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| The Lefroy family crest |
A
few days ago I viewed the movie "P.S. I Love You" with one of my
favorite actors, Gerard Butler. He has a lovely Irish accent, oops, I
just checked and his accent is Scottish. Oh, well, I can't tell the
difference at any rate. Anyway part of
the film is set in Ireland which of course makes me think of our dear
Tom.
That
film made me think of "Ireland" itself and just exactly why was Tom in
that country. Let me quote from the "Memoir of Chief Justice Lefroy"
first. This is from Chapter 1:
Thomas
Langlois Lefroy was born on the 8th of January, 1776. He was the
eldest son of Anthony Lefroy, Lieut.-Colonel of the 9th Light Dragoons-
the descendant of a Huguenot family, who were obliged to fly from
Cambray, at the period of the Duke of Alva's persecution in the
Netherlands, and took refuge in England. The following inscription, on a
monument in the Parish Church of Petham, Kent, to the memory of Thomas
Lefroy. the great great grandson of Antoine Loffroy, who first emigrated
from Cambray, furnishes an interesting record of the circumstances
under which the Lefroy family first came to adopt England as their
country:
Sacred is
THOMAS LEFROY,
OF CANTERBURY,WHO DIED THIRD DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1723, AGED
43
OF A CAMBRESIAN FAMILY,
THAT PREFERRED RELIGION AND LIBERTY
TO
THEIR CONTRY AND THIER PROPERTY,
IN THE
TIME OF THE DUKE OF ALVA'S PERSECUTION.
Lieut.-Colonel
Lefroy, the father of the subject of this memoir, entered the army in
1763 as Ensign in the 33rd Regiment, then quartered in Ireland, and at
the early age of twenty-three married Anna, daughter of Thomas Gerorge
Gardner, Esq., of Doonass, in the County of Clare....
Jane
referred to Tom as "my Irish friend" which led me to believe that he
truly was all "Irish". After looking at the above few details, I began
to wonder "just how much "Irish" is he?"
The very name "Lefroy" reminds me of it being 'French' from my studies
of French in school. So his ancestors did indeed come from the French
area and landed in England. I have not followed the exact lineage, but
some of those might have married an English woman. And as it turns out,
Tom's father did indeed marry an Irish lady. So in essence Tom is part
French and part Irish.
So,
on that information I rest my case that Tom was not all Irish, and by
that it leads me to wonder about his personal character as defined by
his ancestors. I say that
because in my studies of my own ancestors I have noticed certain
characteristics that are inherited due to the nationalities of my
ancestors.
Another
subject along these lines is the question "What on earth was the
British army doing in Ireland?" But that is a question for another day!
Yrs aff'ly
Linda the Librarian
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