Murder of a French Priest

HEH STO 1441. Date: 1793 or later. This is a note in the writing of Dr O’Conor. It in the style a draft of a newspaper or magazine article. The omission of some details (marked [blank]) suggests it is rather later than 1793. O'Conor arrived at Stowe in 1798, and one possibility is that this story was related to O'Conor at Stowe by Mary or Nugent Buckingham.

On [blank] 1793 Pigeon a french emigrant Priest inhabiting the kings house Winchester was setting in a retired place called [blank] copying a sermon composed by another Priest of the same house, (intended for his parishioners whenever he should return to france) he was setting with his back to a hedge which divided the spot he was in from a corn field where there were sometimes gleaners, and his feet at a small distance from a valley (the remains of a fortified ditch beyond which was a thick wood overlooking the spot on which Mons^r Pigeon sat. The two or three priests who had as was then the custom been reading in and about this retired place were gone home to the kings house to dinner it being 12 oclock. Mons^r Pigeon who was engaged to dine in the town of Winchester at a later hour remained to finish the sermon; and it appears by the enclosed paper that the first blow was given to him as he was about to complete the word Paradis.

A bloody hedge stake was found near him—he had two wounds, either of which might have been the mortal blow. One upon the back part of his head had fractured the skull and made a very large opening, the other was of the same kind upon the forehead. It appeared as if he had fallen upon his back on the first blow and in the agonies of death had slid some little way down the slope of the valley with one of his legs under him. His watch seemed to have been snatched away with violence as part of the chain remained broken in the fob; there were some scattered sticks and an unmade faggot near the place. An old woman who was going to glean about 12 oclock said she heard groans and was so frightened that she turned back.

He was first found by some of the french Clergy who went to walk after their dinner. He was then dead and stiff. Mons^r Pigeon was a man much respected for his exemplary manners and great piety. He was about 30 years old. He was buried in the Catholick burial ground near Winchester. L^d Buckingham and all the officers of the Buckinghamshire militia attended the funeral.

Prescription

HEH STO 1441. Date: 22 May 1787. A prescription for Dr O’Conor. 

Charles O’Conor Esqr

For the preservation of the health it will be necessary to keep the Bowels free by a use of Anderson’s pills occasionally, to take bitters for strengthening the stomach, to exercise frequently on Horseback, and in order to fresh a languid circulation a pint of generous wine daily will be found usefull. A table spoonful of the stomach tinctures in a teacup of spring water to be taken every morning.

22 May 1787