François Longuet  - 1771 -1817

The Founder of our Parish

 Among the hundreds of French priests who came to Reading as exiles during the French Revolution was a young student from the seminary of Caen, in Normandy. His name was François Longuet and he was the youngest of ten children of a prosperous farmer. His elder brother, Louis, was ordained when François was only ten and was murdered by a revolutionary mob in Paris in 1792.

François arrived in Portsmouth late in that year or early in 1793. Records show that he stayed in Portsmouth for a short time but then we know nothing of his movements for ten years, except that he was ordained somewhere in England.

François had definitely arrived in Reading by 1802. He came to join the small community of French priests who lived in a house in Hosier Street called Finch’s Buildings. Most of the other French priests in Reading, who had been living in the house on Castle Hill, had by this time returned to France, where Napoleon was allowing limited rights to the Church. Unlike the other priests François spoke very good English. The entries in the Register of Baptisms, Deaths and Marriages show that he now spelt his name Francis.

From letters between him and the Vicar Apostolic for the London District, Bishop Poynter, we know that he earned his living by teaching French in Reading and nearby towns. In 1809 he asked the Bishop for permission to build a chapel for the Catholic community in Reading. He found a plot of land near to where Reading Museum now stands and, with his own savings, the help of the Bishop and of some wealthy Catholics, was able to borrow enough money to buy a house and build his chapel, which he named The Chapel of the Resurrection. The first wedding was celebrated in the chapel in June 1813. Tradition has it that it was where the modern pub called The Rising Sun now stands.

Francis seems to have loved teaching the children of his parish. In one letter Bishop Poynter wrote that he was delighted by how well they knew their catechism. Father Longuet was helped in his work by at least two nuns. We know that he regularly visited the prison where he met men who were about to be transported to Australia. He also visited sick members of the parish and occasionally said Mass in their houses. By 1813 he was able to report that 37 people had attended the Easter services and that eleven children, two men and three women had been baptised. Although his main work was to build up the Catholic community he worked closely with ministers of other Christian churches, for example in raising funds to build the Reading Dispensary, the forerunner of the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Gradually Francis was able to report that he had paid off more of the debt. Despite his work in the parish he continued to teach French in the neighbourhood. It was while he was riding back from teaching in Wallingford, where he had been paid for half a year’s work, that he was mugged and murdered on what is now the Oxford Road, near the site of the barracks. This was on the night of February the 12^th, 1817. His horribly mutilated body was found by a postman the next morning. The money had all been taken but not his watch or his ring, engraved with the motto For God and the King.

Despite a long police investigation and generous offers of a reward for information, the culprit was never found. Francis’ congregation, and the whole town of Reading, were devastated and many people attended his funeral. He was buried in the chapel he had founded. When St. James’ Church was opened in 1840 his coffin was placed under the high altar and a brass plaque commemorating Father Longuet was placed over it. You can still see it when you come to communion. 

In a letter he wrote to a Protestant clergyman in Wallingford, shortly before he was murdered, Francis wrote , I daily pray for the prosperity of the good and generous England; may She and her children be blessed to the end of the world. We should all thank God for this remarkable man and all he did for the people of Reading, especially this weekend which marks the 195^th anniversary of his death.

Lindsay Mullaney