Lot n°
The Thomas du Fossé de Bosmelet
Three... - Lot 0 - Kâ-Mondo
The Thomas du Fossé de Bosmelet
Three names
That of a family and two estates or the history of a precious Norman heritage
Pascal Pradié, Saint-Wandrille Abbey
The main information concerning the origin of the Thomas family comes from two sources: the family archives (Archives départementales Seine-Maritime 10 J) and the Mémoires de Pierre Thomas, sieur du Fossé (F. Bouquet, Rouen 1876, 4 volumes).
The origins of the Thomas family ...
The first mentions of the Thomases, originally from Blois, appear with Gentien Thomas, the first of the name, around 1490, during the reign of King Charles VIII, this first name of Gentien being found in the family throughout the centuries. Gentien Thomas had two sons, Gentien and Denis. Gentien, born around 1562, went to live with his uncle Gentien, then dean of the king's secretaries.
Then he went to Paris to learn the art of finance. He joined the service of Monsieur d'Ambray, Receiver General of Finances in Rouen. As early as February 1589, the troubles and barricades in Rouen, a prelude to the League, determined the king's loyalists to send Gentien Thomas to bring the first news of the unrest to Henri III, who was then in Blois. In recognition of his services during the League, Henry IV appointed him on April 26, 1594 to the position of Master of Accounts of Normandy, which fixed him permanently in Rouen.
The seigneuries of the Fossé and Bosmelet ...
On October 20, 1599, Gentien Thomas acquired the important seigneury of Le Fossé (not far from Forges-les-Eaux, Seine-Maritime) composed of ten fiefs. His marriage to the niece of the grand vicar of the Cardinal of Bourbon gave him three children, including a son, Gentien, who succeeded his father as Master of the Accounts in 1621. Gentien Thomas, who had become lord of the ditch, could then marry Magdeleine Beuzelin, daughter of the President of the Parliament of Rouen and sister of Jean Beuzelin, councillor at the Parliament of Normandy and lord of Bosmelet, on 18 April 1623. Gentien and Magdeleine gave birth to fifteen children of whom nine survived. The way they lived and entertained soon made them known in Rouen as "Prince and Princess Thomas" as their son Pierre recounts in his Memoirs.
The entry of the seigneury of Bosmelet in the patrimony of the family Thomas du Fossé occurred only with the grandson of Gentien and Magdeleine Thomas du Fossé, Antoine-Augustin. We remember his great uncle, Jean Beuzelin, adviser to the Parliament of Normandy. From his marriage in 1626 with Antoinette des Hameaux, daughter of a State Councillor, was born Jean II Beuzelin who married in 1631 Renée, daughter of the minister and State Secretary of Louis XIII, Léon de Bouthillier de Chavigny. In 1632, Jean I Beuzelin rebuilt the castle of Bosmelet on the site of an old fortress. From their union was born Anne-Marie Beuzelin (1668-1752) that her parents married on June 17, 1698 to Henri-Jacques Nompar de Caumont (1675-1726), duke of La Force and peer of France. The couple gave birth to three daughters but none survived the infant mortality rate of the time. Thus, the entire Bosmelet estate was passed on to a descendant of Magdeleine Beuzelin, Antoine-Augustin Thomas du Fossé in 1752, upon the death of the Duchess of La Force. From then on, the Thomas du Fossé family took the name of its main fief and became Thomas du Fossé de Bosmelet.
THOMAS DU FOSSÉ STONE
Pascal Pradié, Saint-Wandrille Abbey
Pierre was the fifth child of Magdelaine and Gentien Thomas, born on April 11, 1634. His parents intended him to become a clergyman at an early age, so he was tonsured at the age of 7 and enrolled in the Petites Écoles de Port-Royal where he spent seventeen years as a pupil, and finally as a teacher until they were dispersed in 1660. In 1666, Louis XIV had him imprisoned for a month in the Bastille with other companions because of his membership of the increasingly suspicious Port-Royal movement. Once released, Pierre went back to Normandy to manage the domain of the Fossé and thus disappear for three years.
Among his teachers were Antoine Le Maistre and Antoine Singlin, as well as Louis-Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy, whom he took as his spiritual director from 1651. Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont passed on to him his love of ancient texts. From August 1657, Pierre joined the group of Solitaries of Port-Royal des Champs where he found Robert Arnauld d'Andilly and Antoine Le Maistre.
His knowledge of some foreign languages as well as Latin, Greek and Hebrew enabled him to work on several editions during his solitary life. Thus he translated from Spanish the Life of Dom Barthélemy des Martyrs; this work was later used by Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy for his 1663 edition. Then he published
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue