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| General Family Notes |
| This section may contain notes in the form of short sentences or larger multiple paragraphs. Notes are listed in chronological order that should match an individuals order, subject or time frame of the Family Line pages. Also where possible indicate or include peoples names, places, times, dates and sources of information. |
| The Genealogy of the Turquand Family |
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(NOTE : The following is selected excerpts from "The Genealogy of the Turquand Family" by Leonard Turquand. The original was compiled and translated from French manuscripts in 1813 by Leonard Turquand with other variations of his writing being copied at various times by others.)
"About the year 1786, a history of the Turquand family, compiled from original manuscripts was written by Leonard Turquand by the desire of his father Paul (6th) Turquand who furnished many details within his own knowledge. This record was continued in 1813 by Leonard Turquand, and was printed by his daughter, Mrs Elizabeth Pierce in the year 18...... The scarcity of this book has suggested its re-issue with the addition of such information as I have been able to gather of subsequent events connected with the history of the Turquand family."
London. 1883 William Grellier. |
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Leonard Turquands' 1st account |
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This genealogy was translated from French manuscripts carefully preserved and solemnly enjoined by each Head of Families to transmit the same in writing for a memorial and information, and, if the expression may be allowed, for the deification also, of those of the family who may be born in ages hereafter, as a most valuable and extraordinary record, as few families can ascertain with such certainty as here related and proved by ancient history. Therefore I Leonard Turquand, complying with my father's repeated solemn request have undertaken as far as I am able to recopy the following original manuscripts by translating them into English for those of my family who are unacquainted with the French language, in order that they may understand and to enable them to continue the narrative as far as may concern or may be applicable to the purposes herein related; and also to particularly enjoin their descendants to transmit the same to the latest posterity. |
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Wherefore cheerfully complying with the afore-recited injunctions I begin with relating all the circumstances and events that my fore-fathers have judged proper and requisite to narrate and to be retained in their several manuscripts beginning with whatis related in Ingulfe and Fleury's Ancient Ecclesiastic History as occurred in the tenth century. viz:- "That there was then living a person named Turqueful or Turquestand (but mentions no Christian name) who camme over from Poitiers in France which is the capital town in the County of Poitou, in order to retire from the scenes of courtly employments in which he had for many years acted, as did also many of his family after him, until the year 1414 when history again speaks of the family. |
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But to return....This person retired into the ancient Abbey then named Croiland Abbey (but in what County the account does not mention) and is probably to be supposed to be at or near Croyden, now so called, in the County of Surrey, there being yet some remains, however remote as to time this may be. Suffice it to relate, this Turqueful or Turquestand took up his abode therein at a period of seventy five years after the act for its suppression, and finding only five ancient brethren of the community left, almost starving and deserted (one of whom lived to the age of 100 and another to the age of 148) and being possessed with great property he repaired and endowed it with a good revenue, and made several new regulations, and it became again flourishing. |
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Some of the new regulations were as follows, viz :- When any one had attained the age of 24 years, they were then exempt from the drudgery of affairs of the community, but only to take upon them the provisioning of the Abbey etc. etc. until the age of 40, provided they behaved themselves regularly and orderly, and until they had attained to the age of 50, during these 10 years they were exempt from all domestic affairs, and only to attend to the saying mass and Church affairs : and when they had completed their 50th year the saying of mass was only required of them if their health permitted it : they were also allowed one of the young brethren to attend on them night and day and wherever they went, and were enjoined never to speak to them of any perplexing things so as to cause their minds to wander from their holy meditations - He lived to a great age and died a Protestant in France. |
