Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BIOGRAPHIC NOTICES JAMES DIGGES LA TOUCHE, ESQ. CHAPTER I. HIS ANCESTRY AND PARENTAGE. W HE Founder of the well-known La Touche family 3 in Dublin, was, by birth, of noble rank in France, and in religious profession a Huguenot or Protestant. His name was David
Digues, afterwards altered to
Digges. The principal estate of the family was La Touche, situated in the county Le Bles- sois, near Blois on the Loire, about a hundred miles south-west of Paris. Hence the style
Digues Seigneur de La'Touche, as another branch of the family from another property had the style of
Digues Seigneur de La Brosse. The above David Digues de La Touche was born in 1671. His father died about eight years after- wards. His eldest brother, Paul, conformed to the Roman Catholic Church, held a commission in the army, and was in much favour with the King, Louis the Fourteenth. In his zeal for the Church, that weak and bigoted monarch allowed the Edict of Nantes, the Magna Charta of Protestant liberty in his realm, to be for many years outraged with impunity. At length, in 1685, he formally revoked it. This let slip the dogs of war against the Protestants. Numbers of them had previously fled the country, among whom was David’s uncle, Louis Digues Signeur de La Brosse, who settled in Amsterdam. It was now almost impossible to remain in France professing the Huguenot faith. Bloodshed and spoliation were the order of the day. The seaports were narrowly watched to seize fugitives. Protestant properties were confiscated, and conferred upon votaries of the Church. Those of Digues de La Brosse, with some that belonged to the La Touche branch, were given to Paul. France was impoverished by the destruction or exile of her best citizens; but the nations which gave a home to the refu…