Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/339

 

An ancient French family, surnamed, acquired the territorial title of De la Liffardière, and at a later date the territorial title of De Boisragon. Jean Chevalleau, Ecuyer, proved his chevalerie in 1594. In 1614, Pierre Chevalleau, Ecuyer, Seigneur de la Liffardière, married Marthe, daughter of Jean Rignon, Ecuyer, Sieur de la Braconniere by Antoinette Prevost. His son and heir, Jean Chevalleau, Ecuyer, Seigneur de Boisragon, was living in the chateau of St. Maixant in Poitou, in 1665, having married, in 1652, Catherine de Marconnare. From him descended the French family and the refugee family of Boisragon.

The refugee, born in Maixant, was the younger son of Louis Chevalleau, Seigneur de Boisragon. He took refuge, first in Holland, and latterly in England in the train of William of Orange. On 18th March 1689-90, he was enrolled in Schomberg’s Horse as a cornet; he rose to be Captain in that regiment. He obtained the rank of Major in 1708, and was Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel in 1709-10. At the date of his death he was Lieut.-Colonel in command of the 53d Foot. His Will, dated 16th December 1729, was proved 2d April 1730.

He had married, in 1700, Louise Poyrand, daughter of Messire Rene Poyrand, Seigneur Des Clouseaux, by whom he had a daughter, Catherine Louisa, and a son, Alexander Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon, who, after serving as an ensign in our army, retired to Surinam. Lieutenant-Colonel De Boisragon’s second wife, whom he married on 21st December 1713, was Marie Henriette, daughter of Messire Nicolas de Rambouillet, chevalier, Seigneur de la Sablière. By her he had Susanna Henrietta, Mrs. Layard — Elizabeth, Mrs. Maty — and Anne, Mrs. Justamond — also Major Henry Boisragon of Windsor, who died in 1791, and Major Charles Gideon Boisragon, C.B.

The latter Major Boisragon married Mary, daughter of James Patterson ot Combe, County Down. His son was Henry Charles Boisragon, M.D., of Cheltenham, who married, on 7th June 1803, Mary, daughter of John Gascoyne Fanshawe of Parsloe, Essex, and whose sons were Captain Charles Henry Boisragon of the Bengal army, Theodore Smith Boisragon, M.D., and Conrad Gascoyne Boisragon. The eldest of the above, Captain Boisragon (born in 1804) married Ellen, daughter of General Maxwell, and his sons were Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Boisragon, and Major- General Theodore Walter Ross Boisragon, C.B., commandant of the 30th Punjab Infantry from 1861 to 1881, who died in 1882.  

The Rambouillets were falconers to the Kings of France. The first Marquis de Rambouillet was in the royal carriage with Henri IV. when that prince was assassinated. From him descended a noble refugee, Nicholas, Marquis de Rambouillet, chevalier, Seigneur de la Sablière, who married Henriette Louise de Cheusse. He himself, with his wife and family, fled from France on the Revocation, and took refuge in Copenhagen. He became a Councillor of State of the King of Denmark. In 1714 he came to England with King George I., and did not remove till his death (date unknown); the Marchioness survived till 1735. The Marquis’s shield was “azure, three partridges proper, picking an ear of corn or.” But he had an allegorical seal engraved in memory of the determination of himself and his lady to seek refuge in a Protestant country; the device was, two doves perched on a tree and ready for flight, and the motto was “idem velle, idem nolle!” He had also another seal representing a crown of glory in the sky held out in prospect over a stormy sea.

Anthony Gideon de Rambouillet, his eldest son, died at the Hague, unmarried. He also had an emblematical seal, surmounted by a coronet, with the initials A.G.R., and having as the device a bird escaped from a net leaving several feathers behind, the motto being “Les pertes ne sont rien quand on sorte d’esclavage.” His nephew, Major Henry Boisragon administered to his Dutch Will in February 175 1, the Boisragons of that generation being the children of his only sister, Marie Henriette. The old refugees had another son Charles William de Rambouillet, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Guards; he married, at Fulham, 16th June 1730, Anne, daughter and co-heir of Francis du Pratt du Clareau of La Rochelle; by this marriage he became connected with the refugee family of Masères, thus:— 