Chapter XXIV.
OFFSPRING OF THE REFUGEES IN THE ARMY AND NAVY.
Duroure. — The ancient family of Beauvoir in Languedoc had several branches, of one of which the chief, in the first half of the sixteenth century, was Claud de Grimoard de Beauvoir Du Roure, Seigneur de Grisac, de Bane et de Saint-Florent. His eldest son, Jacques, was the first Protestant Du Roure. Jean Du Roure, who in 1620 represented Vivarais in the National Synod of Alais, was the eldest son of Jacques. From Jean sprang Scipion Du Roure, founder of a branch of the family in Provence, who married Mademoiselle De Dangers in 1650. The eldest son of this worthy couple was the refugee Francois Du Roure, who was captain in a regiment of cavalry in the British service, quartered in Ireland in July 1706. He died at Southampton on 26th March 1722, aged sixty-two. His wife was Catherine de Rieutort, who died in 1731; by her he had two sons, Scipio and Alexander, officers in the British army, who made the surname Duroure.
In 1736, under General Wade, Commander-in-chief of the Forces in North Britain, we find Brigadier Charles Dubourgay, and Major Scipio Duroure, the Major of Brigade with ten shillings a-day. He became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 12th Foot, and he obtained the Colonelcy of this regiment, 12th August 1741. Colonel Duroure went with his regiment to Flanders, the hero Wolfe being one of his subalterns, and the corps got great glory at Dettingen. Scipio Duroure’s career of valour and of great promise was cut short by his meeting a soldier’s death at the Battle of Fontenoy, 10th May 1745. He had married in 1713 his cousin, Marguerite, daughter of Charles de Vignolles, a French officer in Ireland, by Marthe de Beauvoir Du Roure. The Colonel was buried on the ramparts of Aeth; he was fifty-six years of age.
Alexander Du Roure was born in 1700; we first meet him as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Foot. In November 1748 he married Louisa Brushell of Hammersmith. He rose in the army to be Colonel of the 38th Foot (27th February 1752), and was transferred to the 4th or King’s Own Regiment of Foot, 12th May 1756. He was promoted to be Major-General, January 24th, 1758, and Lieutenant-General, 16th December 1760. He died in 1765 at Toulouse, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to the two gallant brothers by Colonel Scipio Duroure’s eldest son, Francis Duroure of Kensington, born 13th June 1715, died 16th February 1808.
Montresor. — Mon Trésor was the heraldic motto of the old French family of Le Tresor. The name of Guillaume Le Tresor, Vicomte de Conde-sur-Moyreaux, occurs as early as i486, and it is said that Ciprien Le Tresor, Vicomte de Carentan, who flourished in 1547, was his son. From him a Huguenot refugee in England in 1685 claimed descent, namely, Jaques Le Tresor, who died in 1691. He was the father of Jaques Gabriel, who obtained distinction in our army as Major James Montresor; he was born at Caen in 1667, and therefore was a refugee along with his father. At his death he was Lieutenant-Governor of Fortwilliam, and a Major in the 2ist or Royal North British Fusiliers. The place of his death was Edinburgh, and the date 22nd January 1724, his age being fifty-six. He was buried in the Canongate Churchyard in the ground belonging to an octogenarian lady, the proprietrix of Giblistoun. He had married on 5th February 1699-1700, Nanon de Hauteville, daughter of a military refugee from Normandy, a colonel in the English army; she died as his widow in 1738, and was buried at Paddington. Major Montresor had acquired the estate of Thurland Hall, Nottingham, in which he was succeeded by his son, James Gabriel, born 19th November 1702, who seems to have served in the army, because he was married at Gibraltar on 11th June 1735, and his eldest son, John, was born there on 6th April 1736. John was his Majesty’s Chief Engineer of America; the second son, James, was a Lieutenant, R.N., lost in the Aurora frigate; the third son, Henry Amand, was in the army, and died in 1773, aged twenty-seven, of wounds received at the siege of Trichinopoly; the fourth son was Major John Fleming Montresor, Governor of Port-Royal, Jamaica; the fifth son was Major Robert Montresor of the 100th Regiment of Foot.
John Montresor, noted above, married, on 1st March 1764, Frances, only child of Thomas Tucker, of Bermuda. He had three military sons, namely, General Sir Henry Tucker, Montresor, K.C.B., G.C.H., Colonel of the 11th Foot, born 18th April 1767, died 10th March 1837; Lieut.-Colonel John Montresor, born at New York,
