# Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - D’Olier

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​D’Olier. — The venerated refugee of this name, whom we have already memorialized, and who died about 1744, left one son and namesake, Isaac. What branch of business the refugee established in Dublin I am not informed, but probably it was that in which he was followed by his son, whom I first meet in his “prerogative marriage license,” dated 17th May 1733, where the happy couple are described as “Isaac D’Olier, goldsmith, of St. Werburgh’s, Dublin, and Joyce Keen, of the same parish, spinster.” The family pedigree states that she was a daughter of Arthur Keene, Esq. of Ulverston, Lancashire. Their marriage took place on 29th May 1733, and their eldest son was baptized on 12th March 1733 (i.e., 1734 new style). She died in 1771 (aged sixty-two), and he in 1781. The Prerogative Will of Isaac D’Olier, the elder, of Little Forest, Dublin, gentleman, which was dated in 1778, and proved on 28th February 1781, mentions his three sons, Isaac, Richard, and Jeremiah. Isaac (born 1734) is called in his Dublin Marriage License, dated 28th April 1768, “Isaac D’Olier of Little Forest, gentleman;” after his father’s death he is styled “of Finglas.” It would appear that his father and he, as the heads of the family, had renounced business; because each of his two brothers, who took wives at the same period, is styled “goldsmith.” Isaac died in 1790 (aged fifty-six). As to his brothers, the Dublin marriage license of Richard is dated 11th February 1768, and that of Jeremiah 24th February 1769.
Richard was led to visit France, landing at Bourdeaux, and sojourning at Montauban, by medical advice, for about three years from August 1791. The leaders of the French Revolution arrested him, and imprisoned him as a suspected conspirator. In order to obtain his release his friends in Dublin made affidavits on 18th April 1794, before the Mayor, to the effect that Richard D’Olier was a grandson of a refugee from the persecutions in France in the reign of Louis XIV. (this was ​certified by two old gentlemen who had known the grandfather personally), that the said Richard was universally respected in Dublin, and that he had sailed for Bourdeaux in 1791, for no other reason than the re-establishment of his health. On the same day several “bankers, merchants, and inhabitants” of Dublin signed a corroborative certificate, laying emphasis on the fact that Mr. D’Olier was a descendant of a French family. The signatures were — D. La Touche, banker; Abm. Wilkinson, governor of the Bank of Ireland; G. Gloadowe Newcomen & Co., bankers in Dublin; John Finlay & Co., 'bankers in Dublin'; Alex. Jaffray; Peter Joseph Tourtellor, merchant; James Boursquot, Gaspard Erck, John Erck, Benigne Lescure, widow of John Lescure of Moutanban; Alexander Mangin, grandson of a refugee; John Ladaveze. Rev. Isaac Subremont, French pasteur of Dublin, both made an affidavit and also translated the papers and certificate into French for the use of the French potentates. The result was that they released the prisoner, their principal reason being that because his grandfather had been persecuted by Louis XIV., therefore he himself could have no friendship or good wishes for the Royal Bourbons. He had been in prison for more than a year. He returned to Dublin, and resided there till his death. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Nicholas Ogle, Esq., of a Westmeath family; she died in January 1816, and he survived her only until the 9th of the following October, aged seventy-nine.
We now pass to the next brother, Jeremiah, who was one of the first directors, and afterwards Governor of the Bank of Ireland. His father had acknowledged his business talents by appointing him to be executor of his Will. Richard seems to have ascertained that the father of the D’Olier refugee had a country house near Montauban called Collegnes. Mr. Jeremiah D’Olier therefore gave this name to his own country house near Dublin; and he was styled “of Collegnes, Esq.” His wife was Sara, daughter and heiress of Matthew Collins, Esq. D’Olier Street in Dublin was named after him; he died 11th October 1817. Thus we wind up the notices of the three sons of Isaac D’Olier of Little Forest, and come to their descendants.
The son of Isaac, the first of the three, had no descendants; he is styled Joseph D’Olier, Esq., of the Bank of Ireland. He lived unmarried; but as he lost his father in 1790, and survived him till after 1840, we may say that he was the chief of his name for more than half a century. The headship then passed to his nephew, the only surviving son of Richard, namely, Isaac D’Olier, LL.D., Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Secretary to the Board of First Fruits, born 1772. He appears in the Prerogative Marriage License, “Isaac D’Olier to Maria Brooke, of St. Mary’s, Dublin,” dated 25th July 1794; in the pedigree his wife is called “Maria Jane, daughter of Henry Brooke, Esq.” He died in his seventieth year on 2d November 1841. His widow died on 18th July 1854, aged seventy-seven. Their daughter Anna Maria, wife of Archdeacon Wolseley, died in 1870, aged seventy.
Dr. Isaac D’Olier was succeeded in the headship of the refugee family by his son, Rev. Richard Henry D’Olier, M.A., Vicar of Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare; he was born in 1797, and married in 1823 Charlotte, daughter of George Lunnon of Drumraney, county Westmeath, Esq., and great-grandniece of Lord Chancellor Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon. This first and last clergyman of the family died 9th April 1839, aged forty-two; his widow survived till 16th August 1880. Their eldest and only surviving son, Isaac Arthur D’Olier, M.D., of Dublin, died in London on 19th July 1871, leaving a son, Isaac James D’Olier, head of the senior line.
The younger brothers and sisters of Isaac Arthur D’Olier are to be found in the records of Canada. There was George Ogle D’Olier, Crown Solicitor in Peterborough, Canada, who died in 1857, leaving two sons, Richard Henry and George John; there was another brother Richard Henry D’Olier, Civil Engineer in Upper Canada; a sister, Elizabeth Maria D’Olier, married Judge Hall, and died in 1858. There remained in Ireland Maria Henrietta, Mrs. Duckworth, and Charlotte Theodosia, Mrs. Roe. (Charlotte D’Olier Roe, daughter of the latter, was married in 1878 to Lord Granville Armyne Gordon, brother of the eleventh Marquis of Huntly).
We now come to the representatives of the Governor of the Bank of Ireland, Jeremiah D’Olier, Esq. of Collegnes, who died in 1817, having given two names to his son and heir, uniting the French and Irish ancestry. Isaac Matthew D’Olier, Esq., married Margaret Eleanor, daughter of John Rutherfoord of St. Doulough’s, Esq., and died at Collegnes on January 20, 1855, leaving two sons, Isaac Matthew and John Rutherfoord; and a daughter, Sarah Rosanna, wife of Rt. Hon. John George, Judge of the Queen’s Bench, Ireland. Of these, Isaac Matthew D’Olier of ​Collegnes, Esq., has been the head of this house for the past thirty years. John Rutherfoord D’Olier, Esq., barrister-at-law, married Helen Campbell, daughter of James Lawson, Esq., writer to the Signet, Edinburgh, and has two children, Isaac Matthew and Helen Campbell.