troubles of the Church two months before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, [8th August 1685. His devoted and intrepid widow {nee Jeanne de Pelisson) urged her two sons rather to fly than to apostatize, and when she had the satisfaction of seeing them on their way to England, she hid herself in a farm-house. She was at last tracked out by her persecutors and imprisoned in the Convent of Lavaur, and when after long years she was set at liberty, and had found her way to Geneva, she rapidly sank under her bodily and mental sufferings, and died 13th February 1706.
The two sons who found a refuge in England were Paul and Salomon. The learned Paul was born at Castres, 25th March 1661; his birth is thus formally recorded:— “En 1661 et le 25 mars, Paul de Rapin, ecuyer, seigneur de Thoyras, naquit à Castres en Albigeois.” He received his education at the colleges of Puylaurens and Saumur. Eager to become a soldier, he yielded to his father’s wish and studied for the bar. But in 1679 the Chamber of the Edict at Castres was suppressed, and the whole family removed to Toulouse. The old seigneur began a private practice, and his son assisted him; but these six years young Rapin chiefly spent in study. His studies were various, law (from a sense of duty), mathematics, music, and military fortification (from inclination), also the Latin, Greek, and French classics.
When Rapin de Thoyras found himself a refugee in England in March 16S6, he was twenty-five years of age. He was not only the first cousin of the Baron de Mauvcrs, but also his brother-in-law, that Baron having married Cecile de Rapin Thoyras (this lady in her widowhood was a refugee in Utrecht, her husband who had outwardly confirmed to Romanism having died in 1704). Our refugee was also, through his mother, nephew to the notorious renegade and perverter, the Abbé de Pelisson. Owing to the latter relationship, he was exposed to controversial attacks from his uncle, which, being seconded by other French Papists in London, drove him to Holland, where he enlisted in a company of the French volunteers of Utrecht, under the command of Captain de Rapin, his cousin-germain. Here the Abbé sent him his new book, entitled “Reflections on Religious Differences;” and Rapin returned for answer a number of criticisms, sufficiently full and sharp to convince the Abbé that he might let the young Huguenot alone.
A letter from Rapin to Monsieur Le Duchat, dated May 1722, gives fuller particulars. From it, it appears that his uncle Pelisson abjured Protestantism after a four years” imprisonment in the Bastile as a friend and follower of Fouquet. At the same time he declared himself to be quite convinced how odious is a professed conversion, where mercenary ends are studied; but concerning himself he always was forward to assert that his conversion to Romanism was genuine. Among the other rewards of his change of religion were two ecclesiastical benefices; one of these was the Priory of Saint-Orens d’Auch, which he would have handed over to young Rapin, if he would have gone over to Romanism. Between the dates of his perversion and the Edict of Revocation, he did not disturb any of his Protestant relatives in their creed and worship. But thereafter he made a tremendous onset upon them. And (as already said) he attacked young Rapin, enforcing his arguments and entreaties by compelling him to receive visits from the Ambassador, the Marquis de Saissac, Monsieur de Bonrepaus, and the Abbé de Denbeck (nephew of the Bishop of Tournay). Pelisson urged his own example, but Rapin replied, “You went over when you were convinced, how does that apply to my case who am unconvinced?” He sent him a book of which he himself was the author, entitled, “Reflexions sur les différends de religion,” in which there was much about the tolerance which characterized the true church and the uselessness of violence. Rapin replied that such mild sentiments though excellent in themselves, came with a very bad grace from Frenchmen in authority who practised so different a system, and reminded him of Sganarelle crying out to his wife, “My dear heart! I’ll thrash you. Gentle light of my eyes! I’ll annihilate you.” After that, the uncle gradually ceased his proselytizing efforts.
Thoyras Rapin (this was his signature) returned to England with the Prince of Orange, and served in Ireland in 1689 as an Ensign in the Earl of Kingston’s regiment. For his gallantry before Carrickfergus he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He served under a new colonel, Lieutenant-General Douglas, at the battle of the Boyne, and then accompanied Douglas’s expedition to Athlone, in the capacity of Quarter-Master General. In the same year (1690) he was severely wounded before Limerick, and was left behind; but was promoted to be captain. He was to have been Douglas’s aide-de-camp in Flanders; but his wound being not
