DUCOUDRAT
183
DUCBUE
and was obliged to compound for his apprenticeship
and leave his master. He was finally reconciled by a
venerable priest named Weekes who was imprisoned
in the Gatehouse at \\est minster, .\fter two or three
years he married a Catholic widow, but out of his
twelve years of married life, no less than nine were
spent in prison, owing to his zeal in propagating
Catholic literature and his wonderful constancy in his
new-found faith. His last apprehension was brought
about by Peter Bullock, a bookbinder, who betrayed
him in order to obtain his own release from prison.
His house was searched on 4 March, 1601. Catholic
books were found there, and Duckett was at once
thrown into Newgate. .\t his trial, Bullock testified
that he had bound various Cathohc books for Duckett,
which the martyr acknowledged to be true. The jury
found him not guilty, but Judge Pophara at once
stood up and bade them consider well what they did,
for Duckett had had bound for him Bristowe's "Mo-
tives", a controversial work peculiarly odious to Ang-
licans on account of its learning and cogency. The
jury thereupon reversed their verdict and brought in
the prisoner guilty of felony. At the same time three
priests, Page, Tichbome, and Watkinson, were con-
demned to death. Bullock did not save himself by
his treachery, for he was conveyed in the same cart
with Duckett to Tyburn, where both were executed,
19 April, 1601. There is an accoimt, written by his
son, the Prior of the English Carthusians at Nieuport
(Flanders), of James Duckett's martyrdom. On the
way to Tyburn he was given a cup of wine: he drank
and desired his wife to drink to Peter Bullock, and
freely to forgive him. At the gallows his last thoughts
were for his betrayer. He kissed him and implored
him to die in the Catholic Faith.
JoH.v Duckett, Venerable, Martyr, probably a grandson of Venerable James Duckett, b. at Under- winder, in the parish of Sedbergh, Yorkshire, in 1603; d. 7 September, 1644. He was ordained priest in 1639 and afterwards went to Paris where he studied three years in the College of .\rras. He had an extraordi- nary gift of prayer, and while yet a student would spend whole nights in contemplation. On his way to the English mission, he spent two months in spiritual exercises, under the direction of his uncle, the Carthu- sian prior at Nieuport. He laboured for about a j-ear in Durham, and was taken near Wolsingham on his way to baptize two children, 2 July, 1644. The place which tradition declares to be that of his arrest is now marked by a tall stone cross. Carried to Sunderland, he was examined by a Parliamentary Committee of sequestrators, and placed in irons. He confessed his priesthood and was thereupon sent up to London with Father Ralph Corbie, S. J. (q. v.), who had been ar- rested about the same time near Newcastle-on-Tyne. They were committed to Newgate, and edified the crowds of Catholics who flocked to see them by their joyousness, their sanctity, and their longing to suffer for Christ. A reprieve for one of them having been obtained, each refused to take it for himself. On his way to execution, Duckett astonished all by his super- natural joy; comforting those who wept for him, he said smiling: "Why weep you for me who am glad at heart of this happy day?"' His jailers even were so struck by his gladne.ss that they exclaimed " assuredly this man dies for a good cause". He suffered with Father Corbie, at Tyburn. In a farewell letter to the Bishop of Chalcedon, he wrote on the eve of his mar- tyrdom: "I fear not death, nor I contemn not life. If life were my lot, I would endure it patiently; but if death, I shall receive it joyfully, for that Christ is my life, and death is my gain. Never since my re- ceiving of Holy Orders did I so much fear death as I did life, and now, when it approacheth can I faint?"
Pollen, Aels of KnglUh Mnrbjrs fLondon. 1891): Camm. A North Countni Marliir, Ihe VenerahU John Duckett (with por- trait London); Ch\lloser, Meinoirs (London. 1741); Gillow, BM. Did. Eng. Calh., II. BedE CaMM.
Ducoudray, Leon. See Commdne, Martyrs op
THE P.4.RIS.
Du Coudray, Philippe-Charles-Jean-Baptistb- Tronson, soldier, b. at Reims, France, 8 September, 17.38; d. at Philadelphia, U. S. A., 11 September, 1777. He was educated for the army and showed great merit as an engineer. He was adjutant-general of artillery and considered one of the best military experts in France when, in 1776, he volunteered to go to America to assist the colonists in their revolt against England. Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin, the American agents, promised him a commission as major-general with command of the artillery. This stipulation gave great offence to the officers already attached to the army when he arrived from France, in May, 1777, with twenty-nine other officers and twelve sergeants of artillery. Several of the more prominent threatened to resign. As a compromise he was made inspector- general 11 August, 1777, with the rank of major- general, and assigned to command the works along the Delaware. On 11 Sept., 1777, he was drowned while crossing the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia, the horse on which he was seated becoming frightened and dragging him overboard. Congress gave him an offi- ciarfuneral and attended his requiem Mass, 18 Sept., 1777, in St. Mary's church. This was one of the four occasions on which Congress was officially present at Mass during the Revolution, the others being the requiem on S May, 1780, for Don Juan de Miralles, the agent of the Spanish Government . and the Te Deuras on 4 July, 1779, and 4 November, 1781, all being cele- brated at St. Mary's, Philadelphia. Du Coudray was buried in St. Mary's churchyard, but the grave is now unknown.
GRirnN', Catholics and the American Revolution (Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, 1907); Cyclopedia of Am. Biog.. s. v.; Shea. Hist, of Cath. Ch. in U. S. (New York. 1889-92); Heitma.n, Historical Repister of the Officers of the Continental Army (Wash- ington, 1893).
Thomas F. Meehan.
Ducrue, Fr.^ncis Bennon, missionary in Mexico, b. at Munich, Bavaria, of French parents, 10 June, 1721; d. there 30 March, 1779. He became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1738, and ten years later was sent to California, where he laboured zealously until the expulsion of the order in 1767. ^Vhen that un- toward event took place, Ducrue was the superior of all the California missions. He submitted uncom- plainingly to the decree of expulsion and even co- operated with the royal commission in enforcing its provisions. The Jesuits withdrew, taking with them only their clothing and a few books; this was all the wealth they carried away from California after seventy years of work in its missions. Ducrue eventually re- turned to his native land. He wrote in Latin "A Journey from California through the district of Mexico to Europe in the year 1767", which was translated into German for the "Nachrichten von verschiedenen Liindern des spanischen .\merika" of Christoph von Murr (Halle, 1809, 2d pt., p. 489-5.30). H. H. Ban- croft regards this as " a standard work on the subject so far as California is conce-ned" (Works, XV, 478). He left also a " Relation of the Expulsion of the So- ciety of Jesus from Mexico and in particular from Cali- fornia in 1707". This document is likewise found in Murr (vol. XII, p. 217-276), and was translated into French and published by Fr. Carayon in his " Docu- ments Inedits" (Paris, 1876). Murr also gives some interesting specimens of the language of California, which were communicated to him by Ducrue.
SoMMERvoGEL, Bibl. de la c. dc J., Ill, 253. and Supplement; MiCHACD. Bioo. Univ. (Paris. 1S52). XI. 419; Caraton. Docu- ments Inedits (Poitiers. 18761; De Backer. Bibl. des ecriv. de la c. de J.. I, 1677; Bancroft. North Mexican States and Texat (San Francisco. 1884), I, 476. 478; Cunch. California and Its Missions (San Francisco, 1884), I, ch. ix, 178 sqq.
Edward P. Spillane.
