Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/435

  Inn, is the nearest male-heir of Esther Raboteau. The Rev. Barre Phipps’ second son, Captain Henry Barre Phipps (who has had four sons), and Commander William Hugh Phipps, R.N., are brothers of the late Thomas Phipps, Esq. Marie Raboteau, had three sons, William, John Charles, and Robert (Senior Fellow, T.C.D.); she had four daughters, of whom Anne, wife of Thomas Holmes, Esq. of Rockfield, County Sligo, was the ancestress of the celebrated whipper-in of the Tory party, William Holmes, Esq., M.P. William Phipps had a son, Isaac Barre Phipps, and four daughters, of whom I name Betty, wife of Colonel Grogan, and Anna, wife of George Wilson Boileau, Esq. (son of John Theophilus Boileau, seventh son of Simeon), the mother of Colonel George Wilson Boileau and of the late Isaac Barre Phipps Spencer Boileau. The Elwoods of Cams, county Sligo, are descended from a daughter of Marie Raboteau.

John Charles Raboteau married Miss Thornton, daughter of an Irish clergyman, Rector of Tully; he died, aged eighty, and is represented by descendants in the female line. His daughter Rebecca was married at Carlow to Samuel D’Arcy, and had a son, John Charles D’Arcy (born 1775), who died young, and a surviving son, Lieutenant Isaac Raboteau D’Arcy of the 60th Rifles, who wore the Peninsular medal; also a daughter, Abigail, wife of James Smythe of Carlow. The descendants of the latter are Captain James Griffith Smythe, late of the 50th Regiment, honourably mentioned in the despatches concerning the Battle of Sobraon, and decorated with the Punjaub medal; and Rebecca Raboteau Smythe, Mrs. Torpie, author of “Grace Leigh of Darlington,” and of the article in Sunday at Home (1862), entitled, “The Fugitives of Rochelle.”

The ancestors of the family of Tardy were Huguenot gentlemen, whose residence was near La Tremblade, in Saintonge. Jacques Tardy fell at the Battle of Jarnac, in 1569, along with the Prince of Condé. Although his representatives did not become refugees in 1685, yet they cast in their lot with their persecuted brethren in France. One incident connected with their perils is preserved. A retired glade in one of the few forests near La Tremblade had long been the trysting-place where a little band of worshippers was wont to meet to engage in joint prayer, in hearing the Scriptures read, and in having brought to their remembrance by a faithful pasteur the gospel-truths which they loved. They assembled from divers points unobserved. But there was one treasure ever needed, the transport of which on those occasions hazarded both its loss and their own discovery. It was their Bible — their sole remaining Bible! a large old folio volume, cumbrous to bear, and difficult to conceal. Yet rarely was it absent in that sylvan temple; its bearer was the wife of Monsieur Tardy. She was a daring and accomplished rider, often seen upon her fleet steed traversing the champaign country in the locality of their chateau, and therefore unexposed to any special observation when she came to the Huguenot assembly, which for many years she devotedly frequented. She had furnished her capacious side-saddle of ancient guise with a large loose leathern lining, which safely enclosed the Bible. Unsuspected she brought it to her delighted and grateful fellow-worshippers, and the huge old saddle was a ready lectern for the sacred volume. In the year 1750 the representative of the family was a youthful grandson of the heroic lady. He acquired a taste for the sea while at school at La Rochelle, and having friends in high places, he was in that year admitted to the French Navy as a cadet — a very rare favour to be granted to a Huguenot. All the happiness of Elias Tardy in the navy arose from his zeal for the service; for in other respects his life was embittered by ill-treatment as a solitary Protestant among Popish comrades. He served nine years under Admiral Conflans, and in November 1759, at the famous action off Belleisle, he was taken prisoner by the English. Though suffering from a severe wound, he found that he had made a welcome exchange of circumstances, while he was cared for and kindly treated by his captors. He therefore remained under British rule, sold his French property through the intervention of friends, and settled in Dublin. There he invested largely in “sugar baking,” and made a considerable fortune. He was an ancien of the French Church, a trustee of the chapel and burying-ground in Peter Street, a merchant prince full of hospitality and good works. In 1771 he married Anne Du Bedat, who at her death in 1786 left three sons; he visited France for his health, having with him a certificate of naturalization in Britain, dated 28th April 1788. In 1790 he married his second wife, Alice, relict of John Chaigneau, Esq.; her only son, Peter Chaigneau, thus joined Mr. Tardy’s sons, and he and they, being brought up together, continued through life to regard each other as brothers. The eldest son of the refugee was Francis Tardy, Esq. (born