Edict of Fontainebleau
De Lamerie was born in 's-Hertogenbosch in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands). He was the son of a minor French nobleman, Paul Souchay de la Merie, a Huguenot who left France following the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. His father became an officer in the army of William III of Orange and moved to London in 1689 during the Glorious Revolution, but died a pauper in 1735.