1797 Robillard de Peronville & de Barras: Paris
Géricault Life
Robillard de Peronville (note the abreviated Robillard Peronville spelling in the document) request for residency in Paris, An 5 thermidor 3, 1797 juillet 21. Image courtesy of the Archives Nationales (France) F/7/10814
The fate of the Robillards in Saint Domingue remains sketchy. We can, however, shed new light on the events subsequent to the death of Jean-Guillaume Robillard in 1794. After arriving in Paris in the summer of 1797, Louis Robillard de Peronville was required to inform the police of his arrival and of his desire to take up residence in Paris. His application made from the Maison Vendôme in the place Vendôme is brief, but offers a wealth of riveting detail. Sometime before prairial, year 4, (May-June, 1796) Marie-Anne-Charles de Barras fled the island with their daughter Zoé for the freshly-minted American republic. Louis Robillard de Peronville followed after, travelling first to New York. He then set about searching for his wife and daughter in New England. United once more, the family set sail for France, arriving in Havre.
Zoé Robillard de Peronville was born in Saint Domingue in 1790, and grew up during the conflagration in the island colony before seeking refuge with her mother in North America in 1796. Zoé arrived in Paris, almost certainly for the first time, in the summer of 1797. Théodore Géricault arrived in Paris from Rouen at roughly the same time, perhaps six months earlier. We can only wonder what young Théodore, then age six or seven when they first met, made of his Saint Domingue cousin Zoé. What stories did she have? Théodore’s other Paris Robillard cousins, Pierre and Amédée-Selim Robillard, must have also seemed curious and exotic, in a sense. Pierre Robillard was old enough to recall the guillotine set up outside the family home in the Hôtel de Longueville four years earlier, and the attack on the Tuileries in 1795, repulsed by Zoé’s great-uncle, Paul de Barras. It was at this time we can be virtually certain that Paul de Barras was in direct contact with his Paris Robillard relations. We imagine that de Barras and wealthy Robillards ensured that Marie-Anne-Charles de Barras and Zoé passed immediately into capacious apartments in the place Vendôme resplendent with luxury to wash away all the hardships the family had suffered.
These must have been heady times for the only child of older parents from Rouen. Indeed, the arrival of the Robillard de Peronville – de Barras family in Paris after all their trials in Saint Domingue must have been a highly-charged event for all the members. Other Saint Domingue Robillards had yet to escape, and their fates were not then clear.