The old mansion of Crespigny
(Excerpts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on the Bessin)
400 meters from the Château de Vierville and on the same side of the road to Grandcamp, after the Normanville farm, is the Crespigny farm. The entrance doors of the courtyard and the buildings to the right of the current house date back to the 16th century.
In the oldest building body, a staircase bearing old old graffiti on its walls, (staircase similar to the one seen at the Château de Saint-Pierre-du-Mont), leads to a large room that served, before the current work, as attic and which has one of the most curious fireplaces of yesteryear. Its vast mantle is adorned with carving stones according to large-scale geometric drawings. Here and there a few traces of paint attest to the ease of those who had this work carried out.
Crespigny, the old building body, with the facade dovecote, in 1995
The double window, a vestige of a mule window, opens onto the room of the large fireplace.
details The old mansion of Crespigny restored in 2007
April 2007
Crespigny on the cadastre of 1823
The Champion de Crespigny family: English research presented in ViervilleRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
A cut devoted to the history of Vierville announces a communication on the Crespigny farm at the next meeting of the S.S.A.B.L. The English researcher M. G. A. Ibbetson, domiciled in Saint-Brelade, Jersey, had sent his text to Michel Hardelay, mayor of Vierville, who had translated it from English. The newspaper publishes excerpts in preview. The genealogical developments and interpretations that follow are those of this research as reported by the article.
The text first evokes the "judgment of God" in the old Norman law and the custom, for some high-ranking characters, of having a champion fight in their place. He links to this practice a family called Champion, knights of Lower Normandy and sieurs of the Fleurière. According to this presentation, these swordmen defended the interests of the succession of the Dukes of Normandy and participated in the first crusade, in 1096. They would then have taken the title of Crespigny, then the name Champion de Crespigny.
The article locates the farm about three hundred meters from the village of Vierville-sur-Mer, in Calvados. Some parts are described as very old, including a fireplace described as Renaissance. Family research would have renewed the interest in these remains. At the time of publication, the farm is operated by Mr. and Mrs. Coliboeuf; the photographic caption presents it as the most photographed in the region.
Among the last members of this family to remain in France, the story quotes Claude de Crespigny, a high-ranking officer in the French army. His marriage to Marie, Countess of Vierville, would have earned him the name of Vicomte de Vier(ville). The two families being Huguenots, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, in 1685, would have forced them to abandon their properties and reach England with their eight children. The episode of the escape is told with precision: disguised as fishermen, they allegedly carried their two youngest children in baskets on their backs and asked a fisherman to take them on board.
Welcomed to the Pierponts, to whom he was related by marriage, Claude Champion de Crespigny was reportedly naturalized in 1690, then became a colonel in the English army. Marie died in London in 1692 and Claude in 1695. The article locates their burials in the old cemetery of Marylebone, opposite Mrs. Tussaud's wax museum, and indicates that they were spared from the bombing of the 1940 Blitz. He points out that the Vierville farm also escaped destruction in 1944 and attracted many British photographers every tourist season.
After a study of the different branches of the offspring, Ibbetson evokes Hugh Vivian Champion de Crespigny, son of Philip de Crespigny, a doctor in Melbourne. During the Second World War, Hugh Vivian would have reached the rank of Air Vice-Marshal in the R.A.F. Then withdrawn to Durban, South Africa, he would have given his house the name "Vierville". Although they had become English for about two hundred and fifty years, the family members would not have forgotten their French origin: they would speak French among themselves and often use it in their letters and postcards. The researcher notes with humor that the English around them cannot read them in this way.
The last passage questions the consequences of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Some descendants would have seen in this exile a misfortune that weighed on their destiny for a long time. Ibbetson opposes this judgment with the hypothesis that by staying in France they could have lost their property, even their lives, during the Revolution of 1789. He is also surprised that this family, like the Tonnerre family and other exiles, was able to acquire and preserve beautiful properties in England after having to abandon its French castles and lands; he indicates that he has obtained no explanation that he considers satisfactory. Finally, the home of the sieurs de la Fleurière, presented as the first Champion, had not been found in the vicinity of Bayeux.
