THE HOUSE OF RUSSELL, OR DU ROZEL.
At a time when the readers of "N. & Q.," and the world at large, have been hearing of the gift of a bell to a village church in Normandy, so pleasantly and readily made by the princely house of Russell, far exceeding the modest solicitation of the curé for assistance by way of a subscription, in remembrance of the Du Rozels having left their native patrimony in France to share the fortunes of the Conqueror in Old England, the following particulars may not be uninteresting.
Mr. Wiffen, when compiling his elaborate Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, from the Time of the Norman Conquest, had occasion to make some inquiries respecting a statement put forth by a M. Richard Seguin, a rich dealer in merceries and wooden shoes at Vire, in the department of Calvados; who, it appears, had a mania for appropriating the literary labours of others as his own, and, in fact, is stigmatised as a voleur littéraire by M. Quérard, in his curious work entitled Les Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées. Mr. Wiffen wished to ascertain M. Seguin's authority for affirming in some work, the name of which is not given by M. Quérard, but which is probably the Histoire du Pays d'Auge et des Evêques Comtes de Lisieux, Vire, 1832, that the Du Rozels were descended from Bertrand de Briquebec. M. Seguin's reply is contained in the following letter from M. Le Normand of Vire, to whom Mr. Wiffen had written, requesting him to obtain M. Seguin's authority for his statement:
"J'ai vu M. Séguin, et je lui ai demandé d'où provenaient les renseignements dont il s'était servi pour dire dans son ouvrage que les Du Rozel descendaient des Bertrand de Bricquebec. Il m'a répondu qu'il l'ignorait; qu'il avait eu en sa possession une grande quantité de Copies de Chartres et d'anciens titres qui lui avaient fourni les matériaux de son histoire, mais qu'il ne savait nullement d'où elles provenaient."—Historical Memoirs, &c., vol. i. p. 5. n. 1.
The fact appears to be, that M. Seguin had obtained possession, through marriage, of a quantity of MSS., and was in the habit of printing them as his own works. Some of them had belonged to an Abbé Lefranc, one of the priests who were murdered in the diabolical massacre of the clergy in the prisons of Paris in September, 1792; and others of the MSS. had been the property of a M. Noël Deshayes, Curé de Compigni, whose Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Evêques de Lisieux, were published by Seguin as his own, but altered and disfigured under the title of—
"Histoire du Pays d'Auge et des Evêques Comtes de Lisieux, contenant des Notions sur l'Archéologie, les Droits, Coutumes, Franchises et Libertés du Bocage et de la Normandie; Vire, Adam, 1832."
The MS., however, from which Seguin printed his forgery, turns out to have been but a copy; the original having since been discovered by M. Formeville in the library of the Séminaire of Evreux, and is now about to be published by that gentleman (see Supercheries, tom. iv., Paris, 1852). By a just retribution, M. Formeville is one of the literary men to whom Sequin refused to point out his original authorities. M. Quérard quotes some
passages, in juxtaposition, from Seguin's pretended work and from the original MS., to show how the latter had been altered and corrupted in the printed copy. M. Seguin was quite illiterate, and has committed the most egregious blunders in his chef d'œuvre de plagiat, as his Histoire du Pays d'Auge is termed by Quérard. Many other authors, besides Mr. Wiffen and M. Formeville, wrote to Seguin for his authorities on various subjects, but he never pointed out a single one. Full details are given of his literary thefts by M. Quérard and his coadjutors. When the original work of M. Deshayes appears, in its genuine state, as promised by M. Formeville, the world will then learn what was really stated respecting the descent of the Du Rozels from Bertrand de Briquebec; although the amiable and accomplished Mr. Wiffen is no longer living to avail himself of the information. Seguin died in 1847.
John Macray.
Oxford.