Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour
Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour | |
|---|---|
| Died | 1747 |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Public official |
| Children | Charles Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour |
Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour (unknown-1747) was a French public official. He served as the First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence from 1735 to 1747. He is remembered for his relative tolerance of witchcraft and Protestantism.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour was born in an old French aristocratic family from Forez.
Career[edit]
He served as an Advisor in the Parlement of Paris, and later as an intendant in Brittany and Poitou.
He served as the last First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence from 1748 to 1771, and from 1775 to 1790.[1][2]
During the trial of the alleged witch Catherine Cadière and the Jesuit Fr Jean-Baptiste Girard (1680-1733), he was remarkably lenient.[3]
Although he opposed the Protestant uprising in Cabrières-d'Aigues, it has been suggested that he did so humanely. Indeed, he appealed to Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Saint-Florentin (1707-1777) for clemency, adding that those were mostly peasants and they should not be fined too heavily, lest they became indigent.[4]
Personal life[edit]
He had a son, Charles Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour (1715-1802), who served as the last First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence.[1][2]
He died in 1747.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Monique Cubells, Noël Coulet, Wolfrang Kaiser, Gabriel Audisio, Régis Bertrand, Le Parlement de Provence : 1501-1790, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l'Université de Provence, 2002
- ^ a b Ambroise Roux-Alphéran, Les rues d'Aix : Recherches historiques sur l'ancienne capitale de la Provence, Aix-en-Provence: Typographie Aubin, 1848, volume 2, p. 246
- ^ Prosper Cabasse, Essais historiques sur le parlement de Provence, depuis son origine jusqu'à sa suppression : 1501-1790,Paris: Pihan Delaforest, 1826, volume 3, p. 284
- ^ Victor-Louis Bourrilly, Les Protestants de Provence aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Gap: Ophrys, 1956, p. 193