Papers of Louis Dieudonne Gaillard (1824-1888)

Description

Louis Gaillard's papers include many significant documents pertaining to French history. There are several letters from General Trochu (President of France in 1871) both of a personal and professional nature. Trochu was a close friend of Louis and, on the occasion of his engagement to Mary wrote to James Bowdoin Bradlee testifying to Louis' unblemished qualities as a gentleman and a soldier. Louis' letters from Madame de Missy are rather familiar considering she was his future mother-in-law (her daughter, Julie Marie de Bionneau, married Louis in 1853). A large collection of Louis' letters can be found in Mary Gaillard's papers. These letters, written to her during his military campaigns, contain valuable information on his career and personality. Louis' legal papers are complex in nature. The documents are based on the Code Napoleon which differs substantially from American law, particularly with regard to inheritance. There is considerable concern in the papers about the safety of Mary Gaillard's money. The marriage contract states that whatever each party brought into the marriage does not become communal property. This is also true for future inheritances. Article two states that neither would be responsible for the other’s debts. Article four describes Mary's possessions. Some $42,000 was deposited with Bradlee's attorney, William Minot, Jr., to be held in trust in Boston, the interest only to be sent to Mary annually. A specific contractual provision is that Mary's money should return to her parents should she die without heirs. A year and a half later James Bowdoin Bradlee changed his mind and allowed Mary to will to Louis the interest from her trust for life. Louis' continued concern for his wife's money can be seen in his own will. He specifies in the first article that his own children have no right to Mary's estate; there are several references to his son Lucien, on whom an endowment of 40,000 francs was settled at the time of his marriage. This money had been left by Louis' first wife. As stipulated in the marriage contract with Julie Marie de Bionneau, Louis had the right to use half of his first wife's estate for life. All of the endowment, as a result of his son's needs, was paid to Lucien previous to Louis' own death. Although the term "loan" is used to refer to this inheritance, strictly speaking, it was not borrowed money but a pre-payment of his father's estate. Louis' son-in-law, Léonce Boy, also had financial difficulties. Letters received from Louis' daughter, Louise Boy, concern these problems. Léonce Boy owned two sardine factories in France and Portugal. When they failed, he was forced to go into debt and in 1897 declared bankruptcy. In the United States, Mary received notification of her son-in-law's business failure from A. Rigoulet, a notary in Pau, France.