Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 10 - Section III

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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III. Papillon.^[1]

The surname of Papillon is of great antiquity in France, in England under the Norman dynasty, and again in France at the era of the Protestant Reformation. In the London Lists of Strangers in 1618, under the heading Broad Street, there is this entry:— “David Papillon, born in the city of Paris in France, free denizen in London 30 years.” His great-grandfather was Antoine Papillon (died 1525), an influential Huguenot, a correspondent of Erasmus, and a protege of Marguerite de Valois, sister of Francis I., in whose Court he held an appointment. David’s grandfather was also a staunch Protestant, and one of the victims of the St Bartholomew massacre, 1572. David’s father was Thomas Papillon, gentleman of the bedchamber to Henri IV., and thrice his ambassador to Venice, but voluntarily retired into private life when the King abjured Protestantism; he had married on 12th August 1572 (the time of the festivities that preceded the massacre) Jane Vieue De la Pierre, and died 20th November 1608. David Papillon had a brother Thomas (born in 1578), Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris, and, in 1620, scribe to the Synod of Aries, who had a son, David, described as “a good and learned man, who was banished from Paris, and was imprisoned for three years at Avranches in Normandy, as an obstinate Huguenot,” and then allowed to retire to England, where he died in 1693; he, of course, was the nephew of our David Papillon who founded the English family. David Papillon, of Broad Street (born 1579, died 1659) was also of Lubenham in Leicestershire; at the date of 1618, when we first meet him, he was married to his second wife. His first wife, Mary Castel, to whom he was married in 1611, had died in 1614; her son died in infancy, but a daughter Mary survived, and was afterwards the wife of Peter Fontaine. Mr. Papillon married, secondly, on 4th July 1615, Anne Mary Calandrini; “she was of a family famous through many generations at Lucca in Italy,” being daughter of Jean Calandrini, and granddaughter of Juliano Calandrini (Pope Nicholas V.’s brother), “who adopted the Reformed religion, and had to leave his possessions at Lucca and to take refuge in France.” A memorial of this Mr. Papillon is Papillon Hall, the house which he built at Lubenham, and which is now the property of the Earl of Hopetoun. He was also celebrated as a military engineer, having been employed by Cromwell to fortify Northampton, Gloucester, and other towns. He was the author of the following publications:— (1) A Practical Abstract of the Arts of Fortification and Assailing, containing Foure different Methods of Fortifications, with approved rules to set out in the Field all manner of Superfices, Intrenchments, and Approaches, by the demy Circle, or with Lines and Stakes. Written for the benefit of such as delight in the Practice of these Noble Arts. By David Papillon, Gent. I have diligently perused this Abstract, and do approve it well worthie of the Publick view. Imprimatur, Io. Booker. London: Printed by R. Austin, and are to be sold at the south side of the Exchange and in Pope’s head Alley, 1645. [Dedicated “To His Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax, Generalissimo of the Forces of the honorable houses of Parlement,” signed “your Excellencies most humble and devoted servant, David Papillon, AEtatis suae 65,” and dated “London, January 1st, 1645.”] (2) “The Vanity of the Lives and Passions of Men. Written by D. Papillon, Gent:— Eccles. i. 2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. April 9, 1651, Imprimatur, John Downame. London, Printed by Robert White, 1651.” [Dedicated “To my beloved sister, Mrs. Chamberlan, the widow;” dated “From London, June 1, 1651.” The epistle concludes thus:— “I commend you to the Lord’s protection, desiring to remain, dear sister, your loving brother, David Papillon.”]^[2] Mr. Papillon died in 1659, in his eightieth year, leaving, with other children,^[3] his heir Thomas Papillon, Esq., of Papillon Hall and Acrise (born 1623, died 1702). Mr. Thomas Papillon corresponded with his excellent cousin, David Papillon of Paris (already mentioned), and welcomed him to England after his release from imprisonment. The following is an extract of a letter to Thomas from David, dated Paris, February 8, 1681:—

“Nous vous remercions aussi des teinoignages qu’il vous plait nous donner de votre affection singulière, particulièrement de la forte et sainte exhortation que vous nous faites de demeurer fermes en la foi et en la profession de la vraie religion. C’est une chose que nous ne pouvons esperer de nos propres forces, mais que nous devions demander et devions attendre de Celui en qui et par qui nous pouvons toutes choses. Il a conservé ce precieux don en la personne de notre père Thomas, de notre aieul commun Thomas, et de notre bisaieul sur lequel il a premièrement fait relever la clairté de sa face et de son evangile, et lui même fait l’honneur d’être du nombre de ceux qui lui presentèrent leur vie et leur sang dans cette journée célèbre de l’Année 1572, marchant par cette voie douloureuse sur les pas de son Sauveur et marquant à ses descendants par son exemple que ni mort, ni vie, ni principauté, ni puissance, ni hauteur, ni profondeur, ni chose presente, ni chose à venir, ne les doit separer de l’affection qui Dieu leur a temoigné en son Fils. Vous savez cela aussi bien que moi, mais il me semble que ces exemples domestiques ne doivent point être oubliés; or, comme il est important de les imiter il est très utile de les repasser souvent en la memoire et la pensée.

