Author: Saint Quentin, Dominique de
Biography:
SAINT QUENTIN, Dominique de (1762-1841: ancestry.com)
Born in 1762, a native of Sélestat, Lower Alsace, Simon Dominique le Bigot de Saint-Quentin was a son of Françoise Antoine le Bigot de Simon (b 1730). His education is unknown, but he claimed the M.A. Prior to the French Revolution, he was secretary to a French diplomat, Eléonor François Élie, marquis de Moustier. Following the poet’s emigration to England in about 1788, Dr Richard Valpy (q.v.) arranged his employment as a teacher of French at Mrs Tournelle’s boarding school at Reading. On 23 Feb. 1789 at Christ Church, Blackfriars, he married the school’s part-owner, Ann Catherine Pitts (died, aged 61, at Paris, 15 Oct. 1823). He published several books: A New Grammar of the French Language (1790) for “the Use of Mrs. Lá Tournelle’s and Mrs. St Quentin’s School;” A Geographical Game of England / Cours complet de géographie (1791), with maps and engraved counters; A Poetical Chronology of the Kings of England (1792), for use with A Geographical Game; A Complete System of Commercial Geography of England (1794); a translation of Calonne’s Political State of Europe (1796); and The First Rudiments of General Grammar (1812). His gambling debts (he owed thousands to Dr Valpy and others) forced the closure of the school in 1794. His creditors then sold the building with its library, its magic lantern, “three hams,” the copyright to St Quentin’s French Grammar, and his shares in the Reading tontine annuity. To help with his debts, one of his pupils, Mary Martha Butt (later Mrs. Sherwood), generously gave him the manuscript of her The Traditions, a Legendary Tale. In 1795, he published the novel and with the subscription money established a new school at 22 Hans Place, Brompton. When in 1809 he retired to 33 Hans Place, Frances Rowden (q.v.) and her sister Julia took over the school. He and Frances Rowden’s secular marriage took place on 6 Apr. 1825 in Paris at the British ambassador’s residence, their religious marriage in a church in St Roch. Late in his working life, he was a négociant trading between Paris and London. He died in Paris in the 2nd arrondissement on 7 Apr. 1841. He was described in 1826 as 5 feet 9 inches, with gray hair, brown eyes, and a long nose (Port of London record). (ancestry.com 21 June 2024; Reading Mercury, 9 Mar. 1789; Galignani ’s Messenger, 18 Oct. 1823) JC