Oxon., some time M.P. for Canterbury, died on 22nd October 1885, aged fifty. He had married, in 1869, Lady Margaret Lindsay, daughter of the twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford and Balcarras, and had two sons, minors. He took much interest in his ancestry, and compiled a documentary and genealogical family history, printed in 1878, “An Account of the De Majendie family, both French and English, from 1365 to the present century.”
Martin-Atkins. — A French Protestant, named Martin, came to Kngland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. One of his descendants married Miss Atkins; she had a brother Abraham Atkins, Esq., who, in 1746, purchased the manor of Kingston Lisle, near Wantage, Berkshire. He left this estate to his nephew, Mr. Martin, on condition of his assuming the additional surname of Atkins. There are no dates on record regarding this Mr. Martin-Atkins, but his widow, née Ellen Frances Halhed, died in 1831, aged seventy-nine. Her son, Atkins Edwin Martin-Atkins, Esq., was the father of Edwin Martin-Atkins, Esq., of Kingston Lisle, born 1808, and of William Hastings Martin-Atkins, Esq. of Farley Castle (also in Berkshire), born 1811. The squires of Kingston Lisle have since borne the name of Edwin; the present proprietor is a minor, born 1870, whose father was born in 1838, and died in 1875.
Metge. — Pierre Metgé, a Huguenot refugee of the Revocation period, settled at Athlumney in the county of Meath. His son, Peter, was M.P., in 1776, for Ardce, and in 1783 for Boyle in the Irish House of Commons. A third Peter, his son, was a barrister-at-law, and was elevated to the bench as an additional Baron of Exchequer in Dublin in 1784; he died without surviving issue in 1801, and the next head of the family was his brother John, M.P. for Tallagh in 1798, and Auditor-General of the Irish Treasury. His eldest son succeeded him as chief of the Metge family, namely, Peter Ponsonby Metge, Esq., of Athlumney; he died 10th November 1873, the representatives of his deceased brother, John Charles Metge of Sion, succeeding him in the representation of the family, namely —
(1). Francis Burton Metge, of Ladywell, County Westmeath.
(2). Peter Ponsonby Metge, of Rathlca, County Tipperary.
(3). Robert Henry Metge, of Athlumney, LL.B., barrister-at-law.
Petit. — From the ancient Norman family of Petit des Etans descended Louis Petit, lieutenant in La Caillemotte’s (afterwards Belcastel’s) Foot, who rose to be a Brigadier in our army, and died in 1720. His son was John Petit, Esq., who, with his family, and with a brother, Captain Peter Petit, an officer in the army, inhabited the mansion of Little Aston, in the parish of Shenstone, Staffordshire, from 1743 to 1762. This family’s munificence is glowingly described by Rev. Henry Sanders in his History of Shenstone. John Petit married Mary, daughter of Mr. John Hayes of Wolverhampton, and had a daughter, Mary-Anne, and a son. The son was John Lewis Petit, B.A. of Cambridge, and M.D., Physician of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, who died 27th May 1780, leaving by his wife (Katherine Letitia, daughter of Rev. James Serces of Hounslow) three sons: (1st) Rev. John Hayes Petit, M.A. of Cambridge, Perpetual Curate of Shareshill, Staffordshire, who died at Coton Hall, parish of Aveley, Shropshire, 26th July 1822; (2nd) Lieut.-Colonel Peter Hayes Petit of the 35th Foot, who died in 1809 (aged thirty-six) of a wound he received before Flushing, and was interred in the burial ground at Deal, with military honours, “a brave and much-lamented officer;” (3rd) Louis Hayes Petit, barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, M.P. for Ripon (born 1774, died 1849). Neither the second nor the third left descendants; but the first was the father of the (1) Rev. John Louis Petit, M.A., F.S.A., member of the British Archaeological Institute, &c, author and illustrator of “Remarks on Church Architecture,” 2 vols., 1841; “Architectural Studies in France,” 1854; “Notes on Circular Churches,” 1861; “Sketches made during a Tour in the East and on the Nile,” 1864-65, &c, &c, &c, born 1801,died 1869. (2) Lieut.-Colonel Peter John Petit, C.B., of the 59th Foot, died 1852. (3) Louis Peter Petit, Esq., barrister-at-law, died 1848. The Rev. J.L. Petit was the last male representative of his family. — (Gentleman’s Magazine [1822], and The Register for 1869, vol. i., pp. 220 and 525.)
Portal.[1] — Having already noted the antecedents of this noble Albigensian and Huguenot family, I begin with the refugee’s son, Joseph Portal, Esq., of Freefolk
- ↑ Where there is a peerage or a baronetcy in a family, a chieftain cannot be ignored, even though he have left no male issue. This makes Burke’s “Peerage and Baronetage” a more valuable book of reference than Burke’s “Landed Gentry,” because to the latter, descendants of younger brothers may send memoirs which ignore or curtail an uncle’s honours. In my second edition I had to succumb to a memoir of this kind, which had been rendered unintelligible. But for this edition I have studied the Wills deposited in Somerset House.
