Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/434

 being a Protestant. John was generally thought to be a Protestant, though his heirs contrived to have him buried as a Catholic.” The alliance between Monsieur Barré and Mademoiselle Raboteau probably took place about 1725, their son, Isaac, being born in 1726, as appears from the entry in the books of Trinity College, Dublin, on the matriculation of the latter:— “1740, Novembris 19$o$ Isaac Barré pens: filius Petri mercator: annum agens 14, natus Dublinii, educatus sub D$no$ Loyd, tutor D$s$ Pelissier.” Barré, senior, became a prosperous merchant, and in 1758 was an Alderman of Dublin; in 1766 he is known to have had a warehouse in Fleet Street and a country house at Cullen’s Wood; he died about 1776, and his son inherited from him a property yielding £300 per annum.

Henriette Raboteau, a sister of the fair fugitives, took refuge in Ireland at some other opportunity. She was married to William Le Fanu, a gentleman of a noble Huguenot family (born 1707); the Le Fanu certificate of noblesse has been preserved by his descendants, who also have Madame Henriette’s portrait, by Mercier.

Mr. Smiles gives the following account of their refugee ancestor:— Etienne Le Fanu, of Caen, having, in 1657, married a Roman Catholic lady, her relatives demanded that the children should be brought up as Romanists. Le Fanu nevertheless had three of them baptized by Protestant ministers; the fourth was seized and baptized by the Roman Catholic vicar. Madame Le Fanu died, and her brother claimed the children to be educated by him. The magistrates of Caen made an order accordingly, which was confirmed on appeal by the Parliament of Rouen in 1671. Le Fanu refused to give up his children. He was therefore tried, and sentenced to imprisonment, and was shut up for three years. At last he fled to England, and eventually settled in Ireland.

The refugee’s son became the husband of Henriette Raboteau. Their two sons married the two sisters of the Right Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Joseph being the husband of Alicia, and Captain Henry Le Fanu of E_____. The son of Joseph was Thomas Philip Le Fanu, D.D., Dean of Emly, author of “An Abridgement of the History of the Council of Constance” (Dublin, 1787). The Dean had a son eminent in literature, author of “The Wyvern Mystery,” “Guy Deverell,” “Haunted Lives,” “Uncle Silas,” &c.

Owing to his want of leisure, the eminent representative of the Le Fanu family furnished to my informant no genealogical minutiae; hence his Christian name was wrong in my second edition. The death of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (on 7th February 1873) has been the mournful occasion of more correct information, an obituary account having appeared in the Dublin University Magazine, of which he was editor and proprietor.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was called to the Irish Bar in 1839, but forsook law for literature. His first novel was “The House by the Churchyard;” his last was entitled, “Willing to Die.”

From a private letter from him, dated 23rd April 1866, I quote the following : —

“My dear father recollected Henriette Raboteau, his grandmother — he a very young child — she an old woman, a good deal past eighty, muffled in furs. I have her portrait by Mercier — pretty and demure, in a long-waisted white satin dress, and a little mob cap (I have gone and looked in the parlour at it; the cap is graver than that, but her young pretty face and brown hair confused me; she has also a kerchief with lace to it over her neck and shoulders, a little primly placed). The portrait altogether has a curious character of prettiness and formality; and she looks truly a lady.”

So much for the cousins of John Charles Raboteau; next as to his two sisters. The surname of their husbands was Phipps (often in Ireland spelt Phibbs), two brothers, resident in County Sligo. Esther Raboteau was married to Robert, son of Matthew Phipps, of Templevanney, and Marie Raboteau was married to Matthew Phipps, junr. Esther’s son was Colonel Isaac Phipps, father of the Rev. Barré Phipps, Rector of Selsey, Canon of Chichester (died 1863); and of Arabella Margaretta, wife of Hugh Rose, Esq. of Glastullich. The eldest son of the venerable clergyman was Thomas Phipps, Esq., who married his cousin, Rebecca, daughter of Hugh Rose, Esq., and whose son, Henry Hugh Thomas Rose Phipps, Esq. of 