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Description
[Brittany]
Historical and genealogical documents, 16th to 19th centuries
A collection of approximately 40 handwritten documents relating to Brittany, including
L.S., Versailles, 25 March 1768, ‘Louis’ and countersigned by Louis Phélypeaux de Saint-Florentin, Secretary of State to the King’s Household, 5 pp., folio; The King’s memorandum to serve as instructions to his commissioners on the occasion of the States of Brittany convened at Saint-Brieuc
A handwritten list of the names of the farmers-general of Brittany responsible for the major duties, taxes and billots, prior to 1734
Part of a letter from the King, Rennes, 23 September 1768, addressed to Pierre Guillaume Joseph Le Franc des Fontaines, Abbot of Geneston, in which he reports on the initiative by the rector of Saint Sauveur and fifteen merchants from the city of Rennes to create a common fund for the purchase of grain from outside the city
The continuous rains over the past four months and the flooding of the rivers have devastated the harvests, destroying even the semblance of a crop. The price of bread is already exorbitant in Rennes, and everything seems to point to the misfortunes of an impending famine. Private individuals, moved by the plight of their poor fellow citizens and deeply aware of their duty to relieve the unfortunate, have concluded that the only way to prevent extreme hardship and ensure public safety is to bring in grain from outside. They have each contributed a sum proportionate to their means and have written at once to have a portion of the wheat dispatched to them. Some will take it upon themselves to have the bread baked so that it may be distributed free of charge to the poor. The aim of this patriotic initiative being chiefly to provide for the subsistence of these unfortunate families, who, as victims of both poverty and shame, fear exposing their misfortune to the insulting gaze of contempt
Petition, undated [second half of the 18th century], signed by the notaries of Rennes and addressed to the King
You are aware that Rennes, the capital, though set back inland and engaged solely in domestic trade, flourished thanks to the vigour of the administration of justice by a distinguished parliament and the contribution of those whose business brought them there. What a difference today! Your parliament, composed of a small number of magistrates—even if they were tireless—could not come anywhere near being sufficient. Hence the cries of the orphan and the public misery affecting all the pillars of justice and all the bodies of the city—a situation all the more overwhelming because everyone still strives to conceal it
L.S., Paris, 30 March 1768, Marie-François de Paule Lefèvre d’Ormesson (1710–1775), Marquis d’Ormesson, Intendant of Finances and Director of Worldly Affairs at the École de Saint-Cyr, concerning the request to place the daughters of Mr Berthelot, Sieur du Gage (Saint-Carreuc)
Handwritten report by a surgeon examining the injuries of Dame Hélène Louise Lecamus, Lady of Lieuzel, in Rennes, 27 June 1725
Compilation of an inquiry conducted amongst the inhabitants of Louvigné-du-Désert, 23 June 1542, statements regarding customs, the division of the fief of Les Alleux in Louvigné, and its feudal tenure, 20 pp. folio + a confession on parchment dated 5 October 1638
Etc...
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