“Comme je ne prends point de part dans l’administration des choses publiques, et ne m’en mêle que par les prières que Dieu me commande de faire pour la paix de l’Etat et de l’Eglise, je vous avoue que je vois bien que le dessein des ennemis de notre religion est de l’extirper, ainsi que vous m’avaz marqué par votre lettre [de 17 Mars 1680]; mais je n’ai pas assez de veux pour penetrer dans les evenements. Je sais que la reformation de la religion est un oeuvre de Dieu; peut-être il ne voudra pas la detruire. Sa colère n’est pas à toujours et ses misericordes sont eternelles. Quoiqu’il soit, nous ne pouvons mieux faire que de le prier de nous preserver, et de lui demander qu’il ait pitié de son Heritage, qu’il ne nous abandonne point, et qu’il nous donne la grace de demeurer fermes dans sa maison et dans sa service.”

Thomas Papillon,^[4] Esq., bought the manor of Acrise in Kent, in 1666, and lived in the mansion, as did the next four generations of his family. He was M.P. for Dover 1679 to 1681, and 1688 to 1695, and for London from 1695 to 1701. He married Jane, daughter of Thomas Brodnax, of Godmersham. He was celebrated as a champion of civil and religious liberty in the reign of Charles II.; he had been a Sheriff of London 1681-2. It was the two Sheriffs’ duty to name the Grand Jury, and during his year of office, the corrupt government failed to induce them to tamper with the lists of names. The Lord Mayor was therefore employed in a plot to change the mode of election of Sheriffs, which had hitherto been by an open poll. The plot proceeded on the custom of nominating a candidate by drinking his health, and the Lord Mayor claimed that by thus drinking to a man, he not only proposed him, but absolutely elected him. Mr. Papillon, disregarding the plot, opened a poll; at its close Papillon and Dubois were found to be duly elected Sheriffs for 1682-3. His Lordship having decided in favour of two other nominees, Mr. Papillon formally demanded that he should attend and swear him and Dubois into office, and legally arrested his Lordship for non-compliance, an arrest having been granted by the Judges. For this alleged offence Mr. Papillon was brought to a jury trial and fined £10,000. He retired to Holland, and did not return to England till 1688-9. Under the new dynasty he became First Commissioner of the Victualling Office. He had been apprenticed to the Mercers’ Company of London in 1638, became a freeman in 1646, and was elected Master in 1682; he bequeathed £10,000 to that company “to relieve any of his family that might at any future time come to want.” He had married Miss Jane Brodnax (or Broadnax), in 1651, in Canterbury Cathedral. One of his daughters was Elizabeth, Lady Ward, wife of Sir Edward Ward, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; another daughter was Mrs. Rawstorn, and a third, Anna Maria,^[5] was the wife of William Turner, Esq., of Gray’s Inn, afterwards of The Friers, Canterbury. His successor was Philip Papillon, Esq., of Acrise (born 1660, died, 1736); he was for some years Treasurer of the Victualling Office. He sat as one of the members of Parliament for Dover from 1700 to 1715. [He at first contested this seat unsuccessfully at a bye-election. Secretary Vernon wrote, on December 16, 1697, “Aylmer is chosen Parliament-man for Dover; he had 111 votes, and Papillon but 90.”] He married first, in 1689, Anne, daughter of William Jolliffe, Esq., of Carswell, Staffordshire, whose only surviving son was David, his heir. He married secondly, in 1695, Susanna, daughter of George Henshaw, Esq., by whom he had five children. [One of these was Philip^[6] Papillon, Esq., of West Mailing (born 1698, died 1746), who married, first, Marianne de Salvert, and secondly, Gabrielle de Nouleville.] David Papillon, Esq., of Acrise and of Lee (born 1691, died 1762), was a Commissioner of Excise from 1742 to 1754; M.P. for Romney from 1722 to 1728, and for Dover in 1734. He died at Canterbury. His wife was Mary, daughter of Timothy Keyser, Esq. (She died on 6th February 1763, having survived her husband exactly a year.) Their son was David Papillon, Esq., of Acrise (born 1729, died 1809), Commissioner of Excise from 1754 to 1780, and Chairman of the Board of Excise from 1780 to 1790; he married, in 1753, Bridget, daughter and heir of William Turner, Esq., of the White Friers (grand-daughter of William Turner, and Anna Maria Papillon), by whom he had Thomas, his heir, and other children; he died at Lee. [A younger son was John Rawstorn Papillon, Esq., of Lexden Manor, in Essex, born 1761, died 1837; another son was Rev. William Papillon, M.A. of University College, Oxford, who published at Norwich, in 1801, a volume, dated from Wymondham, entitled, “The Sacred Meditations of John Gerhard, translated into blank verse.”] Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Papillon, of Acrise, commandant of the East Kent Millitia (born 1757, died 1838), married, in 1791, Anne, daughter, and eventually co-heiress of Henry Cressett Pelham, Esq. of Crowhurst Park, Sussex, and had three sons and seven daughters, of whom the second son is the Rev. John Papillon, Rector of Lexden, father of the Rev. Thomas Leslie Papillon, Fellow of New College (formerly of Merton College), Oxford. The next head of the family was the eldest son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Papillon, Thomas Papillon, Esq. of Crowhurst Park (born 7th March 1803), J.P. and D.L., who married, in 1825, Frances Margaret, second daughter of the late Sir Henry Oxenden of Broome Park, Kent. His sons are — (1.) Philip Oxenden Papillon, Esq. of Lexden Manor House (successor to his grand-uncle), M.P. for Colchester from 1859 to 1865, who married Emily Caroline, third daughter of the Very Rev. Thomas Gamier, Dean of Lincoln, and now the head of the family. (2.) Rev. Thomas Henry Papillon, Rector of Crowhurst. (3.) Major John Ash ton Papillon of the Royal Engineers, who married Lydia, fifth daughter of Rev. William Girardot, of Hinton Charterhouse, Somersetshire. (4.) Captain David Papillon, 92d Highlanders. The family motto is, Ditat servata fides; on the shield are three representations of a butterfly (papillon), and a chevron. Over the family vault at Acrise is this inscription:—