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From the above record, it is more than probable that this Turqueful or Turquestand was one of the family from whom we date our origin, and that through this length of time, the difference in writing the name has taken place. History again relates (see Morreri) that there was one Guillaume Turques who was made President in the Parliament at Paris, greatly esteemed for his probity and erudition, to whom Coat of Arms were given about the year 1412 or 1414. He was also appointed Advocate General to the French King and exercised the same in the year 1413. He accompanied the Dauphin in his campaigns, and after the death of Charles VI was employed on several embassies, and again appointed to the Parliament at Paris in 1427. After that he was created Lord Chancellor and employed or appointed to revive the ancient laws and ordinances of the Kingdom. The Government affairs at Poitiers took up much of his time also. He was still living in the year 1442, and lastly retired to the City of Chatellerault in the County of Poitou with his relations, renouncing the bigotry and superstitions of the Roman Catholic religion, and there died at a very advanced age. Some few years after the death of this Guillaume Turques, a religious disputation arose, which caused them to alter their name from Turques to Turquand, and which the family hereafter has adopted. It is supposed that his receding from the errors of the Catholic religion was the primary cause. Notwithstanding this alteration, some of his family still retained high situations and employ under the then reigning and succeeding monarchs during the space of 108 years or to the year 1550, when one of his Grandsons, born at Chatellerault, and baptised Paul was elected a Member to sit in Parliament at Paris, and there resided occasionally and likewise at Poitiers as long as his age permitted him: he obtained to a great age and died at Poitiers in or about the 1630, leaving one only son who was also baptised Paul and likewise born at Chatellerault. |
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This said Paul (being descended in a direct line from Paul his father as already related, or as is written, shall entitle Paul 3rd) was, after the death of his father, made a Privy Councellor, and he also performed some extraordinary service to the State, and used the Coat of Arms that were given to his family, with landed estate s in the environs of Chatellerault and poitiers, given him and to his descendants for ever, and which some of the family of the Turquands enjoy to this day. He married in the year 1660, a Mary Guiland, a native of Poitiers, and occasionally resides at Poitiers and at Paris, but his wife dying at Poitiers about the year 1684 he left Poitiers and Paris altogether and retired on his estates near Chatellerault with his family consisting of one son baptised Paul, and three daughters. He died at Chatellerault in the year 1690. This Paul 4th. (so styled in the manuscript) was born at Poitiers on the 14th of December 1667. He married a Madelaine Martineau, his cousin Germain, of gthe town of Chauvigny in the county of Poitou: by whom he had four sons. |
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We shall now relate the narrative of the persecution and sufferings of this Paul and his wife Madelaine, which began at the breaking or annulling of the Law for Tolerating the Huguenots or Protestants for worshipping their Maker,according to His Holy Word in the Sacred Scriptures as therein Set forth, allowing a most barbarous and horrid persecution to fall on all those who differed in the mode of worshipping their God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The soldiery were ordered to go forth, to kill, burn, impale, lapidate and imprison all those who would not embrace the Roman Catholic faith, and in fact committed all sorts of cruelties which a bigotted and furious false Zeal for the Holy Cause (as they termed it) urged or prompted them to commit. Forty thousand were massacred in cold blood in one night in the City of Paris, and near Two hundred thousand fared the same miserable fate in different parts of France, all which was executed in the course of a very few days. Sixty thousand had the good fortune to make their escape to England, besides as many thousands more to different parts of Europe. |
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This Paul Turquand and his wife then enjoyed large estates in the County of Poitou, and in the environs of Chatellerault and Poitiers, granted to the family as before related, besides a great deal of property, with which he was enabled and did assist and support great numbers of the poor Protestant Bretheren. This his conduct caused great jealousies, and they were pointed out for some of their first victims, but having had previous notice of what was planning at Court against the Protestants by some one of his family who still was retained in the Parliament, they immediately left their house and also their four children, and endeavoured by disguising themselves to make to the nearest sea port in order to embark for England, having only about 80 miles to go, either to Nantes or to La Rochelle, they being the nearest sea port towns to them: and after travelling three nights together they were informed that the Dragoons were in search after them. They found themselves compelled to separate and to change their dress again and that repeatedly. He took the road to Nantes and she went on to La Rochelle, which she was near three weeks in accomplishing, with a heart almost broken, and often very near being apprehended, but it pleased the Almighty that she should get there, and when there numerous obstacles presented themselves as how she was to make interest with any English captain to take her on ship board, but the same kind and Good Providence directed her to one who engaged to take her on board and protect her while there, for a law had passed that no English vessel should leave any port of France without first undergoing a strict search to see if any French subject was on board, under the penalty of imprisonment. The ship was searched while she was on board but they did not find her and in about a week the Captain set sail and landed her at plymouth, and placed her with a French family whom he had a few weeks before landed from La Rochelle on the like occasion, and with the same family she resided during the space of three years without the least tidings of her husband or any of her children or family, and apprehending either imprisonment or death had been their unhappy fate, and expecting never to see them any more, resigned herself up entirely to the Almighty's decrees and longed to depart and to be with her God and Saviour, where she judged that her husband and children were already gone. |
