Bernard Routh

Routh, Bernard, Rev., S. J., a French author, was born in Ireland, 11th February 1695. Sent to France in his youth, and educated at an Irish college, he entered the order of Jesuits, and devoted himself to education at Poitiers. He became noted for his learning and critical talents, wrote numerous works, and from 1739 to 1743 edited a newspaper in Paris. On the expulsion of the Jesuits, he retired to the Low Countries, and became confessor to the Princess Charlotte of Lorraine. He was one of those who attended Montesquieu in his last moments. The statement that he unjustly secured for himself some of that great man's manuscripts is said by the Biographie Générale to be without foundation. The same dictionary enumerates his works, the principal of which appears to have been, Recherches sur la Manière d'Inhumer les Anciens en Poitou (Poitiers, 1738) — said to be a rare and interesting memoir. He died at Mons, 18th January 1768, aged 72.

Sources

34. Biographie Générale. 46 vols. Paris, 1855-'66. An interleaved copy, copiously noted by the late Dr. Thomas Fisher, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin.