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Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour (unknown-1747) was a French public official. He served as the First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence from 1735 to 1747. He is remembered for his relative tolerance of witchcraft and Protestantism.

Biography

Early life

Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour was born in an old French aristocratic family from Forez.

Career

He served as an Advisor in the Parlement of Paris, and later as an intendant in Brittany and Poitou.

He served as the last First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence from 1748 to 1771, and from 1775 to 1790.

During the trial of the alleged witch Catherine Cadière and the Jesuit Fr Jean-Baptiste Girard (1680-1733), he was remarkably lenient.

Although he opposed the Protestant uprising in Cabrières-d'Aigues, it has been suggested that he did so humanely. Indeed, he appealed to Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Saint-Florentin (1707-1777) for clemency, adding that those were mostly peasants and they should not be fined too heavily, lest they became indigent.

Personal life

He had a son, Charles Jean-Baptiste des Gallois de La Tour (1715-1802), who served as the last First President of the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence.

He died in 1747.

References

1. ^ Monique Cubells, Noël Coulet, Wolfrang Kaiser, Gabriel Audisio, Régis Bertrand, Le Parlement de Provence : 1501-1790, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l'Université de Provence, 2002
2. ^ Ambroise Roux-Alphéran, Les rues d'Aix : Recherches historiques sur l'ancienne capitale de la Provence, Aix-en-Provence: Typographie Aubin, 1848, volume 2, p. 246
3. Prosper Cabasse, Essais historiques sur le parlement de Provence, depuis son origine jusqu'à sa suppression : 1501-1790,Paris: Pihan Delaforest, 1826, volume 3, p. 284
4. Victor-Louis Bourrilly, Les Protestants de Provence aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Gap: Ophrys, 1956, p. 193

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