The Reading Warehouse

A few days before Christmas, on 21 December 1793, Jean-Antoine de Beauvalet, the Lord of Dur cu, was found deadin a bedroom at Valognes where he had sought refuge afterbeing locked up in the Fort de la Hougue by the Revolutionaries.Thus passed away the last male scion of the noble lineof the Beauvalets, ennobled in 1702 by Louis XIV, and who in1686 founded a the little domain at Dur cu, which did not atthe time bear that name. For three generations, the Beauvaletsstruggled using their wealth to hang on to this so dearlyacquired nobility.The Lord of Dur cu's grand-daughter, Caroline Avice de Sortosville, inherited the Dur cu domain, and during the Terreur, marrieda young Republican officer, Fran ois Cl ment Boyer de Choisy, who came from a typically old noble family, since it hadalways been devoted to serving in the army.The Boyer de Choisys fortified the Saint-Marcouf Islands then improved their domain, but they also took an active part in publiclife, the first as Mayor of Saint-Vaast during the Empire and the Restoration, and the second, his nephew who inherited thedomain, as Mayor during the Second Empire.Finally in 1918, Augustin Vallette, an entrepreneur from a very old Saint-Vaast family of merchants and chandlers, acquired thisvery beautiful property.After three years' research in the National, Civil and Military, Departmental (departments 50, 57, and 76), Municipal and Familyarchives, Edmond Thin here brings to life a true family saga spread over four centuries, based on the totally unpublished storyof the Dur cu domain; the story of three families, country gentlemen or simple citizens, not forgetting their spouses - womenwho were often remarkable and just as involved in the social fabric of their times.