Plan of the St-Laurent dungeon,
Raised by Arcisse de Caumont
In the middle of the 19th century
The remains of the dungeon in 1994
Aerial view of the center of
St. Lawrence with the church
And the "Priory"
The old listed building of the "Priory"
The old well of the "Priory"
The "Priory"
The Priory
(details) The Prieuré, classified facade, in the 1950s
(details) The Priory's dovecote
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The old castle of Saint-Laurent and the stately estate
Quote from Mr. Arcisse de Caumont (1858)
"North of the church, in a grassland, we see the location of the old castle in the center of which we can still distinguish some debris of the dungeon; these remains are interesting, they rise only 1 meter above the ground, but they clearly show the division of the ground floor into two apartments; then we see the trace of the ditches that surrounded the central enclosure, and further the limits of the second enclosure. The walls of the dungeon are built of fish bones." (this particularity seems to indicate a very old construction date, around the 11th century)
We don't know when and how the castle disappeared. It was probably dismantled at the end of the Hundred Years' War, like many other fortresses.
The remains of the castle were perfectly visible in the grassland between the church and the Manor of the Priory a few years ago. Unfortunately, an uninspired municipality bought the grass in the 1990s to build a parking lot and make the ruins disappear.
From the point of view of the history of agricultural progress, the castle of St-Laurent has a certain interest; indeed, the abbé de la Rue, in his unpublished research on various objects, says: "that the apple tree called Marin-Onffroy is due to Marin Onfroy, seigneur of St.-Laurent-sur-Mer and Veret ,(a commune northwest of Formigny, now attached to Formigny), who brought it from Biscay to Bessin several centuries ago, and who, after having cultivated it on its land, spread it throughout Normandy"
However, the Marin-Onfroy was one of the best cider apples in Normandy and it also had the merit of being excellently cooked and keeping itself longer than the others.
Today, it seems that this apple variety no longer exists.
History of the Domaine de Saint-Laurent
(Extracts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on the Bessin, Société Historique de Trévières)*
After the destruction of the castle in the 15th century, it is likely that a seigneurial mansion was built in the neighborhood, on the current location of the property called the Priory.
It seems to have been destroyed at the time of the wars of religion in the 16th century.
There remains of these constructions an old well in the middle of the courtyard and monumental doors classified as a Historical Monument. An old dovecote, isolated to the west of the large square courtyard, is also the indication of a stately estate.
Later, at the beginning of the 17th century, an operating building, also classified, was built, with a typical west facade with small openings and old skylights. The other buildings in the large square courtyard are more recent, 18th (the North building body with 2 arcades) and 19th centuries.
Monumental doors. - These two arched arcades, now walled, are adorned in the flamboyant style of the late 15th century.
The smallest (bastard door) is surmounted by a flaming arch ended by a beautiful fleuron whose tip extends and supports a majestic plume.
The shear of the arcades includes several arches, one of which represents a rope formed of several twisted yarns.
The pilaster that separates the coach door from the small door is a triangular column starting in the shape of a buttress and ending in a pedestal for a long absent statuette, surmounted by a fairly well-preserved crowning canopy.
A statue was recently replaced by the current owners.
It is possible that this statue is at the origin of the idea that a Priory had existed here. It is unlikely that these gates were probably those of the seigneurial domain of the Onfroy, lords of St-Laurent and Véret.
This portal could thus be built in 1483 by Louis de Crux, lord of St. Lawrence and the statue was perhaps that of his patron Saint Louis (see below the history of the lords of St. Lawrence).
The former castellans of St-Laurent. -
(extracts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on the Bessin)
With the part of God the ancient lords of St. Lawrence made that of the poor. They gave twelve barley woods to take each year on their mill, at the Hôtel-Dieu in Bayeux. The archives of this charitable institution keep the names of the castellans in papers relating to this annuity. There is the lease made in 1483 in front of Arthur and Allain Desmaires, tabellions in Bayeux, from the Saint-Laurent mill to Fleury Furon by Louis de Crux, lord of the place, husband of Robine Carbonel. This lady from Saint-Laurent probably descended from Robin Carbonel who, on September 14, 1386, gathered nine crossbowmen from Bessin dressed in red and blue sheets half-part, to take them to Honfleur for an offensive against the English. (History of Bessin, by M. de Laheudrie, volume 1, p. 193.)
Louis de Crux, lord of Saint-Laurent, was from a family possessed in Bessin from the 13th century. (The Red Book of Bayeux tells us that in November 1277, Julienne de Crux exchanged with her son, Hervé, the annuities she owned in Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse, Saint-Loup and Vaucelles, near Bayeux, for those that the said Hervé received in Saon and Saonnet. After his death everything had to go back to his sons Robert and Hervé.)
