Louis CHEVALLEAU DE BOISRAGON Chevalier de la Chenaye [26462]

  General Notes:

BOISRAGON
An ancient French family, surnamed CHEVALLEAU, acquired the territorial title of De la Liffardiere, and at a later date the territorial title of De Boisragon. Jean Chevalleau Ecuyer, proved his chevalerie in 1594. In 1614, Pierre Chevalleau, Ecuyer, Seigneur de la Liffardiare, married Marthe, daughter of Jean Rignon, Ecuyer, Sieur de la Braconniere by Antoinette Prevost.
His son and heir, Jean Chevalleau, Ecuyer, Seigneur de Boisragon, was living in the chateau of St. Maixant in Poitou, in 1665, having married, in 1652, Catherine de Marconnare. From him descended the French family and the refugee family of Boisragon. The refugee, born in Maixant, was the younger son of Louis Chevalleau. Seigneur de Boisragon. He took refuge, first in Holland, and latterly in England in the train of William of Orange. On 18th March 1689-92, he was enrolled in Schombergs Horse as a cornet ; he rose to be Captain in that regiment He obtained the rank of Major in 1708, and was Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel in 1709-10. At the date of his death he was Lieut-Colonel in command of the 53rd Foot
His Will, dated 16th December 1729, was proved 2 April 1730.
He had married, in 1700, Louise Poyrand, daughter of Messire Rene Poyrand, Seigneur Des Clouseaux, by whom he had a daughter, Catherine Louisa, and a son, Alexander Louis Chevallcau de Boisragon, who, alter serving as an ensign in our army, retired to Surinam. Lieutenant-Colonel be Boisragon 's second wife, whom he married on 21st December 1713, was Marie Henriette, daughter of Messire Nicolas de Rambouillet, chevalier, Seigneur de la Sabliere. By her he had Susanna Henrietta, Mrs Layard, Elizabeth - Mrs. Maty and Anne - Mrs. Justamond also Major Henry Boisragon of Windsor, who died In 1791, and Major Charles Gideon Boisragon, CB
The latter Major Boisragon married Mary, daughter of James Patterson of Combe, County Down. His son was Henry Charles Boisragon, M.D., of Cheltenham. who married, on 7th June 1803, Mary, daughter of John Gascoyne Fanshawe of Parsloe, Essex, and whose sons were Captain Charles Henry Boisragon of the Bengal army, Theodore Smith Boisragon, M.D., and Conrad Gascoyne Boisragon. The eldest of the above, Captain Boisragon (born in 1804) married Ellen, daughter of General Maxwell, and his sons were Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Boisragon, and Major-General Theodore Walter Ross Boisragon, CB., commandant of the 30th Punjab Infantry from 1861 to 1881, who died in 1882.
Ref: Protestant Exiles From France Vol 2 by A D Carnegie


