Making a Living

Abstract

The chapter explores Colson’s sources of income under the Old Regime and how this was related to his position in society. Although he drew revenues from familial property he owned in Varennes and a variety of other investments, his main sources of income came from his position as legal advisor and financial administrator to the Ravary wine-making family and, above all, to the Longaunay family of nobles. The chapter focuses, in particular, on the complex relations linking him to the Marquise, Marquis, and Comte of Longaunay in his role of overseeing the exploitation of the family’s lands and seigniorial dues in Normandy and Berry and serving as point man in the many lawsuits in which the family found itself entangled. It also examines the wide variety of his other responsibilities for this family beyond finances, and his close relations with Roch Lemaigre, the local intendant living near the family’s possessions in Berry in the small town of Levroux.