Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 15 - Collyer

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Collyer.

The ancient surname of this family was Cholar. They reappear as Walloon nobles, Barons de la Prée, and of the household of the Dukes of Hainault, with the surname of Le Carlier. In the days of Duke Alva there were two brothers, the elder of whom, having continued a Roman Catholic, was known as Thomas Le Carlier dit le Remy, Baron de la Prée. In 1572 he left his property to a younger brother, who had become a Protestant, on the condition that he recanted. The seat of the family was in the neighbourhood of Cambray. The Protestant brother, who refused to recant, dropped the prefix Le, and there were Protestant Carliers of Artois and Colliers of Picardy, believed to be of his stock. In the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, there is a census of Foreign Protestants in London, and under date 1567 there is entered a Walloon family residing in Cripplegate : —

“Jehan Collyer; Marie, his mother; Marie, his wife; Jehan, his son; Peter, his son; Abigaill, his daughter,” and four servants.

The official scribes in those days wrote y in preference to i — as Gabryell for Gabriel, Rychard for Richard, &c. It has been ascertained that the younger Jehan married, and had four daughters. Peter, also, has been identified; he was a member of the Grocers’ Company of London, and was buried at Camberwell. Jehan was an arras-weaver, and was in partnership with a Remy (a remarkable fact); and Strype, in his “Annals,” notes a Collyer of Artois and a Remy of Hainault. The next individual who comes to view is Nathaniel Cholier, yeoman of the Fishmongers’ Company, evidently recognized by that intelligent and powerful corporation as of Foreign Protestant descent, and (if so) probably a son, or grandson, of Peter Collyer, of the Lansdowne MS. He seems to have died at a comparatively early age in 1669 (his wife Ruth having survived till 1692), so that we conjecture him to be a grandson of the son Peter, of the Protestant Walloon refugee family of 1567. After Nathaniel Collier, or Cholier, all is clear. The following is an abridged pedigree:—

Nathaniel Cholier, or Collier, buried at Banstead, Surrey, 1669.

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Ruth, buried at Banstead, 1692.

Rev. Nathaniel Collier, Clerk in Holy Orders, eldest son, administered to his father’s and mother’s Wills in 1692.

Daniel Collier of Cripplegate, Citizen of London, and fishmonger, born about 1660, died 1717, buried in a vault, St. Mary’s, Milk Street.

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Abigail, buried beside her husband.

Daniel Collyer, merchant in London, purchased the Norfolk estates of the Earl of Chesterfield; was styled “of Wroxham Hall and Necton Lodge”.

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Anne Leeds.

Rev. Charles

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Sarah, daughter of Edward Roger Pratt, Esq., of Ryston Hall.

Rev. Daniel Collyer of Wroxham and Necton, died in 1819, aged 69.

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Catherine, daughter of John Bedingfield, Esq., married in 1774.

Lady Sarah Duff, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Fife, died 1812.

1807 =

Daniel Collyer of Necton Lodge, died 1824, aged 48.

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Elizabeth, daughter of John Chancellor, Esq., of Shieldhill.

The Venerable John Beddingfield Collyer, Archdeacon of Norwich, “of Hackford Hall,” born 1777, died 1857.

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1800 =

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Catherine, daughter of Wm. Alexander, brother of the 1st Earl of Caledon.

James Duff Collyer, died 1811.

George Chancellor Collyer of Hill House, Norfolk, Col. R.E., born 1814. [Married 2dly Rose Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Dillon, Esq.]

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1800 =

Mary Forbes, dau. of Alex. Chancellor, Esq., of Shieldhill, died in 1848.

John Collyer of Hackford Hall, Norfolk, born 1800.

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1837 =

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Georgina Frances Amy, dau. of Sir Wm. Johnston, Bart.

Mary Catherine Bedingfield Collyer, wife of Col. John Heron Maxwell Shaw Stewart, R.E.

John Monsey Collyer, of Hackford Hall, born 1840.

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1869 =

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Helen Jane dau. of Geo. Falconer of Carlowrie.

*⁎* A British officer, named Collyer, was killed at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. From him descended the late rector of Gislingham in Suffolk, of which parish his son, Rev. Thomas Collyer, is the present rector, admitted in 1851. He believes himself to be descended from Protestant refugees, and acknowledges Colonel Collyer as the head of his family.