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.

Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour
Died1747
NationalityFrench
OccupationPublic official
ChildrenCharles Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour

Biography

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Early life

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Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour was born in an old French aristocratic family from Forez.

Career

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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

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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

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  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ Victor-Louis Bourrilly, Les Protestants de Provence aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Gap: Ophrys, 1956, p. 193