The mansion of Thaon
(Extracts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on Bessin and the Monumental Statistics of Calvados by Arcisse de Caumont)
See postcards and various photos of the mansion Summary of the history of the mansion of Than
At the end of the 18th century, among the various existing Vierville castles and mansions, 2 of them were built in the immediate vicinity of the center of the village of Vierville: the castle of Vierville and the mansion of Than, whose parks were separated only by a narrow road between two large walls.
That of Vierville was already a century old when the first stone of the mansion of Than was laid in 1791 by the owner of the estate, Monsieur de Rochefort, on a regular plan of his time (for example the Château de Barbeville near Bayeux).
Here's what a 1932 advertising document said:
"Along the eastern wall of the Vaumicel, along the green path, we arrive at the Mansion of Than.
This mansion has two entrances, one at sunset and the other at the east, through a beautiful park that extends to the church. In this mansion was hospitalized during the Revolution the Abbé Edgeworth, confessor of Louis XVI. A very thick wall allowed to practice a hiding place. After having belonged to the Marguerit de Rochefort family and to the last person of this name, who became the Countess of Goussencourt. The Mansion of Than is rented to Mrs. de Villodon by its owners Madame and Mr. Commander of Bray."
The courtyard side of the mansion destroyed in 1944,
Facing the West
Appearance in 1944 of the buildings of the Thaon farm that were converted into housing after the war
The park side of the mansion destroyed in 1944, facing East
A large cypress ( Lambert species) from the mansion of Than in 2006. It is probably several centuries old. The one who was hit by the storm in 1977 was about 350 years old
Opposite, the cadastre of 1823 shows that the farm building, to the south, was bordered by a path called "Voie du Champ", which has completely disappeared today.The plan of the mansion included a central part with two symmetrical wings, faced a courtyard of honor on the West side with an entrance gate overlooking the only path leading at the time to the church of Vierville coming from Louvières or Formigny.
At the back, on the East side, the opposite facade, simpler, overlooked the park near the church and the cemetery.
The central body had a double ramp porch, flanked by two wings, at the bottom of a courtyard of honor closed with a pilaster grid. Behind, there were lawns and gardens.
The east facade of the mansion with its irregular openings, gray walls, white door at the top of a small porch was less solemn and much more picturesque than the one overlooking the courtyard of honor.
Insensibly this facade on the park has become the main one at the expense of the courtyard of honor. This had originally been placed opposite the only road- currently the "Ash Hunt" - which then existed.
But, in 1835, another more important road was traced - (the current departmental road from Vierville to Formigny). As she bypassed the park, the mansion could be much more conveniently served by her. This provision meant that the passage through the courtyard of honor gradually fell into disuse: since then the castle was accessed through a gate overlooking this new road, hence the pleasant obligation to cross the park to reach the house.
The mansion remained until 1944 as it had been built, except for the North Wing, which, having been largely destroyed in 1907 by a fire, was transformed into a wing covered with an Italian-style baluster terrace.
In June 1944 the 18th century mansion was completely destroyed during the fightings and was not rebuilt. The farm buildings were then redeveloped into a main residence (table below, by Martine Rocher, daughter of Jean-Pierre and Thérèse Chedal-Anglay). The main access is now again provided by the path of the "Ash Chase"
Successive owners of the Than domain
"In the 17th century, Thaon and Normanville belonged to Jean de Breteuil (or Brétheuille) squire.
At his death in the middle of the 17th century, "Messire Nicolas de Bosquemare, knight, lord of Ozenbray, adviser to the king in his councils, president of the Requêtes du Palais in Paris and residing there became the winner by decree of the inheritances and other furnished property of the sieuries of Taon and Normanville. His widow "noble lady Catherine Voisin", probably enjoyed it until 1727, when she died, having as heir the viscount "du Chaslo" or "du Chasla" or "du Chayla".
Gilles de la Roche then became the owner. Gilles de la Roche had a son, Jacques de la Roche de Normanville, who, born in 1723, died in Vierville in 1789.
His daughter, Marie Madeleine Félicité de la Roche de Normanville, married Pierre Nicolas de Marguerit de Rochefort, knight, lord and patron saint of Rochefort, Clouay, Bernesq-Savigny and Cavelande, whose lands and lordships were in Rochefort, Clouay, St-Jean de Savigny, etc., on the banks of the Elle, near St-Clair, on the borders of the Manche department. They were probably the builders of the mansion destroyed in 1944.
Pierre-Nicolas de Marguerit de Rochefort, born in 1747, died in Vierville on May 7, 1817; his wife Félicité de la Roche de Normanville, born in 1749 in La Cambe, died in Vierville and was buried there on December 23, 1829.
Since 1727, the domain of Thaon has remained in the family of Marguerit de Rochefort until Mrs. Marie-Noëmi de Marguerit de Rochefort, Countess of Goussencourt, who was the owner until the sale around 1938 to M. and Mrs. Poivre, whose daughter Mrs. Thérèse Chedal-Anglay is the heiress of the estate.
Knowing the places and their owners, let's now see which people lived there at the time of the Revolution when the mansion went down in history on the occasion of the escape of the Confessor of Louis XVI, Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont.
In 1796, at the castle of Vierville, dwelled Gilles-Edouard de Marguerie, an 87-year-old man, who spent his life between Vierville and Bayeux, where he died in 1802 and from where his body was brought back to be buried in the cemetery of Vierville. His son Edouard-Marie de Marguerie was guillotined in 1793. He had left a wife and two children, whom the ancestor had most likely taken in.
