Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/219

 

Members of the family of Emeris, being French Protestants, fled from the St. Bartholomew Massacre, and soon after 1572 acquired landed property at Southwood, in Norfolk, on which they resided till 1768, and which is still the inheritance of the head of the family. The Rev. John Emeris, of Southwood (Norfolk), and of Louth (Lincolnshire), M.A., Rector of Tetford, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (born at Southwood, 1735, died 1819), married, in 1768, Anne, daughter of William Smyth Hobman, great-niece and eventually co-heiress of David Aitkinson, Esq. By her Mr. Emeris inherited the estate of Fanthorpe in Lincolnshire. His son and heir was the Rev. John Emeris, B.D. (who died 13th April 1831), Rector of Strangton Parva, Bedfordshire, Perpetual Curate of Altringham and Cockerington, Lincolnshire. By his wife, Elizabeth (whom he married in 1815), daughter of Rev. John Grantham, of Ashby, M.A., he had two sons, of whom the eldest is another John Emeris, now of Southwood. The present Rev. John Emeris was born in 1816; he is MA. of University College, Oxford, and, having married in 1852 Anne Elizabeth, daughter of James Helps, Esq., is the father of the John Emeris of the rising generation. The other son of the late Rector of Strangton Parva is William Robert Emeris, Esq., of Louth (born in 1817), J.P., M.A. of Magdalen College, Oxford; he married, in 1850, Isabella Barbara, daughter of the Rev. Robert Gordon, grand-daughter of George Gordon, D.D., Dean of Lincoln. The family motto is “Emeritus.”  

Philip D’Espard fled to England from the St. Bartholomew Massacre. He succeeded in bringing property with him, and attracted the attention and confidence of Queen Elizabeth, who sent him to Ireland as a Royal Commissioner. He acquired large ironworks in Queen’s County, and large tracts of land there and in the County of Kilkenny. The peasantry long applied to the district the name, Despard’s Country. He was the ancestor of Colonel William Despard, an officer of Engineers in King William III.’s reign, whose son was Member for Thomastown in the Irish House of Commons in 1715, and afterwards sat for County Kilkenny. Another descendant, Philip Despard (born in 1680), married, in 1708, one of the five co-heiresses of Colonel Elias Green; her portion was Killaghy Castle in Tipperary, with 1500 acres of land, which remained with the Despards until within the last quarter of a century. In April 1779 Captain Edward Marcus Despard, of the English army, described as a “native of Ireland and well-connected in that country,” distinguished himself along with Nelson. I quote from the Pictorial History of England (Reign of George III., Book III., Chapter 1): “Nelson, who had just been made Post-Captain, was sent to take Fort San Juan, upon the river of the same name which flows from Lake Nicaragua to the Atlantic, being assisted by a few land troops and some Mosquito Indians. He ascended the then almost unknown river, and, after indescribable toil and suffering, reached on the 9th of April a small island on which there was a fort that commanded the bed of the river, and served as an outwork to the town. This fort Nelson resolved to board. Putting himself at the head of a few sailors, he leaped upon the beach. Captain Despard followed him, gallantly supported him, and, together they stormed the battery. Two days afterwards the two heroes came in sight of the Castle of San Juan, which they compelled to surrender on the 24th of April. Nelson was accustomed to count this as one of the most perilous expeditions in which he had ever been engaged; of 1800 men, counting Indians and all, only 380 returned.” Captain Despard rose to the rank of Colonel, but believing himself entitled to higher promotion, he formed that connection with revolutionary clubs which terminated so fatally in 1803. At his trial (says the same historian) “Sergeant Best argued that Colonel Despard, a gentleman, a veteran officer, could not have embarked with such men in such wild schemes, unless he had been bereft of his reason. He dwelt upon his former high character and past services. . . . . The first witness for the defence was the gallant Nelson, who, in energetic language, bore honourable testimony to the character of Despard; they had, he said, been on the Spanish Main together in 1779, they had been together in the enemies' trenches, they had slept in the same tent; assuredly he was then a loyal man and a brave officer. General Sir Alured Clarke and Sir Evan Nepean declared that they had always considered his loyalty as undoubted as his bravery, and that he had returned from service with the highest testimonials to his character.” 