Pierre Grasset

Other Events:

• Residence: 1752, Bergerac, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France

Notes:

The information about Pierre Grasset/Isabeau Cordeau family comes from the marriage contract between their son Pierre Grasset Latour and Marie Bontemps agreed upon at Bergerac in 1756.

In 1998, Professional genealogist Martine Duhamel found no further birth or marriage information for the Pierre Grasset/Isabeau Caudou family. This supports the likely supposition that they were Protestants for whom there would be no documentation in the Catholic Church records of the period.

The Edict of Nantes, issued by Henri IV in 1598 had granted religious freedom in France. However, in 1685 his grandson Louis XIV repealed this freedom with the Edict of Fontainebleau. This revocation of the Edict of Nantes outlawed what Louis called the "Religion Prétendument Réformée" (the Allegedly Reformed Religion) and ordered the destruction of Protestant places of worship. A subsequent series of royal declarations issued between 1698 and 1715 created a web of particularly repressive statutes against Protestants. These laws were affirmed by Louis IV in a declaration given at Versailles on 14 May 1724, in which the king forbade all his subjets:

"[D]e faire aucun exercice de religion autre que de ladite Religion catholique et de s'assembler pour cet effet en aucun lieu et sous quelque prétexte que ce puisse être, à peine contre les hommes des galères perpétuelles ; et contre les femmes d'être rasées et enfermées pour toujours dans les lieux que nos juges estimeront à propos, avec confiscation des biens des uns et des autres, même à peine de mort contre ceux qui se seront assemblez en armes. [to exercise any religion other than the Catholic religion and to not assemble for this purpose in any place and under whatever pretext, the penalty being for men to the galleys for life, and for women to be shorn and locked forever in places that judges deem fit, with confiscation of their property, even the death penalty against those who assemble in arms.]"

Article 2 punished preachers with the death penalty, forbade anyone from giving them sanctuary; it was obligatory to denounce them.

Article 3 required the parents to have their children baptized within 24 hours of birth by the local priest, and articles 4 to 7 mandated raising the children as Catholics.

Articles 15 to 17 reaffirmed the formalities prescribed by the Catholic Church for marriage and marriage banns and the obligation to be married by the parish priest.

In this milieu, Protestants did not have the opportunity to worship freely, have marital status (leading to their children being potentially labeled as "bâtards"), or even hold certain occupations such as physician, printer or bookseller where licensing depended on a certificate of Catholicity.

In parts of the Aquitaine region, Catholics accounted for only about one-thirtieth of population in 1685. Even after 85 years of conversion efforts, Catholics would number no more than half the population. Despite their numbers, Protestants generally abandoned themselves to a fatalistic passivity toward Catholicism; there was no armed revolt as happened elsewhere in France. However, in 1742 a first assembly of the Protestant faithful “au desert” took place in the Bergerac area.

The notion of "le culte au desert," worship in the wilderness, had Biblical underpinnings in Hosea 2:16-17, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her". Protestant assemblies in the countryside of up to 6,000 participants show an organized community and a renewal of faith. Even so, baptisms and marriages performed by itinerant preachers remained unrecognized by the State and patently illegal.

Thus, as Protestants in 18th century France, the Grasset Latour family likely faced many troubles for the practice of their faith.

Residence:
Requête de noble Pierre de Chièze contre les dégradations faites chez lui par Pierre Grasset dit Latour, maître cordier de la ville de Bergerac, en 1752. [Civil claim by the noble Pierre de Chièze against damage done on his property by Pierre Grasset dit Latour, master ropemaker of the town of Bergerac in 1752].

Noble Pierre de CHIEZE, Seigneur de la forge du Pont Saint Mamet dit qu'à son insu et durant son absence Pierre GRASSET dit LATOUR, maître cordier de la présente ville de Bergerac "aurait fait plusieurs entreprises, dégradations et usurpations préjudiciables au suppliant sur une maison et batiments à lui appartenant situés dans la présente ville, faubourg Malburguet".

Le suppliant a déjà demandé au maître cordier le 5ème courant "en sommation de rétablir et de remettre toutes choses en même état qu'elles étaient avant", mais rien n'ayant été fait, il supplie le Sénéchal du Périgord ou son lieutenant général de venir sur les lieux, avec un greffier pour constater les dégâts et dresser un procès-verbal.

N.B : Pierre GRASSET dit LATOUR, maître cordier à Bergerac en 1752, semble bien être votre ancêtre.
_______________________

Noble Pierre de Chièze, Lord of the forge of Pont Saint-Mamet says that without his knowledge and during his absence Pierre Grasset dit Latour, master ropemaker of this town of Bergerac "had done many enterprises, damage and usurpation detrimental to the supplicant on a house and buildings belonging to him situated in this city, in the faubourg of Malburguet".

The supplicant has already asked the master ropemaker on the 5th "in summation to restore and put back in place all things in the same state they were before", but nothing has been done. He begs the Seneschal of Perigord or his lieutenant general come to these places, with a clerk to see the damage and prepare a report.

N.B.: Pierre Grasset dit Latour, master ropemaker in Bergerac in 1752, seems to be your ancestor.

Family/Spouse: Isabeau Caudou. Isabeau died after 12 Sep 1756 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Pierre Grasset Latour was born about 1720 in France; died before 1793 in Bergerac, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France.