utterly despairing of seeing her again, the poor man was found. It may well be supposed that Louise rejoiced, though tears flowed fast at the tokens of agonizing and protracted suffering visible on the long-lost companion of her youth. At Canterbury she affectionately and thankfully nursed him, and maintained him for the remainder of his life. (Crosse’s Historical Tales.)
9. The wife of Réné Buhner, a Huguenot refugee, residing at the Priory House in Lambeg, has a name in Irish Protestant history. In 1690, as William III. was passing their house on his way to the army, his carriage broke down, and the Huguenot husband helped to repair it. The only reward he requested was that the great and generous chief of European Protestants would deign to kiss him, to which the king assented, adding, “And thy wife too,” and suited the action to the word. They left descendants in Lisburn, whose representatives spell their name “Boomer,” and keep up the Christian name “Rainey,” or “Renny.” The following is from Dr. Purdon’s Huguenot Lecture:—
At Lambeg, René Bulmer, his wife, and other refugees, met William III. on his route to the Boyne. René requested permission to detail his grievances to the king, which request his Majesty kindly granted. He then requested permission to salute the king’s cheek, which was also granted, and then King William jumped off his horse, saying, “and thy wife also,” and she being a very pretty woman, the king kissed her, as the old chronicle says, “right heartilie.”
10. In the Irish Pension List of 1722 are the names of three ladies, each in receipt of two shillings per day, Elizabeth de St. Lis de Heucourt, Urania de St. Lis de Heucourt, and Magdalena de St. Lis de Heucourt; they were probably daughters of a Protestant nobleman of Normandy, the Marquis de Heucourt, mentioned as a Royal Commissioner by Du Bosc.
“I believe,” said the Rev. Philip Skelton, “you will be as much pleased as I was with the behaviour of a French Gentlewoman, brought from Bordeaux to Portsmouth by a sea captain of my acquaintance. This excellent woman, having found means to turn her fortune (which was considerable) into jewels, was in the night conveyed on board the ship of my friend, with all she was worth in a small casket. Never was the mind of a human creature so racked with fears and anxieties till the ship was under sail. But she no sooner saw herself disengaged from the country which she loved best, and where she had left all her relations, than her spirits began to rise and discover that kind of joy which others, after a long absence, testify on their approach to the place of their nativity. This pleasing sensation gave signs of gradual increase, as she drew nearer and nearer to the place she had chosen for her banishment. The moment she landed she threw herself on her face among the mud, and (without the least regard either to the foulness of the spot, or the remarks of those who saw her), kissing the ground, and grappling it with her fingers, she blessed the land of liberty and cried, ‘Have I at last attained my wishes? Yes, gracious God! (raising herself to her knees, and spreading her hands to heaven) I thank Thee for this deliverance from a tyranny exercised over my conscience, and for placing me where thou alone art to reign over it by thy word, till I shall lay down my head on this beloved earth.’”[1]
11. Helena Lefevre was, in 1789, the heiress of a Huguenot refugee family. Her ancestors appear to have been a different family from Magdalen Lefebvre. From the history of the latter, we learn that her father, Isaac Lefebvre, died of fatigue, cold, and grief on his return home, after having seen her embarked for Jersey; he was, however, represented in modern times by the Duke of Dantzic, one of Napoleon’s marshals. In Waddington’s Protestantisme en Normandie, p. 14, an Isaac Lefebvre is mentioned, who was imprisoned in a convent of the Cordeliers; this may be the Isaac who died in one of the French galleys in 1702, after eighteen years’ captivity. Helena’s father was John Lefevre, Esq. of Heckfield Place, in Hampshire, son of Isaac. Isaac’s elder brother, Lieut.-Colonel John Lefevre, served in our army under Marlborough. John and Isaac were sons of Pierre, and grandsons of Isaac of Rouen, who suffered deeply in the French persecutions, Pierre Lefevre having been kept in prison for thirty years, and thereafter put to death. Helena was married to Charles Shaw, Esq., M.P. for Reading, barrister-at-law, and he in honour of this good alliance assumed the additional surname of Lefevre or
- ↑ Mr. Skelton printed a sermon, from which I quote more than once, to incite our hospitality towards French Protestant refugees who arrived in 1751, exiles in the reign of Louis XV. The Rev. Philip Skelton (born 1707, died 1787) was an Irish clergyman and able Divine; he was an admired pulpit orator, and his sermons and other pieces were printed, and till several volumes; the sermon on the refugees was not pleached, but was printed from Mr Skelton’s manuscript.
