Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/119

 The City Treasurer’s Accounts bear evidence of the kindness shown to this refugee family:—

The first and only notice of the “Franche scole” in the Town Council Minutes is on 20th June 1578. The payment of £10 annually as the “maill” or rent of this school is curiously mixed up in the accounts with the interest of money borrowed in order to build a house [luging, i.e., lodging] for an Edinburgh minister (Scotch, and not French), — the two payments amounting to £43, 6s. 8d. No schoolmaster’s name is mentioned in the Treasurer’s Accounts till 1581, when Nicholas Langloys is named, as quoted above. He had most probably been a schoolmaster in France; and it seems certain that he exercised that honourable profession as a refugee in London, where sympathy for his condition as an exile for the Protestant Reformed religion would lead to his being employed by English people to give lessons in the French language. The same commiseration and the same thoughtfulness pervaded the inha- bitants of Edinburgh (or Lislebourg, as he sometimes called it). His fame as a private teacher of French would suggest the idea of a French public school, with a subvention from the city funds. He was known in the Scottish metropolis as the Master of the French school for at least thirty years.

A little MS. in the British Museum entitled, “Livret contenant diverses sortes de lettres escrit à Lislebourg, par Esther Langlois, Franchise, 1586,” is probably little Esther’s advanced exercise-book under her mother’s tuition. Esther was married in 1596 to Bartholomew Kello; but in her manuscripts she continued to call herself by her maiden name. These manuscripts, beautifully illuminated, and sometimes further adorned with her own portrait, entirely with her own hand, were executed for presentation to her patrons and patronesses, some of whom were exalted personages, and from whom she received gratuities in return. A French Psalter, dated 27 Mars 1599, and presented to Queen Elizabeth, bears her signature as Esther Anglois. In 1600 she adopts the signature Esther Inglis. Her husband and herself lived in Edinburgh for several years after their marriage. He had received a learned education, and was honoured by the notice of King James, who employed him as a messenger to the Netherlands in January 1600. There is an unsigned grant from the King to Barthilmo Kello, clerk, appointing him clerk of all passports, testimonials, and letters of commendation from our sovereign Lord to foreign Princes, &c, to be written by the maist exquisit and perfyte wreater within this realme. He probably followed his royal patron to London. There are extant signatures of himself and spouse, dated “at London, 8th August 1604,” and one of her manuscripts is dated “London, this first day of January 1608,” but before this date he had taken holy orders: the Rev. Bartholomew Kello was collated to the rectory of Willingale Spain, near Chelmsford, 21st December 1607, the King being patron. The manuscript just alluded to is written in imitation of print, and contains the following brochure: “A treatise of Preparation to the Holy Supper of our only Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Proper for all those who would worthily approach to the Holy Table of our Lord. Moreover, a Dialogue contenand the Principal poynts which they who wold communicat should knowe and understand. Translated out of French in Inglishe for the benefite of all who truely love the Lord Jesus. By Bartholomew Kello, Parson of Willingale Spayne in the Countye of Essex.” This MS., as well as many others, was in Mr. Laing’s possession; it is No. 16 of the Twenty-Eight manuscripts described in his Paper. Her father died on the 10th August 1611 at Edinburgh; her mother was alive in July 1614.

In 1612, Esther is styled by an admirer of her talent: “L’unique et souveraine Dame de la plume.” Her husband and herself seem to have returned to Edinburgh in 1615; a MS. of that year on La Vanité et Inconstance du Monde was in the possession of the late James Douglas, Esq., of Cavers (No. 23 in Mr. Laing’s list). Their only surviving son, Samuel Kello, comes to view as an Edinburgh student in 1617, and he took the degree of MA. in 1618. A letter from his mother to “the most