From 'Chronicles of the Boisragon Family', by Ida H. Layard
Posted 18 Dec 2022 by Chris Goddard
Whilst the Roman Catholic branch of the Boisragon family continued to abide on their estates, the Huguenot exiles \emdash Louis, Chevalier de la Chênaye; Charles, Seigneur du Pont, and one other, Seigneur de Courcé, were carving their own fortunes at the point of their swords.
Charles du Pont became a lieutenant in the corps of Lünebourg, and was living in 1704. His widow, Marthe Alibert, was buried at Berlin, and registered as "the widow of Charles Chevalet de Boisragon". Madame de Boisragon was a native of Grenoble.
Of Louis' sufferings there is a more complete account in the Bulletin for September, 1887, of the Sociéte de l'histoire du Protestantisme français, p. 477, by M. A. J. Enschede, which runs thus:\emdash
"Louis Chevalleau, Chevalier, Seigneur de Boisragon, Province de Poitou, a en les dragons cinq semaines et ensuite mis en prison à la Rochelle, à la Tour de Saint Nicolas*, et de là transferé dans la prison ordinaire fut mis au cachot, et par sentence du présidial, condamné aux Galeres, de laquelle sentence estant appellant, il fut mené dans la conciergerie du palais à Paris, ou il fut mis dans les Cachots, les fers aux pieds, et aux mains: de là il fut encore transferé dans les prisons du Chatelet et du Fort l'Eveque, et finalement, a esté conduit sur la fontrière par ordre du Roy".
[Louis Chevalleau, Knight, Lord of Boisragon, Province of Poitou, spent five weeks in the dragoons and was then imprisoned at La Rochelle, in St Nicholas' Tower*, and from there transferred from the ordinary prison and put in the dungeon, and by sentence of the Presidial, sentenced to the galleys, from which - his sentence being appealed - he was taken to the Conciergerie of the Palace in Paris, where he was put in the dungeons, with irons on his feet and hands: from there he was again transferred to the prisons of Chatelet and Fort l'Eveque, and finally, was taken to the border, by order of the King]
*The Tour Saint Nicolas, with the Tour de la Chaine, are two great forts, which guard the entrance of the harhour at La Rochelle.
Having attained the rank of captain, Louis de Boisragon served at the Boyne and other actions in Ireland, and was aide-de-camp to Monsieur d'Auverquerque at the Battle of Loudun, the certificates of which are dated at Ghent, 17th December, 1695, and signed "d'Auverquerque, Lieut.-General of the Armies of his Britannic Majesty, Commanding-in- Chief his Cavalry in the Low Countries, and Lieut.-General of the United Provinces". He was made exempt in the Guards, dated at Kensington, 9th April, 1700, by his Majesty, and in the next month we find him at leisure to marry.
Louis de Boisragon married on the 25th May, 1700, at the Chapel Royal, St. James' \emdash then called the Priory Chapel, Pall Mall \emdash Louise Royrand, daughter of Messire René Royrand, Seigneur des Clouseaux and Dame Marguerite de Goulaine, natives of La Marche. She was the widow of Messire Henri Auguste Helias, Seigneur de La Grange Boisraux. Pasteur Ménard blessed the marriage.
Captain de Boisragon cannot have had much time for the enjoyments of home life.
The next trace of him is on foreign service, while his wife seems to have lived at the Hague, where he joined her at different times. He was there in 1704, for they made their will conjointly in that year at the Hague.
He was again with her before his receiving his brevet of Lieut.-Colonel. Their first child, Alexandre Louis, was bom at the Hague in 1709. In the same year the Colonel was naturahsed; Anne and the infant also. Act No. 42, "an infant bom at the Hague, son of Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon and Lewize".
The Boisragons had another child, named Catherine Louise, of whom nothing is known, except that she was living in 1729.
In 1713 Madame de Boisragon died, and in the end of the same year Lieut.-Colonel Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon married again \emdash in the same church which had witnessed his first vows \emdash Marie Henriette de Rambouillet, second daughter of Messire Nicolas de Rambouillet, Chevalier, Marquis de la Sabliere and Henriette Louise de Cheusses.
There is another lapse of a few years, as on the first occasion, between their marriage and the birth of their children, Lieut.-Colonel Boisragon is Lieut.-Colonel of Horse in Bouchelier's regiment in 1715 (brevet of 24th June, 1715, signed "Galway"), having been promoted from the lieut.-colonelship of Foot in Nassau's regiment (brevet dated 16th Febmary, 1715, at St. James', signed "George").
Not till 1716 was their first child bom, Susanne Henriette, who in the twenty-third year of her age married at Spring Gardens Chapel, London, on the 4th August, 1743, Dr. Daniel Peter Layard, later Physician to the Dowager Princess of Wales, and President of the Benevolent Medical Society of the County of Kent, and at that time a handsome young man of twenty-three, four years younger than his wife.
A portrait of Susanne Henriette de Boisragon, Madame Layard, by John Cole, is in the possession of the Marquis of Huntly at Orton Longueville, with one of her sister Anne.
Madame de St Maurice, whose maiden name was Magdalene Christine Dulac, when making her will, left to Suzanne Boisragon, Madame Layard "£20, my bed, with all which thereto belongs, the foot-carpet, which is in my room, and my suit of black Paduasoy," also "a clock ''.

[The following paragraphs are incorrect - see tree]
The Colonel's second daughter, Elizabeth, married on the 13th December, 1743, in the same year as her elder sister, Dr. Mathew Maty (or Mathieu), son of Paul Maty, of Manosque, in the Departement des Basses Alpes, and of Jeanne Crothier des Marets. Dr. Maty was bom in 1718, and was therefore twenty-five at the time of his marriage with Elizabeth Boisragon. In 1758 her husband was appointed librarian to the British Museum, in which post he was succeeded by their son Paul Henri in 1776.
Their daughter Louisa married Roger Jortin, Esq., of Lincolns Inn, son of the Pastor Jean Jortin, also Huguenots like the Maty, Layarde and Boisragon.
Anne, the youngest daughter, married a Monsieur Tustamond, also of Huguenot descent.
The two sons were evidently the latest born of Colonel Boisragon's children \emdash Henry Charles and Gedeon [sic] Charles. In a few years the family was deprived of its head. The Colonel died in 1736 [sic], being then in the 53rd regiment of foot.
Henry Charles Boisragon, born in June, 1728, was "a good and gallant soldier, and saw much service during the wars in the Low Countries ".

  Research Notes:

Image Courtesy of Jane Layard Herasimenko from the book "Auld Acquaintance" by Charles Gordon (1847 - 1937).

Louis married Louise POYRAND [32489] [MRIN: 11601], daughter of Rene POYRAND [32490] and Unknown, on 25 May 1700 in French Chapel St James Palace Westminster. (Louise POYRAND [32489] died in 1713 in The Hague Netherlands.)

Louis next married Marie Henriette de RAMBOUILLET [26463] [MRIN: 9507], daughter of Nicholas RAMBOUILLET [32493] and Unknown, on 21 Dec 1713 in Chapel Royal St James LND. (Marie Henriette de RAMBOUILLET [26463] was born in Oct 1684 in France and died before 1730.)