Note 30 — 1779-1782.

Afterwards anglicised to Anthony Francis, was wounded by a shell at Willis’s. He and his brother Dominick were natives of Portugal, and the only foreigners in the company. Antonio was a Catholic; and as it was desired to preserve the Protestant character of the corps, a simple but effectual plan was taken to win his adherence to the Church of England. He asked leave to be married. The indulgence was refused unless he became a Protestant. La Fiancée was also a Catholic; but as a great event in their lives—which promised them no end of happiness—was likely to be indefinitely postponed by a stubborn acquiescence to a creed for which, probably, they felt but little interest, both renounced the belief of their fathers, and were married as members of the national faith. Their family were baptized and educated as Protestants, but the old man on his death-bed, returned to Mother-Church and died a Catholic. Three of his sons, now old men, fill comfortable appointments at Gibraltar. Their cousins, merchants at the Rock, own the plain called the “Spanish Race-course,” above a mile beyond the Lines. One, Mr. Francis Francia, is British Consul at San Roque. Midway between the village of Campo and the consulate stands his farm, which is cultivated with enlightened taste, and enriched with rare exotics in fruits and flowers.—Kelaart’s Botany and Topography of Gibraltar and its neighbourhood, pp. 179, 183.