During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, the French Monarchy, under Louis XIV, had reached the height of its power. The wholesome restraint that Cromwell had acquired and maintained on the Continent of Europe had passed away. A new order of things had been established in Britain at the Restoration, which had destroyed her prestige and her power. From the front rank of the nations to which she had been raised by the masterly policy of Oliver, she had sunk to the lowest depths of infamy and imbecility. Wise and patriotic men stood aloof from the truculent and immoral debauchees that swarmed around the court of Charles II. The iron hand of perhaps the greatest ruler that Britain has ever seen was no longer felt, and the poor remains that had been dug from their last resting place to satisfy the cowardly king were no longer feared. The Edict of Nantes had been revoked, and the followers of the doctrines of the Reformation were subjected to such persecution as threatened them with extermination. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the Prince of Orange after he had ascended the British throne, he was quite unable to overthrow the power of the Grand Monarch. With the united power of the States-General and Great Britain in the field, he only restrained to some extent the power of Louis, and his greatest victories on the continent were barren of results. In the reign of Anne, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the power of Great Britain asserted itself once more, and under John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, she attained to a greater glory than she had ever before reached. For a number of years the persecution in the Palatine, a province on the Rhine, had been unbearable, and many of those who professed the reformed doctrines had been subjected to the most cruel treatment, and had sealed their affection for the Protestant faith with their lives. An application was at last made to the British General for protection, with whom it was arranged that those who chose to go should be sent across the Atlantic to seek freedom for themselves and their families in the forests of America.   Accordingly three ships were freighted with the poor persecuted people of the Palatine and sailed for the west. After putting out to sea they were overtaken by a great storm, and one of the ships was cast away on the southwest coast of Ireland, where all those who were aboard finally settled. On board of this vessel were the ancestors of some of the pioneers of Blanshard, particularly the Brethours, Switzers, Shiers, and others. The ancestor of our present sketch was among the shipwrecked on that occasion.

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