Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/359

 leaving no surviving issue, Lady Primrose’s heiresses must have been the two daughters of Viscount Pery, Diana, Countess of Ranfurly, and Frances, wife of Nicholson Calvert, M.P.) Among other legacies she left to Charlotte Elizabeth De Laval, £400, and to Daniel DeLaval, £400, to the French Hospital, £100, to the French Charity School in Court Road, £50, “I give to the Honourable and Right Reverend his Grace the Archbishop of York, Doctor Robert Drummond, £200, as a small mark of my friendship and gratitude to him;” “I give to my friend, Mrs. Dorothy Johnson, my father and mother’s pictures;” “I give £200 Irish, for the marrying, or settling in any way of business, four young women, those of Armagh or of French extraction to have the preference.” The Will and Codicil are signed,.

 

The Rev. Isaac Dubourdieu was born about 1597. He was senior pastor of Montpellier, but persecuting laws condemned both him and his church. Mr. Baynes (“Life of Brousson,” p. 219), says, “Upon judgment being given against Du Bourdieu, sen., by the parliament of Toulouse in 1682, he absconded and repaired to London.” In 1688 an author writes (“Apologie des Refugies,” pp. 98-100), “Among ministers, the good man, M. Du Bourdieu, the father, holds a primary rank. You know that he was one of the best heads of our French presbytery. What he was in Montpellier, that he is in London — wise, laborious, and entirely devoted to the welfare of the Refugee church, which he instructs by his frequent preaching.” In 1684 was published “A Discourse of Obedience unto Kings and Magistrates upon the Anniversary of His Majesties Birth and Restauration. By Isaac Du Bourdieu, D.D., one of the ministers of the French church in the Savoy, the 29th May 1684.” The English translation was dedicated to Henry Savile. An Appendix contains lists of names, &c, connected with the persecutions in France. One outrage was the demolition of the author’s church. On that event two rival epigrams (translated by Isaac Watts D.D.) were written. First, a Jesuit sang:—

A Hug’nots’ Temple, at Montpellier built, Stood, and proclaimed their madness and their guilt; Too long it stood beneath heav’n’s angry frown, Worthy, when rising, to be thundered down. Louis, at last, the avenger of the skies, Commands, and level with the ground it lies. The stones dispersed, a wretched offspring come, Gather, and heap them on their fathers’ tomb. Thus a curs’d house falls on the builder’s head. Although beneath the ground their bones are laid, Yet the just vengeance still pursues the guilty dead.”

A French Protestant replied : —

A Christian Church once at Montpellier stood, And nobly spoke the builders’ zeal for God. It stood, the envy of the fierce dragoon, And not deserved to be removed so soon. Yet Louis, the vile tyrant of the age, Tears down the walls, doom’d by malignant rage. Young faithful hands pile up the sacred stones (Dear monument!) over their fathers’ bones. The stones shall move when the dead fathers rise, Start up before the pale destroyer’s eyes, And testify his madness to th’ avenging skies.”

It was of Dr. Isaac Du Bourdieu that Quick wrote in 1692: “This reverend and ancient servant of the Lord Jesus resides in London, and preacheth, though 95 years old.” At last he died, and was buried within the Savoy chapel.  

The Rev. John Du Bourdieu, son of Isaac, and also styled, on his portrait, Docteur en Theologie, was born about 1642. He was his father’s colleague at Montpellier. Cardinal de Bonsy had great hopes of obtaining his abjuration, partly through intimidation, and specially through the influence of some relations or bosom friends. His Eminence asked for and received from the French government a lettre de cachet, containing an order for the imprisonment or banishment of Du Bourdieu, le fils. The coveted divine was immoveable, and was allowed to remain at his post in the Reformed Church till the Revocation. He then retired to England, and was 