H. S.
ex gente Papillanorum
ab avis atavisque longe clarus
pietate in Deum, patriam et suos
assidua, forti, pura.
AEmulentur posteri.

*⁎* Mr. John Dubois, citizen and weaver, whose name in 1682 was associated with Mr. Thomas Papillon, was probably of Huguenot origin. He married Sarah Waldo (sister of Sir Edward), and had three children — (1.) John (died before 1707). (2.) Charles, of Mitcham, Surrey, who died 20th October 1740, aged eighty-three, celebrated for his botanic garden and collections of shells and fossils. (3.) Mary, born in the East Indies about 1694, was married to her cousin, Peter Waldo, of Mitcham (eighth child of Samuel), and died 20th January 1773. Jacques du Boys (or, du Bois) was a refugee from the neighbourhood of Lisle in Flanders (son of Guylliam du Boys), and he is on record in the visitation of London, as one “who came over into England in the tyme of persecution,” with his wife, Jane, daughter of Gregory Matelyne. These are declared to be the parents of Peter du Bois, merchant in Cordwayner Ward, London, who was living in 1634, having married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of John Monier; secondly, Katherine, daughter of John Bulteel; and, thirdly, Mary, daughter of Friscobald, of Florence.

1. A refugee, probably bearing this surname, was in London in 1571, in the parish of St. Olave’s, Ward of Bridge-Without, and is entered in the census of strangers as Clement Butterflie. See my Chapter I.
2. As conjectured in my Chambrelan memoir, Mr. Papillon had two sisters, Estre and Anne, both married to Chambrelans aliàs Chamberlans.
3. One of these children was Philip Papillon, a member of Exeter College, Oxford, in 1625, who inscribed, in the copy of William Browne’s Poems presented to that college, an English epistle in verse, headed “Euterpe to her deerest darling, Y. B.” Beloe’s Anecdotes, vol. vi., p. 59.
4. The French pronunciation of this gentleman’s surname had not disappeared in his generation. Narcissus Luttrell invariably calls him Mr. Papillion.
5. Anne Marie Papillon was married, in 1669, in the French Church of Threadneedle Street, London, to William Turner, Esq., “fils de Thomas Turner, ecuyer.” The baptisms of her children are in the registers of the French Church of Canterbury — viz., Thomas (1690), William (1691), Henry (1693), Jeanne (1694), Anna Maria (1696), Philippe (1697), and Elizabeth (1699). See my Historical Introduction, Sect. VII.
6. This “Philipe” was baptized at Threadneedle Street, on 4th January 1699 (new style). His father is described as Philipe Papillon, gentleman, of Fenchurch Street.