Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dillon, Arthur Richard (1721-1806)

1217502Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 15 — Dillon, Arthur Richard (1721-1806)1888John Goldworth Alger

DILLON, ARTHUR RICHARD (1721–1806), a French prelate, youngest son of General Arthur Dillon [q. v.], was born in 1721 at St. Germain. He was a priest at Elan, near Mézières, when on his brother Edward's death at Laufeld Louis XV said he should have the first vacant benefice. He accordingly became in 1747 vicar-general of Pontoise, and gaining rapid promotion was appointed in 1753 bishop of Evreux, in 1758 archbishop of Toulouse, and in 1763 archbishop of Narbonne and primate of the Gauls. This last post made him virtual viceroy of Languedoc, the province enjoying the largest measure of self-government, and he actively promoted roads, bridges, canals, harbours, and other improvements. President of the assembly of the clergy in 1788, he publicly applauded the legal recognition of protestant marriages. The revolution reduced his income from 350,000f. (insufficient for his style of living) to 30,000f. He migrated to Coblenz at the end of 1790, thence went to London, and refused to recognise the concordat by which his diocese was abolished. He was buried in St. Pancras churchyard, London.

[Audibert, le Dernier Président des Etats de Languedoc, 1868; Lavergne, Assemblées Provinciales sous Louis XVI; Tocqueville, Ancien Régime et la Révolution.]

J. G. A.