Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/254

 Compass,’ 1658. 6. ‘Altum Silentium, or Silence the Duty of Saints under every sad Providence; a Sermon preached after the death of a Daughter by her Father,’ 1659 (September). 7. ‘A Cluster of Grapes taken out of the Basket of the Woman of Canaan; being the Summe of certain Sermons,’ 1660. All these works were published as by John Durant, and the name is thus spelt in Calamy; but Edwards writes of Durance, and the ‘Canterbury Cathedral Register’ (Harleian Soc.) contains the birth of Elizabeth Durance, 1656, and of Renovata Durance, 14 Nov. 1659, both daughters of John and Mary.

[Edwards's Gangræna, 1646, pt. ii. pp. 150, 151, 175, 176, pt. iii. pp. 96, 97; Calamy's Abridgement of Baxter, ii. 374; Palmer's Nonconf. Mem.; Brit. Mus. and Bodleian Library Catalogues of Printed Books.] 

DURAS or DURFORT, LOUIS, (1640?–1709), general, was the sixth son of Guy Aldonce de Durfort, marquis de Duras, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, duc de Bouillon, marshal of France, and his second wife, Elizabeth de Nassau. His ancestor, Gaillard de Durfort, seigneur de Duras, while in allegiance to England, was governor of Calais and a councillor of Edward IV, by whom he was created a knight of the Garter in 1461 (biographical notice in Addit. MS. 6298, f. 284). His uncle was the great Turenne, a connection of which he used frequently to remind his friends. In the peerage of France he bore the title of Marquis de Blanquefort (, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, v. 712–13, 717;, Memorials of the Order of the Garter, pp. lxxv, clxiii, clxv). In 1665 he was in England in attendance on the Duke of York, and was naturalised in that year. He distinguished himself in the action with the Dutch off Southwold Bay, Suffolk, in June 1665. In the same month a royal proclamation was issued granting him, along with four others, the sole right of licensing lotteries in Great Britain, Ireland, and the plantations, ostensibly ‘to raise stock for the Royal Fishing Company’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1664–5, p. 438), a privilege renewed for seven years longer 25 Feb. 1667 (ib. 1666–7, pp. 531, 532). Though professedly a protestant (‘his religion, however, was not much trusted to,’ says Burnet, ‘Own Time,’ Oxford edition, iii. 46), he became a great favourite with the Duke of York, who eventually placed unbounded confidence in him. Duras proved on the whole a faithful servant. The duke advanced him to the captaincy and colonelcy of his guards, 29 June 1667 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667, p. 245), and prior to 1673 sold him his estate at Holdenby, Northamptonshire (, Northamptonshire, i. 197). In the spring of 1671–2 he was in France ‘about making conditions to carry over an English regiment of horse’ there (Hatton Correspondence, Camd. Soc. i. 83). By letters patent dated 19 Jan. 1672–3 he was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Duras of Holdenby. As English ambassador he attended the conference at Nimeguen in July 1675 (, Diary, ed. 1850–2, ii. 206). Having married in 1676 Mary, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir George Sondes, K.B., of Lees Court, Kent, who was created Baron Throwley, Viscount Sondes, and Earl of Feversham, Kent, 8 April of that year, the same titles were limited to him, and he succeeded to them on the death of his father-in-law, 16 April 1677 (, Baronage, ii. 485). Besides these honours Charles II preferred him to the command of the third and afterwards to that of the second troop of horse guards. In November 1677 he was sent ambassador to the court of France in order to submit proposals for a treaty of peace with Flanders (instructions dated 10 Nov. 1677 in Addit. MS. 25119, ff. 6–12). With the Marchese di Borgomanero, the Spanish ambassador to England, he undertook a more secret mission to Flanders in July 1678, ‘to know what the designes of the confederates were, particularly those on this side the Meuse, in order to carry on a war in case the treaty break off’ (instructions dated 13 July 1678 in ib. ff. 35–6). On 26 Jan. 1678–9 he nearly lost his life by the blowing up of some houses at the disastrous fire in the Temple lane (, Relation of State Affairs, 1857, i. 7–8; cf. Hatton Correspondence, i. 171, 172). When the Duke of York, on account of his unpopularity, was sent to Flanders in March 1679, Feversham made every effort to obtain his recall (, Diary, ed. Cartwright, p. 177). In December 1679 he was appointed master of the horse to the queen (, i. 30), which office he resigned in September 1680 for that of lord chamberlain to her majesty (ib. i. 54). On 10 Aug. 1682 he was sent by the king to congratulate Louis XIV on the birth of the Duke of Burgundy, son of the dauphin (ib. i. 212). On Mulgrave's disgrace in November 1682 he succeeded him as lord of the bedchamber (, p. 262). He was one of the two noblemen allowed to be present when the dying Charles became formally reconciled to the church of Rome, 5 Feb. 1684–5 (, ii. 457). At James's accession he was placed on the privy council, and continued lord chamberlain to the queen-dowager. When Monmouth made his at-