An ancient castle - a precious history
SOUTH OF FRANCE
THE HISTORY
THE HISTORY OF CHATEAU DE REDON CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE 15TH CENTURY, AND HAS BEEN IN THE SAME FAMILY FOR 6 GENERATIONS FROM 1818 TO 2010.
The first known owner is Jacques de Saint-Yrieix (1575-1647) married to Izabeau Flamench de Bruzacand with whom he has 5 sons and 2 daughters (of which one Jehanne). At that time the name of the chateau was Mothe Redon aux Granges. When Jeahnne’s daughter, Isabeau Dubreuil, marries Gabriel Teyssières, the Teyssières, a noble family, become the Lords of Redon in 1672. Antoine de Teyssières, knight of the Legion d’Honneur, was the last Teyssière, imprisoned during the French revolution, but was later released. During the French revolution, the “fleur-de-lis”, the royal signs on the weathervanes of Chateau de Redon were covered, a safety measure to prevent the owners from ending on the guillotine.
In 1818, Chateau de Redon was bought by Georges Johnston (1773-1844), from Irish decent, born in Bordeaux, a man who served as a military in Napoleon’s wars and made his fortune overseas. He rebuilt Chateau the Redon to a ‘modern’ chateau and added horse stables, a saddle room and a dog house. He created the garden lay-out as was then common.
Georges Johnston had a ‘natural daughter’, the writer Georges de Peyrebrune, pseudonym of Mathilde Marie Georgina Elisabeth de Peyrebrune (1841-1917). Feminist “avant la lettre”, she moved to Paris, and was crowned twice by the Académie Française for “Vers l’amour” (1896) and “Au pied du mat” (1899). At her death, she was cremated and her ashes buried in the famous cemetery Père Lachaise in Paris.
His son Emile Johnston married Marie Amelie Debrégeas-Laurenie and their daughter married Joseph Albert Eugène Lachaud de Loqueyssie who became the owner. After his death, she remarried Eugène Gibiat, who then becomes the owner.
Chateau de Redon stayed in the Georges Johnston family for 6 generations until 2010.