Marie Louise Mignot Marie Louise Mignot Marie Louise Mignot (1712–1790) was a French literary figure. She was the daughter of Voltaire's sister, Catherine Arouet (1686–1726) and her husband Pierre-François Mignot (d. 1737). After the death of her widowed father in 1737, Voltaire provided her with a dowry and she married army supply officer Nicolas-Charles Denis, giving rise to her married name of Madame Denis. After her husband's premature death in 1744, she was taken in by Voltaire and became his housekeeper, hostess and companion. She also adopted his protégée Reine Philiberte de Varicourt when the latter's marriage to the marquis de Villette foundered
HMS Firebrand (1694) HMS Firebrand (1694) Firebrand was a Royal Navy fireship built at Limehouse in 1694, the first Royal Naval vessel to bear the name. "Firebrand" served in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. She is recorded as convoying five merchantmen in company with "Winchester" near Barbados in March 1695. "Firebrand" was lost during the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 when a navigational error sent Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs west of Cornwall while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. On the night of 22 October 1707, "Firebrand", commanded by Captain Francis Percy, smashed into the Outer Gilstone Rock off