Seignelay Colbert de Castlehill (1735-1811): A Bishop Between Scottish Enlightenment and Counter-Revolution

This book brings together its contributors to study the figure of Seignelay Colbert de Castlehill, born in Inverness on 13th August 1735 into a Presbyterian family and who died in London, an anti-Concordant bishop and leader of the ’Little Church’ on 15th July 1811. Vicar general of Loménie de Brienne in Toulouse, frequenting the Parisian salons, he was the guide of the economist Adam Smith in Toulouse and in the Southwest, from Bordeaux to Montpellier, from March 1764 to October 1765. In 1782, he was elevated to the episcopal see of Rodez and became president of the provincial assembly of Haute-Guyenne. As a representative of the clergy of Rouergue in 1789, he was one of the French bishops who rallied to the Third Estate, allowing the Estates-General to become the National Assembly. He has however escaped the prosopography of the French Revolution, as well as Scottish historiography.

Alain Alcouffe is Emeritus Professor of Economics at University Toulouse Capitole, France.