Mariette Family Papers

The papers are largely family papers, including wills, inventories, and other legal documents, copies of deeds, and private accounts, relating to the Mariette family and connected families, such as the de Villeblin family. The bulk of the collection dates from the eighteenth century.

Early branches of the Mariette family moved in high social circles in France, including branches of the Charlet and Desmoulins families, who are both represented to a small extent in this collection. However, the principal Mariette line represented in these family papers can be traced to 1758 and the marriage of Antoinette Louise Desmoulins to Jean-Pierre Mariette (1725-1780), who was a descendant of a well-established Parisian family of printers, publishers and engravers. These included Pierre Mariette (1603-1657) who traded on the Ile du Palais and elsewhere in Paris. His son was likewise called Pierre Mariette (1634-1716) who bought the business from his father in 1657 for 30,000 livres. In turn, his son Jean Mariette (1660-1742) inherited the printing business from his father, and likewise passed it on to his own son Pierre Jean Mariette (1694-1774), who became a famous writer, art collector and engraver in his own right. His large art collection was dispersed in 1775 following his death, fetching over 350,000 livres. Later generations of the Mariette family continued to add to the family papers, which have survived in remarkably good condition and which were not scattered during the Revolution.

There is no identified organisation to the collection: the existing order has been retained. The listing by Julie Rice has been carried out using a running sequence of box and document numbers, with later arrangement into her item-level description using these original reference numbers.

Usual EUL conditions apply

The papers presumably came to England following the marriage of Charles Eugene Albert Mariette (1802-1838) to an Englishwoman, Rebecca Hutchinson, who returned to England on the death of her husband with her sons.The papers were deposited at the University in 1953 by her ancestor Albert Cecil Mariette, the last surviving member of the family.

See Appendix 13 in 'The Mariette Family Papers in Exeter University Library, Julie Ann Rice, MPhil thesis, Exeter, July 1994 for an item-level description of the collection (available at Special Collections on request).

Usual EUL conditions apply