Thiébault, Adolphe, baron

Paul-Adolphe Dieudonné Thiébault (1797-1875), grandson of the novelist Lady Mary Hamilton and son of General Charles Thiébault, was an Army officer, author and antiquarian whose published works included a discussion of hereditary nobility.

The Thiébault family mss., 1733-1873, follows four generations of a Franco-British family. The first generation is represneted in the papers of Dieudonné Thiébault (1733-1807); an instructor at Fredrick the Great's École Militaire in Berlin and later the France's Keeper of the Archives and Sous-Chef of the Bureau de la Librarie. Dieudonné's son, Paul (1769-1846), joined a detachment of the French national guard at the outbreak fo the Revolution. He later joined the regular army and rose swiftly through the ranks, appointed Brigadier General in 1801 and Major General in 1808. He was the leading French military figure on the Iberian Peninsula from 1807 to 1811, was placed in charge of the Portuguese campaign of 1807-1808; Thiébault was ennobled in 1811 and named Baron de l'Empire, a title transferable to male descendants. Paul's professional success balanced a tumultuous personal life. In 1793, he and his superior officer - Étienne de Jouy - met two British sisters who were residing with their mother and step-father in the French sity of Lille. Both couples married within six months of their initial meetings; De Jouy wed Isabella Walker (1763-1830) while Paul married Elizabeth "Betzy" Walker (1767-1824). Paul and Betzy's relationship was under constant strain due to Paul's absences for military obligations, Betzy's continual pregnancies (in ten years of marriage, the Thiébaults had three children and two others who died shortly after birth), and her British roots. Paul separated from Betzy in December 1802 while she was in the later stages of pregnancy with their last child. Paul and Betzy's marriage resulted in the birth of three children who survived to adulthood: Adolphe (1797-ca.1875), Melanie Laure, and Alfred (b. 1803). All are heavily represented in the manuscript collection but Adolphe is the central figure. Adolphe followed his father into the military and eventually became an instructor at various academies. Adolphe's own personal life was quite the opposite of his parents'; he married Harriet Thayer (1791-1860), the daughter of an English country gentleman, in 1822 and the union appears to have been a happy one lasting for thirty-eight years and producing one child, Henrietta Malvina (b. 1823).