Included in the collection are land and notarial papers, privileges of nobility, and other legal documents regarding the operation of a noble estate in early modern France. The most important pieces include the earliest document in the collection, a parchment from 1297 recording the contract between the noble family Caumont and the population of Berbiguières that bestowed noble privileges. There are also 25 documents on parchment from the 14th - 16th centuries. These deal with matters of justice, property rights, the rights of surveillance (droit de guet), and the laws pertaining to the gallows or gibbet.There are also two property and notarial registers of Berbiguières containing hundreds of acts regarding the lordship, its lands, vassals, and tenant farmers, as well as inventories and analyses of titles dating from the 13th century onwards.

The Berbiguières collection documents the history of a noble estate from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries. The original estate owners were an important Huguenot family, some of whom left France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, while others remained on the land and became increasingly close to the monarchy during the eighteenth century. Ultimately, the younger generation who stayed in France emigrated as monarchist nobility during the Revolution. The papers can be used to examine the diversity of Huguenot responses to the revocation-emigration, their adaptation, and how these varied responses coexisted within the same family.

12.5 Linear Feet (26 flat boxes, 1 manuscript box, 1 half manuscript box, and 1 map folder)

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Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual & born-digital materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.