for Gowran, High Sheriff of Count)- Dublin in 1717. He was buried at Youghal, where, in the south transept of St. Mary’s Church, a stone of remembrance bears: “Here lie the remains of David Chaigneau, Esq., and his wife Elizabeth.” She was the daughter of Colonel Renouward, and their daughters were Elizabeth (wife of James Digges La Touche, Esq.), Henrietta (Mrs. Hassard), Mary Ann (Mrs. Pratt), and Charlotte (unmarried); the sons (all unmarried) were Rev. Peter Chaigneau, the first Secretary of the Royal Dublin Society (died 1776), James, and Theophilus. The refugee’s second son, Stephen, founded the Chaigneau family, which still subsists; but let us dispose here of the descendants of his brothers. Isaac married Helena King, and had a son David (probably Rev. David Chaigneau of Carlow — see chapter xx.; Article, Daillon). John married in 1707 Margaret, daughter of Colonel Martyn; his surviving sons were Colonel William Chaigneau, Army-Agent in Dublin, and John Chaigneau, Esq, Treasurer of the Ordnance. The latter married in 1745 Susannah Smith, and had a son and daughter, namely, Rev. John Clement Chaigneau of Dublin, and Hannah, wife of William Colville, Esq., ancestress of the family of Chaigneau-Colville. We return to Stephen Chaigneau and his lovely wife, née Raboteau, whose portrait is at Benown; they had two sons, Peter and Daniel. The younger son was married, but left no recorded descendants. Peter married in 1729 Marie Malet, a descendant of an exiled fugitive from the St. Bartholomew massacre; they had many children, but the third son was the only founder of a family. John Chaigneau, Esq., merchant and freeman of Dublin, had that distinction; he married in 1775 Alicia, daughter of Charles Napper, Esq., and died in 1779; his widow re-married in 1790 with Elias Tardy, Esq. The heir of John was Peter Chaigneau, Esq. (born 1776, died 1846) of Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, and Benown, near Athlone; he was of Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the bar in 1798; he rose to eminence as a Chamber Counsel, and spent his old age at Benown. By his wife Anne, daughter of Arthur Dunne, Esq., he had John (who predeceased him in 1825), and Arthur Dunne, his heir, also three daughters, Margarette, Alicia, and Anna, now co-heiresses of the latter, who cherish the memory of their brother with the greatest love and esteem. Arthur Dunne Chaigneau, Esq. of Benown (born 1809, died 1866), educated at Trinity College, and (in 1830) called to the Irish bar, was a magistrate for County Westmeath, and Captain in the Westmeath Militia. He married in 1855 Jane, daughter of Rev. Richard Butler Bryan, but left no children; as a Christian gentleman he is lamented by a large circle of friends, to whom his kindly heart, unblemished honour, and generous hospitality had endeared him.
The other Raboteau heroine of the flight from La Rochelle was married to Pierre Barré, afterwards Alderman Peter Barré of Dublin, whose ancestors were, like the Raboteaux, most devoted anciens in the Protestant Church of Pont-Gibaud. This surname is memorable and historical through the vigorous and varied talents of their son, the Right Honourable Isaac Barré, a member of the British Parliament, commonly called Colonel Barré. In Burton’s Collection of Letters addressed to Hume by eminent persons, Isaac gives all the known information concerning his father, and I must make room for the following extracts:— “Rocheforte, 3rd August 1764. — Since my arrival in this part of France I find that an uncle of mine (younger and only brother to my father) died lately possessed of about £10,000 sterling, which (as there was no will) has been very rapidly divided amongst a number of my very distant relations who supposed me dead.” “Toulouse, September 4. — I stated my case, or rather my father’s, to a lawyer at Bordeaux, who thinks he has no right, and grounds his opinion upon several of the king’s Declarations, and particularly upon one of 27th October 1725. He makes the whole turn upon my grandfather being a Protestant. This I have alleged, though without any positive proof, to be the case. May I beg of you to take some lawyer’s opinion at Paris simply upon this case as I state it:— Barré dies in France about twenty-five years ago, leaving two sons, Peter and John. Peter went over to Ireland about the year 1720 or 22, young and unmarried, but afterwards married and settled there. John, being upon the spot at the time of his father’s death, divided the property very nearly as he thought proper. John dies in September 1760 intestate and childless; Bonnomeau, a maternal uncle of his, takes possession of his estate as nearest heir. This Bonnomeau died in the month following, and his whole fortune was divided between sixteen nephews or nieces, who stood in the same degree of relation to him as the deceased John Barré. At the time of John’s death it had been reported that Peter and his children were dead. Now I wish to know what right Peter has to the estate of his brother John, considering the circumstances of his having left France and his living so long in Ireland professing the Protestant religion; and whether that right is affected by his father
