Name Quintin Craufurd | ||
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Died November 23, 1819, Paris, France | ||
Quintin Craufurd (22 September 1743 – 23 November 1819), a British author, was born at Kilwinning.
In early life he went to India, where he entered the service of the British East India Company. Returning to Europe before the age of forty with a handsome fortune, he settled in Paris, where he gave himself to the cultivation of literature and art, and formed a good library and collection of paintings, coins and other objects of antiquarian interest.
Craufurd was on intimate terms with the French court, especially with Marie Antoinette, and was, alongside his lover Eleanore Sullivan, one of those who arranged the flight to Varennes. He escaped to Brussels, but in 1792 he returned to Paris in the hope of rescuing the royal prisoners. He lived among the French émigrés until the peace of Amiens made it possible to return to Paris. Through Talleyrand's influence he was able to remain in Paris after the war was renewed, and he died there on 23 November 1819.
He wrote, among other works:
Auction of his collection:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Craufurd, Quintin". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 382.