Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/198

 

In my Chapter I. I have sketched the antecedents of the Leffroy family — “a Cambresian family that preferred religion and liberty to their country and property,” during the series of persecutions usually associated with the name of “Duke Alva.” Cambresian is an adjective coined from the name of the city of Cambray, from which Antoine Loffroy fled in 1587, being then (it is supposed) in his thirty-eighth year. This refugee gentleman brought with him both money and jewels, which he seems to have employed partly in buying house property in Canterbury, and partly in equipping silk (or silk-dyeing) warerooms in that city, which was his adopted residence. He died before February 1612. The date of his marriage was probably 1585, and his son Esaie was a refugee child. The baptisms of other children are registered in the French Church of Canterbury — David, his second son, 29th November 1590; Pierre, third son, ist November 1592; two daughters, each named Marie, who died in infancy (a Loffroy, supposed to be a fourth son of the refugee, appears in 1627, namely, Thomas Loffroy, who had a wife, Anne, and an infant, Esaie, in 1626, and an infant, Jeanne, in 1628, which Esaie died in 1646, and which Jeanne was married in 1656 to Pierre Le Due). The above-named David Loffroy married, on 6th December 1616, Marie, daughter of Jan du Beuf; the birth of their daughter, Anne, is registered at Canterbury, but thereafter they are not heard of, and it is said that they emigrated to Rotterdam. Pierre, the next brother, disappears from notice after his baptism. It is therefore from the eldest, Esaie, that our Lefroys descend.

Esaie Loffroy, after the death of his father, married, on 24th February 1612 (n.s.), Marie, daughter of the late Pierre Le Sage, a refugee. The Government List of Strangers in Canterbury, made in the year 1621, places him, not among “Englishborne” [i.e., English-born], but among “Strangers” — proving that he was born in Cambray. “Esaje Loffroy” is twelfth on the list headed by his brother’s father-inlaw, Jean du Beuf. His wife died on 21st March 1642, having had five daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter, Anne, became, in 1634, the wife of Jaques Caron, and her son, Jaques Caron, was married at Threadneedle Street, London, in 1666. Of the sons, Samuel, born in 1616, did not long survive. The other son, Jaques Loffroy, was therefore the only male heir. He is the first head of the family, the dates both of whose baptism and of whose death we have; he was baptized on 17th July 1625, and died on 12th November 1702, aged seventy-seven. He married Miss Margaret Pigden,and they had three sons, Samuel, Israel, and John; the daughters (we must choose one account out of two conflicting ones) were Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Longuet, Ester, Mrs Agar, and Sara, who was married thrice, and was successively Mrs Hanson, Mrs Woodman, and Mrs King. During this period the spelling of the family surname began to fluctuate between Loffroy and Lefroy. The father of the sons and daughters named above becomes James Lefroy in his will, dated in 1702. As this is the oldest will, it deserves to be copied:—

“In the name of God, Amen. I, James Lefroy, of the City of Canterbury, silk-dyer, being at present ill and weak in body, but of good understanding and memory, thanks be to God, and considering the uncertainty of this mortal life, do make this my last Will and Testament in manner following. First, I recommend my Soul to God who gave it, and my Body I leave to the earth to be decently buried. Item, I give unto my grand-daughter, Elizabeth Oldfield, and heirs, all that messuage and tenement, backside, and garden with the appurtenaces, situate, lying, and being in the Parish of the Blessed Mary of Northgate, in the said city, known by the sign of the King’s Head, and now in the occupation of Anne Landman, widow, or of her assignes. Item, I give and devise unto my said grand-daughter, Elizabeth Oldfield, and heirs, all that messuage and tenement, with the appurtenances, situate, and being in a certain lane called Turnagain Lane, in the Parish of All Saints, in the said city, and now in the occupation of Saffory Day and a Frenchman. Item, I give unto son, Israel Lefroy, and his assignes during his life, my piece of land called the Tenterfield, lying in a place called the Friers in the said city, and after his decease, I give the said piece of land, called the Tenterfield, unto my grandson, Thomas Lefroy, and his heirs. Item, I give unto Elizabeth Vanson, who now liveth with me, the sume of ten pounds and a feather-bed. Item, I give to my son, Israel Lefroy, and his assigns, during his life, the use of my presses, coppers, flatts, and all other