The Ranums' Panat Times

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Part 2:
Notarial evidence about Le Jeune and the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus

Why, in the following documents that from the Archives Nationales, is there no mention of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice or of people in the circle of Élisabeth/Isabelle d'Orléans ("Madame de Guise"), one of the devout women doing good deeds out of Saint-Sulpice? Was Bretonvilliers using NIcolas Le Jeune de Franqueville as a figurehead? Did Le Jeune spend his own money to acquire, maintain and enlarge the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus? The fact that Châtelet had to step in and settle a financial dispute among his heirs via a licitation and ajudication seems to suggest that the Le Jeunes were indeed the legal owners of the school buildings. Unless, that is, the dispute revolved around a tissue of fictitious "loans" that in reality were hidden payments from Bretonvilliers and the Community of Gentlemen at Saint-Sulpice?

Another question comes to mind, a question that is easier to answer that the ones in the first paragraph: What sort of person, in the 1670s, would undertake to create or at least run an "academy" for boys, be it as a figurehead, be it as an owner?

A partial answer lies in the requirements imposed upon a potential maître de pension by the Parisian Compagnie des maîtres de pension. As the director of a boarding school, Le Jeune doubtlessly had to be approved by the Company. A maître de pension had to have earned at least a maître ès arts, and because Le Jeune held a law degree he easily met this requirement. A candidate also had to be interviewed and approved by the syndic of the Company, as well as by the deans and procurators of the different nations of the University of Paris. If accepted, he presented an attestation of his morals and was examined on his knowledge of les belles lettres and his ability to speak Latin. Le Jeune's approval by Saint-Sulpice suggests that he easily received the attestation about good morals; and the library he at his school leaves little doubt that he easily passed the belles lettres and Latin tests. (J.P. Babelon, in Procès verbaux de la Commission du Vieux Paris Nov 6, 1967, p.9)

The rest of the answer about Le Jeune and his activities lies in the documents below, which  provide a variety of evidence about Nicolas Le Jeune de Franqueville.

• On August 28, 1645, Nicolas Le Jeune, officier de la maison de Madame la Princesse [de Condé], was living at the Hôtel de Condé in the faubourg Saint-Germain. He presumably was the father of the Nicolas Le Jeune who created the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus. Indeed, their signatures are quite similar, though not identical. Another signatory, almost certainly his relative, was Nicolas Le Jeune, bourgeois de Paris, who owned a shop, backroom and privy on the rue du Petit-Pont, at the sign of the Lion d'Argent. [AN, MC, XVII, 273, fol. 332]

• A later document states that the Nicolas Le Jeune who created the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus had married Marie de La Moucque. She had given him at least 2 children: a daughter, Andrée-Marguerite Le Jeune, who in 1690 married Frédéric Raisambach (or Reissenbach), bourgeois de Paris; and second daughter, Philiberte Le Jeune, who married Adrien Le Breton, avocat en parlement. [AN, MC, VIII, 937, August 31, 1720]

• The earliest act I found that was signed by the creator of the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus is dated September 4, 1671. Nicolas Le Jeune, an avocat en Parlement residing on the rue de Sèvre, and his second wife, Élisabeth de Garlange, rented from the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères a house with a porte-cochère on the rue du Bac, adjacent to the Seminary. A large garden, complete with fruit trees, was to be created in a courtyard, at the expense of the Seminary. [AN, MC, XCI, 377] Per titre 55 of Nicolas Le Jeune's inventory (AN, MC, VIII, 937, Aug 31, 1720), Élisabeth de Garlange was related to (was the daughter of ?) Josias de Garlange, ancien controlleur et secrétaire du Prince de Condé and Élisabeth Germain, of the Ile-Notre-Dame; if so, she had a brother Claude who was a priest [AN, MC, VIII, 652, June 22, 1640] Especially interesting is the fact that the fathers of both Nicolas Le Jeune and Élisabeth de Garlange probably were colleagues in the household the Condés, and that Nicolas and Élisabeth may both have been raised in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, not far from the Luxembourg Palace.

