French Émigrés and the Refashioning of Noble Identities by Véronique
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Aristocrats into Modernity: French Émigrés and the Refashioning of Noble Identities by Véronique Church-Duplessis A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Véronique Church-Duplessis 2016 Aristocrats into Modernity: French Émigrés and the Refashioning of Noble Identities Véronique Church-Duplessis Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2016 Abstract In the wake of the French Revolution, several thousand noble men and women sought refuge outside France. The emigration was a unique space in which ci-devants – as the revolutionaries called ex-nobles – could experiment with different practices and conceptions of nobility. The collapse of the traditional social structure under which they had been accustomed to exist and the extraordinary circumstances of exile allowed, and often compelled, several noble émigrés to adapt, or at least attempt to adapt, to the new world ushered by the Revolution. In order to find a new place and a new legitimacy, noble émigrés relied on a variety of practices and discourses. Some turned to landownership and argued that land was the foundation of the order’s moral superiority and socio-economic power. Others turned to commerce to rebuild their fortunes and re-establish their families on a favourable footing in post-revolutionary France. Noble émigrés also modified their social reproduction strategies to meet the revolutionary challenges and facilitate the survival of the noble family’s corporate distinctiveness. In spite of its dispersal all over the Western world, the émigré diaspora formed an imagined community tied together by cultural productions as well as by a common set of valued emotions and comportments meant to affirm their nobility, their national identity, and their resistance to the Revolution. The counter-revolution was not limited to taking up arms against the French ii Republic and émigrés waged war against revolutionaries in the Francophone pan-European public sphere. They articulated discourses that contested the revolutionary representation of the émigré as a decadent, treasonous aristocrat. This cultural battle continued after their return to France under the Napoleonic Regime and Restoration when they penned several memoirs. The revolutionary upheavals led to the development of a heightened historical consciousness. As a result, émigrés left numerous testimonies that helped them impose their specific interpretation of the Revolution – one that emphasized its destructive nature – and helped them fashion their individual and collective identities. iii Acknowledgements The successful completion of this project owes a great deal to many people who have supported me along the way. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Jennifer Mori, for her guidance, generosity, and remarkable efficiency; her willingness to share her time and expertise has made me a better scholar and teacher. Her thought-provoking feedback has been invaluable. I wish to thank Paul Cohen for his insights and contagious enthusiasm. Many thanks to Barbara Todd for her generosity as well as for her ever pertinent and stimulating comments and questions. Barbara and Paul, I am very grateful for your support and help. I am grateful to David Wilson and William Nelson who have willingly joined the committee at the end. A special thanks to my external examiner, Jay Smith, whose questions and comments have given me much to think about as I move this project to its next stage of development. I also wish to thank my MA supervisor at Université de Montréal, Susan Dalton, for encouraging me to pursue graduate studies and for facilitating my introduction to archival research. Fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, the René Efrain Memorial Scholarship, and the Jerome Samuel Rotenberg Memorial Scholarship provided essential financial support for my research and writing. I am grateful to the Centre des études de la France et du monde francophone for giving me the opportunity to present and discuss my early work and for financially supporting my project at various stages. I wish to thank the staff at the various archives and libraries I visited for their help, guidance, and patience. Special thanks must go to the archival and security staff at the Archives des affaires étrangères in Nantes who were most welcoming and helpful. I am also indebted to the staff of the Interlibrary Loans Office at the University of Toronto for their outstanding iv resourcefulness and efficiency. I also wish to thank Caroline Shaw and Kirsty Carpenter who graciously shared the manuscripts of their recent works. I owe a great deal to a wonderful supportive network of friends at the University of Toronto and beyond. Stephanie Cavanaugh, Steph Corazza, Kirsten James, Elizabeth Shaw, Lindsay Sidders, Dan Rosenthal, and Mike Wilcox, you made grad school and life in Toronto fun! Jonathan McQuarrie (Go Habs Go!) and Amanda Brooks – neighbours extraordinaire – played a great part in making the past few years in Toronto enjoyable. Thanks to my former housemates Jana Cedotte and Lauren Bruce who made my first year in Toronto memorable. I am also grateful for the continuous support of old Montréal friends, including Marie-Ève Beausoleil, Ève-Marie Lampron, Philippe Poliquin, Patricia Prost, and Valérie Shaffer. Thanks to Mélissa Duguay for her unfailing support and continuous encouragement (all the way from Norway)! I am also indebted to Claire Garnier and Stacy Hushion who have provided a much-appreciated sounding board throughout the highs and lows of this process. Finally, my inseparable friends for many years, Victoria Loucks and Alexandra Wieland, deserve a special mention. Thanks to them, research trips were enjoyable. I am grateful for their invaluable intellectual and moral support. Je dois également remercier les membres ma famille – mes parents, Sylvie et Alain, mes sœurs, Judith et Élodie, ma grand-mère Georgette, ainsi que Robert et Isabelle – qui m’ont toujours soutenue et encouragée. Un merci tout particulier pour avoir déniché Sisi qui a été une compagne très appréciée aux cours des dernières années. Merci, donc, à Sisi le chat. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Noble Émigrés in Arcadia: North American Landed Settlement Projects .................. 33 Chapter 2: Noble Merchants: Enterprising Émigrés and Commerce ............................................ 77 Chapter 3: Émigré Social Reproduction Strategies: Children, Mothers, and the Challenges of the Noble Patriarchal Family ............................................................................................................ 122 Chapter 4: Émigré Social Reproduction Strategies: Matrimony and Domesticity .................... 167 Chapter 5: Émigrés’ Imagined Community: Emotional and Cultural Practices in Exile ........... 212 Chapter 6: Remembering the Revolution and Emigration: Émigrés Memoirs and History ....... 255 Epilogue: Émigrés and Early Nineteenth-Century France .......................................................... 300 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 321 vi List of Tables Table 3.1. Noble Parents and Godparents Dependent on British Relief ..................................... 129 Table 3.2. Number of Children Born in Britain per Noble Émigré Family ................................ 131 Table 4.1. Number of Noble Émigré Weddings Recorded per Annum ...................................... 174 Table 4.2. Age of Noble Émigré Spouses in the Registres de catholicité .................................. 177 Table 4.3. Age of Émigré Spouses: Individual Cases ................................................................. 179 vii List of Figures Figure 0.1. Grand Conseil des Émigrans........................................................................................ 7 Figure 0.2. Marche du Don Quichotte Moderne pour la Déffence du Moulin des Abus ................ 8 Figure 1.1. Map of the Terres du Scioto ....................................................................................... 46 Figure 1.2. A Plan of the Town of Asylum in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania ............................ 59 Figure 2.1. Sassenay and Bauduy’s Network ............................................................................. 103 Figure 2.2. The Pontgibaud/Labrosse Network .......................................................................... 111 Figure 3.1. Number of Recorded Baptisms of Noble Émigré Children