Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/116

 (1597). Nicolas Baudoin (recalled to Guernsey and reinstated in the Town Parish in 1599; died 1613, aged 87). Thomas Millet (1602). Samuel De la Place (1603). Pierre Painsec (1604).  

Jean Marie, pasteur of Lion-sur-mer, was a refugee in England from the St. Bartholomew massacre. He is supposed to have belonged to the same family as the Huguenot martyr, Marin Marie, a native of St. George in the diocese of Lisieux. It was in the year 1559 that that valiant man, who had become a settler in Geneva, was arrested at Sens when on a missionary journey to France, laden with a bale of Bibles and New Testaments, and publications for the promotion of the Protestant Reformation; he was burnt at Paris, in the Place Maubert, on the 3d August of that year. Our pasteur was well received in England, and was sent to Norwich, of which city he appears to have been the first French minister. He was lent to the Reformed churches of France when liberty of preaching revived, and so returned to Normandy, where we find him in 1583. The first National Synod of Vitre held its meetings in that year, between the 15th and 27th of May Quick’s “Synodicon” (vol. i. p. 153) quotes the following minute:— “Our brother, Monsieur Marie, minister of the church of Norwich in England, but living at present in Normandy, shall be obliged to return unto his church upon its first summons; yet, because of the great success of his ministry in these parts, his church may be entreated to continue for some longer time his absence from it.” He certainly did return to Norwich, because on 29th April 1589 the manuscript Book of Discipline was submitted to the consistory for signature; and signed first, and his colleague, second. One of his sons, Nathaniel Marie, became one of the pasteurs of London French Church, and married, 1st, Ester, daughter of the pasteur Guillaume De Laune, and 2dly (in 1637), Ester le Hure, widow of André Joye. The Norwich pasteur had probably another son named after himself, a commercial residenter in his native city; for two sons of a Jan Marie were baptized in Norwich French Church; (1) Jan, on 3d February 1600, and (2) Pierre, on 6th July 1602. Madame Marie, probably the pasteur’s widow, was a witness at the first baptism.  

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:— 