David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ Mr. D’Olier married Martha, daughter of Richard Pilkington, Esq., of Tore, County Westmeath, by whom he had a son, Isaac, ancestor of the D’Olier family, and two daughters, Martha and Joanna. He assumed armorial bearings different from his French coat-of-arms, as a thankful commemoration of his firmness under persecution and of peace and prosperity in the land of his adoption. In the year 1794, some affidavits concerning his grandson were made before the Mayor of Dublin, and one of the matters involved was the identity of the venerated refugee. ”

“ The Dutch Government, like the English, had, in 1681, given facilities for the naturalization of French Protestant refugees. And in terms of the regulations of that year, Isaac D’Olier, of Montauban, merchant, was admitted a burgess of Amsterdam on 21st May 1686, gratis. The expedition of 1688 led him to follow the Prince of Orange into England, and to go over to Ireland. There was little inclination for secular business in the following years of campaigning, combined with anxieties as to the Williamite throne and the designs of France. ”

“ The refugee family of D’Olier descends from a French Protestant exile who bore the ancient surname of Olier. Isaac Olier was a Huguenot martyr of eminent piety and courage, who escaped to Holland about the period of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but suffered during the remainder of his life from the effects of the cruelties and tortures of his Romish persecutors. Wishing that himself and his descendants should be recognised as of French Protestant descent, he assumed the prefix of D’. ”