The arms of the de Crux were " of azure with 2 silver bands accompanied by 7 shells of the same placed 2 to the left leader, 3 in the middle and 2 at the bottom right of the said shield. "We saw them at Mont Saint-Michel of which several of Crux were the defenders with the Paynel, the d'Estouville and the Carbonel. Did these same weapons appear on the tympanum of the smaller of the two gates that Louis de Crux would have built around 1483 and that currently remain? His piety towards Saint Louis, his patron and his distant maternal ancestor, allows us to suppose that the statuette of the holy king was placed on the pedestal, still visible as well as the canopy serving as shelter and coronation.
In the 16th century, a hundred years later, the statue of Saint Louis had probably already disappeared, because in the sad days when the French divided into Catholics and Protestants, they broke most of the Holy Images. Like most of the gentlemen of Bessin, Marin Onfroy, lord of Saint-Laurent, took the Reformed religion, especially to show his opposition to the King.
In the year 1616, Jeanne Onfroy, daughter of Pierre, lord of Saint-Laurent et de Véret, prepared the change of the name of the castellans of these localities by giving her hand to the lord of Quesnay, Jean Le Blais, treasurer of France in Caen.
Before the end of the 17th century, by the marriage of their little daughter, the domains of Saint-Laurent and Véret passed to Louis Voisin, Baron de Bourgtheroulde, prosecutor to the parliament of Rouen and, after his death, to his son, Louis-Charles Voisin.
Ace châtelain, in 1708, succeeded his sister and brother-in-law Francois Le Cordier de Bigards, Marquis de la Londe, whose descendants, including the Vaugiraud in 1842, kept properties in Saint-Laurent and Véret until the 20th century.
The family of the heirs of the Marquis de la Londe sold in 1912 the location of the old mansion, the beautiful doors and the Quesnay farm to M. Seguy-Fabre, who gave them back in 1923 to Mr. Léopold Carteret, art publisher, who renamed the property "Le Prieuré".
The set was purchased by M. and Mrs. Jean Cordelle in 1948, then separated into 3 between 1988 and 2002. It is currently owned by the Guillaume family and of 2 other owners.
Below you will find details on the successive heirs of the domain.
THE ONFROY OF VERET (VEREZ)
The ancestors of the Voisin and the Le Blais de Véret were the Onffroy. The oldest we knew, Estienne and Marin Onffroy appeared, on May 6, 1499, before the tabellions of the sergenterie of Tour as donors to their church of Véret of an annual annuity of six bushels of wheat to be taken on a land located in Louvières.
The aforementioned Marin Onffroy, first of the first name, could be the one who reported, from a military expedition in Biscay, the seeds or grafts of the cider apple henceforth popularized under the name of Marin Onffroy, in our region, Marin Auffray or Marinoffroy elsewhere.
The Coat of Arms of Onfroy
As lord of Véret and Saint-Laurent, Jean Onffroy succeeded his father, Marin, but the goods were divided: John had the Grand Veret, Pierre the Old Veret and Marcel the land and the mill of Saint-Laurent. He died during the minority of his children before 1556, because in that year, their uncle and guardian, Gilles de Marguerie (husband of Marie Onffroy), recognized twelve barley thickets due on the mill of Saint-Laurent at the Hôtel-Dieu de Bayeux on behalf of Marcel Onffroy's children., One of them proved his nobility in 1599, at the same time as his uncle Pierre, of the Old Véret, and his cousins Michel, living in Asnières, and François, grandson of Jean. For various circumstances, the descendants of Marcel Onffroy welf away from the cradle of the ancestors and joined their name with that of Vérez, pronouncing themselves as our Véret.
In 1607, Pierre Onffroy, who became lord of Véret and Saint-Laurent, after the death of Jean, his father, made the confession of the fiefs of Saint-Laurent and Aubigny in Vierville; these fiefs passed, with the hand of Jeanne, his daughter, to the Treasurer of France, Jean Le Blais, in 1616; he bought an annuity from Lambert Onffrov, son of Charles...
