Dom John, an ingenious French antiquary, was born at the village of Beaumains, near Falaise, in 1734. He was educated at the grammar school at Caen, whence he was removed to the university of that place, and there pursued his studies with great diligence and success till 1745, when he became a Benedictine monk of the abbey of St Martin de Sezé. Some time after this he was appointed prior claustral of this abbey, and continued six years in that office. He was then nominated prior of Trion en Perche; and being translated to the abbey of Bourgoing-St Stephen at Caen, in the capacity of sub-prior, he managed the temporalities of that religious house during two years, as he did their spiritualities for one year longer; after which he resigned his office. His superiors, sensible of his merit and learning, removed him to the abbey of Bec, where he resided till 1764. He was elected an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1765; and the same year returned to the abbey of St Stephen at Caen, where he continued till the time of his death. These honourable offices, to which he was promoted on account of his great abilities, enabled him not only to pursue his favourite study of the history and antiquities of the principal Benedictine abbeys in Normandy, but likewise gave him access to all their charters, deeds, register-books, and other documents. These he examined with great care, and left behind him, in manuscript, large and accurate accounts of the abbeys of St Peter de Jumieges, St Stephen, and the Holy Trinity at Caen, founded by William the Conqueror and his Queen Matilda, with a particular history of the abbey of Bec, all written in French. The History of the Royal Abbey of Bec, which he presented to Dr Ducarel in 1764, is only an abstract of his larger work. This ancient abbey, which has produced several archbishops of Canterbury, and other prelates of England, is frequently mentioned by our old historians. The death of Bourget, which happened on new-year's day 1776, was occasioned by his unfortunate neglect of a hurt he had received in his leg by falling down two or three steps in going from the hall to the cloister of the abbey of St Stephen at Caen.