House of Poligny

The Pétrequin family is a branch of the Piétrequin family defined by the ‘Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de François-Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye des Bois (1776)’ as:  

‘Noble family, originally from Burgundy, established in Champagne, Burgundy & Lorraine before 1400’.

The earliest certain Piétrequin ancestor is Guyon, born around 1380, who Squire and Lord of Ozon.

The first Piétrequin lords on their lands sometimes fought on behalf of their suzerain, such as Jean, known as ‘Linot’, who was Sergeant-at-Arms in 1482 for Philippe, Duke of Burgundy, but who later took on the more epicurean role of Receiver of the Wine Office...

Jean III (1534 - 1589) was Mayor of Langres, Captain of the City of Langres and Lord of Ozon.

 

The reasons for the final departure of his elder brother, François Piétrequin (born 1529), remain a mystery.

For some unknown reason, he left the family cradle in Langres and the surrounding region.

Was it because of a family disagreement, a dishonour, a mismatch (the identity of his wife is unknown) or simply the need for a change of scenery? No one knows.

So he emigrated several hundred kilometres and settled in the little town of Eyzin-Pinet in the Dauphiné.

Whether he wanted to or not, the ‘i’ was dropped from his name.

He was therefore the first Pétrequin of the name, but also the first in the long line of Royal Notaries who succeeded him:

Anthoine, Aymé, Aymard, Jacques, Jean-François, Jean François II Châtelain d'Auberives.

 

His son Joseph-Eléonord (1772-1830) was the last notary in the family and practised his skills mainly during the 1st Empire as auctioneer of the Part-Dieu and Tête d'Or estates in Lyon.

When the family lost the Auberives property, he acquired the Fontaines manor near Lyon.

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His son Joseph - Pierre Eléonord Pétrequin (1810-1876) was a famous Professor of Medicine - Chief Surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu in Lyon - and author of numerous publications:

The beginning of his majorat was marked by the publication of the ‘Traité d'Anatomie topographique médico chirurgicale’ (Baillère 1844).

In 1845, he published an ‘Essai sur l'Histoire chirurgicale de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon, depuis sa fondation jusqu'à nos jours’.

In 1859, he published a ‘Traité général de pratique des eaux minérales de la France et de l'étranger’ (General treatise on the practice of mineral waters in France and abroad): in this field, he was a precursor, launching medical hydrology down a new path.

In 1848 he married Victoire Sargnon, his 10th cousin. Their common ancestors were Etienne de Laurencin, Baron de Poilan, and his wife Catherine de Gallant.

He acquired the Château de Beauregard in Villefranche sur Saône near Lyon, now known as Château Pétrequin.

In 1873, he published a work of over 500 pages entitled ‘Nouveaux mélanges de Chirurgie et de Médecine’, which included works on ear pathology, medical hydrology and public hygiene.

He was also the first to translate the Hippocratic Oath into French.

He was made a knight of the Légion d'Honneur.

However, it was not until two years after his death that his main work ‘La Chirurgie d'Hippocrate’ was published.  This two-volume work of over 1,200 pages demonstrated that Hippocrates was not only the father of medicine but also a great surgeon, and that his observations had been unjustly forgotten.

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His only son Louis Eléonor Pétrequin (1849-1931) inherited the family property.

He is a train engineer and senior reserve officer.

He married Marguerite Gein, whose reputation in the salons was as ‘the most beautiful lady in Lyon’.

She was his 13th cousin.

Their common ancestors were Guionnet II de Saint Amour Chevalier, Lord of Foncraine and his wife Jacquemette Le Viste.

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His son, Charles Pétrequin, began his military career at the Saint Cyr school and graduated as an officer.

He went to the front in August 1914 ‘wearing a white coat and white gloves’. He was wounded in the right arm and taken prisoner in August 1914 as a result. He saved his arm in the German field hospital thanks to his knowledge of the language, which made him react in a semi-coma to the German surgeon's plan to amputate it.

He spent part of the First World War as a prisoner in the ‘Prinz Heinrich’ fort in Ingolstadt, the same fort where General de Gaulle himself was imprisoned.

There he struck up a close friendship with an English officer called Radcliffe, the author of a memoir in which he talks about Charles Pétrequin and their incredible escape during the showers, finding themselves free in the middle of Bavaria but without any clothes...  He was awarded the Victory medal.

He went to Morocco to assist General Hubert Lyautey and played an active part in working with the religious and civil elites of the French Protectorate, for which he was awarded the Médaille Coloniale.

Thanks in particular to his fluency in German, he was assigned to the 2nd office (counter-espionage) in Brussels. His services earned him a knighthood in the Order of Leopold.

He enjoyed a social life and met Simonne Moreau, his 13th cousin, whom he married in 1937.

Their common ancestor was Marguerite de Craon.

Simonne was the daughter of Georges Moreau, a famous mayor of Anderlecht (Belgium), industrialist and founder of the Franco-Belgian Chamber of Commerce, and Baroness Julienne de Fierlant, of Capetian stock and a direct descendant of Philippe III ‘Le Bon’ of Burgundy, Duke of Burgundy (1396-1467). 

On his return to France, he was posted to Tours, to the 502nd tank regiment.

In 1940 he escaped from another prisoner-of-war camp and was reunited with his wife and daughter in Cannes, where they had fled by car from Tours during the debacle. Once demobilised, he came to the end of his inactivity and developed Gaullist convictions and courageous individual acts of resistance (escaped prisoners and Jews).

He was appointed Commander of the Place de Cannes at the Liberation in 1940, then Commander of the Armée des Alpes. He was a passionate man, an aeroplane pilot and inventor in his spare time (radio alarm clock, automatic firing system, skateboard, etc.).

Colonel Charles Pétrequin was made an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur.

Charles had a brother with no descendants.

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He had only one child, a daughter, Arlette Pétrequin, who in 1960 married Jean-Loïc Reumont from Poligny, then an officer in the 502nd tank regiment, as was her father Charles.

This branch of the Pétrequin family died on 08 February 2018.