which he had been a liveryman sixty-four years.” He was twice married. By his first wife he was the father of Paul Vaillant of Hexham, in Northumberland, who married Miss Downes, only child and heiress of an attorney there. By his second wife he had “two sons, one of whom is in holy orders; the other is well known and respected as a gentleman of great literary talents, and eminent as one of the Counsellors-at-law in the Corporation of London.” (These last particulars apply to the early years of the present century; see “Nichols.”)
Vaslet.
Louis Vaslet seems, according to his gravestone at Fulham, to have come over to England at the epoch of the Revocation, being then in his twentieth year, and a well educated young man. He is described as Gallus gente, Anglus lege atque animo — a Frenchman by birth, but a naturalized and loyal Englishman. He devoted himself to the teaching profession, perhaps as a schoolmaster, but more probably as a private tutor. Many young English gentlemen were educated by refugee tutors, and were not only taught the French language grammatically, but also learned some other branches from text-books composed in French. Mr. Vaslet spent forty-five years in this serviceable work. London was probably his head-quarters, and it seems to have been only a year or two before his death that he became resident at Fulham, his wife and son dying soon after the change of residence. He died a year after his wife, on 12th June 1731, aged sixty-five, and was buried at Fulham. He had been twice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Claud Barachin; she died in London, 10th January 1705 (n.s.), and was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. His second wife was Catharine, daughter of Charles Testard; by her he had a son, Testard Louis Vaslet, who died 21st March 1731 (n.s.), aged twenty-five, and was laid in the grave beside his mother, who had died 29th April 1730, aged fifty-six. Mr. Vaslet left a daughter, Catharine, who was twice married, 1st, to Mr. John Noades; 2dly, to Oliver Edwards, Esq., as whose widow she was buried beside her parents. Owing to some mistake, either of the draughtsman or of the mason employed to execute the epitaph, I cannot state either the year of her death or her age[1].
Perhaps our Louis Vaslet was the translator, editor, and part-author of a book of 300 pages on Roman Antiquities. The learned Cellarius had at his death left in manuscript a Latin book on that subject, which was printed at London in 1711. This work Mr. Vaslet. translated into French, with enlargements bringing it up to date. The title was, “Introduction à la connoissance des Antiquitez Romanics, traduite en partie d’un petit ouvrage latin de Cellarius et en partie tirée des meilleurs auteurs anciens et modernes. Par Louis Vaslet. A la Haye, Chez les frères Vaillant, et N. Prevost. 1723.”
It was common for refugee authors to print their books in Holland — a country where their language was so highly appreciated, and in which several generations of learned printers had resided. It therefore is not improbable that the above is the work of our Louis Vaslet.
Note.
An interesting reinforcement of French Protestant Refugees arrived after the Peace of Utrecht, and were called French Protestants released from the galleys of France. One among these became an author, namely, Jean Marteille, a native of Bergerac, born in 1684. The dragoons had been let loose upon the Protestants wuh renewed fury after the Peace of Ryswick in 1698. Jean was then aged fourteen; and troopers having been quartered in his father’s house, he fled towards Holland; but, having entered Marienburg, he found himself surrounded by French soldiers, and was arrested and sent to the galleys. It was not till 1714 that he was released and arrived in London. (A Jean Marteille was married in London on 26th December 1711. See my Historical Introduction.) His coming to England was not with the view of settling there, but only on an errand of mercy. His adopted country was Holland, where he died in 1777, aged ninety-three. He published, in 1757, Memoires d’un Protestant condamné aux galères de France pour cause de religion, écrits par lui-même. There is an English translation of this book largely circulated and extensively read. The first translation appeared in 1758, in two volumes, said
- ↑ The gravestone has it “Obiit 10th Sept. 1766, anno aetatis 90,” (so says Faulkner, History of Fulham, p. 110). If she was ninety in 1766, she was born in 1676. If her father was aged sixty-five in 1731 (the year of his death), he was born in 1666, and was a father at the age of ten.