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We will now relate what became of her poor husband. He poor man, was not fortunate enough to make his escape for he was apprehended while waiting at Nantes for the sailing of the vessel that was to have taken him to London. He was taken back to Poitiers, from a friends house where he thought himself secure and when arrived at Poitiers he was imprisoned and underwent the torture by having his feet placed to a slow fire, and almost starved to make him confess where his wife was, or where she might be found, and after experiencing many vexations, deprivations, etc. etc. for upwards of six months they, judging that , after what he had experienced from their cruelties, he could not long survive them released him, being then unable to walk. He, in this condition found means to get to Chatellerault, and in the course of about six months was sufficiently recovered to undertake the journey to Holland, in which journey he experienced great, very great, risk of being again laid hold of. |
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He at last arrived and after some days of rest, took shipping, and arrived safe at London, when he made himself known to the Clergymen and Elders of the then only French Protestant Church, called La Patente, situated in Browns Lane Spitalfields, and as was natural, expected that if his wife had made good her escape he would have found or heard some news of her, but alas! that was not the case, and all enquiries set on foot for the space of near two years proved useless, and in all probability they would have never again met in this world had it not been Providentially for a London traveller who used to travel about the Country, and stopping some time at Plymouth he was applied to for information, if any enquiries were made in London by a Turquand who had three years or more ago lost his wife in making her escape from France from the persecution that was then raging there. On which the traveller related to them of his hearing an account of a man then residing in Spitalfields who had lost his wife in making her escape from France and that the name exactly corresponded to the person he knew, that he was living at the time he left London: and finding all the circumstances so exactly corresponding to the case he had been acquainted with, he offered to the woman, if she would trust herself with him he would conduct her very safely to london and to her husband. After many doubts and fears she was at last prevailed on to accompany the traveller and in a few days after they set out from Plymouth and arrived safely in London and was, by this traveller himself, delivered into the embraces of her long lost husband, free of all expenses, saying that he was amply repaid by the inward satisfaction he experienced in witnessing their happy and very extraordinary meeting again after so long an absence. |
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During her sojourning at Plymouth, regretting the expense she saw her friends lay under for her support, she learned the art of making an article called "shags" which enabled her after some little time to repay her good friends and entirely to maintain herself during the space of three years and four months, remaining all that time without any tidings from her husband, children or from any of her relatives and they experienced the same perplexing anxiety not knowing or hearing what fate had befallen her or whether living or dead. But by her labour and industry she had saved upwards of £70 which sum she brought with her at the time she bade farewell to her dear friends at Plymouth. |
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To conclude, I conceive that those persons only who may have experienced the like persecutions and privations, with the loss of all their property and their children, abandoned to merciless persecutors, can properly appreciate what they must have felt and the exquisite joy of husband & wife in so miraculous a manner meeting again, and also, in a country where they had liberty to glorify their maker according to the blessed precepto of their Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ who liveth & reignesth for ever & ever, Amen. |
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It may not be objectionable I hope to the readers of this narrative, to quote a remarkable anecdote which occurred previous to the commencement of the persecution of the Hugenots or Protestants of France etc. which is related in the history of those times, in order to show in what a detestable light they were held forth to be. That the then Queen of France testified a great desire of seeing some of those beings called Hugenots or Protestants, "for my confessor informs me that they are such an abominable sort of beings that it is rendering glory to God to destroy them by fire and sword wherever they may be met with, and meriting only damnation in the next world". Whereupon one of his Majesty's attendants who had been many years respected at Court (no doubt with some warmth) replied "I am, and please your Royal Majesty, one of those