Salomon Blosset de Loche
Brigadier-General Salomon de Blosset, Seigneur de Loche (c. 1648 – 21 October 1721) was a Huguenot army officer.
Background
Born in the Dauphiné to Paul de Blosset, Seigneur des Eissarts, from a family of Huguenots who had left their original home of the Nivernais during the French Wars of Religion (one of the family, Louis de Blosset who led an attack against Corbigny in 1563 [1] escaped the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572). After the Revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 Loche at first fought in support of the Vaudois (as his father had done in 1663 [2]) and at some point came into the service of William of Orange along with many other Huguenot officers. He was recorded as leading a regiment of 800 for the Duke of Savoy on 17 July 1692 [3] and fought at the Battle of Marsaglia in Piedmont on 4 October 1693 (where the Duke of Schomberg's son Charles was killed[4]). He also fought at Brandenburg and in Flanders. As William of Orange became King William III of England, he was granted land in Ireland and settled in Dublin (along with many other Huguenot officers) where he is recorded as receiving 6 shillings per day in pension.[5] He married firstly Catherine Oddos de Bonniot in France and a further time to a sister or sister in law of Captain Theophile de la Cour Des Brisay (whom he named as brother in law and executor in his will). He had four children by his first marriage:
- Colonel Paul de Blosset of Blosset's Regiment of Foot or Blosset's Foot (died 13 November 1719), whose son Solomon Stephen Blosset was ancestor of George Grote and Henrietta, the wife of Henry Jerome de Salis.
- Major Anthony de Blosset
- Captain Salomon or Solomon de Blosset or Blossett married Jeanne daughter of Hector Francois Chataigner de Cramahé from whom descended Colonel John Blossett, and generations of actors beginning with Ethel Lavenu, her son Tyrone Power, Sr. and grandson Tyrone Power.
- Marie de Blosset m. Jacques Teissonière de la Rouvière, Captain of Foot.
References
- ^ La Reforme et les Guerres de Religion en Bourgogne, A St. Martin de la Mer et ses Environs
- ^ Janavel, Combats, Exil et Pouvoir d'un Grand Capitaine Archived 2010-06-21 at the Wayback Machine, Chapitre V, La Guerre des Bannis, Attilio Jalla (Biography of Josué Janavel in French)
- ^ The Army of the Duke of Savoy 1688 - 1713, by Gian Carlo Boeri, page 11
- ^ The Army of the Duke of Savoy at the battle of Orbassano (la Marsaglia) October 1693, by Gian Carlo Boeri
- ^ The Irish Pensioners of William III's Huguenot Regiments, Huguenot Society of London Proceedings, Vol. 6, No. 3, Nov. 1899