Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 2
Chapter II.
DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET.[1]
An ancient and knightly Protestant family of Normandy, surnamed Dumont, long resident in the vicinity of Dieppe, was represented in the beginning of the seventeenth century by Le Chevalier Samuel Dumont. He was married on the 2d January 1624 to Anne De La Haye, daughter of Isaac, Sieur De Lintôt.
Isaac Dumont De Bostaquet, the only son of that marriage, and the hero of this chapter, was born on the 4th February 1632. His father dying in the following May, he and his sisters were brought up by that lovely and excellent lady, their mother, who had become a widow at the early age of twenty-four, and who lived to keep her eightieth birthday in the prison of Caudebcc, a prisoner for Christ’s sake. Isaac’s school-days at Rouen and Falaisc came to an end in 1645, after which date he spent three years at the colleges of Saumur and Caen. He then entered a military academy at Rouen, and finished these professional studies at Paris.
In 1652 he became a cornet of cavalry in the Marquis d’Heudreville’s regiment, in the company of Monsieur De Royville. But in 1657, after his marriage with Marthe de la Rive, he retired from the army. The nuptial ceremony was performed in the Protestant church of Grand Quevilly, near Rouen,[2] by the Pasteur Maximilien De l’Angle. From this time the young Seigneur added largely to his landed possessions in deference to his mother, by whose advice he acted, and who had persuaded him, as an only son, to give up thoughts of campaigning, and to settle down as a country gentleman. Le Bostaquet was but a small house and estate. In 1660 he removed to the fine chateau of La Fontelaye.
He was an elder in the church of Lindeboeuf. In 1665 it was by sentence of law condemned to be demolished, because it stood within a Catholic Seigneurie, a zealot lady, the Marquise de La Tour, being prosecutrix in the action. De Bostaquet went to Paris, and resisted the action to the utmost. He solicited the good offices of Turennc, who said that he did not meddle in ecclesiastical business, but referred hiin to his illustrious Victomesse; and she took infinite pains in the matter. The Protestant advocate in all such cases was the Sieur Des Galinières, who had hoped to have won this case. De Bostaquet, however, complains that he was not assisted by the Marquis De Ruvigny, the Deputy-General, whom he describes as “well-intentioned,” “a very eminent and most honourable man, but devoted to the court, and more anxious for his own standing there, than for the interest of the Churches.” It is remarkable that De Bostaquet never withdrew these expressions, although afterwards not only so much indebted, but also so respectfully and affectionately attached, to the old Marquis.
De Bostaquet was on his way home when he heard that the sentence had been pronounced against his church. He therefore proceeded to Longueville, and made a formal declaration before a magistrate that La Fontelaye was his principal residence, and that Protestant worship would be celebrated in it. When he was at the gates of Dieppe with the intention of making a similar declaration in that town, a messenger from home informed him of the dying condition of his wife, and before he could reach his house she had expired.
After little more than a year of widowhood, De Bostaquet married his second wife, a beautiful cousin of the maternal stock, Anne Le Cauchois, daughter of the Chevalier De Timbermont, by Marie de la Haye de Lintôt. This lease of married life was cut short in the eleventh year of its course. In August 1678, a few months after this wife’s death, another calamity came — namely, the destruction of his Chateau of Fontelaye by fire; the occupation of rebuilding, however, somewhat calmed his violent grief. He now had many children, and his eldest daughter having married, he was obliged to enter upon another marriage; and in 1679 he again made a happy selection. His third wife, Marie de Brossard, daughter of the Chevalier de Grosmenil, was the devoted partner of his lot as a refugee in Holland and in the British Islands.
The troubles of the Protestants of Normandy thickened from year to year. In 1685 he had completed the preliminaries of a marriage between his eldest son Isaac, Seigneur de la Fontelaye, and Ester, daughter of Monsieur David Chauvel. “The religion,” he writes, “was at its last gasp, all our temples being cither demolished or shut up. Monsieur Chauvel and I had to take our young folk to Charenton to be married, where Monsieur Mesnart gave the nuptial benediction.” The date of this event was 16th June 1685, as appears in the Charenton Register. This and all the principal occurrences in Dumont du Bostaquet’s memoirs are confirmed by cotemporary documents still in existence and quoted in the form of notes by the editors of the printed volume.
