Person:Laurent d'Olivier (2)

A Family Tradition

——From: Chapter 1 of 'OLIVIER – the authorised biography' by Terry Coleman, 2005 ^S2

. . . The Oliviers themselves have traced their descent back to 1520, but this invites caution. Few families, unless they are royal or noble, can convincingly show a line which goes further back than the eighteenth century. When Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979, and the best genealogists in England put their minds to exploring her heritage, they could not get back further than 1750. So what we have here is the Olivier family tradition, and this says that they come from the village of Nay, south of Pau in the furthest south-western part of France, a few miles from Spain across the Pyrenees, and that they were Huguenots, Protestants in a Catholic country. The earliest surmised Olivier is Laurent, born 1520 at Nay, and the family stayed in that region for three generations until Louis XIV, in 1685, forced the Huguenots to abjure their Protestantism or emigrate. One Huguenot pastor who emigrated, to the Netherlands, was Jerome Olivier. Some of this family tradition is not old at all but seems to date from as late as 1947, when Laurence Olivier was knighted and the interest in genealogy was stirred. It was then that the family motto, though probably an old one, was resurrected. It is SICUT OLIVA VIRENS LAETOR IN AEDE DEI: ‘As the Olive Tree Flourishes I Rejoice in the House of God.’ It was then too that the tradition was discovered that the Oliviers or de Oliviers of Nay were of the minor nobility, and that Jerome Olivier came to England from the Netherlands in 1688 as chaplain of William of Orange, who became King William III.³ . . . .

Yet the first we may be able to find who set this family tradition down on paper was Sir Laurence Olivier's great, great grandfather, Daniel Josias Olivier (1722-1782), an eminent London diamond merchant, who wrote his 'Memoirs' of the Olivier family in 1755 - and thus appears to be the earliest source (so far) for his four times great grandfather, Laurent Olivier of the small town of Nay in the 'Kingdom of Béarn' - and who was supposedly born in about 1520.

——From: Addresses read before the Huguenot Society of America [1899-1913], published by the Huguenot Society of America, New York, 1915.^S3

Memoirs | of the Ancient and Worthy Family | “Olivier” | of the City of Nay in Béarn, a Province of | France | Together with its Alliances and Intermarriages | Since the year 1520 | Collected by Daniel Josias Olivier, | Merchant in London | From authentick Papers, Records & Memoirs | in his Possession, and brought down to the present | Year 1755.¹

. . . After fifty pages Daniel Josias Olivier takes up the pen himself.

The opening words of these memoirs transport us and the author from the dull skies of St. Botolph's Parish to the uplifted blue firmament, the fleecy clouds, and majestic snow-covered peaks of the regions round about Pau, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Béarn. Nay [says the author], the birthplace of this Family, is a neat trading city in Béarn, situated on the River Gave or Béarnois, some leagues above the city of Pau (the Capital of that Province) and separated from the Coast of Spain by a great ridge of Mountains. ... The river breaks into great rushes over weirs, or spreads in broad quiet pools, in which are mirrored the glorious peaks of the Pyrenees, melting into opal shadows, and checked with snow and barren rock. Green woods lie at their feet and climb up their sides, and broad pastures slope down to the water’s edge.

Directly in front of the suburb, and connecting it with the opposite bank, is a wide, white bridge, beyond which, rising up the slope and backed by more pastures and trees, are the madder-tinted roofs of the town of Nay, relieved by the brilliant whitewash of modernized houses, such as the Mairie, and the colonnaded houses which flank the square. The old bridge stood but a few yards lower than the present one and gave access to the Place by a narrow street, for in the seventeenth century the square was enclosed on its four sides. To the left of the bridge was the Quartier de Dessus, or "Upper Quarter," situated on the road to Asson. A fine plantation of ancient elms borders the river and beneath their shade flows a quiet backwater, the overflow from the mill situated a little higher up the river. From tree to tree are stretched lines and from them hang, like giant chillies, strands of red wool fresh from the dyers and drying in the air. The scarlet flames are interspersed with blue hanks for this is one of the staples of the "trading city of Nay."

A long street intersects the town from end to end, coming from Asson and passing out by the church into the suburb of St. Roch into the country. Behind the Mairie is another long upper road, along which, between the little houses, are the well-preserved castellated walls which enclose the town to the west. Above this is a spacious market-place for cattle, beneath great oaks and elms, and beyond this again is the hilly country. The parish church stands at the north end of the town and is a solemn, gloomy building. The "Temple" apparently stood at the opposite end, to judge from a street called “Rue du Temple.” Here, in this unpretending peaceful village, emerges from the mists of years the god-fearing Family of Olivier.

The first of the Family whom I have been able to trace knowledge of [says the writer of the Memoirs] was Laurent Olivier, of Nay, born about the year 1520. In or about 1550 his son Bernard was born, whose son Peter was born about 1575. . . .

