Baudre

Baudre is a common French, located in the department of the Manche and the area Basse-Normandie.

Geography

Located at the south of Saint-Lo, after the zone of activity of neptune 2 The locality Fumichon is on old the Trunk road 174

Its territory extends from the river Vire in the west until the east of the trunk road n° 174 of Saint-Lo with Vire.

It is a small commune of 380 hectares to the rural aspect. Nevertheless, Baudre lives much with the close city and its population of 247 inhabitants in 1968 is very far from finding her activity on the spot.

The original part of the commune is consisted the valley of the brook called “Fumichon” to its confluence with Transfers as well as the heights which dominate it. On the other hand, the communal part attached to Baudre in 1793 (Fumichon) is formed by a directed slope South-North which finds its limit northern on Fumichon itself.

History

The commune of Baudre bears this name since 1793. Previously, the parish was called Saint-Ouen de Baudre.

To say how this territory knew its first settlements is impossible. Configuration of the ground, and the fact even as the hamlet which bears the name of Baudre is close to the river “Transfers it”, let think that it is by the river and on its edges that circulations were done and probably since very remote times.

The castle, of which there remain nothing interesting was built with the foot of the hamlet of Baudre, in the middle of the meadows crossed by Fumichon and who were formerly rather marshy. One still sees ditches in the north and the west of the buildings.

It was well located to order with the passage of the valley of Vire and it is strong damage that no indication on the old state of this castle can be provided. But it is certain that as of XIe century it sheltered the lords of the place.

In XIIIe century, there was no vault in the parish of Baudre. It is later that the church was built on the top of the slope to the foot of which Fumichon runs. In his oldest parts (chorus), one finds the trace of the xv° century. It underwent since many transformations.

One is unaware of from which this name comes from BAUDRE which was formerly BALDRA or BAUDRA. The Abbot Bernard, in his “History of the town of Saint-Lo and his surroundings”, emits the opinion that one could see in this word “Baudre” the etymology of the word “Baldéricus”, transformed in Baudry then in Baudre.

Mr. Adigard of Gautries, whose works make authority, concluded with an unknown origin. It is in this opinion that, for the moment, it is wise to line up. Let us note that it is the only commune of this name in France, but it is necessary to bring closer the commune to it of Baudres in Indre, whose origin is quite as unknown.

Old times

Before the creation of the Duchy of Normandy, one does not find trace of the name of Baudre. Admittedly, it is known that Laud, which was of noble origin and extremely rich person, had the field of the Gallo-Roman ex Briovera which was to become later the seigniory of Saint-Lo. Baudre, with Mesnil-Rouxelin, Saint-Thomas, Holy-Crosses and Saint-Georges, belonged to this field.

Laud, become bishop of Coutances into 525 will give its goods to its church, as it is the use at that time. The church of Baudre was aumônée with the abbey of Saint-Lo.

For the first time, it is explicitly mentioned Baldra in 1056 in the note of confirmation by Guillaume Bastard the, duke of Normandy, the goods of the Cathédrale of Coutances, to which they had been brought by Laud. In this text Folmucen is also quoted, of which the sudden toponym during the time of the transformations into Folmuçon, then Folmichon or Fouinichon before becoming finally Fumichon.

Henri Ier of England, duke of Normandy, which will reign of 1100 to 1135, mentions in an addressed text has Richard Ier, bishop of Coutances since 1123, the church of “Saint-Ouen de Baudre on Transfers”. ( Ecclesiam de Santo Audœno de Super Viram ).

Did the parish Saint-Ouen de Baudre have like founders of Saint-Ouen or Baudre? It is not known. But it should be recalled that the Abbot Bernard noted that in 1196 one sees Nicolas of Saint-Ouen, priest, witness with the charter of donation of the church of Mesnil-Eury to the abbey of Saint-I^ô; and in 1210, a Guillaume of Saint-Ouen held in Baudre, of the bishop of Coutances, the third of a stronghold of knight.

Of Baudre would thus not have been the first, or at least the only lords of this parish. Saint-Ouen were a very old family in the province according to Magny, but nothing proves that it was originally established in Baudre, because it had other seigneuriaux strongholds indeed.

Did one want by taking Saint Ouen like owner parish to point out it the patronym of this family? This is not excluded.

The first of Baudre which is known is Guillaume de Baudre who, in 1236, aumôna with the abbey of Saint-Lo a half acre of ground “in the countryside of Chantepie”. The same charter recalled that the weather had been before a donation with the Hospital of Saint-Lo for the “Safety of its heart and those of its ancestors”.

In 1278, his/her son Guillaume de Baudre confirms this donation and made news with the aforementioned abbey of them.

In 1319, Guillaume de Thieville, bishop of Coutances, asked the king Philippe V confirmation of certain donations made with the church of Coutances. Among the quoted places appear “Mesnil Rhétand which one calls Fumichon, with a mill which is in Baudre, named the Vautier mill” . (According to Toustain de Billy).

In 1327*, Jehan de Baudre was prosecutor of the abbot of Saint-Lo in a judged lawsuit with Bayeux between the aforementioned abbot and Roger Bacon about the patronage of Rampan.

