# Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 9 - Section III

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III. Du Quesne (now Du Cane).
The English houses of Du Cane (or, rather, one family with many branches) spring from a good refugee named Du Quesne. His family includes a competent chronicler (Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane, K.C.B.), who has privately printed the result of his researches and collections. This is fortunate, for there were several refugees of the name, and there was a genealogist of last century who was so anxious to find a place ​for all of them in one pedigree, that in an accepted pedigree there was found a grandfather, aged only nineteen. There were two Pierre Du Quesnes who died in London in 1671; each had a brother named Jean, and the father of each was named Jean; the wills of both of them are in the Somerset House Registry.
The refugee with whose family we are now concerned was Jean Du Ouesne, a native of Ath, in the Province of Hainault, who fled from Duke Alva’s persecutions in or about 1568. He came to Canterbury, and afterwards removed to London, probably before 1600, the date of his son’s marriage. He was an ancien of the French Church. In the official lists of “Straungers” in 1618, he is entered as a merchant and a free denizen, residing in Broad Street ward. A Jean Du Quesne died in Canterbury, 17th September 1638. But our refugee is probably the person noted in Richard Smyth’s Obituary as “Mr. Ducane in the Old Jury,” buried in London, 1st September 1640.
Jean Du Quesne (secundus), the elder son of the refugee, was married in Threadneedle Street on 22d January 1600 (n.s.) to Sara De Francqueville, a native of Antwerp, daughter of Jean de Francqueville and Anne Le Maire. He was a diacre of the French Church. He was not included in the census of 1618, having died in London, 18th August 1612. A copy of his will, “translated out of frenshe,” is in Somerset House, beginning thus:—
“In the name of God, Amen. This sixteenth day of August 1612, I John du Quesne the yonger, beinge att this pnt. sick, was willing to ordaine my Testament and last will, peceably submittinge myself to God’s will, commending unto him my soule, he having Redeemed the same by the benefit of his deare sonne Jesus Christ, I give my bodye to the earth attending the blessed Resurrection of the faithfull.”
The will was witnessed by “Peter du Quesne, his brother,” and “Peter du Quesne, his cosin.”
This cousin’s existence seems to establish the fact that another refugee was Julien Du Quesne, brother of Jean. The cousin Pierre was probably the Pierre Du Quesne who married, in 1618, Ester, daughter of Hubert de la Vincquiere, and who is called “fils de Julien Du Quesne.”
The “brother” Peter is, in the census of 1618, entered as living with his father. He was a diacre of the French Church. He married, in 1611, Sara, native of Norwich, daughter of the late Hugues Harber, and had five sons and two daughters, but the line is extinct.
We come to the third Jean Du Quesne, grandson of the refugee Jean (and son of Jean, from whose will we have quoted). He was born in London, 31st January 1601 (n.s.), married, 22d September 1647, Ester, daughter of Samuel de la Place, “ministre de la Parole de Dieu,” and did not die until 22d April 1684, at the age of eighty-three, although he had received at the age of eleven from his father a supplementary legacy of £200 “because of his infirmities.”
A sister of the third Jean Du Quesne was Marie (born 17th October 1602), who became in 1620 the wife of James Houblon, the ancien, and died of the plague, 15th September 1646. Another sister, Sara (born 1608, died 1653), was married in 1636 to Isaac, son of Abraham Le Quesne, of Rouen.
There were several brothers of the third Jean Du Quesne; we single out Pierre, whom we may call Peter, the father of the founder of the English family. Peter Du Quesne (born 11th July 1609) married at Canterbury, 7th July 1636, Jeanne, daughter of Elias Maurois, of Canterbury (son of Elie Maurois, refugee from Hoplire), by Elizabeth, daughter of Laurens Des Bouverie. Their seventh son, Peter (born on Tuesday, 17th March 1646, new style), founded the English family which has anglicised the spelling of its name. The proper name Quesne is a corruption of the noun chesne or chène, signifying an oak; and ch being often pronounced like k, this noun to an Englishman would have the sound of cane; hence arose the name, Du Cane.
Peter Du Cane, born in 1646, was an influential citizen of London. On 15th August 1649 he was chosen as one of a committee of fifteen persons “to prepare bye-laws for the new bank” [i.e., the Bank of England]. On 11th March 1697 (n.s.) he was heard at the bar of the House of Commons in opposition to a bill for “engrafting” upon the Bank. He married, in 1676, Jane, daughter of Richard Booth, Esq., Alderman of London, and died at Tunbridge on 16th September 1714, aged sixty-eight. His son, Richard Du Cane (born 13th October 1681, died 3d October 1744), married Anne, daughter and heiress of Nehemiah Lyde, Esq., and grand-daughter maternally of Colonel Thomas Reade, a famous parliamentarian soldier; he was M.P. ​for Colchester in the first Parliament of George I., and a director of the Bank of England.
The heir of Richard and Anne was Peter Du Cane (born 22nd April 1713, died 28th March 1803), High Sheriff of Essex in 1744-5. He became by purchase Lord of the Manor of Great Braxted; he was a Director of the East India Company and of the Bank of England. He married, 27th May 1735, Mary, daughter of Henry Norris, of Hackney, and was after his death represented by the heirs of his body thus:—
1. Peter (born 1741), who married, in 1769, Phebe Philips, daughter of Edward Tredcroft, Esq., of Horsham, and died in 1822, leaving a son,
Peter (born 19th August 1778), M.P. for Steyning, who died in May 1841, leaving no heirs.
2. Rev. Henry Du Cane, Vicar of Coggeshall, Essex (born 21st September 1748), who married, 4th April 1778, Louisa, daughter of John Charles Desmadryll, Esq., and grand-daughter maternally of Major-General Desborough. He died twelve years before his elder brother, namely, on 16th April 1810. His three sons were:—
(1.) The Rev. Henry Du Cane, of the Grove, Witham, Rector of St. Bennett’s, Paul’s Wharf (born 1786, died 1855).
(2.) Major Richard Du Cane, of the 20th Light Dragoons (born 1788, died 1832).
(3.) Commander Charles Du Cane, R.N. (born 1789, died 1850).
The estate of Braxted Park is now in the possession of the heir of the third of these sons. But following the order of birth, we may note that the late Captain Percy Charles Du Cane, of the Scots Greys (born 1840, died 1873), was the last surviving male heir of the first line; his sisters are, Emily, Mrs. Codd; Louisa Mary, Lady O'Malley; Charlotte, Mrs. Luard; and Anna Maria, Mrs. Wilkinson.
The second line is represented by (1) Richard Du Cane, Esq. (born in 1821), who married, in 1859, Charlotte Maria, daughter of Sir Josiah John Guest, Bart, and Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest; (2) Colonel Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane, K.C.B. (born in 1830), of the Royal Engineers, Inspector-General of Military Prisons, and Chairman of the Commissioners of Prisons. To this line belonged Rev. Arthur Du Cane (born 1825, died 1865), Minor Canon of Wells Cathedral.
The third line is represented by Sir Charles Du Cane, K.C.M.G., of Braxted Park (born in 1825), Chairman of the Board of Customs (formerly M.P. for North Essex, and a Lord of the Admiralty, afterwards Governor of Tasmania); he married, in 1863, Hon. Georgiana Susan Copley, third daughter of Lord Lyndhurst.