Charles O’Conor : Librarian at Stowe

1764–1828. See also Family Tree and DNB entry. 

Summary

Reverend Charles O’Conor was Roman Catholic confessor to Mary Nugent  wife of Nugent Buckingham , 1st Marquess of Buckingham. O'Conor combined these duties with being a librarian, especially to Richard Temple, the 1st Duke. From a scholarly family, he was educated in Rome and was for a while a pastor in Roscommon, Ireland, the family home, before moving to Stowe. He was long at odds with the establishment of the Catholic Church and was excommunicated for his published works while librarian at Stowe. He died insane. 

O'Conor

O'Conor's story is fascinating and well documented but has yet to be fully told. He was a flawed scholar, a dedicated Catholic and a loveable man. Thomas Seccombe provides this description of him in DNB:

O’Conor was a man of mild and timid disposition, liked by every one who knew him, and possessing extensive historical and ‘bookish’ information. In appearance he was short and slight, of sallow complexion, with prominent by distinguished looking features, giving him as age advanced a most vulnerable appearance. His manners were a curious compound of Irish and Italian. He was known locally as ‘the Abbé,’ and was for many years daily to be seen walking between Stowe and Buckingham, with his book and gold-headed cane, reading as he walked.  Dr Johnson and Dr Dibdin testify, amongst others, to his amiability and erudition; but the latter quality has been much discredited by the glaring defects in his edition of the ‘Irish Chronicles.’

O'Conor wore spectacles supplied by J Mattingley of 23 Harley Street, London (HL STO 840 (Box 04); 1803).

Early Life

• 1764: Born on 15 March at Belanagare, co Roscommon. He was the second son of Denis O'Conor and Catherine Browne, who was daughter of Martin Browne of Cloonfad (according to DNB) or of Clanfadin  (according to HL STO 1439). 
• 1779-91: Studied at Ludovisi College, Rome, obtaining degree of Doctor of Divinity
• 1792-98: Appointed parish priest of Kilkeevin, co Roscommon

Memoirs of his Grandfather

While at Kilkeevin, O'Conor published a volume on the works of his grandfather: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Charles O’Conor of Belanagare, Esq., M.R.I.A. Only the first volume was printed. It was an outspoken work immediately suppressed by O'Conor himself as, according to DNB, it was felt that the text might be detrimental to his family. He insisted the manuscript for the second volume was destroyed before publication. O'Conor was clearly embarrassed by the episode:

It is true that — some years ago — at a period of extreme political intemperance, and when the minds of all our body were exceedingly agitated, I was induced to compile with a haste that could be justified only be the honesty of my intentions, the Memoirs to which you allude. They never could be supposed to be a regular, temperate, and studied system of history, they were in fact little more than historical Anecdotes rescued from the libels of such writers as Cox and Borlase. They were scarcely printed when they were suppressed, for though I laboured to pursue the truth, I was soon sorry that any copies had appeared. They were never published &, with my consent, they never shall.
The 2^d part of them, I am very glad to have withheld. I have, some time since given them, together with the originals to the Marquess of Buckingham, who is possessed of the greatest part of my grandfather’s papers, which consist, chiefly, of letters relating to the Transactions of the Catholic Committee during a period of about 50 years.
(O'Conor to Francis Plowden; 18 February 1802; HL STO 1028 (Box 04))

The Huntington Library holds a copy of the first volume, annotated by O'Conor: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Charles O’Conor of Belanagare Esq M.R.I.A. Vol. 1. O'Conor has noted: “85 pages of this vol have been corrected by me for the English Edition.” (HL STO 1444)

O'Conor at Stowe

• 1798: Appointed chaplain to Mary Nugent , the Marchioness of Buckingham, at Stowe.
• 1810-13: Published the controversial Columbanus ad Hibernos.
• 1812: Excommunicated following publication of Columbanus.

Stowe was often empty of the Buckingham family while O'Conor was there. On one occasion, this inspired a sad poem. 

