[2] In the reminiscences of his childhood, which are intermingled with his entomological memoirs, Fabre does not mention a single proper name, whether of person or place; only the vague expression, “the table-land of the Rouergue,” which he once incidentally employs, might give an attentive reader a hint as to the place of his origin. Souvenirs, VI., p. 38; The Life of the Fly, chap. v., “Heredity.” [↑]
[3] These paternal grandparents, of whom our hero has retained so vivid a recollection, bore the names of Jean-Pierre Fabre and Elisabeth Poujade. Patient searching of the archives, assisted, fortunately, by the goodwill of M. Toscan, registrar to the Justice of the Peace for Vezins, has enabled us to reproduce their marriage contract, which is full of information hitherto unpublished, and curious details of domestic life which will not fail to interest the reader:
“In the year 1791 and on the 15th day of the month of February, in the locality of Ségur, province of Aveiron, in the presence of me, Raymond Rous, man of law and notary royal … have been devised and concluded the following articles of marriage between Pierre-Jean Fabre, legitimate son of Pierre Fabre, landowner and farmer, and Anne Fages, husband and wife of the village of Malaval, on the one part, and Elisabeth Poujade, legitimate daughter of Antoine Poujade, landowner, and Françoise Azémar, husband and wife of the village of Mont, parish of Notre-Dame d’Arques, on the other part—the said parties acting, namely, the said future husband with the knowledge and consent of his father and mother here present, and the said future wife, she being absent, but the said Poujade for her, being here present stipulating and accepting—have in the first place promised that the said marriage shall be solemnised before the Church at the first demand of one of the parties, under penalty of all expenses, damages, and interests—in the second place, the said Fabre and Fages, husband and wife, favouring and contemplating the present marriage have given and are giving by donation, declared between living persons, to the aforesaid their son, the future husband, all and each of their possessions, movable and immovable, present and future, under the clauses, conditions, and reserves hereafter following: firstly, to be fed at the same table of the same victuals as the said donor; secondly, and in case of incompatibility, [[14]]they reserve to themselves the same income as Jean Fabre and Françoise Fabre, father and mother of the donor, reserved to themselves in the marriage contract of the said Fabre received by M. Dufieu, notary …; thirdly, to settle upon their other children a portion such as by law shall pertain to them out of their possessions in money when they accept a settlement; and in case Françoise and Anne Fabre should not desire so to do, they shall enjoy the annual pension … of three setiers each of rye, two quarters each of oats, five pounds each of butter, and five pounds each of cheese; the use of their usual bed, and of their spinning-wheel; the use of their clothes-press and the small articles of furniture necessary according to their condition; … the said Fages, the mother, reserves to herself the sum of thirty francs to be paid once at her will to employ and dispose as she shall see fit. In the third place, the said Poujade, the father, favouring and contemplating the present marriage, has given and constituted as the dowry of his daughter, the future wife, to take the place of any right to a portion which she might claim against his goods and those of the mother aforesaid, a clothes-press with apparel valued at a hundred livres, a heifer and a cow valued the two at eighty francs, two sheep, and the sum of fifteen hundred livres, the said sum being made up of one hundred and fifty livres of the maternal parent’s and the rest of the paternal parent’s money.…
“Devised and rehearsed in the presence of the sieur Joseph Déjean, burgher of Moulin-Savi, and the sieur André Bourles, practitioner of Ségur, signed by the aforesaid Fabre, father and son, and the aforesaid Poujade, father, and not the aforesaid Fages, who, being requested to sign, has stated that she is not able to do so.…
“Forwarded by us, the notary undersigned, holder of the draft at Ségur, the 12th April 1807.
“Rous, notary.” [↑]
[4] This account of the naturalist’s childhood is drawn principally from The Souvenirs, vi., 32–45; see The Life of the Fly, chap, v., “Heredity.” [↑]