• On September 20, 1675, "noble homme" Nicolas Le Jeune, avocat en Parlementi, and Élisabeth de Garlanges ― who now called herself "demoiselle de Chambly" ­ living on the rue Vaugirard in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, signed a constitution de rente for 400 livres per year, which he would pay to Cornille François de Montbayen, of the rue Saint-Honoré, and Pierre Neret de Clermet, "ci-devant gentilhomme ordinaire de la maison du Roy," of the rue du Roy-de-Sicile in the parish of Saint-Paul, for money loaned to purchase the property that would become the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus. If we believe what Le Jeune told the notary, he was borrowing a total of 13,000 livres to purchase from Jean-Antoine de Thomas, a conseiller dans le councillor in the Cour des comptes, aides et finances de Montpellier, a house called "Le Clos Galland." [AN, MC, CXII, 371] This document describes the property acquired that day: "[une maison] scituée dans la plaine de Grenelles entre les chemins de Vaugirard et de Sevre concistant en un corps de logis appliqué à une cave, une salle basse, une cuisine à costé, une chambre et antichambre et greniers au-dessus, le tout couvert de tuilles. Une cour avec un jardin clos de murs garny d'arbres fruitiers, le tout contenant en fond de terre dix arpents ou environ, tenant d'une part de costé de Paris à la cave de Vaugirard et du costé de Vaugirard aux religieuses de N.D. de Liesse par-devant sur un chemin de Paris à Vaugirard et par-derrière le chemin allant de Paris à Sevre, sur chacun desquels deux chemins laditte maison a porte-cochère." (Although the original buildings have not survived, the property today is at 149 rue de Sèvres and the plot stretches to 144 rue de Vaugirard.)

• By January 1684 Nicolas Le Jeune had paid back in full the loan made by Pierre Neret; and Neret, before the notary, surrendered to him the grosse of the original rente. Le Jeune was now full owner of the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus. [Annotation at the end of AN, MC, CXII, 371, September 20, 1675]

• On July 16, 1685, exactly a decade after creating the school, Le Jeune ­ who now described himself as "écuyer, sieur de Franqueville et des Petittesbordes," residing in the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus, signed a marché with a builder, to construct a stone addition to the original building: "sera eslevé ladite maçonnerie de chaque estage pour entrer de plainpied du vieil logis à celuy declaré cy-devant et commencé [...] comme aussy sera maçonné le pignon du costé de la chapelle de pareille qualité." The dormered rooms of the upper story would be paneled (lambrissé), the dormers themselves would be of stone to match the older building, doors would connect the two buildings, the floors would be laid with large terra-cotta tiles, the roof would be of high-quality tiles lying on a heart-of-oat lattice. [AN, MC, CVI, 68]

• By 1686 Élisabeth de Garlange had died, leaving children of her own: Jean-François Le Jeune, clerc chappelain des chapelles de St Antoine et St Claude al Monjouan; Nicolas Le Jeune, a clerc and student in theology at the Faculty of Paris; Corneille Le Jeune, sieur de Chambly, who in 1720 was a "capitaine de cavalerie et chevalier de l'ordre militaire de Saint Louis." On February 22, 1686, Nicolas Le Jeune, avocat en Parlement and now "sieur de Franqueville," remarried. He stated that he lived in "his house on the rue de Sève [sic]" in the parish of Saint-Sulpice. The bride was Catherine de Nata Woluf de Charmasson, the daughter of the late Nata Woluf of the city of Zets in Holland, near Maastricht, and of Zebille David. She said that she too lived on the rue de Sévres. (If she did not have them already, the third Mme Le Jeune eventually obtained naturalization papers.) The wedding contract was signed by several of the Le Jeune children. Also present was the groom's nephew Nicolas Le Jeune, a priest and in all likelihood the older Nicolas's godson. [AN, MC, CVI, 69]

