Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/158

 Pryme, and her grandson, Charles de la Pryme, of whom I shall speak in another chapter. Looking back at the Christian names of three generations, the reader will understand how the memory of the Prymes is preserved in Hull. “Pryme Street, Christopher Street, and Alice Street were called after them; as George Street has since been called after their son, and Charles Street after their grandson.”

The refugees at Hatfield obtained a license from Charles I. for a religious service in French and Dutch. The first congregation was in the refugee Charles de la Pryme’s house. Ultimately they built the chapel of Sandtoft, in the parish of Belton, Lincolnshire; it was disused soon after 1681.  

Nicholas Briot was a gentleman of Lorraine, the reputed inventor of the coining-press, and graver of the mint to Louis XIII. But unable to submit to serious religious disabilities as a Huguenot, he withdrew, as a voluntary exile, into England, and in 1626 became chief-engraver to the London Mint, through the patronage of King Charles I. In 1633 he received an appointment in Edinburgh, and in 1635 succeeded Sir John Foulis as Master of the Mint in Scotland. In 1637 his daughter Esther was married to Sir John Falconer, and this son-in-law was conjoined with Nicholas Briot in his office. Briot, however, returned to England on the outbreak of the civil war; he secured for the king’s service all the coining apparatus of the nation, and finally is said to have died of grief on his royal patron’s death. Sir John Falconer was of the Halkerstoun family, and ancestor of the Falconers of Phesdo. Mr Smiles enumerates several fine medals executed by Briot, who “possessed the genius of a true artist.”  

Before 1500 the head of the family of Colladon was Judge and Governor of the town and fortress of La Chatre in the Province of Berry; the office seems to have been hereditary, and the Governor, Philippe Colladon, spent money upon the fortifications. His eldest son, Germain, succeeded him. His wife’s maiden name was Guillemette Bretonnier, or De la Bretonniere, and he had six children. Two of his younger sons embraced the Reformed faith. One of these was Germain Colladon, advocate at Bourges in his native province, in whose house the first Protestants met for public worship. The other brother was Leon Colladon, also an advocate at Bourges, and Doctor of Laws. They had grown-up families before they were called to suffer relentless persecution for the faith. At length they fled to Geneva as refugees in the year 1550, and were forthwith enrolled as Genevan inhabitants. A note-book of a member of the congregation of Bourges is still preserved, in which there is this entry, “1550, le mardi 19$e$ jour d’anoust, partirent de ceste ville de Bourges, maistres Germain et “Léon Colladon, frères, advocats en ladite ville avec leur femmes et enffans et toute leur famille, et s’en allèrent demeurer à Genève.” On 28th August, “Léon et Germain Colladons” were formally received by the council.

Leon Colladon had married Guinemonde Bigot, daughter of Nicolas, sieur des Fontaines. His birthplace was the fortress of La Chatre; he died at Geneva on 31st August 1552, leaving two sons and five daughters. His elder son, Nicolas, had been a pasteur in France, and became a pasteur and professor in Switzerland; he died at Lausanne in May 1586, leaving (it is believed) no descendants. The younger son, Germain, also a minister of the gospel, married Christofla Trembley, and left a son, Daniel. This was the pasteur of Morgues, Daniel Colladon, who married there, in 1584, Susanne Bret, and was the father of Isaac Colladon (born 1590), pasteur of Aubon. There was at a later date a Theobald Colladon, pasteur of Aubon. There is a legal document docqueted, “Procuration dounée par Esther Colladon à Theobald Colladon ministre à Aubonne pour revendiquer les biens et effets existans dans la maison de nob. T. de Mayerne, dite Maison de S. Aspre” (quoted in the Second Edition of “Haag,” from which I have taken all my pre-refugee facts in this memoir).

We are now within sight of our hero, afterwards known in England as Sir John Colladon. The connection of the Colladons with Aubon, the barony from which Sir Theodore De Mayerne took his title, as well as the document just alluded to, seem to show some existing relationship between the Colladons and the Mayernes before Sir John’s marriage to the Baron’s niece. But we must still give him his baptismal name. 