1826 Disputed Inheritance Legal Document Connected to French Nobility
10227On offer is a superb example of a legal contract for the very early 19th century France.
The document is a legal petition regarding a disputed inheritance. The action was started by the heirs of Madame Cotignon de Quincy.
An excerpt from the legal contract follows:
Le proces soumis a la Cour a pour object de faire fixer les forces de la succession de la dame QUINCY; la liquidation de cette succession presente un assez grand de difficultes a resoudre, et c'est pour economiser les momens de l'audience qu'il a ete mis un rapport de l'un de MM les Conseillers.
[Translation: The purpose of the trial before the Court is to have the forces of the lady de QUINCY's estate determined; the liquidation of this succession presents a rather great difficulty to resolve, and it is to save the time of the hearing that a report was sent to one of the Council].
Another excerpt from the legal contact follows:
C'est pour la seconde fois que les heritiers d'Armes et d'Arthel entravent cette liquidation d'une demande de 22,382 francs avec lesquels ils ont l'esperance de payer la majeure partie des condamnations qui ont ete prononcees contr'eaux par l'arret sus-date.
[Translation: This is the second time that the heirs of Armes and Arthel are hindering this liquidation of a request for 22,382 francs with which they hope to pay the major part of the sentences which have been pronounced against them by the above judgement].
The judgement refers to a decision apparently handed down in July, 1814, fully 12 years previous! The document then goes on to lay out in detail the complaint against the heirs of both Monsieur d’Armes and Monsieur d’ Arthel.
The sums discussed are quite large. Today, it could represent more than US$250,000. This was at a time when the average French worker’s annual income was about the equivalent of US$3,000.
The principal parties are the heirs of Marie Marguerite Cotignon, the wife and later widow of Joseph Henri Gabriel Fournier, Viscount de Quincy. Another interesting member of this claim group is a noted French Vice-Admiral, Antoine Louis de Gourdon.
Gourdon was born in 1765 and joined the French Navy. He was not a Royalist and as the political situation disintegrated in the early 1790’s, he was dismissed from the Navy. However, with the rise of Napoleon, he was restored in rank and rejoined the Navy. He served in Napoleon’s Navy and saw service in several battles and theatres. After the fall of Napoleon, he joined in the Bourbon restoration, being promoted to Vice Admiral in 1822. He commanded the fleet in Rochfort and in Brest before assuming command of the French Navy Cartography department. He passed away in 1833 at the age of 68.
Further informal research suggests that this is an intra-family dispute. Fournier d’Armes was Madame de’ Quincy’s brother-in-law.
For a historian, the document is a fascinating description of the manner in which monies and properties were transferred in the convoluted feudal system that existed in France in the mid-18th century. It is also a testament to the snail's pace of the creaking French bureaucracy that this case could drag on for decades. It also illustrates the type of argumentation that would be practised in the civil courts at that time. For a genealogist, this offers a number of first-hand familial references in a geographically small region between Marseilles and Montpelier
The document measures 9.75 inches by 8.0 inches and contains 8 typed pages. The paper is in very good condition with very slight signs of aging.
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