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April 2007
The monumental chimney
April 2007
April 2007
This old mansion keeps the name of the family Champion de Crespigny.
Probably sold in the 18th century, the mansion belonged in the mid-19th century to the former Le Véel family, allied to that of Le Petit du Longprey by the marriage of Louis Le Véel de Mosles with Marie-Anne Le Petit du Longprey. Mrs. Le Véel, who became a widow, died in Asnières, aged 90, on January 25, 1860, leaving her granddaughter, Désirée Le Véel, the mansion and land of Crespigny, which she kept for 48 years and sold on November 2, 1908 to M. Jules Gambier, still owner in the 1930s.
In 2004, the buildings of the Crespigny farm were bought by the Boulez family, allied with the Marchal family, which already owns several properties in and around Vierville. They undertook major renovation work while retaining the spirit of the original architecture of the 16th century.
In 1687, Claude Champion, lord of Crespigny, husband of Marie de Vierville (family that no longer owned the castle of Vierville-sur-Mer for a long time, but probably owned estates in the other parish called Vierville, located in the Cotentin), preferred to leave France rather than give up his Protestant faith. Louis XIV had just revoked the Edict of Nantes by which Henry IV had organized the coexistence of Catholic and Reformed religions. Their Crespigny estate was then seized for the benefit of the State, with all their other property in France.
Claude Champion squire, lord of Crespigny, was born in 1623. He had married Marie de Vierville (daughter of Pierre de Vierville, squire and Judith de Gascoing).
They had 5 children: Pierre born in 1662, Suzanne-Renée, born in 1666, Jeanne, born in 1668, Gabriel and Thomas.
All Protestants, Claude, Marie, Pierre, Suzanne and Jeanne emigrated to England where they were recognized in the Savoy church in London on June 30, 1687. Gabriel and Thomas also took refuge in London.
(According to documents drawn up by the parish priest of Vierville, D. Monnier, on May 17, 1688)
The Crespigny Champions left, but several of their descendants returned in the 1930s to Vierville. An English gentleman called Crespigny-Vierville, then showed up at Mrs. Hausermann's house at the Château de Vierville and requested the favor of visiting the castle of his ancestors. He found this house rebuilt since the end of the 17th century, but in Crespigny the stairs and the monumental fireplace were sadly abandoned since the construction of a more modern house for farmers.
{ this is what Mrs. Hausermann wrote on April 7, 1939, in a letter to her son: "..... This morning I received a very courteously respectful letter from a British Air Force Commodore, Mr. Champion de Crespigny de Vierville, who would like to rent my old house for the summer (I pass over the boys' screams at the announcement of this proposal). In the absence of my house, he apologizes for asking me if I would not know anything about him and his family. He would come to Vierville. All this in excellent French. I'm going to look around me....." }
A French journalist wrote recently (2009) talking about the tomb of Claude Champion de Crespigny, in London:
"This afternoon, I was taking a walk in the Marylebone district, and I stopped at the Garden of Rest located near the church of St Marylebone, in Marylebone High Street (a stone's throw from Baker Street and the famous Madame Tussaud wax museum).The garden is open to the street. Very small, but well maintained, with a few benches and tombstones lined up along the wall. One of them caught my attention. I am of Protestant origin and the deceased had certainly left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes."
The English branch of the Crespigny-Vierville Champions
The descendants of Claude Champion de Crespigny-Vierville must have been ennobled by the British Crown since the memory of some of them was noted:
- Sir Claude, 1st baronet
- Sir William, second baronet, who married Lady Sarah Winson Clive
- Augustus, who would have fought in Trafalgar
- Sir Claude-William, 3rd baronet, husband of Mary Tyssen Tyrd of Boreham
- Sir Claude, 4th Baronet
- Sir Raoul, 5th baronet, viceroy of the Indies
- Sir Vivian Tyrel, 8th baronet, died in 1952
- Philippe Champion de Crespigny, VM of the RAF (Royal Air Force), living in Melbourne Australia. It would be he who would have come to see Mrs. Hausermann before the war.
