MONTBOISSIER-BEAUFORT CANILLAC (Philippe-Claude de).1712-179 - Lot 169

MONTBOISSIER-BEAUFORT CANILLAC (Philippe-Claude de).1712-1797. Deputy to the Estates-General. Correspondence to M. le comte de Montboissier, lieutenant general of the King's Armies, in Paris, then Cologne and Bonn. Pont du Château, 1791-1792. 6 L.A.S., 20 pp. in-4 with address and red wax seal. Interesting correspondence from the Count de Montboissier's chargé d'affaires, recounting the beginnings of the Revolution in the Clermont-Ferrand region; 1791: (...) the constitutional parish priests (...) have left the municipalities, and have installed the old priests to carry out their functions, while waiting for the bishop to appoint servants, which would be very difficult for him, as he cannot even provide a vicar. The department has just appointed district commissioners to go and tear down the boundaries of the dixmes and to erase the coats of arms that have not been (...). In Clermont, all those that were in view have been removed. He warns the Count that he has taken steps to hide those of the château; about the shortage of liquidity and the dispatch of workmen to make coins from the metal of the bells. 1792: Concerning the estate's affairs; the boat trip of wine and a barrel of pears to Villeneuve-St-Georges delayed due to the cold, the gradual cessation of payments to farmers, the cancellation of the sale of looted woods; on the fall in the value of assignats and the appearance of "billets de confiance", on the liquidation of dimes by the director of estates, the problem of fishing rights; he was advised not to sue: there would be danger of taking the matter to court. At the moment, there's nothing but talk of looting, burning and killing. I'm no coward, but this moment scares me. We've never been in a crisis like this before. People have completely lost their heads (...). In February, news from Paris about the decision to sequestrate émigrés' property; anticipating the raid by the district commissioner, he sheltered the charterhouse; March and April: worrying about the sequestration of the estate following the emigration of the Count of Monboissier, about the church chapter and the Count's religious foundations; about the rise of unrest, widespread looting, repression by the national guard: two regiments have been sent to the Cantal department, where a few castles have been set on fire (...). Etc. Mention of the family names of CHAZOT, comte de LEVIS-MIREPOIX (his son-in-law, who went to the scaffold in 1794), comtesse de LA TOUCHE, LA FAYETTE.