Hugenots Your Majesty has been taught to despise, but know that there are many in your palace, and thousands in your City of Paris, which you may have seen - And I can inform you as a very truth that you and his Majesty have no better or more loyal subjects than they, these so much despised subjects and who pray continually to their maker for the preservation of his majesty and You and for the Kingdom in general: such are these damnable Hugenots you were expressing a desire to see, but you are grossly deceived, and his majesty also". For this frank and Christian explanation he was banished the court & divested of all his emoluments for ever after, both her and all his family & Relatives, but not by her (the Queen's) Goodwill, for on complaining to the King on the severity of such punishment he answered "Nay, but they are damnable heretics, and you must believe and trust in Your Confessor who knows better than you or me". |
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We now return to relate what befel this miserable Paul Turquand and his wife Madeline, proceeding on their extraordinary coming together again after an absence of three years and some odd months. Thwere was not then any Royal Bounty granted to the poor French Prostant Refugees as has since been established by Act of Parliament and which still continues to this present time, (say 1814) and is to continue by a new regulation until all who were assisted in the year 1810 are all dead, it is then finally to cease, which said Royal Bounty was to them granted on 20th February 1729, payable at the end of every six months or half-year ever since, and a Bill for this said purpose is brought yearly into Parliament and has never yet met with any opposition, down to the time as aforesaid, viz 1810, and we flatter ourselves will continue to the last surviving poor pensioner, and for the information and satisfaction of my surviving relatives I herein certify that I Leonard Turquand was appointed by his Majesty George III a Commissioner to distribute his said Majesty's Royal Bounty to poor French Protestant Refugees and their descendants in the year 1777 my father also was one of the Commissioners, and also my brother James Lewis Turquand who was appointed in the year 1788. |
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In order then to maintain themselves, they being deprived of all pecuniary assistance, she again sat down and applied herself to the manufacturing of shags, and by mutual and unvaried exertions and by the blessing of God, were enableddecently to support themselves. Continuing thus for upwards of seven years and paying regularly to their Church situated in Browns Lane Spitalfields, called La Patente (the Then only French Protestant Church for the poor Refugees, and in which church my brother and myself were baptised). They then resigned themselves up entirely to the Almighty's will, and thought they had emptied their bitter cup of mortal sufferings, having, by the support of the Almighty, for the last twelve years been so wonderfully upheld, and would bave been perfectly satisfied to have remained in England and thankful for what they had but Being overpersuaded they returned to France to make an effort for regaining their long absent sons, and also their estates, the persecution having then to all appearance subsided. |
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They accordingly disposed of all their goods etc. and set out for Chatellerault and Poitiers, but alas, they found they had still the dregs of their long long bitter cup to dispense with, for on their arrival they experienced the utmost mortification and confusion; their patrimonial estates, goods etc. being confiscated and occupied by unnatural relations and strangers, for a law had, shortly before their arrival, been passed, allowing those who would renounce their heretical faith to retain and possess all the fugitives' estates, excluding the Protestants, by any process in law, from recovering any part of their property, and I am sorry to relate that many took every advantage of this new and unwarrantable law which had passed in their favour and apostatiged, and voluntarily re-entered into the mother-church for the sake of enjoying, not only the estates but the rents from farms and lands due to these poor persecuted Refugees, so that in fact all was gone and irricoverably lost. |
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Thus frustrated in all their attempts for obtaining some restitutions, they determined to return again to England and to bring their two youngest sons, Claude and Peter, with them, retracing in part the same road by which they both were obliged to flee between 13 and 14 years before. Their eldest sons Paul and Rene they left behind, they being already established in business at Chatellerault and married, and with their, and some of the well disposed assistance, still bearing the bitter mortification & reflection of the cutting law which passed during their stay, in endeavouring to recover their valuable estates, they left Chatellerault and all landed safe at Plymouth, where they were in hopes of again seeing her good friends with whom she passed her first three years of lamentations, but they and all their family had removed to Bristol. They then resolved to come up to London and to establish themselves once more in Spitalfields. She had the satisfaction to see her two sons marry and settle in the weaving branch : she died after a very short illness of but two days and was buried in Spitalfields. It pleased the Almighty to terminate his mortal life in the year 1743, very suddenly also, for rising one morning hw was heard to cry out "Oh my head, my head" and instantly expired at the age of 76 enjoying till his death, a good state of health, and able to eat the hardest crust of bread, and had it so baked by his desire. |
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We will now go on to relate what is left us on record concerning Paul 5th who was the eldest son of the persecuted Paul 4th. This Paul 5th was born on 20th January 1689. He Married a Marie Jeannette Martineau and settled in business some time previous to his father's and mother's return into France in the expectation of recovering some of their property being over-persuaded so to do, and whom, with their second son Rene, they left behind, taking on their final return only their two youngest as before related. He and his brother Rene sorely lamented their not accompanying them, circumstanced as they were at that time, but hoped that after a time they might be able to recover something for their father or finally for themselves and brothers, in which they succeeded but compared to the whole was but small. It caused them very sad reflections as they were obliged to conform to many outward forms of the Roman Catholic religion in order to retain what they had recovered though they inwardly retained the reformed Calvinistic persuasion to the last moments of their existence, for they used numerously to assemble far and near, several times in the year in order to praise their maker singing the Psalms and receiving the Holy Sacrament in conformity to the Protestant faith. These assemblies were generally held at midnight, in the open air, in woods, and when over, each one or family, returned on or before break of day, out of this bye-place to their own homes, and thus it continued although well known, not only by the Roman Catholic priest then living in and about Chatellerault, but by all the town, they not presuming to give offence until the year 1806 or 1807, when Buonaparte gave toleration to all persuasions whatsoever, but we know not how long this toleration may continue, as France has called Louis 18th to reign over them and discarded the Emperor, wife and son, from this exalted situation and banished him to the Island of Elba, near Naples in Italy. |
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This extraordinary change for France took place in April 1814 after 24 years deprivation of the Bourbons to the throne - But we protestants are more than apprehensive this liberty of conscience will not be permitted any length of time as Louis XVIII professes great animosity against us poor French protestants, and is moreover himself a great bigot and staunch upholder of the Roman Catholic religion. But to return... This Paul 5th came once to England (being apprehensive of another persecution) in hopes of establishing himself here with his family, and to be near his father and mother who were still living, but being disappointed in all his researches, and enquiries and seeing it too hazardous to attempt, he, with the utmost chagrin and regret, took a last farewell of his father, mother and brothers, returned again to Chatellerault, and moreover it was by his assistance they were enabled again to reestablish themselves and their two sons on their return to England. He died on the 5th of December 1761, aged only seventy two. His wife lingered for the space of nine years after him, and died in the year 1770, leaving behind them, three sons and five daughters, being eight in all to bemoan their loss |
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Having now thought proper to close the account of the foregoing genealogy of my ancestors I think it but justly due to the memory of my dear wife Mary Catherine to give to my children an account of the genealogy of their dear mother as far back as tradition has afforded me and which commences about the year 1570 or 1580. |
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The father from whom I am now going to commence the following account, by general report died at the advanced age of one hundred and six, at Pamprou in the county of Poitou, but whether he left any more sons or daughters than the one of whom I am now going to give an account I could never learn. It is as follows, Viz:-
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John Chabusant was the son of the above old man, named John (who in all probability might be born about 1560) and was born at Pamprou in the province of Poitou on the 7th November 1645. He married a Catherine Billet or Billette who was of the family of the Gilles Filleau des Billettes who are spoken of in the year 1634. There were three brothers, all born at Pamprou. One of them married a noble lady or Noblesse in French when at Poitiers. They were all great writers, historians, and translators of Foreign languages. One of them wrote the life of St. Lewis (9th King of France): another translated Don Quixote into French, and another was patronized by Madame de Longueville ; all had employment at Paris. They were professed Protestants and at the persecution were all dispersed the eldest died on the 20th August 1720 at Pamprou, at the age of 86 (see the annals of the Royal Society of Sciences for the year 1720), But to proceed:- This John Chabusant in the year 1669 married a Catherine Billet or Billette; she was born on the 23rd April 1643 and they had three daughters Viz:-
Mary born February 1670
Jeanne " 1673
Louise " 1675
Who were all born at Pamprou in Poitou. On the 4th October 1681 they all made their escape (it was at the time of the persecution of the protestants) embarked at La Rochelle and arrived safe in England, but they shortly after returned.
This Mary Chabusant married a Louis Morin, who was the son of Jean Baptiste Morin a Doctor in Medicine, a Royal Professor in Mathematics, born at Villefrance in Bojolois on the 6th November 1656. He was also a famous Astrologer and foretold the imprisonment and death of Claude Dormy Bishop of Boulogne: the death of the King of Sweden : Cardinal Richelieu and the Marquis of Cinq Mars (see History of Les Hommes Illustres) His wife's name was Antoinette Pellet of the town of Orange, in the county of Provence in France, which town was nearly dispeopled at the time of the persecution of the Protestants. History relates that they were all destroyed, and those who were overlooked at the massacre were turned out of the place to perish. It is from this town the Princes of Orange take their title, and although the town is said to have been greatly reduced in size, it covers still a space of four leagues square, it was formerly accounted the strongest fortified place in Europe and noticed as far back as 381. This Louis Morin (only son of Jean Baptiste Morin and of Antoinette Pellet of the town or City of Orange) was born in March 1661 at St Paul de Trois Chateaux (in English St. Paul of the Three Castles) in the province of Dauphiny in France. He married Mary Chabusant as before related, by whom he had but one daughter, born in October 1694 and baptized Catherine Marie, at St. Paul-trois-chateaux, where both her father and mother died.
Now it so happened that Rene Turquand of Chatellerault the second son of Paul Turquand(the 4th) married this Catherine Mary Morin, who soon after their marriage left Chatellerault and came to England, and settled in the sugar-refining business and died as hereinbefore related leaving three children by this his first wife Viz-
Mary Catherine their first born 9th May 1719
John 2nd 1720
Paul 3rd 1721
The last born of the aforesaid Catherine Mary Morin. |
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As I have mentioned that John Chabusant and his wife Catherine Billettes left three daughters: they were disposed of as follows. Viz-
Mary, married a Louis Morin leaving one daughter named Catherine Mary Morin, and whom Rene Turquand married as before mentioned.
Jeanne - Married a Marturin Gastineau.
Louise - married a Jean Gastineau La Fuie, Brothers, both in tea-brokering line in London, one of them left a son who was living in the year 1795.
I think it also but justice to give an account of the disposal of my wife's own brothers John and Paul, who were all three born of Catherine Mary Morin, their mother Viz-
John was brought up to the sugar refining business under his father Rene Turquand, He was a good Latinist, he was never married and of course had no children, and left his property to my wife and his brother Paul.
Paul was brought up for the church, and was a good scholar also he was sent to Winchester College from whence he was ordained and went to Charleston, South Carolina, and had the church of St. Mathews in that town, and which parish and church he retained until his death. He married three different wives. The first, a native of Charleston, by whom he had five girls, but this wife dying he came to England in hopes of settling in some parish here, but did not succeed; however he procured some addition from Government, he returned with a second wife, who was a daughter of a Captain Easom, Captain of the revenue cutter of Lymington in Hampshire. They were married at Southampton where his father then resided with his third wife whose name was Minguet a widow, and who had a daughter then about 20 years of age, and after tarrying there a few weeks, he and his wife returned to America where she very shortly died. He then for the third time, married a native of his own parish, by whom he had fove more daughters. He died in the year 1786 just after he had received his share of his brother John's inheritance. To the amount of which I by his desire, invested in merchandise suitable for that Country amounting to £497.14.7 His amount with interest was only £481.14.7 which overplus of £16 I claimed as being due to me. The goods were shipped the 26th August 1785 consisting of one case and ten bales of merchandize marked P.T. No.1 to 11 on board the "Briton" Captn. Wm. Robertson of Charleston South Carolina in America, and were consigned to Mr. Wm. Ancrum of the said place, by order and for the account and risk of Mr. Paul Turquand of the said Charleston South Carolina. On the 31st January 1786 I received from mr. Wm. Ancrum an account of their safe arrival and also of their being at the disposal of the said Revd. Paul Turquand dated 25th October 1785.
On the 5th March 1786 I received a letter from Mrs. Turquand his wife, informing me that her husband, a short time after he had received the goods, desired she would return his sincere thanks for the interest which I added to the capital, and announcing his death, which letter was dated the 6th January 1786, and moreover stating that the £16 sterling I could not oblige her to pay, as by the laws there, a wife was not liable for the debts of her husband. I did not expect this, after remitting capital and interest also: We have never heard from any of the family since, and Mr. Wm. Ancrum wrote us word, he could not succeed without one of us went over. I have noted this circumstance never to overdo it with any relation there.
Here closes the account of my wifes' two brothers. |
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The City of Chastellerault or Chatellerault being my native place I shall here give a description of it from De Thou's "History of Towns of France". It is a Dukedom and suffered much in the civil wars, belonging to the Duke of Montpensier, but formerly to the Princes of the Bourbons situated seven leagues N.E. of Poitiers but is a vast deal larger town, although Poitiers ranks as the Capital of the County, containing a Palace, a Cathedral, and eight parishes within the walls and three in the suburbs. It was close to this town that a stag,alarmed at the sight of Clovis's army, crossed the river, which circumstance gave courage to his troops to ford the same, in order to give battle to Alaric King of the Goths, who was then approaching the city of Chatellerault (in latin Castrumheraldi) which saved great part of the town.
And now having finished and brought to a close all the accounts and also what I have judged proper concerning myself and family I leave to them a copy of the herein written account to each for them to continue the same as before requested. This 15th day of May in the year of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 1786. Amen.
"In the year 1776 being desirous of having our Coat of Arms and also interested in what has been herein related I applied to Mr. Snelling, well known at the Heralds here, and whose profession was to procure Coat of Arms for all the Courts of Europe etc. He applied to the Heralds at Paris, and obtained a copy of the register specifying that such coat of Arms were granted to Paul Turquand in the year 1413 and to his male heirs for ever. Born at Chatellerault in the county of Poitou, and then a privy councellor of state. Furnished with these credentials I applied to the heralds here to have them also enregistered, all which was granted me bearing date 1777 in the reign of George 3rd etc etc and sent to me written out, with our arms properly coloured on vellum enclosed in a case with the respective seals of the college of the Heralds annexed to the deed, which I gave to my eldest son Leonard Turquand."
The foregoing narrative appears to have been written at the request of Paul (6th) Turquand, by his son Leonard, from translations of original manuscripts and from information given by the said Paul (6th). It will be observed that from the time of Paul (2nd) 16th Century) the only other branches besides those brought down to Leonard and James Lewis through which the family name of "Turquand" could be transmitted are Claude and Peter the two youngest sons of Paul 4th who are stated to have married and settled in Spitalfields.
Written and subscribed with my own hand this 1st June 1813 in the sixty sixth year of my age
Signed Leonard Turquand |
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