Personalities
There was only one notable resident in the commune of Tesson. But Marquis Etienne Louis Antoine Guinot de Monconseil (1695-1782), lord of Tesson, as well as neighboring Thénac, Courcoury and Rioux, was one of the most famous characters of Saintonge in the eighteenth century.
He was born, depending on sources, either on September 16, 1695 in the parish of St. Peter in Saintes, or more probably in the castle of Tesson on September 13 (or 15), 1695. He was baptized in any case, on December 23, 1701 in the Cathedral of Saintes. In 1707, at age 12, he made his debut at the Court of Louis XIV in Versailles, where he was appointed (May 9, 1708) page to the “Petite Ecurie du Roi” (literally “King’s Little Stable”). It was tactless for him one evening to set fire to the wig of the King with a candlestick, while the latter was leaving the apartment of Madame de Maintenon, the King had married secretly in 1683. Louis XIV forgave him but Etienne Guinot kept lifetime memories of this event.
In 1713, at age 18, he joined the King's Musketeers and was appointed, November 30, 1717, lieutenant in the regiment of “Gardes Françaises” (French Guards). During the French Régence, Monconseil played and won quite a lot at roulette and biribi, which enabled him to buy in 1722 for 40,000 livres (also partially through debt) the office of colonel of the regiment of Lyonne (the name of his predecessor), which officially took the name of its new colonel in 1723, but also the nickname of "Royal Biribi", as a reference to the way he had paid for it .
He was placed with his men to the service of former King of Poland, Stanislas Leszczynski, then Duke of Lorraine and father in law of Louis XV, who granted him the title of Master of the Royal Hunt. There he met Therese Cecile Pauline de Rioult de Curzay (1707-1787), then a prominent woman and lady in waiting to the former Queen of Poland. He married her in November 1725. She was cousin of Marquise de Prie, who was then the mistress of the Duke of Bourbon, a sort of Prime Minister of Louis XV. He was later appointed in November 1725 (the month of his marriage) Introducer of ambassadors and foreign princes to the King of France, a position he resigned in 1730.
He thereafter pursued a successful military career and participated in many campaigns, interspersed with long stays in Saintonge, in his castle of Tesson. Brigadier of Infantry in 1734, he was appointed in 1748 Lieutenant-General of the King’s and Commander for His Majesty in Upper Alsace in Colmar. In addition to his personal qualities, friendly relationships and sometimes amorous intrigues of his wife were likely no strangers to his brilliant career. She remained all along at the Court and in Ile de France: she basked in a joyful life and was hosting many well-attended feasts in her pavilion at Bagatelle. She was extremely close to (or maybe sometimes of the closest intimacy with) several ministers and senior characters at the Royal Court. Among her "friendships" featured Count d'Argenson ( Marc Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson of Paulmy, Secretary of State for War from 1743 to 1757) and Marshal of Richelieu ( Louis François Armand du Plessis, Duke of Fronsac, also Prince of Mortagne, Baron of Cozes, Saujon and Barbezieux in terms of areas near Tesson). She succeeded in having her husband titled in 1729 “Marquis” (of Monconseil) by Louis de Lorraine, Prince of Pons, who had consolidated the three seigneuries of Courcoury, Tesson and Monconseil (in Thenac) into a marquisate with the King’s sanction.
However the Marquis of Monconseil, Governor of Colmar, got into trouble with some notables in Alsace and even caused a scandal in 1760 by condemning a maidservant he had accused of having stolen silverware to the "wooden horse" (medieval torture rack). He had to sell his regiment (75,000 livres) and, at the age of 65, to retire in Saintonge and thus give up the perspective of being appointed Marshal, a hope his wife was certainly nourishing for him and herself.
Before settling in his native region and in Tesson permanently, he had fortunately expanded his estates by purchasing land and already begun major works, including the construction of his “hôtel particulier” (town-mansion) in Saintes in 1738 (currently the Musée Dupuy-Mestreau, 4 rue Monconseil ), he later enlarged in 1767, and from 1735 onwards, the reconstruction of the castle of Tesson, which, according to the records, reflected the influence of architect Boffrand Germain, who had practiced in Lorraine (castle of Luneville).
The prestigious new castle of Tesson, considered then as one of the most beautiful of the region, consisted of three one-story pavilions connected by wings set back. The roof of the largest central pavilion was covered with a dome and the centerpiece was a vast lounge which occupied the whole height. The ground floor also contained two large fireplaces and a circular gallery which could be reached by a stone staircase with double revolution surrounded the lounge at the first floor level.
The castle was demolished in the nineteenth century. Only plans, drawings and descriptions remain of what it looked like. At its location, in the axis of the tree-lined road which connected the castle to the village church, stands now a mansion (1920) of two stores.
In the former castle's outbuildings, a saintongeais style house was also built in 1848 (it is a private estate called “Chateau Guynot”). It has a vaulted cellar dating from the eighteenth century. In what remains of the castle’s park in this estate, is a “glacière” (underground cooler room) from the same period. Étienne Guinot had discovered its usefulness at Versailles for refreshed drinks, sorbets and food preservation. But the ice was also used in medicine at the hospice of the village.
In his nearby property of Thénac, the Marquis had only the “Grand Logis” (main building) repaired. It also was demolished in the nineteenth century.
In 1773, the Marquis decided the establishment of fairs and markets in Tesson. They were to take place inside the covered market (“Halles”) he had ordered to be built with his own money. He also bought a house to serve as a parsonage house for the (catholic) vicar. In 1777, besides a donation of 3,000 livres to buy the house and garden on which was built the Surgery School of Saintes (rue Saint-Vivien), Monconseil founded in Tesson a hospice to provide the poor inhabitants of his parishes Tesson, Rioux, Thenac and Courcoury, with "the assistance they need in their diseases." The house whose façade is home to the current village notary office, was entrusted to the nuns of the Congregation of Wisdom, to which he granted an annuity for this purpose. The nuns were also meant to be responsible for education and instruction of children of the parishes.
He died on 14 (or 15) October 1782 in his castle of Tesson. His wife went into an ostentatious mourning in Paris but never came to Saintonge. It was up to his son in law, Count "de la Tour du Pin", to have a plaque of white marble engraved in his memory and placed on the wall of the transept of the church. The wording mentions his kindness and good deeds towards the community during his edifying old age. But it never names him, "because his will prohibited it”. Under a black cross, this plaque is still to be seen.
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