Esther d'Hervart

Esther d'Hervart became Esther de la Tour du Pin; Madame de Gouvernet aka marquise de Gouvernet (1636–1722). She was a French noblewoman, Protestant and refugee to England. She and her mother were among seven Protestants allowed to emigrate by Louis XIV with her money and goods.

Life d'Hervart was one of the three children of Barthélemy Hervart and Esther Vimart who both came from Lyons where they had married in 1629. Her parents moved to Frankfurt am Main where her father and her uncle served Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar until he died in 1639. They were given lands and French citizenship when they assisted in the annexation of Alsace.

In 1655 she was married at the Charenton Temple outside Paris to Charles de la Tour du Pin, marquis de Gouvernet. He came from an ancient and rich family. Sometime after 1680 her husband died and it was a time of increasing ill feeling towards the Huguenots. She was still in the Charenton Temple congregation and there was frequent discussion of emigration to England. She was involved in arranging the marriage of her fourteen-year-old daughter to Henry Savile, Lord Eland (1660–1688). The introduction was made by Henry Savile and she was prepared to offer a dowry of £25,000. However the Savile family found the political situation too difficult and although the dowry was attractive they broke off the proposed engagement.

d'Hervart enjoyed London society and she had houses in St James Square and what was then countryside in Paddington. She died in 1722. The monument to her, her daughter and her mother, which was carved in marble by Henri Nadauld is in the Westminster Abbey triforium.