de-camp to the Duke de Rohan’s army in 1622, who was the brother of Saurin, the Huguenot envoy to our Charles I. in 1628, and father of Jean Saurin, advocate in Nismes. The latter (by Hippolyte Tournier, his wife) had three sons, Jacques, the pulpit orator (the Saurin par excellence); Captain Saurin,[1] refugee in England; and Rev. Louis Saurin, minister of the London French Church in the Savoy. Louis removed to Ireland, and being highly recommended by the Bishop of London (Gibson), was, in 1727. made Chantor of Christ’s Church, Dublin, and at the date of his death 1749) was Dean of St. Patrick’s, Ardagh.[2] In 1714, in London, in the Savoy, he married Henriette Cornel da la Bretonniere, a refugee from Normandy; their son was Rev. James Saurin, Vicar of Belfast, and their grandson, James, was Rector of St. Anne’s, Belfast. The Rector’s fourth son, James (born 18th December 1759), was in 1812 Dean of Cork; 1813, Archdeacon of Dublin; 1817, Dean of Derry; and 1819, Bishop of Dromore. Bishop Saurin died 19th April 1842, in his eighty-third year, having a great reputation as an efficient clergyman, a public-spirited Prelate, and a truly Catholic Christian. He had thirteen children, but only four have come under my observation — viz., Sarah (died in 1870), wife of Rev. William Henry Wynne, Rector of Moira; Emily, wife of Rev. Edward Richards, Chancellor of Dromore; James, appointed in 1832 Archdeacon of Dromore; and Mark Anthony Saurin, Esq. (born 1815), High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1867, and Lord of the Manor of Orielton, youngest son of the Bishop, by Elizabeth, daughter of William Lyster, Esq. Mr. Saurin of Orielton died on 25th March 1885, having founded a family in Wales.
Dean Letablere. — The following inscription is on the Dean’s monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin:—
Fidelis usque ad mortem.
Nous avons tout abandonné et nous t’avons suivi.
Prudentia gloriam acquirit.
To the memory of the Very Rev. Daniel Letablere, Dean of the Cathedral of St. Mary, Tuam, Vicar of Laragh-Brian, and Prebendary of Maynooth in this Cathedral Church, who died a.d. 1775,
Son of
René de la Douespe de Lestablere, who, for the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, left his country, Le Bas Poictou, France, and took refuge in Ireland, where, after having held several commissions under Du Cambon and Lifford in the army of King William III., he finally settled.
His daughter Esther Charlotte
married in 1783 Edward Litton, Esq., H.M. 37th Regiment, of Ballyfarmot, whose sons have, in memory of their ancestor, erected this tablet, A.D. 1865.
Mr. Wagner sends me a note of the refugee’s Will, dated at Dublin 28th August 1729, by which it appears that he had five children, and that his wife’s maiden name was Susanne Marie Theronde. He desired to be buried in the churchyard of Lucy Lane French Church.
Mr. Smiles gives several details concerning Dean Letablere’s ancestor. It seems that the manor of Lestablère was “in the parishes of Saint-Germain and Mouchamps, near Fontenai, in Lower Poitou;” that the refugee fled to Holland, and came to England with the Prince of Orange; that he died in Dublin in 1729, aged sixty-six. His relatives, who got possession of his French estates, behaved to him with humanity and affection, remitting to him at various times sums of money, total 5570 livres; and they gave him a present of 4000 livres in 1723, when he was on a visit to them. His heiress was his last surviving child, wife of Edward Litton, Esq., 37th foot (born 1754, died 1808). [One of her sons held a good position as a lawyer and politician, namely, the Right Hon. Edward Litton, M.A., O.C., M P., and a Master in Chancery in Ireland (born 1787, died 1870), father of the Rev. Edward Arthur Litton, M.A. (who won double-first class honours at Oxford in 1835, and was Bampton Lecturer in 1856); also of John Letablere Litton, Barrister-at-Law; also of Mary Letablere Litton, wife of William Carus Wilson, Esq. The Rev. E. A. Litton, who is Rector of Naunton, married Anne Carus Wilson.]
In the Annual Sermon and Report of “The Incorporated Society in Dublin for promoting English Protestant Working-Schools for Ireland,” the names of zealous Irish Protestants may be found. In such a document for 1752 I observe that Dean Letablere subscribed to the Society, and also to the school at Maynooth, besides
- ↑ Etienne Saurin, lieutenant of dragoons, died in Dublin in 1741; his sole executrix was his widow, née Marguerite Brocas, who proved the Will on 9th April; it was written in French and translated by Dean Gabriel Maturin. The testator’s signature was witnessed by Daniel de Bernâtre and Pierre Labillière.
- ↑ The Will of Lewis Saurin, Dean of Ardagh, was proved in Dublin on 11th October 1749; the sole executrix was his widow, née Priscilla Gray. His children were Jacques, Helene, and Marianne.
