Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/202

 After his Presidential year of office Mr. Boudinot returned to the practice of law, but was again in political life as a Member of Congress from 1789 to 1796. He was the Director of the Mint of the United States from 1796 to 1805. The remainder of his life he spent in retirement. Professor Weiss says of him, “True to the traditions of the French Protestant families, he devoted himself wholly to the great work of the propagation of the gospel.” He is celebrated as the first President of the American Bible Society (founded in 1806), to which he gave a donation of ten thousand dollars. He was a trustee of Princeton College, and founder of its cabinet of natural history. He had been a prosperous man, and was able to crown the munificent benefactions of his life with splendid legacies. He died at Burlington, New Jersey, on 24th October 1821, aged eighty-one. An only daughter survived him. One of his legacies gave 3270 acres of land to the Hospital at Philadelphia for the benefit of foreigners; the General Assembly of the American Presbyterian Church were his residuary legatees.  

The Scots Magazine, vol. lxxi. p. 367, states that the following epitaph is on a tombstone at Green Bay, adjoining the Apostles’ Battery, Port Royal, Jamaica:—

Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, Esq., who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22d December 1736, aged eighty. He was born at Montpellier in France, but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island, where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 1692, and by the providence of God was by another shock thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming until a boat took him up. He lived many years after, in great reputation, beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death.”

A midshipman, in 1816, wrote the following notice of the monument in his private journal, from which I extract it:—

“We first touched at Jamaica, where we remained some little time — long enough to look about us, and to go over to Port-Royal and hear all about the earthquake. I remember landing at a place called the Twelve Apostles, to look at a tombstone there, erected to the memory of a man who had been swallowed up by the earthquake at Port-Royal, and thrown up from the sea half-way betwixt that and Kingston; it mentioned (I forget the man’s name) that he married after this, and had a family, and lived to the age of eighty; it did not mention whether he could tell anything about his submarine journey or not.” [Perhaps a wife and family are named in further inscriptions on the stone.]

 

There was a refugee, André Porcher, in London at the Revocation era, and a relative (probably a brother), Jaques Porcher who, on 23d February 1690, was a witness in the City of London French Church, Threadneedle Street, to the baptism of Anne, daughter of André Porcher and Sara. A mother of a refugee is mentioned in the French Church Register of Thorp in Essex in 1689 named Marie Porcher, wife of Jean Rougereau of Marchenoir, near Blois. The only family whose pedigree I have seen claims descent (according to Burke’s Landed Gentry) from the old noblesse; their ancestors are said to have been Comtes de Richebourg and courtiers of high position in the olden time. Isaac Porcher de Richebourg, M.D. of the University of Paris, married Claude Cherigny, of the province of Touraine, and, after the Edict of Revocation, they fled to South Carolina under British rule. Their son was Joseph Porcher, father of Paul Porcher, who married Mary Du Pre; and his son, Josias Du Pre Porcher, removed from Charleston, South Carolina, in 1768, being brought to England by his uncle James Du Pre, who had been governor of Fort George, Madras. His son was Josias Du Pre Porcher, Esq., of Winslade House, Devonshire, M.P. for Old Sarum, who married Charlotte, daughter of Admiral Sir William Burnaby, Baronet, and sister of the wife of John Chamicr, Esq., and who died in 1820. His eldest surviving son, Rev. George Porcher, married, in 1818, Frances Amelia, daughter of John Chamier, Esq.; and his sons are George Du Pre Porcher, Esq., barrister-at-law, and Captain Edwin Augustus Porcher, R.N. The youngest son of Mr. Porcher, M.P., was Charles Porcher, Esq., of Clyffe (born 1800, died 1863), whose widow succeeded to his estate. A brother of Charles, namely Henry Porcher, Esq., was M.P. for Clitheroe. 