Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/190

 John was again in Dublin in 1719. More than a year thereafter he removed to London, taking with him his youngest brother Francis, now a Master of Arts, who was fortified with a letter from the Dublin Primate, Archbishop King, to the Bishop of London (Robinson). The bishop ordained him in 1721, and he joined the family colony in Virginia. He was a superior scholar and an eloquent preacher, so that he had the choice of several parishes, and settled in St Margaret’s Parish, King William County.

Thus we have marshalled before us the Fontaine colonists. The 1st of June annually they observed as a religious festival, a family thanksgiving for the many providential deliverances experienced by their father’s household. They all met on that day, and went to the House of God in company. A sermon preached by Peter Fontaine at the festival in 1723 has been printed.

After the death of their father (the date of which is not preserved) the Virginians reported their progress to their brothers John and Moses, who lived in London. The latter was an engraver. John, having been forsaken by the military service, resolved to work for his livelihood, and under the tuition of his cousin, Peter Forestier, he became a watchmaker. John was married, and had four sons (or four boys in his family, sons and grandsons, or nephews?); he had also an only daughter, who was married to her first cousin, a son of her uncle James Fontaine, farmer in Virginia. Her early death was a great grief to the English and the American family circles.

When John Fontaine was in about his sixtieth year, his thoughts turned to an exchange of London life for the air of the country. He found a good investment in South Wales; so that in 1754 he was the resident proprietor of Cwm Castle, probably in the county of Glamorgan. The last memento of him, which we have, is his letter to the Rev. James Maury, dated 2d January 1764:—

“, — The last letter we received from you was dated the 18th June 1760, which was very acceptable to us, the which we answered the 24th January 1761, and have received no letter from you since. Our great desire to hear from you will not permit us to be any longer silent, as the peace is now concluded so much to our advantage, and more especially so to all those who possess estates in North America, bounded on the north by the North Pole, on the south by the Gulf of Florida, and the west by the great river Mississippi. Nothing more can (we think) be wished for as to extent of territory, but to be thankful for this great enlargement, and the great deliverance from our powerful enemies the French and Spaniards, and from popery and slavery which in our opinion is as great if not a greater blessing than any, or indeed all the others put together.

“Now, thanks be to our great God for it, he may and will be worshipped without a rival from the North Pole to the Gulf of Florida. It is impossible for you and me, without his especial assistance, to be sufficiently thankful for so many favours conferred on us, and our posterity. A land flowing with milk and honey to inhabit — the pure and unadulterated doctrine brought down from heaven by our blessed Saviour and Redeemer to lead us to eternal life, — these are blessings so complete that no more can be added to them.

“The poor natural inhabitants still remain as thorns in your sides, lest you and we should forget the past deliverances. We pray to God to open their understandings, and make tliem one flock with us, obedient to the same God and Saviour. Whilst those Indians continue uninstructed in the principles of Christ’s true religion, they will be cruel and treacherous. We are greatly concerned to hear of the horrible cruelties committed by those infidels upon your out-settlers. We hope you will soon put a stop to their proceedings, and by a superior force bring them to reason, and convince them of the folly of such undertakings.

“I received the Timothy grass you were so kind as to send me. I sowed some in my garden, and it grew well. I tried in the field and the grass killed it. It would grow well in well-cultivated lands if well weeded and (I think) would produce a great crop; but I am too old and too feeble to undertake anything, and I am often confined with the gout. — Your affectionate uncle,

“.”

I understand that this worthy representative of a Huguenot family founded an English family of Fontaines, but I have found no genealogical record of it. Ann Maury says that it was from his descendants she borrowed his Journal, and she adds, “They are now (1853) living in the neighbourhood of London. I cannot refrain from expressing my admiration of the piety and excellence of my kinswomen.” She presents her readers with a pleasing portrait of John Fontaine, “from an original likeness by Worlidge,” and with another of the reverend and venerable refugee “after an original likeness in the possession of Miss Fontaine, Bexley, England.” 