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Abel-François Poisson

1727–1781

Born
18 Feb 1727, Paris
Country of birth
Kingdom of France, today France
Died
12 May 1781, Paris
facts
11
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. Event · Surintendant des Bâtiments

    Event

  3. Died · Paris

    Death, Paris

What was it like?

The world around Paris, 1727: 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.

Abel-François was Surintendant des Bâtiments from 1751 to 1774.

Known for

Titles held

  • Surintendant des Bâtiments1751–1774
Fashion

Hoops Worn by Servants

While hoop petticoats were iconic for the elite, even some working-class servant women wore them when going to market by 1729.

Basic Attire of Ordinary People

Ordinary French men typically wore a simple shirt, a frac, breeches, stockings, and leather shoes. Ordinary women wore a shirt under a corset, a skirt, an apron, a fichu, and a bonnet.

Music

Public concert series started in Paris

Starting in 1725, Parisians could attend public concerts organized by the Concert Spirituel society, which performed in the Tuileries Gardens when the Opéra was closed for religious festivals.

Around 1700–1724

The Pocket-Sized Teacher's Violin

To make professional dance lessons convenient at home, masters used the pochette, a small, boat-shaped violin that could be easily carried in a pocket or sachet.

Getting around

Sledding down the Alps

Adventurous travelers crossed the snowy Mont-Cenis pass in winter using a sled called a ramasse, which could slide down the slope in just fifteen minutes.

Travel by mule

A trip between San Remo and Genoa over 90 miles could take three days on muleback due to narrow, rugged mountain paths.

Daily life

Daily struggles for light and water

Domestic lighting relied on oil lamps, tallow candles, or wax candles, which were expensive and labor-intensive to manage. Families often had to fetch water manually from communal fountains, as running water in homes was not available.

Limited schooling for rural children

Many rural parishes lacked schools entirely, and for those that existed, instruction was often limited to basic reading, writing, and the catechism. It was common for the local parish priest to conduct classes, though schooling for girls was significantly rarer than for boys.

Food

Bread as the Foundation of Daily Meals

The staple of the ordinary diet was bread, often consumed as a soup by soaking pieces in water, broth, or vegetable mixtures. This meal structure, centered on a starchy base accompanied by secondary savory foods, remained remarkably stable for centuries.

Scarcity and Alternative Food Sources

Ordinary families consumed very little meat, typically limited to pork, lard, or sheep tripe. During harsh times or shortages, the rural poor were forced to supplement their diet with wild plants like ferns, acorns, or grass.

Prices and wages

Daily wages for ordinary workers

In the mid-18th century, a rural laborer typically earned about 16 sols per day, while city workers could earn between 10 and 30 sols. A full day's work was often required just to afford bread for the family.

High cost of basic food

Meat was a luxury item; a single kilogram of beef, veal, or mutton could cost two days of labor for an ordinary worker. In 1725, due to shortages, the price of bread rose significantly, sometimes costing up to four days of work to afford a kilogram.

Work

Common Work for Day Laborers

Day laborers, known as manouvriers, were common and performed arduous rural tasks like harvesting, plowing, and ditch-digging for roughly 7 to 9 sous a day.

Around 1700–1724

A long sunrise-to-sunset workday

The workday typically lasted eleven to thirteen hours, starting at sunrise and continuing until sunset, with short breaks for meals.

News and letters

Mail delivery times from Marseille

From Marseille, it took about one week for mail to reach Paris, Bordeaux, or Lille in the late reign of Louis XV.

Postage paid by recipients

In the eighteenth century, the recipient of a letter typically paid the postage upon arrival, with the rate varying based on the letter type and distance traveled.

During their lifetime

  1. 1738

    Introduction of road labor corvee

    In 1738, the crown introduced the corvee, a system of forced labor requiring peasants to build and maintain the royal roads.

  2. 1748

    Abolition of the royal galleys

    In 1748, King Louis XV abolished the galleys, transferring convicts to coastal prisons or ships, ending a long-standing form of harsh penal servitude.

  3. 1775

    The Flour War of 1775

    The Flour War of 1775 involved widespread riots across northern France after grain trade deregulation caused bread prices to rise by over 50 percent.

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.