This contract, along with the La Fayette-Langec Contredict, the La Fayette-Langeac Contredict 2 and the Grosse d’un arrêt du maître des requêtes du Parlement de Paris, forms part of the dossier of a legal dispute between Jacques de Langeac, seigneur of Bonnabaud, and his neighbor Louis de La Fayette, seigneur of Pontgibaud, regarding fishing rights on the river Sioule, which ran through the estates of both parties. The legal procedures lasted several months in 1564.

This document was an important piece of evidence establishing historical fishing rights claimed by both parties. The famed Marshall of France, Gilbert de La Fayette, was Louis de La Fayette’s grandfather. Delphine de Bonnabaud’s son, Martin de Chauvigny de Blot, sold the seigneurie of Bonnabaud to Antoine de Langeac in 1465 (a 1478 copy of this sale deed is also found in the court dossier).

The dossier for the 1564 fishing rights dispute is part of a larger collection of documents related to the seigneurie of Bonnabaud, sold by Anne-Joseph-Gilbert-Allyre de Langeac to Amable-Jacques Soubrany de Bénistant in 1787. A large quantity of documents were assembled at the time, including copies of the sale deed, as well as descriptions of the property, lists of tenants, yearly earnings, previous legal disputes, and so forth.

For more documents related to the Langeac family and the seigneurie de Bonnabaud, see the Vente au profit de Gabriel de Langeac and the Bail à cens de la seigneurie de Bonnabaud.

See the Lauzanne Family Papers for an overview of this significant family archive of thousands of documents held at the Newberry Library.

- Caroline Prud’Homme