David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ As is well known, the Protestants of France, and notably of Languedoc, had to meet for worship in the open air, and their congregations were named The Churches of the Wilderness (les églises du désert) . These congregations were, according to the law of France, illegal and seditious, and accordingly their members often suffered imprisonment and death. The persecuted worshippers were steadfast to their duty, and met all the terrors and threats of the government and of the magistracy with their conscientious demand for liberty to worship God in public assemblies. ”

“ Under his wing the refugee student studied theology, and made such remarkable progress that at the age of eighteen he was permitted to go forth as a preacher. This was in 1694; the scene of his probationary labours was Ireland, where he remained for two years. In 1696 he returned to England as French pasteur of Wandsworth, and in 1711 he was translated to the charge of the Artillerie French Church of London. Altogether he served the French refugees in England for twenty-nine years with approbation and public reputation. ”

“ The witnesses of the marriage were his brother, Marc Boisbeleau, Sieur de Montassier, Master of the Falcons (gentilhontmme de la fauconnerie) to the Prince of Condé, and that brother’s son, Marc Boisbeleau, divinity student (afterwards a refugee French pasteur at Amsterdam) .
Armand de la Chapelle became a student in the College of Bordeaux. He seems to have lost his father in early boyhood; for it was in the charge of his mother that he came to England as a refugee after the Edict of Revocation. The octogenarian pasteur, Isaac Du Bourdieu, was his grandfather. ”