La Roche-Jacquelin Castle: A French Manor and Family Estate
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page9 sections
History
The Le Maire family and the chapel
La Roche-Jacquelin Castle is a historic manor in France, probably held by the Le Maire family from the thirteenth century and still in their possession in the late sixteenth century. Guillaume Le Maire, bishop of Angers and the senior church official for the diocese, was probably born at the manor; he died in 1317.
Jean Le Maire and his wife, Isabeau de Quatrebarbes, founded a chapel through acts dated 3 July 1503 and 24 October 1506. Their son remained a prisoner after the Battle of Pavia in 1525, a major conflict in the Italian Wars in which French king Francis I was captured. A later member of the family married René de Meaulne in 1621.
The Bachelier and Richer de Neuville periods
Alexandre Le Maire was lord of the estate in 1670. He was buried at the Recollect friary in Chambiers in 1677; the Recollects were a reformed branch of the Franciscan order. His widow, Mathurine Abraham, married François de Montplacé in 1682. In 1698, Jeanne Le Maire gave the estate to François Bachelier, a royal guard who was married to Jeanne’s daughter Anne and was also her first cousin. Jeanne died at the château in 1709, aged 77. Anne, widowed since 1705, lived there with her daughter, also named Anne, who had married Gaspard-Claude Bommier, lord of La Conillière, by 1715.
François and Anne Bachelier’s eldest son, Louis, married Marie Hennequin de Fleurville in 1731 and died the following year. His widow sold the property in 1733 to Charles Jacques Louis François Richer de Neuville, who had the château rebuilt. Richer de Neuville died without children, and his sister inherited the estate. She had married François Le Jeune de Créquy in 1730; their son, François Louis Marin, died at the château in 1817. From 1762, the property served as the lord’s manor for the parish of Saint-Germain-sous-Daumeray.
Nineteenth-century family history and protection
François Louis Marin’s only daughter, Adélaïde-Renée-Louise, married Eugène de la Bonninière de Beaumont in 1799. Their son Eugène was living at the château in 1878. Eugène’s sister Cécile was born there in 1817 and married Albert de Blois de La Calande in 1839. Their daughter, Marie-Thérèse, married Alexis Bachelier, a descendant of Charles, brother of Louis Bachelier.
An order dated 21 February 1974 listed the château as a Historic Monument, a French designation that identifies and protects historic buildings and heritage sites.
Remains
The château’s described fabric includes its façades and roofs, an interior staircase, and several named rooms. The estate also included a chapel.
Château fabric
Exterior and staircase
The protected exterior fabric comprises the façades and roofs. Inside, the staircase and its wrought-iron railing are also included.
Reception rooms and portraits
The protected interiors include an antechamber, a grand salon, a Chinese salon and a boudoir, together with their decorative schemes. A portrait of Charles Jacques Louis François Richer de Neuville and several portraits of the Le Jeune family are preserved at the château.
Estate chapel
The estate chapel was dedicated to Saint Julian and Saint Claude.