[1] The text of the Memoirs by Daniel Josias Olivier is printed in small type; manuscript copied verbatim.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Burke, John, Esq. & John Bernard, Esq. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. II – M to Z. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. MDCCCXLVII. (1847) p. 963.

   « OLIVIER OF POTTERNE.
   ...
   Lineage.
   LAURENT OLIVIER, of the city of Nay, in the kingdom of France, b. about 1520, was father of BERNARD OLIVIER, of Nay, b. in 1550, whose son, PETER OLIVIER, of Nay, b. about 1575, had, with a dau., who m. in 1623, Vignan, of Nay, a son, ISAAC OLIVIER, of Nay, b. in 1600, who m. in 1630, Isabeau de Masselin, and d. in 1671, leaving, with a dau., who m. Perier, of Nay, and a son, who d. at Paris, in 1688, an elder son,
   THE REV. JOURDAIN OLIVIER, b. 16 Sept. 1643, .... »
   > Accessed on: books.google.co.uk/

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Coleman, Terry: Olivier – the authorised biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, 2005.

   Its endnote [3]: « The connection to William of Orange is first mentioned in Barker, 1953. Herbert Olivier, the painter uncle, first mentions the petit noblesse of the family in a letter to LO (Laurence Olivier) of 20 September [“1948”], BL PERS 227/2. Burkes’s Peerage, 1940, and The Complete Peerage, ed. Doubleday and de Walden, 1940, give simpler versions of Sydney Olivier’s lineage. »
   > Accessed on: books.google.co.uk/

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Addresses read before the Huguenot Society of America [1899-1913], published by the Huguenot Society of America, New York, 1915.

   MEMOIRS OF THE ANCIENT AND WORTHY FAMILY D'OLIVIER AND THEIR ALLIANCES, 1520 TO 1803
   COLLECTED BY DANIEL JOSIAS OLIVIER, l MERCHANT IN LONDON | FROM AUTHENTICK PAPERS, RECORDS & MEMOIRS | IN HIS POSSESSION, AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE PRESENT | YEAR I755.*
   « To my Descendants
   Whatsoever dear child of mine Shall take this Book into his hands, I charge to keep it precious, as it perpetuates the characters of the most pious Persons He has the Happiness to be sprung from, and the memory of the Friendship, in both which respects, it justly challenges his Imitation, and may, through God's grace, prove a furtherance to his Improvement in our holy Protestant Religion, in Virtue, Morality, and good Manners: And I trust in God such Examples will continue in the Family, the account whereof I have brought down as far as in my time has been possible. I enjoin my Successors to continue regularly the same plan and to transmit it to theirs, with the same injunction, that the Remembrance of the Righteous may endure for ever, and the Glory thereof attributed to God alone. Amen.
   The “Record” to which this lengthy Title and Preface introduce the reader is contained in a weighty volume bound in red leather and tooled artistically in gold. Its pages are clean and strong and the first portion of the document is transcribed in a clear bold hand by a friend of the author, Henry Combrune, son of Major Pierre de Combebrune of the Dragoons. After fifty pages Daniel Josias Olivier takes up the pen himself. .... »
   * « The text of the Memoirs by Daniel Josias Olivier is printed in small type; manuscript copied verbatim. »
   Extracted from snippet views on: books.google.co.uk/
   From worldcat.org/ :
   'Addresses read before the Huguenot Society of America.'
   New York : Huguenot Society of America, 1915
   OCLC Number: 31736401 / Description: 175 pages ; 26 cm.
   Contents:
   The Huguenots, some account of their persecution, sufferings, wanderings, and achievements / F.A. Roe. 1899 --
   A biographical sketch of Dr. Jacques Laborie (Dr. James Labaree) / M.G. Snitzler. 1907 --
   A catalogue of Huguenot memorials exhibited at Van Cortlandt House Museum June, 1910, to January, 1911 --
   Inauguration de la statue de Jean Guiton à la Rochelle, France, octobre, 1911 --
   Banquet of March 25, 1913, introductory remarks by Colonel W. Jay, and speeches of Rt. Rev. Bishop Boyd-Carpenter, F. Serviss, and W.D. Murphy --
   Nobiliaire de Normandie / G. O'Gilvy. 1913 --
   A Huguenot miniaturist at home (Jean-Baptiste Massé) / I.H. Layard. 1913 --
   Memoirs of the ancient and worthy family D'Olivier and their alliances, 1520-1803 / D.J. Olivier --
   Jean Olivier --
   A Huguenot's ride, from Todd's History of New York. 1913 --
   "In most ancient times", and extract from Guiton --
   The Huguenots, their settlement in England and their influence on character, from the London Daily Telegraph, Aug. 26, 1913.
   Responsibility: compiled by Mrs. James M. Lawton