Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/128

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NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. AUG. 10, 1007.

Chevalier de St. George, as stated by Madame de Boigne, but her grandfather, Roger Dicconson, who had been Treasurer to Mary of Modena, queen of James II., and accompanied the exiled family to St. Germains. His wife was Margaret, daughter and heiress of Edward Petre of Margaretting in Essex, a cousin of Lord Petre ; and it was through this marriage, as well as that of her grandfather with Mary Blount, that Madame de Boigne became connected with the principal Roman Catholic families in England. On p. 95 she calls Lady Clifford her mother's cousin. The Lady Clifford of those days was Eleanor Mary, a daughter of Lord Arundell of Wardour, and the cousinship was rather remote, as it dated back to a marriage of Elizabeth Blount, first cousin of Mary Blount, with Hugh, third Lord Clifford. The writer is, however, correct in calling Lady Legard (p. 82) a cousin german or first cousin of her mother. Catherine Dicconson, a sister of the second Mrs. Dillon, had married Mr. Henry Hervey Aston, of Aston in Cheshire, and her daughter Jane was the wife of Sir John Legard, the sixth baronet of Ganton, in Yorkshire. There was no issue of this marriage.

After the sudden death of Robert Dillon, Madame de Boigne narrates the story of her mother's marriage to the Marquis d'Osmond. She says that the Archbishop of Narbonne, Arthur Richard Dillon, recognized the young Madame d'Osmond as a near relation. The relationship was exceedingly remote. The Archbishop, who was a nephew of the eighth Viscount Dillon, belonged to the main stock of the family, from which the Kilcornan branch had separated early in the sixteenth century. In character he resembled an Irish squire of the ' Castle Rackrent ' days rather than a dignified ecclesiastic. He was devoted to hunting, and swore consumedly, though he set his face against such practices in the inferior clergy. In point of morals he was perhaps more French than Irish, and his relations with his niece, Madame de Rothe, unhappily gave rise to scandal. In this connexion Madame de Boigne has made a slight error. She says (p. 30) that the Archbishop's niece, to whom the chateau of Hautefontaine belonged, was the daughter of his sister, Lady Forester. At that period Lady Forester was a non-existent personage. Laura Dillon, the Archbishop's sister, was the second wife of Lucius Henry Gary, fifth Viscount Falkland. She died in 1741 at an early age, leaving an only daughter, Lucy Gary, who married Lieut.-General de Rothe,

colonel of the Irish regiment of Rothe in the French king's service. Mr. J. G. Alger,. in his ' Glimpses of the French Revolution,' 1894, calls the general " Rothes, a Scotch refugee " ; but I have not been able to trace his authority. Madame de Boigne gives a vivid picture of this lady's death, which occurred in Somerset Street, Portman Square, where the Archbishop then resided, on 7 Feb., 1804. Her daughter Lucie de- Rothe married in 1769 the Hon. Arthur Dillon, a nephew of the Archbishop, and had one daughter, Henriette Lucie, who was born in 1770, married in 1786 the Comte de la Tour-du Pin Gouvernet, and died at Pisa in 1853.

Arthur Dillon, who was the second son of the eleventh Viscount Dillon, is frequently mentioned by Madame de Boigne. There is an excellent account of him in Mr. Alger's ' Glimpses,' pp. 185-99. His first wife, who had attracted scandal by her flirtations- with the Prince de Guemenee (misspelt Guemen6 in the 'Memoirs'), died, while quite a young woman, in 1782. In 1785 Dillon married for his second wife Anne Laure Girardin, widow of Franois Alex- andre Le Vassor de la Touche Longpre, and cousin of Josephine, the future Empress. By her first husband Madame Dillon had a daughter, Elizabeth Alexandrine, who was born in 1775, and married in 1798 Edouard, fourth Due de FitzJames, the grandfather of the amiable nobleman who died last year. The death of Madame de FitzJames, which is described by Madame de Boigne, p. 202, took place at Wey bridge in 1806. By her second husband Madame Dillon had also one daughter, Francoise Henriette Laure, usually known as Fanny Dillon, whose forced, but happy marriage to General Bertrand is amusingly related in the ' Memoirs.' She died in 1836.

On p. 173 Madame de Boigne's memory has, I think, slightly failed her. She speaks of " that Dillon who married Mile, de Rothe, and who was killed when acting as general in the army of the Convention." Here she apparently confuses General Arthur Dillon, who was guillotined on 14 April, 1794, after having been out of employment for a con- siderable time, with General Theobald Dillon, who was murdered by his own. troops at Lille in 1792, when actually holding a command. The relationship between the two Dillons has never satisfactorily been leared up. The late James Roche, who- was in France during the revolutionary period, and who was one of the band of" scholars who helped to start ' N. & Q.' on.