General Notes

Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, Seigneur de Lander et la Chaillon, was a fearless Huguenot leader in France, 1550-1630.

He was a soldier under Conde', and warlord of Henry of Navarre.  He refused to recant his faith and fled to Geneva, where he spent the remainder of his life writing his Historie Universell depuis 1550 jus' qua l'an 1601.

His line of descent come from Geoffrey, sire d'Aubigne, Chevalier, Lord of Aubigne, near Saumur, who lived during the reign of Louis VII (1137-1180).

The name still flourishes in France.

Theodore Agrippa was the grandfather of Madame de Maintenon, pious favorite and wife of Louis XIV of France.

Sources:  "Dabney's of Virginia"  by W.H. Dabney; Descendents of John d'Aubigne, prior 1670; Genealogy of Virginia Families, Vol II, Genealogy Pub. Balt. 1981

In France the old Huguenot name and family of d'Aubigne still lives. They form a small colony in their native land, never having increased much.  All the branches of this family in America claim a common ancestry.  They have the same armorial bearings - an elephant's head, three footless martins, and the fleur de lis of France - the same traditions, and the same motto, which they hold in three languages.

In France they have the motto in the Latin, "Fidelis et Gratus"  One of the American branches has it in French, "Fidele et Reconnaissant" while most of the name in the United States have it in English, "Faithful and Grateful."

The name has changed many times since the American branch left France, 200 years ago.  It is written in different ways, as Daubeny; Daubney; Bigny; D'audbinay; Dabnee; and Dabney.  The traditions all say that they descended from that fearless Huguenot leader, Agrippa d'Aubigne, who flourished from 1550-1630.

Agrippa was not the first of his name known at the French court. According to tradition in the family, a d'Aubigne was at the court of Louis XII.  He commanded a company of Swiss guards.

Agrippa d'Aubigne wrote a very interesting history of the fearless times in which he lived - one of the best that has come down to us.

The name of d'Aubigne can be found among the rolls of Battle Abbey, amidst the list of knights who fell at Hastings.  Some survived the conquest and are mentioned in Hume's History as champions of Magna Carta.  A branch of the d'Aubigne family left France, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by King Louis XIV, on October 28, 1685, because they were no longer allowed to worship God with freedom of conscience.  They first went to Wales between 1715 and 1717 and sailed for America.