Life
1745-1807 [confessor to Louis XVI; known as Edgeworth de Firmont]; b.
Mostrim [now Edgeworthstown], Co. Longford; son of Robert Edgeworth, Cngilican
rector, and 2nd cousin Maria E.; and son of Irish clergyman who convert
to Catholicism and moved to France; ed. by Jesuits, Toulouse and Paris
where his father moved after conversion by a French bishop; ord. Seminaire
des Trente Trois, Paris; work in obscurity among poor and Irish in Paris;
invited to become chaplain by King’s aunt; became; confessor to Louis
XVI and attended him on the scaffold in [21 Jan. 1793];escaped in the
crowd and offered pension by Pitt, later accepted; refused presidency
of Maynooth; [var. an Irish see]; became confessor to Princess Elizabeth,
1791, and later chaplain to Louis XVIII at Mittau, travelling with the
royal family, who were strongly attached to him; died attending sick French
prisoners at Mitau [var. Mittan DIB (err.)]; d. 22 May; ODNB DIW DIL
DIB ODQ OCIL
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Works
Charles Edgeworth ed., Memoirs (1815) M. V. Woodgate, The Abbé
Edgeworth (Dublin 1935) 14+237pp. [RAF]; Letters ... with a memoir
(1818).
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Criticism
M. V. Woodgate, The Abbé Edgeworth (Browne & Nolan 1945);
cited in Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English (Vol. 1,
1980); see also Irish Book Lover, Vol. 4.
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Commentary
J. M. Flood, A Memoir of the Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont,
foreword by [J. Hoare] Bishop of Ardagh [Ecce Sacerdos Magnus] (CTS, n.d.),
35pp., pamphlet. Includes reference to the religious tolerance of the
Edgeworth family, though intensely Protestant and staunch upholders of
the ‘Garrison’, Maria writing, ‘The roman Catholic Bishop
M’Gaurin, held a Confirmation the day before yesterday, and dined
here on a God-send haunch of venison’ [Foreword]. Flood has found
a rare copy of Memoirs of the Abbé Edgeworth containing
his narrative of the last hours of Louis XVI by C. Sneyd Edgeworth (1815),
and Letters of Abbé edgeworth to his friends between 1777 and 1807,
ed. by Rev. Thomas England (1818), mostly addressed to Dr Moylan, Bishop
of Cork [who encouraged him to accept Church preferment in Ireland]; both
in King’s Inns Law Library. King Louis XVIII composed the epitaph
at Mittau, D.O.M. [see infra].C. Sneyd Edgeworth’s
appraisal of the Abbé steadfast loyalty to his faith and the French
royal family is quoted fully in conclusion.
Thomas Carlyle , The French Revolution, Vol. II, Chap. viii (Chapman & Hall 3 vol. edn. [n.d.]), ‘A confessor has come; Abbé Edgeworth, of Irish extraction, whom the King knew by good report, has come promptly on this solemn mission. Leave the Earth alone, then, though hapless King; it with its malice will go its way, thou also canst go thine. A hard scene remains, the parting with our loved ones [92] ... The executioner approachs to bind him, he spurns, resists; Abbé Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men trust, submitted to be bound ... Abbé Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him, “Son of St Louis, ascend to Heaven”. The Axe clanks down; a King’s Life is shorn away [...] .’ [94-95]
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References
Oxford Dictionary Quotations [bio-dates as
above] selects ‘Fils de Saint Louis, montez au ciel,’
attrib., no documentary proof at all. ADD, he expressly denied having
spoken the sentence attributed to him in legend [as quoted in ODQ, infra],
and these were probably made up by a journalist [DN, &c.]
Shell Guide (1966), Mostrim [Meathas Troim], Longford, Fir Mount, 2 miles north [of Edgeworthstown Hse], was for a time the home of Abbé Edgeworth, who attended Louis XVI at the scaffold as his confessor. DIB bibl. cites
Dictionary of Irish Writers, eds, Brian Cleeve and Ann Brady (Cork/Dublin: Mercier/Lilliput 1967-85) adds Memoirs eds, C. Sneyd Edgeworth (1815); Letters from Abbé Edgeworth to his friends, 1777-1807, with memoirs of his life (1818), edited by Rev. Thomas Richard England (b. Cork; 1790-1847), who partly wrote the memoirs
Belfast Public Library holds Memoirs of the Abbé Edgeworth (1815), by C. S[neyd]. Edgeworth.
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Notes
Epitaph of Abbé Edgeworth (composed by King
Louis XVIII, at Mittau, D.O.M.): Hic Jacet Reverendissimus Vit Henricus
Essex Edgeworth de Firmont Sancti Dei Ecclesiae Sacerdos. Vicarius Generalis
Ecclesiae Parisiensis qui Redemptoris Nostri Vestigia Tenens Oculus CAECO
PES CLAUDO PATER PAUPERUM. Maerentium Consolator Fuit. Ludovicum XVI.
Ab Impiis Rebellibusque Subditis Morti Deditum ad Ultimum Certamen. Roboravit,
Strenuoque Martri Caelos Opertos Ostendit. E Manibus Regicidarum Mira
Dei Protectione Ereptus, Ludovico XVIII. Eum ad Se Vocanti Ultro Occurrens,
Ei Per Decem Annos, Regiae Ejus Familiae, Necnon et Fidelibus Sodalibus,
Exemplar Virtutuum, Levamen Malorum, Sese Praebuit. Per Multas Et Vari
Regiones Temporum Calamitate Actus, Illi, Quem Sulum Colebat, Semper Similis
Pertransiit Benefactiendo, Plenum Tandem Bonis Operibus Obiit Die 22 Maii
Mensis ANNO DOMINI 1807. aetatis vero suae 62. Requiescat in pace.