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Angélique Herminie de La Brousse de Verteillac

1797–1881

Born
17 Jun 1797, Paris
Country of birth
French First Republic, today France
Died
30 Jan 1881
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Paris

    Birth, Paris

  2. Died

    Death

What was it like?

The world around Paris, 1797: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Angélique was born around the same time as Millard Fillmore, France Prešeren, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay.

Born around the same time

  • Millard Fillmore

    1800 · president of the United States from 1850 to 1853

  • France Prešeren

    1800 · Slovene national poet, a Carniolan Romantic poet of Slovene descent (1800–1849)

  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

    1800 · British historian and politician (1800–1859)

  • Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

    1800 · German Field Marshal (1800–1891)

  • Friedrich Wöhler

    1800 · German chemist (1800-1882)

  • John Brown

    1800 · American abolitionist

Fashion

Post-Revolution women wore thin, simple gowns

Following the Reign of Terror, fashionable Parisian women adopted simple, transparent flowing gowns with high waistlines and heelless slippers, sometimes causing illness due to the cold.

Sans-culottes wore trousers as a badge of honor

During the French Revolution, working-class men known as sans-culottes distinguished themselves by wearing long trousers instead of the tight knee breeches worn by the nobility.

Music

Popular dances included minuet and contredanse

The minuet and the contredanse were the two most popular dances, with the latter being a favorite figure dance involving four couples. People frequently organized and enjoyed balls in the provinces during this period.

Wind instruments dominated outdoor civic festivals

Wind instruments, especially the bassoon-serpent, were highly prized for outdoor festivities and civic celebrations because they were loud enough to be heard by large crowds. During the Revolution, the government promoted powerful patriotic hymns like La Marseillaise, often played by wind ensembles to help mobilize and unify citizens.

Getting around

Dangerous conditions on poorly maintained roads

Travelers in carriages sometimes had to pay local peasants to walk alongside and support the carriage to prevent it from tipping over on flooded or muddy roads. In severe weather, travelers were occasionally forced to wait for days in miserable inns until conditions improved.

Fast winter mountain descent by sled

Adventurous travelers crossing the Alps at Mont-Cenis in winter could descend into France on a sled in a 15-minute thrill ride called the ramasse. The sleds were guided by a conductor who steered the craft down the snowy slopes at high speed.

Daily life

Limited rural schooling

In many rural areas, primary education was inconsistently provided by the local priest or his vicar, focusing only on basic reading, writing, and catechism.

Simple peasant housing

Most peasant homes were single-room structures built of mud with thatched roofs, lacking ceilings and window glass.

Food

Bread Rationing During the Revolution

During the Revolution, bread was rationed and sold for 14 sous per 60 grams, often of such poor quality that even sheepdogs would refuse to eat it.

Typical Peasant Diet in Rural France

Ordinary rural diets consisted of rye or oat bread, vegetable soups, and dairy, while meat was rarely eaten except for occasional pork.

Prices and wages

Meat as a luxury item

Meat was considered a luxury product for workers; a master worker could afford 300 grams of meat per day, while in 1771 some bourgeois complained of meat prices rising to 12, 14, or 15 sous per pound.

The high cost of footwear

Heavy taxes on leather made shoes very expensive, often forcing poor peasants to own only one pair for their entire lives or rely on wooden shoes. A pair of wooden shoes cost 9 sous 6 deniers in the countryside in 1790.

Work

Common jobs in 18th-century France

Most ordinary people worked in manual agriculture or as urban day-laborers, while others labored in domestic industries like weaving and spinning. In cities, workers were often employed in construction, shipbuilding, or as unskilled laborers in factories and workshops.

The reality of the daily workday

The workday typically began at sunrise and could last up to 14 hours in summer, though it was often shorter in winter. Workers frequently had only two meals a day, with a common breakfast consisting of coffee with milk bought from street vendors for two sous.

News and letters

Mail transit times across France

In the late eighteenth century, a letter from Paris reached the surrounding region in two days, but took five days to reach distant departments like Finistère or Bas-Rhin and up to nine days to arrive in Perpignan or Aix-en-Provence.

Petites postes urban mail service

Small-scale urban mail systems called petites postes were established in cities like Paris to provide faster, cheaper local delivery than the royal post.

During their lifetime

  1. 1804

    The 1804 Civil Code enactment

    The Civil Code, enacted in 1804, established a new legal framework that standardized civil laws across France, significantly impacting daily life.

  2. 1832

    1832 Cholera epidemic

    A major cholera epidemic struck France in 1832, causing approximately 103,000 deaths.

  3. 1848

    Abolition of slavery in 1848

    The 1848 decree abolishing slavery throughout French colonies fundamentally changed the lives of enslaved people.

  4. 1860

    Petroleum lamps replaced candles for lighting

    Starting in 1860, petroleum lamps replaced candles and tallow lights in German households, significantly improving home lighting.

  5. 1873

    Gründerkrise economic crash began

    In 1873, Germany experienced the Gründerkrise, a severe economic crisis that caused significant financial instability following a period of post-unification industrial boom.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.