Meanwhile, at the Manoir de Thaon (aka château de Rochefort) remained Marie-Félicité de la Roche de Normanville, 46 years old, wife of Pierre Nicolas de Marguerit de Rochefort, who had emigrated. She had her two children with her, Marie-Félicité-Constance-Aimée, then 18 years old and Louis-Henri-Victor-Frédéric, who was about ten years old. To safeguard her property, she had to ask for a divorce, which was pronounced on October 31, 1792.
[These divorces of emigrants, which in this region were quite numerous, had in some cases unexpected consequences. When the husbands returned to France and resumed their place at home, they cared little about the divorce that had legally dislocated their family. It didn't matter much, when the spouses were old enough to have no new posterity; but when the household was still young, children arrived who, according to the law, were only bastards. It is difficult to imagine the multitude of legal formalities that must be completed to obtain their legitimacy.]
Between the two neighboring families, the intimacy was great. It was at the mansion of Thaon that a member of Marguerie's family, who played an important role in Abbé Edgeworth's escape preparations, was allowed by his state of emigrant (and chouan) during intermittent and furtive stays. It was Count Henry of Marguerye. Jacques Bertin Louis Henry, Count of Marguerye, was born on February 8, 1764 in Buscagny, near Vassy, of the marriage of Louis Henry de Marguerye d'Hérouville with Marie-Charlotte de Malfillastre (de Vassy).
His father, who was widowed early with two sons, Henry and Charles, joined the orders. Once ordained a priest, he was appointed to the parish of Vierville by his relative, Gilles Edouard de Marguerie, lord and patron of the parish. He died there poisoned by mistake in 1785 (handwritten diary of Abbé Le Paulmier, emigrant, whose communication we owe to the great kindness of Father Robert).
(Later, Count Henry de Marguerie married, on January 9, 1798, Marie Félicité Constance Aimée de Marguerit de Rochefort, daughter of the castle of Thaon. He died in Vierville on March 8, 1836. We have proof of the active role he played in les escapes of Abbé Edgeworth )
With these royalist families, tried by the Revolution, counting among their members officers in the King's armies, dignitaries of the Royal Orders, emigrants, or even guillotines, Abbé Edgeworth found a completely natural protection. In Vierville, he therefore arrived in an environment very willing to offer him shelter and facilitate his escape.
It was at the mansion of Thaon that he lid (a few months in 1796). We can still see the layout of the place where a hiding place had been given to him. Apart from the alerts, the abbot lived from the life of his guests and it is even said that he had been given a small oratory, where, without going to the parish church, he could say his mass. In his retirement from Bayeux, the abbot was known as Mr. Henri. In Vierville, he was called Mr. Charles.
The mansion of Thaon had two wings. Father Edgeworth was in a room in the South Wing. An ordinary closet, whose bottom was modified, hid a hiding place for the Abbot in case of excavations.
At the mansion of Thaon, the "hiding place" was represented in 1938 by a "A" antechamber.
On the right, plan (1938) of the South wing of Than's mansion, on the 1st floor, the park is on the East. The left room (1) would have been that of Abbé Edgeworth. We could see the toilet that replaced the hiding closet. The closet could have been in (B) and the hiding place in (C), the communication between the left room (1) and the right room (2), in (C), would have been closed on the side of (2) by the woodwork that covered the walls at that time.
Opposite the mansion of Thaon, beyond the road on which the courtyard of honor gave, were small low houses, some of which still exist. One of these houses was inhabited by rigorist republicans who used their time to inspect everything that could happen abnormally in the castle. This meant that many times, suspected and denounced, Mrs. de Marguerit de Rochefort was the subject of unpleasant searches. We suddenly surrounded the house, we searched everything, we found some object that could pass for a seditious emblem, we seized it and we left.
Here is from a time diary (Gazette du Calvados, 25 pluviose an VI n* 256.) the story of one of these searches:
"The central administration of this department recently stopped that a home visit would be made in the front Château de Rochefort, located in the municipality of Vierville, canton of Trévières. She had been well instructed that he usually hid emigrants; she also knew that he was the point of communication of the English with their agents in France and other enemies of the Republic and that there must be a weapons depot there.
"AlthepIF it had been concentrated in the deepest secrecy and conducted with great intelligence, it did not produce a result as happy as we should have expected.
"However, we found in the Rochefort woman several emblems of royalty; among others, the figure of Capet in silhouette, a silver medal suspended from a black ribbon representing France fleurdelysee watering with tears a cinerary urn with this inscription: "Cry and avenge him"; at the top a cloud letting the lightning escape in lightning: at the bottom is this inscription: January XVI MDCCXCIII. We see on the reverse the bust of the last king at the foot of which we read: "Louis XVI, King of France, immolated by the factions". We also discovered in this house an infinity of caches, practiced either in the paneling or parquet floors, or in the floors. A lot of papers and feudal titles are seized. A few days before this expedition, a wedding had been celebrated in the same castle. Several emigrants from the Saint-Marcouf Islands had attended; it would be desirable that Republicans had been sent there to sing the epithalam."
It was the marriage of Count Henry de Marguerye and Constance Aimée de Marguerit de Rochefort to which he was thus alluded. It was celebrated on the 17th year VI (1798).
Despite these repeated alerts, no memory of any tragic end to these searches has been kept. Let's even say that among the Republican guards required for these operations, some were not very fervent servants of the regime, because it is reported that during one of them, an outlaw having fled hastily and awkwardly in a tree, the guard posted at the foot warned him charitablely that he was seen too much and that he took care to hide better in the foliage.
This explains that in our campaigns the outlaws were able to live without too high alarms and take the necessary steps to escape.
Escaped on August 20, 1796, arrived at St-Marcouf Island on the 21st, Abbé Edgeworth, by the care of Captain Douglas Price, was able to reach Portsmouth on August 25."