THE BLAIS AND THE NEIGHBORS OF VERET
In the year 1616, Jeanne Onffroy, daughter of Pierre, Lord of Véret, and Saint-Laurent, prepared the transmission of the Grand Véret and other property by giving his hand to the Lord of Quesnay (from Graye-sur-Mer), Jean Le Blais, treasurer of France, in Caen, as his father Robert Le Blais had been. He was the son of Jacques who had for his father Guillaume and for his grandfather Gilles Le Blais, herald of arms of Louis d'Orléans. Having become king of France under the name of Louis XII, this prince ennobled Gilles Le Blais in 1492. The great-grandson, Robert Le Blais, recognized noble on February 24 and June 28, 1594, had, for badge " of sinople with gold chevron accompanied by three branches; of oak of the same, fruity each with three acorns also of gold, put in clover 2 and 1 ". Received treasurer of France in Caen, on March 21, 1589, Robert Le Blais was succeeded by his son, Jean, who took over the head of the finance office on January 11, 1612, four years before his marriage to the heiress of Véret and St-Laurent. In his house in Caen, on July 15, 1620. he had the honor of receiving King Louis XIII, who came to take over the castle of Caen, which had been abandoned by its governor, the knight of Vendôme, in the hands of a subordinate named Prudent.
From the marriage of Jean Le Blais and Jeanne Onffrov, was born Jean Il Le Blais, lord of Véret and Saint-Laurent, who married Valentine le Sens, descendant of Charlemagne, by his maternal ancestor, Guillaume de la Luzerne, married to Jeanne de Meullant, who was the granddaughter, in the 8th degree, of Elizabeth de Vermandois.
In 1667, the lord of Véret and Saint-Laurent, Jean Il Le Blais, had his personal nobility recognized by the Intendant Chamillard, at the same time as his cousins Gabriel Le Blais, of Saint Germain-du-Pert, and Jean Le Blais, Baron of Crépon, whose daughter, Marie-Marguerite, married Alexandre Costé, Marquis of Saint-Suplix, Councillor to Parliament.
When in 1652, Jean 1st Le Blais left the Caen Finance Office, he lived in Véret. Although he was not a presenter at the parish, he provided everything that was necessary for the church, perceiving the fruits of the cemetery and what could come back to the treasury, according to the minutes of a visit of the Archdeacon of the Veys, on Saturday, June 21, 1654. Jean Le Blais is then called "sieur de la Chapelle", name he took from 1634 in an act relating to the "Fournet" of Asnières with those of Saint-Laurent, Ver and Véret. More simply, his son Jean II Le Blais is described as Sieur de Quesnay in the death certificate of his servant, Nicolas Vautier, buried in Véret, on October 15, 1676...
By the marriage of the daughter of Sieur Le Blais, his domains of Véret, Saint-Laurent and Aignerville passed to Louis Voisin, Baron de Bourgtheroulde, prosecutor in parliament of Rouen, and after his death, to his son Louis-Charles Voisin, President of the Parliament of Paris.
Will of a Lord of Véret. - Councillor of the King in the Parliament of Paris, Louis-Charles Voisin, Baron of Bourgtheroulde, Lord of Saint-Laurent, died young on Saturday, July 7, 1708; his body was transferred from the church of Véret to that of Bourgtheroulde, where the vault of the Voisin family was. His will was made at the Château de Véret, in the presence of Mr. Clément Lillement, Prior of Venoix, and Mr. Pierre Furon, a regular priest in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. The baron begins by recommending his soul to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to all the saints. He leaves his two sisters as heirs - Marie, who had married in 1692 François Le Cordier de Bigards, Marquis de la Londe, and Marie-Catherine, engaged to their cousin Costé de Saint-Suplix. He wishes, wants and hears that the pension of his uncle, the Reverend Father Voisin, be increased by 300 pounds throughout his life, likewise that of his aunt Mrs. de Saint-Paoul, religious, from the day he will die; he bequeathed a thousand pounds to the poor of his parishes of Haute and Basse-Normandie (Bourgheroulde, Saint-Laurent, Véret and Aignerville), to be distributed by the dean of Bourgtheroulde, six thousand to the aforementioned poor to be distributed by the dean or by the parish priests according to the dean's orders, in proportion to needs; two hundred pounds to the Capuchins of Bayeux to celebrate 400 masses, one hundred books to those of Caen for 200 masses, as many to the Jacobins, to the Cordeliers and Carmelites and Carmelites; to each of In addition, he gave 13,200 pounds to the dean to share with the persons designated in secrecy; he intends that the foundations of his father, Mr. de Saint-Paoul, and his ancestor, Mrs. de Saint-Paoul, be paid to the collegiate church of Bourgtheroulde and Saint-Jean-de-Rouen, in accordance with their wills and payments made to date.
