Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/481

 Mr. Chamier died at his house in Savile Row, London, 12th October 1780, aged fifty-five. He left a widow but no children.  , Esq., M.P., was a son of Pierre Langlois of Montpelier. There were several branches of the Langlois stock in France; his branch has been designated Langlois of Languedoc, and its armorial bearings have been certified thus:—

porte pour armes d’azur un chevron d’or accompagné de trois croissants d’argent deux en chef un en point. Au chef cousu de gueules chargé de trois molettes d’argent.

soussigné Jacques Louis Chevillard, genealogiste ordinaire du Roy et historiographe de France, certitie avoir fait dresser l’extrait de l’armorial de France sur les originaux arretés au Conseil en execution de l’Edit du Roy donne a Versailles au mois de Novembre 1696.

The grandfather of the refugee Pierre Langlois was Michael Langlois, who married, on 13th December 1620, Louise d’Arenes, and was the father of Captain Pierre Langlois of the regiment of Anjou, born in 1626; he died in France. The refugee, Pierre, was born in January 1673, and was a cornet of dragoons in England in 1692. He was naturalized by Act of Parliament in 1707. Afterwards he became a merchant, and married Mile. Julie de Monceau de La Melonière on 17th November 1712, in London, within the French Church in the Savoy. He finally settled and prospered at Leghorn. There his wife predeceased him on 26th March 1727, and there he himself died on 21st September 1737.

The following is his epitaph at Leghorn:—

The daughter, Elizabeth Langlois (born 1720), was the wife of Anthony Lefroy, Esq., and died as his widow on 30th November 1782, and is now represented by the Lefroy family. The eldest son, Christopher, was born in 1715 and died in 1796; the second son, John, was born in 1716 and died in 1789; the third son, Peter, was born in London in 1723 or 4, became a Field-Marshal-Lieutenant or Feldzeugmeister in the Austrian service, and was buried at Trieste on 12th July 1789. The fourth son, Benjamin, is the subject of this memoir. All four died unmarried.

Benjamin Langlois was born in 1727. He devoted himself to a diplomatic and parliamentary career. On the invitation of Viscount Stormont, our ambassador at the court of Vienna, he became secretary to that Embassy in May 1763. He sat in the House of Commons as M.P. for St. Gcrmains, in Cornwall, from 1768 to 1779. He received the appointment of Store-Keeper to the Ordnance on 8th December 1772, “with the wages or fee of twelve pence of Lawful! money of Great Britain by the day.” His last appointment was Under-Secretary-of-State (Home Department), which he held under the Secretary-of-State, Viscount Stormont, from 1779 to 1782. The following was the missive which he received from his noble friend:—

“, Jan. 31 [1779].

“, — I have been so constantly occupied that it has not been possible for me to give you an account of our debates, in which I have taken so large a share, and not unsuccessfully, if I may credit the partiality of my friends. The Ministers continue to procrastinate, yet they cannot delay the business above three weeks longer; the plan of future arrangement is nearly settled, and I write to you upon a subject of great importance to me. I write, my dear Langlois, to invite you, not as formerly, to a share of toil and labour, but to a bed of down. I am to be Secretary of State for the Home Department; I cannot, therefore, invite you to come and work with me, for we shall have not more business in a year than we have often done in a single week, but I do most earnestly invite you to come and take your share of this sinecure. It will oblige you to come to town sooner than usual; but it will not