June 10th, 1381, Guillaume Paynel, lord of Hambye, one of the two captains for the king of the country of Normandy, certifies by letters given to Carentan, “that Jean de Baudre estoit in his company to serve Roy, nostre Lord, sufficiently assembled and armed”.

In 1389, Guillaume de Crévecœur being bishop, Renon de Rampan returns to him consent of the stronghold of Rampan depend on the baronnie of Saint-Lo: “Service of ost must be done and pay in the presence… of the lord of Baudre”.

December 26th, 1390, Jean de Baudre “bucket enumeration with Reverend Père as a God, the évesque one of Coutances, sior and baron de Saint-Lô, dud. stronghold and sîourie”.

In 1414, letters patent of the King order that the sior of Baudre and Richard his son, “garderoient the castle of pertaining Bonfossé has Jean de Marte, évesque of Coustances, and therefore excuse of the round of applause”. (According to the Search for J. Venart).

In 1463 and 1464, was made a research of the nobility by order of the king Louis XI. In the city and sergentery of Saint-Lo, sixteen men were found noble. One raises the names there of Jean of Haize, Guillaume de Quesnequerin of Saint-Ouen and Guillaume de Baudre. (According to Toustain de Billy).

December 12th, 1486, Eustace de Baudre makes homage of the stronghold of Baudre to Gieffroy, bishop of Coutances, baron de Saint-Lô (Search for Jean Venart).

In 1523, Jean de Baudre, rider-lord of Roncheray, Valley and other places, ordered the nobility of Cotentin. This same year in Saint-Lo, in front of Jean Venart, lieutenant of the Election of Coutances, with the seat of Saint-Lo, police chief of King, Jean de Baudre bucket his genealogy and declares that its “predecessors and luy subcessivement to have of all tems ny which it is not memory of man on the contrary, vescu noblement in the service and round of applause of the King, nostre Lord, Dict which he is nobody noble, extraict of very noble line”.

Jean de Baudre, lord of the place, belonged to the gentilhommes present at the arrival of François Ier in Saint-Lo on April 15th, 1532. Gilles and Guillaume de Baudre, after having taken it left the Reform, make return to the Catholic religion in 1585 and 1586. In this family, there was many children, with the result that one finds of Baudre in various places of the English Channel and Bessin.

In 1623, Marie-Magdeleine de Baudre de Soubressin married François Toustain, sior of Valette. From this marriage was born Rene Toustain de Billy who became later cleaned of Mesnil-Opac and was the historian of the bishops of Coutances and the cities of Cotentin. Of Baudre were not very rich and in the “Role of the Nobility of Cotentin in 1640”, one reads this in connection with a Jacques de Baudre: “has Povre - Povre now - left a girl of Aigneaux - Her father had much good which is ruined now - people who carries the sword and little rich person, etc…”

As we said, the representatives of the family of Baudre were numerous and it is possible to find of it the trace in the English Channel and the Apple-brandy throughout XIVe, XVe, XVIe, XVIIe and even XVIIIe centuries. It is towards the beginning of the XVIIe century that of Baudre ceased having the seigniory of this parish.

Like Toustain de Billy, the astronomer the Glassmaker, born in Saint-Lo, on March 11th, 1811, belonged by his mother, born of Baudre, with the one of the branches having made stock in the Apple-brandy.

The family of Baudre, one of noblest and oldest of Basse-Normandie, carried “of money to the crescent of mouths accompanied by six merlettes in the same way, posed three as a chief and three points two and one of them”.

Since 1608, one finds a new lord in the person of François of Buhot (or Bichot) which is qualified on the registers of Civil statue of “sior of Baudre”. Of Baudre continued to live Baudre. Guillaume de Baudre died in Saint-Ouen de Baudre and was buried on November 25th, 1634 in the church of the parish.

We know that in 1742, the lord was Michel of Buhot (or of Bichot), rider, honorary owner of Saint-Ouen de Baudre. It was the object besides, as well as the priest, of a protest addressed to the King by François de Baudre, chaplain of the King in the abbey of Montmartre which claimed that they had not sought, him and the priest, that their interest with the detriment of the church.

Later, we find in 1774 one of Argouges, lord of Baudre, and in 1787 we know that the seigniory had passed to Léonor Kadot, which attended the assembly of the nobility of the bailliage of Coutances, joined together in 1789 in the cathedral of Coutances, in company of his/her relative Charles Kadot de Sébeville, captain with the regiment of Bourbon.

It is also necessary to have an idea of the state in which the noble ones of Baudre lived whose parish counted twenty-eight fires then. In 1767, for the clothes industry of the roles of 1768, Antoine Hue, Syndic of the parish, declared that in Baudre “the territory is a half-third of good bottom, a poor half-third and two the other bad ones”. It estimated surface “by intending to say” to 800 vergées approximately.

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Sources: History of Baudre, by Elie Guéné.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Personalities related to the commune

Jeanne of BAUDRE

See too

Common of the English Channel

External bonds

Baudre on the site of the national geographical Institute
Baudre on the site of INSEE
Baudre on the site of Quid
Localization of Baudre on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Baudre on Mapquest

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