• A few months later, October 6, 1686, Nicolas Le Jeune, living on the "rue de Vaugirard, paroisse Saint-Sulpice, en sa maison de l'Enfant Jésus," purchased 1/2 arpent of land adjacent to "Le Clos Galland, présentement appellé l'Hostel de l'Enfant Jésus." [AN, MC, CVI, 70] This was but one of the many acquisitions of adjacent gardens mentioned in his death inventory of 1720. For example, on May 25, 1698, the Le Jeunes sold "pierres et moellon" on 6 arpents of land they owned. [AN, MC, CVI, 116]

• In Le Jeune de Franqueville's inventory, one of the titres reveals that on September 1, 1706, he paid 3500 livres "pour la finance de l'office de lieutenant colonel de milice bourgeois du quartier du Luxembourg." His ties to the parish of Saint-Sulpice clearly had remained strong over the years.

• On April 25, 1706, Nicolas Le Jeune, the nephew-priest, deposited his will with a notary. He was living at the Carmes déchaussés on the rue de Vaugirard. That he was closely linked to the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus is suggested not only by his invocation of the Saint Enfant Jésus at the head of his will, but of his request that 50 masses be said "every day" at the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus. [AN, MC, LXX, 222]

• Nicolas Le Jeune de Franqueville died in 1720, and his inventory was begun on August 31, 1720. Excerpts from this document will be quoted below. [AN, MC, VIII, 937]

• What should be done with the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus? A licitation and adjudication dated March 29, 1732, reveals how the Le Jeune heirs answered this question. Corneille/Cornille Le Jeune de Chambly was the "sole heir of Dame Élisabeth de Garlange his mother," heir of his father Nicolas Le Jeune de Franqueville, and also heir of his sister Marguerite le Jeune-Raisambach and his late brother Jean-François Le Jeune). There was disagreement between him and his sister, Philiberte Le Jeune-Le Breton and her son Nicolas Le Breton. The disputed property was evaluated at 86,000 livres. (The detailed description of the property will be presented below.) [AN, Y 2802] This document does not reveal what the siblings did with the property after 1720. Did the school continue to function? Was it being allowed to fall into ruin?

• It appears to have continued to function, but according to Jaillot, in 1724 the Hôtel de l'Enfant Jésus became a girls' school, "Les Filles de l'Enfant Jésus." Let's reread Jaillot: "M. de Raphaelix céda, le 1^er octobre 1724, le bail de cette maison à M. Languet de Gergy, curé de Saint-Sulpice. Il en fit l'acquisition et elle lui fut adjugée moyennant 86,100 livres, par sentence de licitation du 29 mars 1732." So, if Jaillot's information is reliable, after Le Jeune's death in 1720, the Community of Gentlemen at Saint-Sulpice "rented" the school from Le Jeune's heirs and continued teaching boys for a few years, to avoid disrupting the boys. But in 1724 the "Gentlemen" rented the property to Jean-Baptiste Languet de Gergy for his new girls' school.

• Once the dispute was settled in 1732, Languet de Gergy paid the heirs the 86,000-odd livres mentioned in the adjudication and became the official owner. Working with the Filles de Saint-Thomas-de-Villeneuve, of whom he was the superior general, Languet created a boarding school for girls from poor families who could prove that they had been nobles for two centuries. In short, an urban Saint-Cyr! In addition, the institution was a hospital, an orphanage, and a workshop that employed 100 poor girls. (See J. Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, Paris, 1963, II, pp. 521-22.) Sixteen "demoiselles" were being educated there in 1752. Languet de Gergy wrote his will on March 13, 1750, and the will was executed on February 23, 1752 (apparently during his lifetime, because he did not die until May 1753). In compliance with this will, on May 17, 1752, a donation was made of the property to Monseigneur Jean-Joseph Languet, archbishop of Sens, Languet de Gergy's brother. This document confirms, of course, Jaillot's assertion that Languet de Gergy acquired the property in 1732. [AN, MC. XCII, 576]