The Edict of Revocation (l’edit de revocation de eclui de Nantes) was registered at Rouen on the 21st October 1685. Every Protestant temple in Normandy having been already put down, De Bostaquet flattered himself that the dragoons would not disturb the Protestant families of his province in their private worship and silent faith. Forewarnings of the opposite event soon were published; he therefore meditated an immediate flight into Holland. In that republic his late uncle Abraham Dumont[3] (who died in 1653) had served with distinction in the Estates’ army, and his own family was connected by marriage with a Dutch officer of high rank, General De Torcé, with whom they corresponded as a kinsman.
The Seigneur de Bostaquet called a meeting of Huguenot gentlemen. He moved that they all should ride off at once, because by signing written abjurations at the dictation of the military visitors they would serve their families no better than they would by leaving them for a time under the guardianship of the God of Providence, in whom they could trust, and by whom family re-unions in some land of liberty would eventually be brought about. And as a preparation for this step, he proposed that they all should have one purse. At the meeting the gentlemen all approved of the proposal. But upon reflection they, and especially the ladies, shrank from the difficulties of the moment. So the dragoons, under the command of the Marquis de Baupre-Choiseul, beat up their quarters in detail, and all the principal gentry had to sign a recantation. Dumont’s wife’s mother died of humiliation and grief, and others of the Grosmenil family fled to Holland.
For a time the public authorities seemed satisfied with Dumont de Bostaquet and his family and neighbours as new converts nominally; but a demand for their regular observance of the Roman Missal and Ritual loomed in the distance. A large party of them accordingly conspired to escape from France, and on the 19th May 1687 negotiations with the crew of an English ship were made. The intending emigrants were rendezvoused on the sea-shore in two parties, one at Quiberville, and the other at Saint-Aubin. At the latter point Dumont himself was; but owing to some omission in the agreement with the sailors as to giving a signal, his party was kept waiting in vain, until some men, supposed to be the coast-guard, came down upon them.
“The pilgrims,” says the Edinburgh Reviewer, “were three hundred in number, and it is hardly possible to doubt that their flight had been winked at by the local authorities. The character of the time in France is well illustrated by what followed afterwards. A band of marauders attacked the emigrants just as they had reached the sea-shore, pretending to be the royal guard which had been stationed along the coast in order to stop any Huguenot’s passage.”
It being night, the general skirmish and discharges of firearms in the moonlight were of a random and unrecitable kind. If the fugitive Protestants had been sufficiently supplied with war material, their victory would have been complete and not merely partial. But the plan of the sea voyage having come to nothing, the conductors had to think of securing the safety of the ladies and children before daybreak. The ladies now were forward to propose what they should have agreed to in 1685, namely, that the gentlemen should make their escape from their deadly perils, seeing that the worst temporal evil that could befall the weaker sex was to be immured within convents.
After employing a few days in settling his affairs as well as haste would permit, the Seigneur de Bostaquet rode off for Picardy. He was suffering from a dangerous gunshot wound received in the melee on the coast. At the frontier the guards allowed him and his valet to pass, telling him, at his request, the route for Beaumel. His real destination was Prouville, where he arrived safely. He inquired for the house of a rich Romanist gentleman, but succeeded in quietly housing himself under the roof of a Protestant friend, Monsieur de Monthuc, his wife’s kinsman. He stayed here for some time under the care of his affectionate host and hostess, and of a competent surgeon, until he was joined by a Norman comrade, Monsieur de Montcornet, who shared with him the dangers of the onward route until they reached Ghent in the Spanish Netherlands. There they were comparatively safe, except from swindlers, who took advantage of the necessity Dumont was under of selling his horses by giving him a shamefully small price, and who would have arrested him for pretended custom-dues, if a good Samaritan had not helped him to slip away from their grasp. From Ghent Montcornet took the road for Brussels. Dumont and his valet took the boat for Sas-van-Ghent, and landed on the shores of Holland (un pays de repos et de tranquillité d’âme) with a sacred joy. He went by easy stages to Rotterdam, and thence by water to the Hague.
On the 29th June 1687, in the Walloon church, he made his public declaration of contrition for the signature which the converters had extorted from him in France. He now realized all the advantages which he had expected from the friendship of General De Torcé. By command of the Prince of Orange he was enrolled in the Dutch army as a captain of cavalry, the rank to which he had attained in the French service. France, by its laws, proscribed and cast him off on the 14th of August. A legal narrative of his flight and its attendant consequences, which has been preserved among the De Bostaquet Papers, may be here quoted:— “En 1687 il fut poursuivi criminellement, soupconne d’avoir voulu favoriser la sortie du royaume de quelques particuliers, et entre autres de . . . , ce qui l’obligea de sortir effectivement du royaume, et en haine de cette sortie le proces criminal fut continué, et lui condamné, et ses biens declarés confisqués.”
The letters which he received from his wife contained melancholy details of calamity and desolation; but in the course of the autumn she managed to send him (via Dieppe) one of his little children, Judith Julie. In the following spring she herself, and the other surviving children, put off to sea at the same port, through the address and courage of Captain Laveine, and landed at Rotterdam, where Dumont met them. They arrived as a refugee family at the Hague on 22d March 1688.
The expedition of the Prince of Orange into England soon interrupted this domestic life. De Bostaquet joined it as a cavalry officer. The Huguenot cavalry were provisionally enrolled in two Regiments of Dragoons, les bleus (Col. Petit), and les rouges (Col. Louvigny). De Bostaquet, who had then nearly completed his 57th year, was made the senior captain of Louvigny’s Red Dragoons. He gives a lively description of the embarkation and the voyage to England, then of the disembarkation and the march towards the British capital. On the arrival of the fleet at Torbay, “the disembarkation was effected with great skill and promptitude,” says the Edinburgh Reviewer, from whom we borrow a translation of De Bostaquet’s account of the arrival of the fleet:—
“We distinctly saw many people gathering upon the hills to watch our coming and enjoy the spectacle. They did not appear alarmed in the least, when the men of war and the entire army made their way into a bay in the vicinity. The place was called Torbay, and here we landed. It seemed as if nature had made it for our reception. The bay like a crescent runs in a long distance; where we cast anchor it was overlooked by cliffs of great height and with rocky points; and it is spacious enough to hold a number of vessels. Our fleet did not nearly fill it; the anchorage was good, and the surrounding heights enabled our ships to ride in safety. It was here, as I said, that our Great Prince and the whole of our army disembarked. Heaven, which had conducted him to the spot in triumph, appeared resolved to continue its favour. The sea was calm, the bay like a lake, and the setting sun shone with such lustre that he seemed to leave our hero with regret; yet at last he sank, for he wished to inform another world of our great adventure. The moon, however, took his place, and shone brightly to illuminate our landing.”
“We may leave our readers,” adds the Reviewer, “to learn from M. De Bostaquet how badly tilled and bleak of aspect were the Devonshire valleys at this period, and how execrable were the roads of Somersetshire; and to imagine how ‘little edified he was by the huge wax candles, the font, and altar-plate, the surpliced canons and the choir of boys, so different from our reformed simplicity,’ which were then the pride and glory of the cathedral of Exeter. He notices particularly that at every place the army were welcomed as deliverers; and he adds that the discipline enforced by William contributed to the success of the enterprise.”
The Huguenot cavalry were conspicuous in the Prince’s army, and also 2250 foot-soldiers of the same communion. The French historian, J. Michelet, estimates the number of French officers at 736, some of them making their debût in the service of the liberator of Britain as privates. Observing that this steadfast and considerable portion of the troops is not alluded to in Lord Macaulay’s word-picture of the march from Exeter, Michelet complains rather bitterly in words like these:—
“In the Homeric enumeration which that historian gives of William’s comrades, he counts (as one who would omit nothing), English, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, yes, down to the three hundred negroes, with turbans and white plumes, in attendance on as many rich English or Dutch officers. But he has not an eye for our soldiers. Is it that our band of exiles are clad in costumes incongruous with William’s grandeur? The uniform of many of them must be that of the impoverished refugee — dusty, threadbare, torn.”
