The most reverend
Arthur Richard Dillon
Portrait of Arthur Richard Dillon wearing the Order of the Holy Spirit on its blue ribbon, the cordon bleu, around his neck
Archbishop of Narbonne
In office
1763–1790
Preceded byCharles-Antoine de la Roche-Aimon
Succeeded byGuillaume Besaucèle
Personal details
Born14 September 1721
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Died5 July 1806
London
Parents

Arthur Richard Dillon (1721–1806) was archbishop of Narbonne in France. He was the youngest son of Arthur Dillon (1670–1733), who came to France with Mountcashel's Irish Brigade. At the French Revolution he refused the civil constitution of the clergy and fled first to Coblenz and then to London.

Birth and origins

Arthur Richard was born on 15 September 1721 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France.[1] He was the youngest of the five sons of Arthur Dillon and his wife Christina Sheldon. His father was born in 1670 in Ireland, had fought for the Jacobites in the Williamite War and had gone to France as the colonel of Dillon's Regiment with the Irish Brigade in April 1690 when Irish troops were sent to France in exchange for French troops sent to Ireland with Lauzun. He was a younger son of the 7th Viscount Dillon. His father's family was Old English Irish and descended from Sir Henry Dillon who came to Ireland with Prince John in 1185.[2]

Henry's mother was a daughter of Ralph Sheldon, whereas Dominic Sheldon, the English Catholic Jacobite, was her uncle. She was a maid of honour to Queen Mary of Modena, wife of James II.[3] Both parents were thus Jacobites and Catholics.

Arthur had four brothers and several sisters,[4] who are listed in his father's article.

Family tree
Arthur Richard with parents, and other selected relatives.[lower-alpha 1]
Theobald
7th
Viscount
d. 1691
Jacobite		Mary
Talbot
d. 1691
Henry
8th
Viscount
d. 1714		Arthur
1670–1733
French
General		Christina
Sheldon
1684–1757
Henry
11th
Viscount
1705–1787		Lucius Cary
Viscount
Falkland
1687–1730		Laura
d. 1741		Arthur
Richard
1721–1806
Archbishop
Edward
Rothe
d. 1766		Lucy Cary
d. 1804
Mme de Rothe
Charles
12th
Viscount
1745–1813		Arthur
Dillon
1750–1794		Therese
Lucy
de Rothe
1751–1782
Henry
Augustus
13th
Viscount
1777–1832		Henriette
-Lucy
de la
Tour du Pin
1770–1853
Legend
XXXSubject of
the article		XXXViscounts of
Dillon
Dillon's coat of arms. Above the escutcheon the green galero with fifteen tassels (as primate of Gallia narbonensis) and around the escutcheon is the cordon bleu of the Order of the Holy Spirit.

Career

Arthur Richard entered the priesthood and was successively curé of Elan near Mézières, vicar-general of Pontoise (1747), Bishop of Evreux (1753), Archbishop of Toulouse (1758), and Archbishop of Narbonne (1763). In that latter capacity, he also was both the Primate of the ecclesiastical region of Gallia narbonensis and ex officio president of the estates of Languedoc.[6]

He devoted himself less to the spiritual direction of his diocese than to the temporal welfare of its inhabitants, carrying out many works of public utility, bridges, canals, roads, harbours, etc.; he had chairs of chemistry and of physics created at the universities of Montpellier and Toulouse, and tried to reduce poverty, especially in Narbonne.[7]

From about the age of fifty he lived with his wealthy, widowed niece, Madame de Rothe. She was born Lucy Cary and was the child of his sister Laura, who had married Lucius Cary, 6th Viscount Falkland. Madame de Rothe had been widowed in 1766. Dillon and Madame de Rothe were lovers, an arrangement considered scandalous even by the jaded standards of the day. They maintained a household primarily at the château de Hautefontaine, where Dillon kept an extravagant hunt. Madame de Rothe brought her daughter Thérèse-Lucy de Dillon, a favourite of Marie Antoinette, the French queen, and her grand-daughter Henriette-Lucy, who would become the memoirist Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet.

In 1787 and in 1788 he was a member of the Assembly of Notables called together by Louis XVI, and in 1788 presided over the assembly of the clergy.

Exile and death

Having refused to accept the civil constitution of the clergy,[8] Dillon had to leave Narbonne in 1790. He was replaced by Guillaume Besaucèle, who was the constitutional bishop of Aude. Dillon then emigrated, accompanied by Madame de Rothe, to Coblenz in 1791. Soon afterwards both went to London, where he was visited in 1797 at his home in Thayer Street, Marylebone, by Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet.[9]

On 15 July 1801, at Paris, Napoleon and Pope Pius VII signed the Concordat of 1801 and most of the French clergy that had gone into exile or hiding returned to take up again their normal duties. Dillon however disobeyed the pope and rejected the Concordat, probably because it suppressed his see at Narbonne, or because he wanted to avoid paying his debts in France.

