Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/272

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 B. iv. OCT., ww.

migrated to England some time previously, had been befriended by Archbishop Dolben of York, and had been granted by him some ecclesiastical preferment it is believed, the post of vicar choral in Southwell Col- legiate Church.

This Charles Daubuz lived in the Minster Yard at York, where he died in March, 1696/7, and was buried in the church of St. Michael le Belfrey, close to the Minster, on March 9. Charles Daubuz had crossed over to Calais on hearing of his brother's death, and brought his brother's widow and children to York ; and the mother and daughter seem to have resided at York until the death of their protector, when they removed to London.

Jean Fortes de la Roque was the son of Jacques Laroque of Duras in Guienne by his wife Susanne. He was born at Duras, and was naturalized as a British subject in the Act of Parliament 1 Anne, cap. iii., which received the royal assent. May 25, 1702, and by which Thomas St. Leger de Bacalon and others were naturalized (MSS. House of Lords, New Series, vol. iv. p. 470).

In his petition for naturalization, which was made June 13, 1701, in conjunction with two other Huguenot officers, Antoine La Roque and Antoine Vaissier Valognee, Jean states that he was a French Protestant turned out of France for religion's sake, and that he had served in the English army in Ireland and in Flanders during all the late wars (MSS. House of Lords, New Series, vol. iv. p, 390). Having been trained to arms in France, he was made lieutenant and adjutant or quartermaster in the regiment of Huguenot horse raised in London by Frederick, Duke of Schomberg, in July, 1689 ; was present at the battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690, fighting against King James II., and served in that regiment throughout the campaigns in Ireland, and continued up to the Peace of Ryswick, Sept. 20, 1697, to serve in all the campaigns on the Rhine and in Flanders, having been particularly distinguished at a fight with the French guards at St. Michel in the Low Countries. The regiment was disbanded on May 1, 1699, and Jean La Roque was granted a pension of 2s. &d. a day (increased in 1721 to 5s. 3rf. a day) charged on the Irish Establishment, upon the condition (which was imposed upon all the pensioners of the Huguenot regiments) that he and his family resided in Ireland. After his mar- riage Jean La Roque resided in Earl Street, St. Giles's, and in Compton Street, Soho

(Registers for Baptism, Huguenot Church of Le Tabernacle, Somerset House), until about 1704, after which he appears to have gone to Ireland in fulfilment of the condition under which his pension was granted. After a sojourn in Dublin, where he stood sponsor on March 30, 1707, to the daughter of John Porter (afterwards Alderman, and in 1715-16 High Sheriff, and in 1723-4 Lord Mayor, of the city of Dublin), he settled in Cork, where he died April 21, 1729. Letters of administration " to the goods of Jean la Roque, late of the city of Cork," were granted by the Prerogative Court of Dublin, Nov. 21, 1729, to John Porter, Alderman of the city of Dublin, " principal creditor of the said deceased, and to Maria [sic] Laroque, widow and relict of the said deceased " (Public Record Office, Dublin).

No relationship can be traced between Jean Portes de' la Roque and Alderman John Porter of Dublin. Alderman John Porter died in Dublin, July 1, 1739, and by his will (proved July 14, 1739) bequeathed the whole of his property to his daughter Mary, wife of William Cooke, his sole surviving child ; and in the event of her decease without issue (which it is under- stood occurred) the estate was devised to his two nephews John and James Porter, both of London, who were the sons of Jean Portes de la Roque ; but it is quite clear that he was not really their uncle, inasmuch as He was not the brother of either their father or mother, nor the husband of a sister of either parent.

According to a memorandum left by his eldest daughter, Anna Margaretta (who married John Larpent), recording her re- collections of what her father told her about himself, Sir James Porter was born in a barrack in Dublin in 1710 ; but* there is no record of his baptism in the registers of any church in Dublin, and it seems more probable that both he and his elder brother were born in Cork, where their parents resided, though no trace of their baptism can be discovered in the registers of any church in that city, and the registers of the Huguenot Church in Cork having been lost, it is not possible to verify the accuracy of this surmise. His first recollection was witnessing the funeral of Queen Anne in the Park, and it is in this memorandum that the tale of the grant of land in Ireland by King James II. to Jean Portes de te Roque is first mentioned. It is needless, perhaps, to say that nothing can be found in the Public Record Office in Dublin of "any grant