Publications at Stowe

• 1812: Narrative of the most Interesting Events in Irish History. Unlike Columbanus this was not controversial. 
• 1814–26: Rerum Hibernicum Scriptores. 4 vols. This was a translation into Latin of the Irish Annals, originals of most of which were at Stowe. 200 copies were printed at a cost of about £3000 at the expense of the first Duke and distributed to public and private libraries. According to John O'Donovan (cited in DNB) O'Conor's work showed his ignorance of Irish grammar, literature and topography and was defective, incompetent and full of errors.
• 1818-19: Bibliotheca MS Stowensis. 2 vols. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the Stowe Library. 200 copies were printed at the expense of the first Duke, to whom the volumes were dedicated. 

O’Conor contributed ‘Critical Remarks’ prefixed to Elements of Anglo-Saxon by the Rev. J. Bosworth. He also edited Ortelius Improved, or a New Map of Ireland; after a few copies of this were struck off, the plate was destroyed (DNB).

Columbanus and Excommunication

In 1810 O'Conor published the first volume of Columbanus ad Hibernos, or Seven Letters on the Present Mode of Appointing Catholic Bishops in Ireland; with an Historical Address on the Calamities occasioned by Foreign Influence in the Nomination of Bishops to Irish Sees. 

In this work, he opposed the ultramontane party and supported veto. Responses to Columbanus were published by Frances Plowden.  O'Conor was declared unorthodox and excommunicated by Archbishop Troy in 1812. Although his friends at Stowe initially treated the excommunication as a joke (see their letter to him), it was deeply wounding to O'Conor and he spent the rest of his sane life trying to reverse the decision.

The Madness of O'Conor

O’Conor suffered a mental illness and left Stowe on 4 July 1827. Richard Temple, the first Duke, recorded O'Conor's departure of  from Stowe in his Private Diary. ( Volume 1, pages 2-3; July 1827.)

3rd. […] I go down to the manuscript room to take leave of the Poor Doctor. He scarcely spoke, but, beginning to talk about thanks, gratitude, &c., I stopped him, and endeavoured to speak cheerfully to him, and of seeing him again. I then kissed the old man’s forehead and left him. I felt deeply the parting with an old friend. His shewed no emotion. Is this an enviable state of mind to be reduced to? And yet if old age is not blunted by apathy how sharp must be its edges!
4th. The poor Doctor leaves Stowe. This terminates a connection of twenty-nine years. He leaves me in the greatest possible aberration of mind. The last three days he has been packing and unpacking and repacking, and at last leaves three trunks corded up and directed with the greatest care, with the keys on the table, saying to Broadway that they must be examined by a justice of the peace, and then forwarded to me. All his letters and papers he leaves scattered about. His book he leaves as my property, which, in fact, most of them are; but there are the thirty-six copies of the “Rerum Hibernicum Scriptores,” which I gave him, and some other books, which indisputably are his, and which I sent after him with his trunks untouched, and the keys sealed up. My own letters, and those of the family, I see scattered about; I put them all up in his papers and leave them. He lost one of the keys of the ebony chest in the mess-room, which we are obliged to have opened.
To shew the wanderings of the poor man’s intellect, he went yesterday or the day before to Broadway, to tell him that he had been to the kitchen door, which was shut against him; that he was famished, for that I had ordered that he should have nothing to eat in the place, and therefore he begged Broadway would give him some victuals as for himself. Broadway try to reason him out of the folly; and when he found that he failed, he went to Pool, the steward, who assured him that no such order was given. The poor Doctor had never been near the kitchen-door, and had just been eating a hearty luncheon when he told them so.

O'Conor was confined for a while at Dr Harty's asylum at Finglas and died at Belenagare on 29 July 1828. He was buried at the family burial place at Ballintober. 

He was succeeded as Librarian at Stowe by William James Smith  in 1829.

See Also

• The Gothic Library at Stowe

Sources

Thomas Seccombe writing in DNB. Documents at the Huntington Library, especially STO. 

Obituary from Literary Gazette

The London literary gazette and journal of belles lettres, arts, sciences, etc. H. Colburn, 1828

DR. CHARLES O’CONOR.

