Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/263

 amavit. Officia auxit liberalitate, multa passus et gravia, asquam semper servans mentem. Obiit in hac urbe Anno. prid id. Julii.

(His widow came to England in 1781, but died 30th November 1782, and was buried at Basingstoke).

&#42;&#8270;* Mr. Lefroy’s name may be seen in the vestibule of the library of All Souls’ College, Oxford, engraved on the base of a Corinthian tripod discovered and presented by him:—

This tripod was drawn and engraved for Sir Egerton Brydges, and the plate, along with another page of engraved coins from the Lefroy Cabinet, is to be found in his periodical, The Topographer.

It is singular that a similar honour was done to Mr. Lefroy’s two great-grandsons, Charles Edward Lefroy and Anthony Cottrell Lefroy, aged respectively eighteen and sixteen, who in the year 1823, while snipe-shooting in the parish of Crondel on Bagshot Heath, discovered a hoard of 101 gold coins of a great many varieties, and many of them unique. Two pages of engravings of these coins may be found in Akerman’s “Numismatic Chronicle,” vol. vi.

 

Mr. Six was baptized in the venerated Undercroft of Canterbury Cathedral as Jacques Six on 26th February, having been born in Canterbury on 30th January 1731 (n.s.). I have already detailed his pedigree, with its chronology. Therefore in this memoir I adopt the statements and the glowing phraseology of the Obituary Notice in Nichols’ “Literary Anecdotes,” vol. ix., pp. 348, &c. He was the representative of one of the French refugee families who settled at Canterbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth on account of the persecutions of the Protestants in France, and established the silk trade there. Mr. Six was brought up to that business, but on its decline retired early in life on a handsome competency to pursue his love of science, and with care to educate his son and daughter. He was recognised as a learned and practical astronomer. He also made some useful experiments in electricity, and possessed very good and expensive electrical machines, which he perfectly understood. He volunteered his services as an electrician to the medical profession, who gratefully availed themselves of his offer in all suitable cases. He was also well known as a florist, and could, with peculiar beauty, taste, and precision, paint the flowers he had reared, as well as use the pencil elegantly on other subjects. Thus with many fascinating pursuits he filled up his time without having much to bestow on general society, though his disposition was cheerful, communicative, and philanthropic in the highest degree. He with indefatigable attention watched over a Sunday-school principally instituted by himself. He was a member of the congregation of the Church of the Holy Cross, Westgate, Canterbury, to which he, with another gentleman, presented an organ which accompanied the voices of the little choristers who were fostered by his care, encouraged in piety and industry by his precepts, and indulged by his benevolence in whatever contributed to their well-doing in their humble station. Mr. Six devoted himself to the welfare of the young around him all the more as a pious work to engage his thoughts at the period when the severe stroke of losing his only and very accomplished son oppressed his heart with the deepest sorrow. His son, of whom we give a separate memoir, died at Rome in December 1786. Mr. Six still persevered in his study of the works of God. Some accurate discoveries in the sublime study of Astronomy he communicated from time to time to scientific correspondents all over Europe. He presented to the Royal Society an improved thermometer of his own invention, described in their “Transactions” (Phil. Trans.), vol. lxxii. ; also an account of some experiments to investigate the variation of local heat, vol. lxxiv. These communications procured him the honour of admission into that learned body in the year 1792. He died 25th August 1793, aged sixty-two, leaving a widow and an only daughter, truly worthy of such a father’s affection, and married to Mr. Hay, brewer at Maidstone.  

James Six, the only son of the Fellow of the Royal Society, was born at Canterbury in 1757. His natural abilities and success in his studies led his father to send him to Cambridge, where he was of Trinity College B.A., 1778 ; M.A., 1781. He had the reputation of being a great linguist, having mastered Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and German. During his academical course he obtained prizes in