Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/432

 Render to us, Sire, your protection and the effects of your benevolence, and of your justice, which lias been withdrawn from us by surreptitious dealing [par surprense ], by false representations whereby your Majesty has been prejudiced. We pray to God, as in the past, for the prosperity of your Majesty’s reign and sacred person: and we shall bequeath to our children those illustrious sentiments of obedience and fidelity.”

Matthieu Du Bedat, whose family was originally of Agen, in the province of Guienne, died in France, but his son, or grandson, Jean, born at Lacepede, in Guienne, was sent to Ireland to a “Friends’” School at Ballitore, in County Kildare, taught by Abraham Shackleton. His education being completed, Mr. John Du Bedat established himself in Dublin, and founded a sugar-refining factory — the first in Ireland. There he married, and his daughter Anne is on record, who was married in 1771 to Elias Tardy, Esq. Mr. Du Bedat died in 1780, aged sixty-four; he had been a leading member of the French Church in Peter Street; his grandson was William Du Bedat, Esq., Transfer Officer of the Bank of Ireland, who presented the priceless Huguenot State Paper to the Royal Dublin Society, and his great-grandson is Peter Du Bedat, Esq., Secretary of the Bank of Ireland, who, with other representatives of the family, cherishes and adorns the memory of a good Huguenot ancestry.

The surname of Raboteau is of high antiquity; the first member of the family on record is Jean Raboteau, an advocate at St. Jean d’Angely in 1397, and its members have occupied a good position in Saintes, St. Jean d’Angely, La Tremblade, and La Rochelle. In 1592, in the Protestant temple of La Rochelle, Pierre Raboteau married Marguerite Faye. In 1670 there was an influential Protestant physician named Jean Raboteau. The refugee John-Charles and his sisters seem to have descended from Josué Raboteau — (son of Jean, and husband of Marie Meschinet), Procureur-au-Presidial to Saintes in 1615, father of a Jean Raboteau, a widower in 1681, whose deceased wife’s maiden name was Rebecca Meschinet. John-Charles’ father was of Puy-Gibaud, by La Rochelle. He himself became a wine-merchant in Dublin. His parents had landed in Ireland as refugees, and he was born during their journey to Dublin in a hotel at Carlow. He had two sisters married to the brothers Phipps of Sligo. Another brother was probably born in Ireland, for in the Carlow Register there is the burial, on 29th July 1785, of “Mr. James Rabbittoe, aged seventy-six years.” [In the Naturalizations at Westminster, List xxv., there are “Peter Robateau, and Susan his wife; John Robateau and Anne his wife.” Two female cousins, also named Raboteau, escaped from their relatives, who were New Catholics]. These ladies owed their deliverance to J. C. Raboteau. He traded with French wine-growers, and often sailed in his own ship to La Rochelle, and was the guest of the Raboteaux in France. During one visit the young ladies confided to him that they had been sentenced to take the alternative either of marrying two Roman Catholic gentlemen or of being shut up in a convent. He planned their flight. It was hot weather, and the horses were tied to trees in the lawn. By night he carried off his fair cousins upon two of the horses, and lodged them with a widow of La Rochelle; he returned with the horses unobserved. Next morning he apparently shared in the consternation of the family, and no suspicion fell upon him. After some time his visit ended, and he came to La Rochelle to embark for Ireland. He was in the habit of taking home large casks of French apples. In two of these casks the ladies were carried on board. For some time after their becoming denizens of Ireland their former guardians had no clue to their whereabouts. This is a narrative handed down by tradition; the only correction suggested by family papers is, that the casks were empty brandy puncheons.

These Mesdemoiselles Raboteau inherited from their ancestors great personal beauty. One of them was married to Stephen Chaigneau, second son of a refugee. Josias Chaigneau, the refugee, was of a family of eminence in the neighbourhood of St. Jean d’Angely, and within a rural district which has been spelt variously, but which I believe to be St. Savinien. His residence was the chateau of Labellonière; but he forsook home and lands and his native country for the sake of the Reformed religion. He and his family retired to Youghal in Ireland; his wife was Jeanne Jennede, and his sons by her were Lewis, Stephen, and Isaac; he had a fourth son, John, by his second wife, née Castin. Lewis, being a successful merchant in Dublin, purchased the estate of Corkage, in the same county; he married in 1688 Elizabeth Ducoudre, and his son and successor was David Chaigneau, Esq. of Corkage, M.P.