Life
1745-1807 [confessor to Louis XVI; known as Edgeworth de Firmont]; b.
Mostrim [now Edgeworthstown], Co. Longford; son of Robert Edgeworth, Anglican
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; DNB 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.
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.
Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, Vol. II, Chap. viii (Chapman & Hall 3 vol. edn. [n.d.]), 94-95.
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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.
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.
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)