De Bostaquet took up his quarters in London under the sign of The Angel on the 15th December. After the Proclamation of William and Mary in January 1689 (new style), he tendered his services to his king, either in the Dutch or English establishment, as his Majesty should appoint; and being accepted for the latter, he went to Holland to bring his family over. Fearing lest the army under Schomberg should embark for Ireland without him, he conveyed Madame and the children across the Channel with as much speed as wind and weather would permit. He and they were put ashore at Greenwich. Here they found a home, and the aged Marquis and Marquise De Ruvigny lavished their kindness upon them as upon all the refugees. On the 2nd July another infant son was born to De Bostaquet; the young Marquis De Ruvigny stood Godfather, and named him Henri. The death of the old Marquis took place about a month afterwards — namely, on August 5th (new style). It drew from Dumont a tributary sentence extolling “the illustrious deceased, who has left behind him a memory worthy of his life, wholly engrossed with the care of the Church in France, notwithstanding the contrariety of the times — a life illustrated at its close by his overflowing beneficence to the refugees in Britain, whose stay and protector he has been on all occasions.”
De Bostaquet, as a subaltern in De Moliens’ Company of Schomberg’s Regiment of Horse, and with the rank of captain in the army, marched from London on the 28th August. He arrived in Ireland after the taking of Carrickfergus. Having weathered out that fatal autumn, he made application at Lisburn for leave of absence to visit his family. The Duke of Schomberg was obliged to answer in the negative, condescendingly adding, “You made such efforts to be in my regiment, and now you desire to quit it; do you wish to leave me here by myself? Wait for King James’s leave, and we will go to England together.” On Christmas eve he was attacked with a fever which raged for weeks; this circumstance obtained for him his furlough. The Marquis de Ruvigny had secured that he should retire on full pay; but he determined to serve in the campaign of 1690, when it was announced that King William was to join the army. Having served with distinction he returned to London, and having been taken to their Majesties’ levee by the Duke of Schomberg and the Marquis De Ruvigny, he re-entered his Greenwich home on the 28th November. His family were in mourning for his mother, who died in France in October (1690), aged eighty-four, rejoicing to hear that her son had been preserved in the battle of the Boyne; she had hoped to the last to join him in England. Ruvigny had again arranged for his retirement, but Schomberg’s Regiment having been given to the noble Marquis, the devoted captain resolved once more to postpone his adieux; however, he remained with his family during the campaign of 1691. In the spring of 1692 he went to Dublin in the suite of the Marquis, now styled Viscount Galway, and Commander-in-chief of the Forces in Ireland. The excursion occupied three months. “This journey,” he writes, “although paid there and back by my Lord Galway, has cost me a good deal of money, without any gain but the honour of following his lordship; this has not saved me from the envy of some people at whom I laugh.”
In the autumn, Lord Galway preparing to serve in the descent upon France under the Duke of Leinster, De Bostaquet volunteered to accompany him, and could hardly be dissuaded, expecting that the expedition would accomplish something great. Lord Galway assured him that nothing would come of it, and urged him to take his family to Ireland before the coming winter. This advice was taken; and again our refugees were in motion, leaving London on the 12th August 1692, and proceeding (via Coventry) to Chester. On the coast of Cheshire they found the wind against them; they had to wait for a month, all but two days, at the village of Neston, so that it was not till the middle of September that they found themselves in Dublin. In Bray Street in that capital they still were at the date of the conclusion of De Bostaquet’s manuscript, 3d April 1693, Lord Galway having arrived to command the forces, and to superintend the Protestant colonisation.