On 7 February 1804, Madame de Rothe, his partner, died in London. He survived her by two years and died on 5 July 1806 in London. He was buried in St Pancras churchyard, which was the burial place favoured by the émigré community, as there was no official Catholic cemetery available.[10]

Burial of Arthur Richard Dillon in Narbonne Cathedral
Timeline
AgeDateEvent
01721, 15 SepBorn, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye[1]
111733, 5 FebFather died at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[11]
25–261747Appointed Vicar-General of Pontoise[6]
31–321753Appointed Bishop of Evreux[6]
35–361757Mother died in Paris.[12]
36–371758Appointed Archbishop of Toulouse[6]
41–421763Appointed Archbishop of Narbonne[6]
68–691790Replaced by the constitutional bishop of Aude, Guillaume Besaucèle
69–701791Fled to Coblenz and soon after to London
821804, 7 FebPartner, Madame de Rothe, died in London.
841806, 5 JulDied in London

[10]

Final resting place

Dillon's grave on Old St. Pancras churchyard seems to have been disturbed in some ways during the cutting of the Midland Railway in 1865, as his name appears on the list of graves of important persons affected by that event on the Burdett-Coutts memorial, erected at that occasion. Between March 2002 and June 2003, part of the St Pancras Old Church graveyard was excavated[13] in preparation for the London terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. During the archaeological investigation, Dillon's body was found to have been buried wearing a set of porcelain dentures. It is believed that he purchased them from a Parisian dentist named Nicholas de Chemant.[14]

In March 2007 the body of Archbishop Dillon was returned to France and now lies in Narbonne Cathedral.[15][16] On 19 May 2008, the porcelain dentures were accessioned into the Cobbe Museum (currently housed at Hatchlands, East Clandon).

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ This family tree is partly derived from the Dillon family tree pictured in La Tour du Pin.[5] Also see the lists of siblings in the text.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Fisquet 1867, p. 75. "D'origine irlandaise, il naquit à Saint-Germain-en-Laye le 15 septembre 1721 ..."
  2. ↑ Webb 1878, p. 149, line 7. "... [Sir Henry Dillon] came to Ireland in 1185 as secretary to Prince John ..."
  3. ↑ Burke & Burke 1915, p. 646, right column, line 18. "He m. [married] Christina, Maid of Honour to Mary, wife of James II), dau. of Ralph Sheldon, and d. 5 Feb. 1733 ..."
  4. ↑ O'Callaghan 1854, p. 48, line 36a. "Lieutenant-General Arthur Dillon, besides daughters, had 5 sons."
  5. ↑ La Tour du Pin 1913a, pp. 14–15. "Note généalogique sur la Maison des Lords Dillon"
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Sollier 1913, p. 797. "... curé of Elan near Mezière; Vicar-General of Pontoise, 1747; Bishop of Evreux, 1753; Archbishop of Toulouse, 1758; Archbishop of Narbonne and Primate of France, 1763."
  7. ↑ Chisholm 1910, p. 273. "... and tried to reduce the poverty, especially in Narbonne."
  8. ↑ Lavergne 1864, p. 416. "... refusa le serment et mourut dans Témigrationj"
  9. ↑ La Tour du Pin 1913b, p. 159. "Un matin donc, je me dirigeai vers Thayer Street ..."
  10. 1 2 Fisquet 1867, p. 77. "Mgr Dillon mourut à Londres le 5 juillet 1806 et fut inhumé dans le cimetière de l'église de Saint-Pancras de cette ville, où nous avons vu les débris de sa modeste tombe."
  11. ↑ O'Callaghan 1854, p. 48, line 38. "... died February 5th, at the Palace of St. Germain-en-Laye, aged 63 years."
  12. ↑ O'Callaghan 1854, p. 48, line 35. "... [his mother] died in Paris in 1757, aged 77 ..."
  13. ↑ Emery, P.A., and Wooldridge, K., 2011, St Pancras burial ground: excavations for St Pancras International, the London terminus of High Speed 1, 2002-3, Gifford (now Ramboll) Monograph
  14. ↑ Powers, N.I., 2006 ‘Archaeological evidence for dental innovation: an 18th-century porcelain dental prosthesis belonging to Archbishop Arthur Richard Dillon’, Brit Dental J 201, 459-63
  15. ↑ Commission Archéologique et Littéraire de Narbonne, 2008, Arthur-Richard Dillon, dernier Président-Né des Etats de Languedoc, de 1763 à 1790, Bulletin de la Commission Archéologique et Littéraire de Narbonne 51, 27-36
  16. ↑ Bingham, David (30 April 2014). "The Archbishop of Narbonne's Teeth; Arthur Richard Dillon, 1721–1806, St Pancras burial ground". The London Dead. Retrieved 16 May 2016.

Sources

Further reading

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