had a daughter, Louisa, born in Edinburgh, who was married to Matthew Baillie, stabler in Edinburgh, and was confirmed as the only executrix of the deceased Lewis Turpine, her father, on 4th August 1756. (John Turpin, a butcher, was buried in the west churchyard of St. Peter’s, Cornhill, London, on 19th April 1694.)
On reading over the surnames of refugees, one is surprised to meet such familiar names as Pascal, Quesnel, Racine, and Rousseau. Perhaps Fontenelle is represented, for in the register of Inveresk parish there is entered, on 28th June 1741, the baptism of Samuel (born 20th), son of John Fountainell, teacher of French to Mr. Hotham’s children, and Margaret Douglass, his spouse.
Turquand.
Turquand is a refugee surname, as to which I am furnished with only one incident. Having concerted their escape with the master of a French smuggling vessel, a considerable band of Huguenots had been waiting for several days, alternately assembling on the shore and returning to hiding-places. At length the vessel stood into the bay. The embarkation of men, women, and children was proceeding, when a king’s ship was signalled as having appeared in the horizon. Great confusion arose; the sailors preparing to weigh anchor, and the fugitives hurrying to embark. When the smuggler sailed, the king’s ship being in pursuit, the Huguenots had been separated, some were on board, some were left behind, some (it was feared) had fallen into the water and been drowned. Monsieur Turquand and his children were left; Madame Turquand was taken safely to England, but her family had no proof of this, and no one on French ground had observed her getting on board. Subsequently Monsieur Turquand escaped, and found himself in London; but there was no clue to the fate of the missing lady, or to her abode, on the supposition that she had been conveyed to England. Nearly a year had passed; Mr. Turquand was introduced to the acquaintance of an English neighbour. The gentleman remarked upon his name, recollected that he had met a lady of the same name at Southampton, and asked, for conversation’s sake, Is she a relation of yours? Monsieur Turquand lost no time in setting out for Southampton, and not without difficulty he had the happiness of discovering Madame Turquand, and of giving thanks for their providential restoration to each other. It should be mentioned that Southampton was not the port agreed upon between the smugglers and the refugees; their vessel, being hotly pursued by the ship-of-war, was unable to land at the first port of the English coast as had been promised, and was obliged to run down the Channel. His family prospered in London; and several members of it have signalized their Huguenot descent by joining the Directorate of the French Protestant Hospital — Leonard Turquand in 1770, Jacques Louis in 1777, the late William in 1825, and another William in 1849. The Annual Register announced the death in King William Street, City, on 28th November 1849, of William Turquand, Esq., of Norwood, Surrey, for upwards of seventeen years one of the Official Assignees of the Court of Bankruptcy.
Wandsworth.
A church in Wandsworth received its celebrity from having been long used as a French refugee church. It is now demolished; but there is an engraving of it in The Graphic, vol. xxxii., p. 462. On the front there was inscribed —
Erected, 1573. Enlarged, 1685. Repaired, 1809-1831.
No list of its ministers has been possible. On the marriage of Rev. Jean de la Sale, in 1688, his charge was registered as “Wandsor,” and is supposed to have been Wandsworth. Mr. Burn gives the names of Rev. Pierre Bossatrau in 1699, and De la Chapelle and La Roqueboyer in 1707. Mr. Paul de la Roque, “minister of ye French Chapel, was buried ye 16th April 1732,” and Mr. Thomas Poland, French minister, “was buried ye 1st August 1733.” The wife of Jean de Comarque, escuyer, was (as already noted) buried here in 1731, aged sixty-three, and the Rev. Mr. Comarque was probably a native of Wandsworth, for he married Henrietta Reneu, of Putney, in 1732. Some of the names in Wandsworth, at least for a long time, betokened French origin. We have formerly alluded to the felt-hat makers. With that industry the name of Chataigne was connected, afterwards Chatting; also the name of Bernard; Elizabeth, wife of Mr James Bernard, of Whitechapel, hatter, died 21st January 1769, aged forty-four, and was buried in the Huguenot cemetery. An important name in the parish is Dormay, probably French; it is associated with the building of the tower of All Saints’ Church and many other serviceable acts. “Mrs. Jane Dormay, wife of Peter Dormay, died 14th March 1808, aged thirty-six.”