Although the materials which we have been able to collect for a biographical sketch of the late Dr. O’Conor, who has been, for many years, well known to the literary world as librarian to the Duke of Buckingham at Stowe, are extremely light, we are nevertheless induced to lay them before our readers, to mark our respect for the memory of an able scholar and an upright and amiable man.

Dr. O’Conor was an Irishman, and brother to O’Conor Don, a title or distinction still preserved by the head of that clan or family. Like other young men of the time intended for the Roman Catholic priesthood, be was sent abroad to qualify himself for “the vocation,” as it is termed; and passed a large portion of the early part of his life at Rome, of which place he always spoke with enthusiasm. It is a custom in Italy, on the admission of any individual into the Roman Catholic church, to forbid him the perusal of some particular work. O’Conor’s obedience was tried on Macchiavelli’s Principle. He returned to Ireland at the time of the French Revolution, and was in Paris just after the downfall of Robespierre.

His first introduction to the late Marquis of Buckingham was for the purpose of arranging and translating the valuable collection of Irish manuscripts in his Lordship’s possession. He afterwards became domestic chaplain to Lady Buckingham; and on her death, in 1813, remained at Stowe as librarian. Dr. O’Conor was a man of mild and almost timid disposition, liked by every one who knew him, and of extensive information, which, however, it was always necessary to draw out. His manners were a curious compound of Italian and Irish. Although a strict Roman Catholic, he was extremely tolerant in all religious questions; and in consequence of his letters under the signature of Columbanus (from which he obtained the sobriquet of Columbanus O’Conor), he called down on himself the censures of the Papal See, and was suspended from his clerical functions. This circumstance preyed severely on his mind, but he at length succeeded in obtaining the removal of the censure.

In person Dr. O’Conor was short and slight, of sallow complexion and prominent features, but of a venerable appearance; and a stranger would readily have guessed him to be of the superior class of Catholic priests. He was for many years daily to be seen between Stowe and Buckingham with his book and gold-headed cane, reading as he walked. Latterly, although by no means of a very advanced age, be became extremely infirm, lost his memory and nearly his sight, was paralytic, and imagined constantly that people came by night into his room. His apartments at Stowe were the most delightful in that magnificent mansion, where he was always treated with the utmost kindness and consideration. It was necessary at last to have a person continually with him; and when Stowe was shut up, during the absence on the Continent of the Duke of Buckingham, he removed to Balanagar, his brother’s seat in Ireland, where he died on the 29th of July last. He was of a convivial disposition, fond of good living and his bottle of port wine, but never entered into an excess. Claret and fish he abhorred, and a fast-day to him was a day of real penance.

Dr. O’Conor’s publications are, “Colunibanus’s Letters, with an Historical Address on the Calamities occasioned by Foreign Influence in the Nomination of Bishops to Irish Sees,” 2 vols. 8vo. 1810, 1813.—”Narrative of the most interesting Events in modern Irish History,” 8ro. 1812. — “Ribliotbeca MS. Stowensis,” 2 vols. 4to. Buckingham, 1818, 1819; which work possesses an excellent index, and is a respectable monument of Dr. O’Conor’s extensive reading. His last and most important publication is entitled “Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres,” in four thick vols. 4to. which were privately printed in Buckingham at the expense of the Duke. The first volume appeared in 1814; the second, ten years after, in 1824, is partly printed in some of the most beautiful Irish type ever cast; which was followed, in 1825 and 1826, by the third and fourth volumes. The whole of this extensive work is (except the Irish originals) in Latin. It contains an account of the MSS. written in Irish characters prior to the Danish settlements in Ireland, with facsimiles; of the antiquity of letters in Ireland, and of the Irish pagan year and rathas; of ancient Irish poems quoted by Tigernach in the eleventh century; of eclipses recorded in the Irish chronicles, by which the years and successions of the Irish kings of Scotia and Albania are ascertained; Gildas Colman’s Irish metrical list of Irish kings, down to the year 1072; an Irish metrical list of the Irish kings of Scotland, written about the year 1053, from the Maguire collection at Stowe, &c. The second volume is chiefly occupied with the Annals of Inuisfallen; the third with those of the four Martres; and the fourth with the Ulster Annals.