Hugh Vivian Champion of Crespigny, living in Durban (Natal, South Africa)
- G. A. Ibbetson, descendant living in St-Hélier (Jersey Island)
Here's what G.A. Ibbertson (at "El Nino" Route des Genêts, St Brelade, Jersey Island) wrote about the Crespigny Champions:
"CHAMPION OF THE DUKE OF NORMANDY
Who were they?
Where were they from?
Why did they have to leave France?
How did they leave?
Where did they go?
Where are they now?
The "judgment of God" was formally an article acknowledged by the laws of Normandy, and it was then a custom for certain people in high places to employ a champion in order to fight for them. It says in the Grand Larousse (an authoritarian French Dictionary) the practice of fighting for others in judicial duels is very old. They were men who were professional champions and who hired themselves out for judicial fighting. In the 13th century the use of a champion was no longer tolerated except for those who had a valid excuse: infirmity or sickness, the loss of a limb and age, etc. The duels are later described as: the combat between the parties of a criminal trial in order to decide the victory of one of the champions and the justice of his cause.
One of the families by the name of champion, riders, of the Basse-Normandie and sires of LA FLEURIERE who fought for and in favor of the succession of the dukes of Normandy when they wanted them and also took part in the first Crusade in 1096. they must have been very clever men of the sword.
Much later they took the title of CRESPIGNY. And later than that they changed it to CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY, and they have continued that ever since then.
There is actually a farm of Crespigny situated about 300 meters from the village of Vierville-sur-mer, in the Calvados. Some parts there are very old and much in particular a Renaissance fire place in one room.
This place is very interesting for someone who looks for the history of this family."
Among the last members who evacuated France we find Claude Champion de Crespigny, officer of high rank in the French army and who married Marie, countess of Vierville, and thus was known under the name of Vicomte de Vierville.
A standing portrait of the countess formally hung in the salon of a house in Surrey (England). The inscription on this portrait is: "Portrait of Marie, daughter of Pierre de Vierville, of the chateau de Vierville and married to Claude Champion de Crespigny".
Alas this happy situation doesn't last long because these two families are hugonauts, and they are said to be Protestant. The revocation of the "Edit de Nantes" by Louis XIV in 1685 and the persons involved had to leave their properties and France in order to avoid the persecutions due to arrive.
For those, one night, they disguised themselves as fishermen brought their two very young children in packs on their backs and asked a real fisherman to take them with him on his boat.
They were treated hospitably by the Pierpoints who were related by marriage. In 1690, the whole family was naturalized and Claude obtained a commissio in the English army as colonel.
The couple died in London and were buried in an old cemetery called Marlebone, in front of Madame Tussaud Wax Museum. The two tombs are side by side still to be found there having avoided destruction by the "blitz" and the inscription reads "The burial place of Claude, Champion de Crespigny, a refgee from France". "Died April 10, 1695".
The other members of the De Vierville family went to Switzerland where one can actually find a De Vierville-Roth in Basel.
Their ancestor's house has not been damaged since they left Normandy.
About 1697 they were certified by the London College of Arms who said: We have studied and examined old books on the origin and it said "the Champions before Maheus Champion, cavalier, who lived in the year 1350 of N.S. ......until Claude de Champion, fled to the city of London in 1795 (sic) and was buried in Marbone."
Unhappily the place of exact residence of La Fleurière is lost in the night of time, all that we can say with certainty now is that it was not far from Bayeux.
His young son Philip and his wife Anne de Fournereau whose grandparents also escaped from La Rochelle at the were discovered to the Huguenots acquired a large property with magnificent gardens called Christchurch Mansion in Suffolk.
They had 3 children, a daughter Jeanne and two son Philippe and Claude.
The last Sir Claude, in 1805, was able to a certain extent to compensate his family for their loss in France.