Julius R. Ruff - Crime, Justice and Public Order in Old Regime France: The Sénéchaussées of Libourne and Bazas, 1696-1789

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: THE HISTORY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Volume 8

CRIME, JUSTICE AND PUBLIC ORDER IN OLD REGIME FRANCE

CRIME, JUSTICE AND PUBLIC ORDER IN OLD REGIME FRANCE

The Snchausses of Libourne and Bazas, 16961789

JULIUS R. RUFF

First published in 1984 by Croom Helm Ltd

This edition first published in 2016

by Routledge

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1984 Julius R. Ruff

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-94552-4 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-315-67131-4 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-94104-5 (Volume 8) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-94358-2 (Volume 8) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-67236-6 (Volume 8) (ebk)

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The Snchausses of Libourne and Bazas, 1696-1789

Julius R. Ruff

1984 Julius R. Ruff

Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,

Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT

Croom Helm Australia Pty Ltd, First Floor, 139 King Street,

Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia

Croom Helm, 51 Washington Street,

Dover, New Hampshire, 03820 USA

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Ruff, Julius R.

Crime justice and public order in Old Regime

France.

1. Crime and criminals-France-History

2. France-History 18th century

I. Title

364.94447 HV6969

ISBN 0-7099-2256-6

Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford, Surrey

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

NOTE ON SPELLING

The sources for this study present many problems of orthography: the spelling used in seventeenth and eighteenth-century court records is often quite different from modern French usage; and the spelling of a particular word may vary within one text. All quotations from French manuscript sources have been translated into modern English, using modern punctuation, with an attempt to retain some of the flavour of the original French. Names of persons and titles of documents, however, are spelled as they appeared in the original court records.

Crime holds a certain fascination for us all, whether we feed our interest with the works of Christie, Hammett and Simenon, or whether we subsist on a more scholarly fare of academic writings. Such an interest prompted me to undertake the research leading to this study a decade ago. Over the years of research and writing, interspersed with full-time teaching duties, my interest in the topic grew, but I had to enlist the assistance of a number of accomplices in several institutions to bring the work to completion.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Graduate School awarded me a Georges Lurcy Fellowship in 19745 which made possible the initial research for this work in Paris and Bordeaux, and George V. Taylor of the History Department proved a thoughtful friend and exacting critic, without whose advice this study would be much the poorer. At the Universit de Bordeaux III, Professor Jean-Pierre Poussou offered valuable assistance and opened to me the wealth of material contained in the unpublished Mmoires de Matrise prepared by students of the University. Professor Paul Butel, of the same faculty, also was generous with his counsel and provided a first forum in which to test the results of this research with French scholars. At the Archives Dpartementales de la Gironde, Monsieur Jean Vallette, Conservateur-en-Chef, and Madame Hlne Avisseau, Conservateur-Adjoint, offered insights on that depositorys holdings, while Monsieur Marcel Bourgueil of the Archives staff greatly aided the actual task of research with his courtesy and efficiency. Finally, I must acknowledge aid closer to home from two of my colleagues at Marquette University. Professor J. Michael Phayer read the entire manuscript and drew on his great knowledge of social history to assist in the works final revision. And Sister M. Paton Ryan, RSM, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, brought her keen stylistic skills to the manuscripts final preparation.