[44] Research at Nantes in 1915 revealed that the baptismal records of the parish of Saint-Similien were wanting for the period from 1792 to 1803, so it is probable that they were destroyed in the Revolution. The municipal archives of Nantes possess a book of baptismal records of the city without distinction of parishes, but this shows the names of neither "Fougère," "Rabin," nor "Audubon," for the year in question.
The Abbè Tardiveau was un prêtre assermenté, or one of those priests who had sworn in 1790 to recognize the civil constitution of the clergy.
For copy of the act of baptism in the French original, see [Appendix I, Document No. 3]. It is impossible to say whether the heading as given in my copy of this act was in the original or not.
[45] An English writer once gave the name of Audubon's mother as Mlle. La Forêt.
[46] Audubon's signature underwent frequent variations during the first twenty-five years of his life, but after 1820 he almost invariably signed himself "John J.," or "J. J. Audubon." In the record of the civil marriage of his sister, at Couëron in 1805, his name appears as "J. J. L. Audubon;" in the "Articles of Association" with Ferdinand Rozier, signed at Nantes in 1806, it is "Jean Audubon," and in the release given on the dissolution of this partnership, at Ste. Geneviève, in 1811, the English form, "John Audubon," appears.
[47] This statement was made to me by Miss Maria R. Audubon in 1914.
[48] For full text of the six wills drawn at different times by Jean Audubon and his wife see [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 13]-[18].
[49] See [Chapter XVII].
[50] This unique document reads as follows:
"To all to whom these presents may come: know ye that I, John Audubon, having special trust and confidence in my friend, G. Loyen Du Puigaudeau, of the Department of Loire and [sic] Inférieure, and Parish of Couëron, near Nantes, in the kingdom of France, [do constitute him] my true and lawful attorney, and the true and lawful attorney in fact of Jean Rabin, husband of Lucy Bakewell, of the County of Henderson and State of Kentucky, in the United States of America, for us [?], the said Jean Rabin, and in our name to our use and benefit, to ask, demand, sue for, recover, and receive all and every part of the Real and Personal Estate, that is to say Lands, Tenements, Grounds, Chattels, and credits, which I have, or either of us, in the Department of Loire and [sic] Inferieure in the kingdom of France, aforesaid, and to make sale of the same, either at auction, or by contract of the said Lands and Tenements, Goods, Chattells, and Credits, to receive the money arising from said sale, to give any Receipt, acquittance, or other discharge for the said money or any part thereof, if money or specie shall be received, or for any property he may receive in exchange or barter for said Real and personal Estate, and our said attorney, or the attorney of Jean Rabin aforesaid, is hereby authorized and empowered to make, give, execute, and deliver any Deed, Covenant, or transfer of said Real and Personal Estate to the purchaser of all or any part thereof for us, or for the said Jean Rabin, in as full and ample a manner as he, the said Jean, could do, was he personally present in said Department, in the Kingdom. In testimony whereof the said John Audubon has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the Twenty Sixth day of July, Anno Domini One thousand & Eight hundred and Seventeen.