Claire Marie Léopold Verguet

Fr Léopold Verguet (1817-1914) was a priest of the diocese of Carcassonne, France, who was briefly a member of the Society of Mary and a missionary who was part of the first mission group to the Solomons. Verguet had a short and traumatic career as a missionary but documented it with letters, sketches and watercolours.

       18450202 Departed London, went via Cape Town to Sydney arrived 22 June 1845
       18451023 Left Sydney, made landfall in New Caledonia 17 November 1845
       18451123 Left New Caledonia arrived San Cristobal (Makira) 2 Dec 1845
       18451213 started exploring Santa Isabel (Thousand Ships Bay)
       18451216 the party is attacked and Bishop Epalle fatally wounded
       18451219 Bishop Epalle died and was buried the next day.
       18460103 Verguet and others start the mission on San Cristobal (Makira)
       18470219 Verguet departs San Cristobal
       18470306 Arrives Sydney and spends time recuperating
       18470509 Verguet and Collomb on board the Spec (Speculator?) left Sydney for New Zealand
       18470523 Episcopal ordination of Collomb in Kororāreka
       18470602 Bp Collomb and Verguet depart Bay of Islands for New Caledonia on the Spec
       18470629 Spec arrives at the main mission of Baïao on New Caledonia
       18470715 Verguet goes by land to Pouebo (secondary mission station) New Caledonia
       18470717 Spec leaves for Indonesia
       18470718 Mission station at Baïao, Balade is attacked (Br Blaise injured)
       18470719 Station attacked again, occupants flee to Pouebo but Blaise is killed.
       18470812 The French naval vessel the Brillante arrives at Pouebo
       Brillante takes Verguet and the missionaries to Anatom (Vanuatu) [arriving 15 August 1847] and then to Sydney [arriving 27 August 1847]
       18471003 Verguet left Sydney on the barque Tory destined for London. (It stopped over at St Helena on 6 Jan 1848)
       18480306 Verguet arrives in London and later in the month travels to Lyon and stays with the Marists there before leaving the Society and re-joining the diocese of Carcassonne.
       18480319 Verguet arrived in Lyon Poupinel doc 72

       1848 by September Verguet is assistant priest at Lodève Poupinel doc 91

       1883 Verguet published a small book entitled Grand Archipel des Iles Salomon son Étendue, sa Fertilité.
       1885 Verguet published a forty-page article for the Revue d’Ethnographe entitled “Arossi ou San-Christoval et ses habitants”