He gives Folloppe, a cook in Rouen, 200 pounds; his businessmen: Pillon, 400 pounds; Barbé, from Caen, 2,000 pounds; his lackeys, postillon and porter, each 50 pounds in addition to their pledges; to the church of Bourgtheroulde, for its decoration, 200 pounds. He hears that his heirs discharge Mr. de Coupesarte from half of the rent of which they are guarantors for his uncle, late Quesné (name of a fief of Graye, of which one of the Le Blais was lord), Finally, wanting the happiness of a fiancée, in his capacity as brother and guardian, the baron expresses the desire that "his sister, Catherine Voisin, be married by Mr. de Saint-Suplix. by obtaining from the Church a parentage exemption (Costé de Saint-Suplix, son of Alexandre, Marquis de Saint-Suplix, and Marie Le Blais, was the first cousin of Catherine Voisin, daughter of this Marquise de Saint-Suplix.
Having received the sacraments of the parish priest of Véret, the testator could not mention him in his testamentary provisions; on the other hand, Pierre Furon, priest of Saint-Laurent, being one of the witnesses previously designated, probably received from hand to hand the sum intended for his church. As for the masses, they were celebrated more quickly in religious communities, because the parishes had many foundations, so that of Saint-Laurent had, before 1789, ten portions of land encumbered with masses or obits.
The executor appointed by the baron was the dean of Bourgtheroulde; as soon as possible, according to the will of the testator, it was necessary to acquit the legacies by drawing on the reserves of the deceased and, if necessary, by liquidating some of the property he left to his two sisters. These instructed the husband of the eldest, François Le Cordier, to have the locks of the locked apartments of the Véret mansion sealed. The custody of these seals was entrusted on September 20, 1708 to Marie Richard, widow of Jean-Baptiste Lequeux, farmer of part of the seigneurial lands since the lease of June 30, 1703 (Baron Louis Voisin reserved the three rooms located on the kitchen, the room and the cabinets, the large vaulted stable, a shed and part of the garden.
His last wills were respected as well as the concessions of previously promised fieffs were granted by his brother-in-law and successor in the lordships of Saint-Laurent, Véret and Aignerville.
THE MARQUIS OF LONDON
Last lords. - The The Cordier de Bigardshad become marquis de la Londe in 1616. From a family having given several councilors to the Parliament of Normandy, these lords of Saint-Laurent et of Véret usually lived in the city of Rouen; but they were interested in the proper maintenance of their lands and the rivers that bathed them; for proof the leases where mention is made of the care to be given to the thousand apple trees of Véret and the dimensions of the fish that could be fished in the Aure, between the point where this river receives the Formigny stream and the Pont-Rouge, opposite the Perrey-Héroult...
On August 21, 1763, the marquis de la Londe leased Pierre Le Tual for 3 years for his fishing rights for 6 pounds in coins payable to All Saints' Day, 4 pikes measuring 16 to 18 inches between tail and head, deliverable in Lent or during a visit from the Lord of Saint-Laurent, a sailor of good and beautiful eels and small studs for the eve of the of the Assonsumption...
In 1819, the Marquis Louis-Paul Le Cordier, son of the previous one bought six hundred thousand francs the estate and the beautiful castle of Balleroy. Coming to this sumptuous residence on July 18, 1822, he laid the first stone of a new sacristy and was complimented on these ternies
From our pretty little temple
Mansard laid the foundations
And La Londe by his example
Raise the ornaments.
Oh! By your pious presence
So come and beautify this stay
We will join the recognition
To all the transports of love. "
Learning that Count Auguste de Balleroy could buy the castle from his ancestors, the Marquis de la Londe returned it to him in 1827.
The following year, having some land on Formigny, the latter lord of Véret and Saint-Laurent was godfather of a bell baptized on February II and gave a screed... Having become mayor of Versailles, he died in 1831, regretted by all those who knew him, and especially by his eight children.
His domains of Saint-Laurent and Véret had to be prized and esteemed by Messrs. Guilbert-Duclos, of Trévières, Michel Delonches, of Saint-Laurent, and François Blondel of Véret, before being divided between the eight heirs.
The lands and the old mansion of Saint-Laurent called ferme de Quesnay, were the lot of Agathe-Francoise Le Cordier de Bigard, died on October 23, 1842, wife of Count Eugène de Vaugiraud. He died on April 14, 1872 at the castle of Saint-Victor-d'Epine (Eure).
In the division that took place on June 29, 1872 between their children, these lands were attributed to Marie-Catherine and Georgine-Stéphanie de Vaugiraud, jointly with Georges-Etienne, husband of Cécile-Louise Hurtrel d'Arboval and with Gabriel-Joseph de Vaugiraud, squadron leader at the 2ème cuirassiers.
These representatives of the Marquis de la Londe sold in 1912 the location of the old mansion, the beautiful doors and the Quesnay farm to Mr. Seguy-Fabre, who gave them back in 1923 to Mr. Léopold Carteret, art publisher.