Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/209

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10 s. VIIL AUG. si, loo;.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


171


FRENCH REFUGEE BISHOPS IN BRITISH TERRITORY.

(10S. viii. 87, 149.)

A PAMPHLET about No. 4 in MR. WAINE- WBIGHT'S list, entitled ' Emprisonnement de M. de Grimaldi, Eveque de Noyon ' (Paris, 1789, 8vo), is in the British Museum, press- mark F 105/2.

Brockhaus has this notice :

"Lodovico Andrea, born December 17, 1736 Abbot of Chaubre Fontaine, and Vicar-General at Rouen ; then, April 19, 1767, made Bishop of Le Mans, where he, however, did not please the clergy, as, according to their judgment, 'nimis princi- pem grosit et libidine sua pro legibus usus est.' In th,e year 1777 he exchanged his bishopric with that of Noyon, and in possession of the same, he was, at the same time, Due, peer of France, till 1790 ; he died as an emigrant." ' Conversations Lexicon,' Leipzig, 1871, p. 127.

This German encyclopaedia contains the fullest and most accurately printed account of Monaco and the Grimaldi family, extend- ing over pp. 95 to 157, and 353 to 361, by C. Hopf and R. Pallman. The above extract is from a MS. translation in my possession, but I have not heard of an English translation in print.

In an interleaved copy of Venasque {' Genealogica Grimaldse,' Parisiis, 1647, pp. 184-5) in my possession is this MS. note by Stacey Grimaldi, F.S.A. (author of

  • Origines Genealogicae,' &c.) : " Louis Andre,

Bishop of Noyon, Count of Noyon. Died in London, Decem , 1804," as the son of Gaspard, Seigneur de Cagnes. Then follow these remarks :

" Heads of the will of Louis Andre Grimaldi' Bishop, Count de Noyon, Peer of France, dated Paris, 1789, and of codicils dated Florence, May, 1792 ; a3, Paddington St., Marylebone, May, 1799 ; and 2, York Buildings, 1804 ; proved at London 1 April, 1805.

"He gives all his property, except some few legacies, to Louise Marie Felicite de Chevegne", a Canoness and Countess of Bas ; and his property seemed to consist principally of 20,000 livres, re- maining of his legitime, with the interest, upon his brother, the Marquis Grimaldi. He leaves all his relations 3 livres each, having been informed that it was necessary for the validity of his will. He does not call any persons his relations, but speaks of the Count Grimaldi at Guadaloup. He makes the Canon of Noyon at Rome, in the household of the Princes, his executor ; also the Archbishop of Sallegrand, Duke of Rheims, whom he requests to act as executor in return for the many friendships shown to him by the testator.

"As he made his will without witnesses, it was necessary that his handwriting should be proved,


which was done by the affidavit of Charles Philip Augustus. Count de Grimaldi, of Wanstead House, Essex. The bishop signed his name : ' Grimaldi, Bishop Count of Noyon, Peer of France.' The bishop commences his will by professing that he dies in the faith of the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, and he in another part of his will expresses his disapprobation of the conduct of Pope Pius VII., whom he considers as having over- thrown all religion in France. The Bishopric and County of Noyon is one of the twelve ancient great peerages of France (Moreri).

" It appears by Count Grimaldi's letter to me in 1811 that he was nephew of the bishop. The print in my possession of our Saviour healing the sick is dedicated to the bishop. See an anecdote of the bishop in Madame Campan's ' Memoirs,' respecting the precedence of the nobles of France at the marriage of Louis XVI. The history of the im- prisonment of the bishop was published in Paris in 1787 : a copy is in the British Museum."

There is also this memorandum :

"Account of Louis Andre" Grimaldi, Bishop Count of Noyon, extracted from vol. in Brit. Mus.

by S. G., May 21, 1857.

A French tract of four pages in the British Museum gives an account that M. de Grimaldi, Eveque de Noyon, on the 29 July, 1789, was stopped at Dole in Franche Comte, at 11 in the morning, whilst travel- ling in a voiture with M. Dessepart, Canon of the Cathedral of Noyon, antient guard of the Count d'Artois, whilst travelling in Lausanne, intending afterwards to see the Duke of Valentinois his cousin, and thence to go to the Chateau of Lagne in Provence, belonging to the Marquis of Grimaldi his brother, proposing to pass the winter at Cagne, fearing to see his own chateau burnt down, rle said he had no passport, as he could only make application to the officers of justice, who were all under his nomination as Seigneur de Noyon.

" In his carriage were found 3,600 louis in money : they were detained in the town at the Auberge du Palais Royal, and information was forwarded to the States-General. There is no more account.

J. W. Py croft, in a letter to S. Grimaldi, F.S.A., dated " New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 18th October, 1854," mentions also No. 2 in the list :

" I have in my library a book entitled 'Journal Historique et Religieux de 1'Emigration et Deporta- tion de Clerge" de France en Angleterre, &c., Svo, a Londres, 1802.

"At p. 167, 'List et Noras de Nosseigneurs les Archevlques et Eveques Fra^ais qui, depuis la Revolution, sont Emigres en Angleterre; suivis des Eloges tres sommaires de ceux qui y s de'ce'd^s.' _ A

"P. 168, 'Alexandre Ce"sar d'Anteroche, Eveque de Condom, Commandeur de TOrdre de St. Lazare, mort a Londres en 1794.'

" ' Louis Andre" de Grimaldy, Eveque Comte de Noyon, Pair de France, re"sidaut toujours 4 Londres.'" ,

M. M.

With respect to No. 6 in MB. WAINE- WBIGHT'S list, the collection of monumental inscriptions in Middlesex by F. J. Cansick