Our refugee family’s final resting-place was Portarlington. There the veteran captain obtained a lease of ground, built his house and garden-wall, brought up his younger children, served as an elder in the French Church, and enjoyed his pension of 6s. 1d. per diem,[4] till his death in 1709, at the age of seventy-seven. The following is the registration of his burial in the Register of St Paul’s, Portarlington:—
“Sepulture du lundi, 15 Aoust 1709. Le dimanche, 14e dernier à 3 heur du matin, Est mort en la foi du Seigneur et dans l’esperance de la glorieuse resurrection Isaac Dumond, escuyer, Sieur Du Bostaquet, Capitaine à la pension de S.M.B., dont l’âme étant allée à Dieu, son corps a été enterré cejourd’hui dans le cemetière de ce lieu par Mr De Bonneval, ministre de cette Eglise.”
Before leaving France, he had sold La Fontelaye to his first wife’s brother, Messire Jeremie de la Rive, Seigneur de Lamberville. Dumont’s eldest son, Isaac, being the nephew of the buyer, became his heir, and from him descended the French family, which became extinct in 1847 at the death (in his eighty-third year) of Colonel Isaac Antoine Auguste Dumont, Marquis de Lamberville, great-great-grandson of the refugee.
The refugee’s surviving children were two daughters: (1.) Judith Julie was married to Auguste de la Blachière, seigneur de la Coutière; their son Isaac Philip de Coutières was born 19th Sept. 1701, and in 1735 he was a captain in the 24th Regiment (Wentworth’s). She was left a widow, and re-married with Monsieur De Bonneval, the pastcur of Portarlington, when she was left a widow for the second time. The will of Judith Julia Dumont de Bonneval of Portarlington, widow, was dated 6th July, and proved 4th Oct. 1758. She mentions a daughter by her first husband, Susanna Courtiers [Coutières ?], whose daughter Jane Susanna is appointed sole executrix. Witness, Gaspar Caillard, Samuell Beauch. The preservation of Dumont de Bostaquet’s manuscript we probably owe to this daughter.
(2.) Marie Madeleine.
- ↑ This chapter is an abridgement of the MS. of 281 folio pages, referred to by Lord Macaulay in his History of England, and which was printed in 1864, at Paris, under the direction of Messrs Charles Read and Francis Waddington, whose preface and notes are exceedingly valuable. The MS. title is “Registre faiet en Hollandc à La Haye le mois d’Apvril mil six cent quatre vingt huiet. Continué en 1689 en Angleterre à Greenwiche en decembre. Finy le mois d’apvril 1693 a Dublin en Irelande.” The title-page of the imprint is “Mémoires inédits de Dumont De Bostaquet Gentilhomme Normand sur les temps qui ont précédé et suivi la Révocation de l’Edit de Nantes, sur le Refuge et les expéditions de Guillaume III. en Angleterre et en Irlande.” This book has not as yet been translated into English, but there is a good summary of it in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 121, No. 248. [Some matter has been gleaned by myself from other sources.]
- ↑ The editor of Legendre’s Persecution faite à l’eglise de Rouen states in his Appendix II., that in 1656 there occurs in the register of this church the name of “Isaac Dumont, Chevalier, Seigneur de Bostaquet de la Fontelaye.” This seems to fix the date of his marriage.
- ↑ In 1615, the Rouen French Church register has, “Abraham Dumont, escuyer, l’un des cents gentilhommes de la maison du roy.”
- ↑ The pension was originally 5s., as appears from a letter to Mr Blathwayt from the Karl of Galway, dated Dublin, 12th Feb. 1700: “Mr Buyer informs me that he had the honour of conversing with you on the case of Mr. Bostaquet, retired on a pension of 5s. a day, which pension he has resolved to exchange for an ensign’s half-pay for his son, who, having been born at Greenwich, may aspire to a commission in the line in due time. The old gentleman is a strong friend of mine, and the boy is my godson; so that if this arrangement can be made it will give me much pleasure. He was at Greenwich with our family, and was a captain in my regiment. He is at present settled at Portarlington. I cannot help taking an interest in him, though in a few days I shall have nothing in my power. If you think, Sir, that it would be easier to divide the 5s. between hu> son ami daughter, I could adjust the list accordingly.” — MS., Brit. Mus.