Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 3 - Section VII

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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VII. The Pasteur Basnage.

Nicolas Basnage was the pasteur of Carentan, a small sea-port south of Cherbourg in Normandy. He took refuge in England after the St. Bartholomew massacre, and became pasteur of Norwich, where, seventeen years afterwards, he was Marie’s colleague, as we have already seen. He returned to Carentan, and died as its Reformed Pastor. Although so little is known of his personal history, he is celebrated as the ancestor of several distinguished Protestants. His son, Benjamin, born in 1580, was probably a native of Norwich, but the only surviving church register does not begin till 1595. This register indicates that the refugee pasteur had other two sons, named Timothy and Titus, or rather, Timothée and Tite. The marriage of Timothée is recorded, and the baptism of his two children. Tite does not appear till 1636, when he presents his infant Tite for baptism. I identify Timothée Basnage as a brother of Benjamin, and consequently a son of Nicolas, on the evidence of the registration at Norwich, upon 20th September 1518, of a little Benjamin, son of Timothée, when Timothée’s brother, Benjamin, absent in body, but represented by the child’s maternal grandfather, is named as a sponsor. I conjecture that Timothy and Titus were the elder sons, and had become established in some branch of trade or manufacture at Norwich before their father’s return to Normandy; and that Benjamin (born in 1580) was the youngest son, who was taken back to Carentan and dedicated to the Christian ministry. At the age of twenty-one, Benjamin began his pastoral charge at Sainte-Mère-Eglise (a church affiliated to Carentan), apparently in the first instance as a curate to his father. He never left this charge although from his piety and talents he became a most influential man in National Synods and in all the councils of the Reformed Churches of France. The Basnages, for three generations, were almost historical characters; but as none of them settled in England, I must content myself with giving the following very slight pedigree:—

[Rev.] Nicolas Basnage, of Norwich and Carentan
1604.
Timothée = a daughter of				Tite = Tite		Benjamin = pasteur of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, born 1580; died 1652.
		Adrien Languelair.
Anne, born 1610.		Benjamin, born 1618.		Tite, born 1636.
Antoine, born 1610; died 1691. Refugee in Holland in 1685; pasteur of Zutphen.				Henri, born 1615; died 1695. Advocate in the Parliament of Rouen.
Samuel, born, 1638; died, 1731. Also a refuge preacher at Zutphen; Author of “Annales Politico-Ecclesiastici a Caesare Augusto usque ad Phocam,” 3 vols, folio, 1706. [In reply to the twelve folio volumes of Baronius.]				Jacques,[1] born, 1653; died, 1723. Pasteur of the Hague from 1709; Author of “Histoire de la Religion des Eglises Reformers,” 2 vols. 12mo., 1690. [in reply to Bossuet]; “Lettres pastorales sur le renouvellement de la persecution,” 1698; “Annales Histoire de l’Eglise depuis Jesus Christ jusqu’ a present,” 2 vols, folio, 1699; “Histoire des Juifs,” 5 vols. 12mo., 1706, translated into English as “Basnage’s History of the Jews,” folio, 1708.		Henri, born, 1656; died, 1710. An advocate, and a refugee in Holland, Author of “Traite de la tolerance des religions,” 1684, and “L’histoire des ouvrages des savants,” 24 vols., 1687-1709.

1. See what appears to be his promise of marriage in my “Gleanings from Old Registers,” in the Historical Introduction to this volume, date 9th march 1684 (new style), register of Canterbury French Church.