The expanded 1994 edition of Joviac, le château, la famille states that Élisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac married Jean Eugène Cheynet in London on 26 June 1896. This page compares that claim with civil-status records, parish sources, contemporary press reports and judicial documents now available.
A precise institutional finding. On 12 March 1991, the Public Prosecutor in Privas recorded that death entries nos. 10 and 11 were missing from the register lodged with the court registry and wrote that the register “appeared to have been torn”. The surviving index identifies entry no. 11 as the death record of Marie-Henriette-Élisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac, who died on 16 April 1907.
- Entry no. 11 : Death of Élisabeth de Jovyac, 16 April 1907.
- 12 March 1991 : Written finding by the Public Prosecutor.
- Limit : The author, date and motive of the damage are not identified.
The narrative added to the Joviac book [Back to contents]
In July 1992, Joviac, le château, la famille was published in an edition of 100 copies for the benefit of Les Amis de Joviac in Rochemaure[1]. The book draws on notes made from 1907 to 1919 by Canon Baconnier, parish priest of Rochemaure, and published in 1956 in three issues of La Revue du Vivarais[2].
A new edition of 300 copies was expanded and amended in July 1994. Additions were printed in italics and marked “M.B.” or “D.B.”.
Narrative added in 1994
A London marriage and a vicomte’s title
The new edition claims that Élisabeth de Jovyac remarried in London on 26 June 1896, to her cousin “Jean Eugène Vicomte Cheynet de Beaupré”, described as an administrator of the Crédit Foncier and an officer of the Legion of Honour.
Contemporary civil records
The 1871 marriage is documented
Jean Eugène Cheynet had married Marie Euphrasie Delhoste on 14 December 1871[3]. She did not die until 7 July 1897[4]. None of the recovered documents presented here records either a dissolution of that marriage before 1896 or the alleged London marriage.
Marie Euphrasie Delhoste’s survival until 1897 does not, by itself, exclude an earlier dissolution of the marriage; it does, however, require such a dissolution to be documented. The reported search of the Nantes consular archives did not locate a record of the alleged London marriage. On the evidence presented, this second marriage is therefore not established by any recovered official record.
The other 1994 additions
The new edition first follows “Élisabeth marries the Vicomte du Chaffaut — no issue” with the addition: “Then marries Vicomte Jean Eugène Cheynet de Beaupré — no issue.”
It adds that “Madame du Chaffaut, as she continued to be called, and the Vicomte de Beaupré” lived at Joviac and Granoux and appeared together on a postcard of the château.
Lastly, it claims that Eugène Cheynet died in 1920 in the sinking of L’Afrique, together with Monsignor Jalabert, after contributing to Dakar Cathedral.
Yet L’Afrique sank on 11 January 1920 near the Rochebonne shoals, between the Île de Ré and Les Sables-d’Olonne, not in the Mediterranean[5]. More decisively, Les Amis de Joviac[6] found Eugène Cheynet’s death record, dated 7 November 1917 in Bessèges: he had been dead for more than two years when the ship sank. He was reinterred on 2 December 1922 in the Cheynet family grave in the cemetery above the Notre-Dame-des-Anges chapel.
1991: the prosecutor records apparently torn entries [Back to contents]
The documents describe two different situations. At Rochemaure Town Hall, the loss is extensive: beside the first death on the 1907 list is the annotation “the only one remaining in our possession”. In the court registry’s copy, the gap is targeted: only entries nos. 10 and 11 are reported missing.
« Les actes du registre déposé au greffe paraissent avoir été lacérés. »
“The entries in the register lodged with the court registry appear to have been torn.”
Public Prosecutor in Privas, 12 March 1991
What this letter does not say: the prosecutor identifies neither the author, date nor motive of the damage. His finding concerns the condition of the court register in 1991.
Four days after her death: “Vicomtesse du Chaffaut” [Back to contents]
English transcription
“Mrs Marie-Henriette-Elisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac, Vicomtesse du Chaffaut, died at her ancestral château, aged 64.”
The newspaper reports the funeral held on 18 April in Rochemaure. It recalls that Alfred d’Hilaire, Marquis de Jovyac, had left two daughters married to the Vicomtes de la Guéronnière and du Chaffaut.
This report is contemporary with the events and establishes the title by which she was publicly known in April 1907. A newspaper report is not, however, in itself a civil-status record or a complete demonstration of her marital status.
The plaque: “du Chaffaut” becomes “de Beaupré” [Back to contents]
A careful reading. The discrepancy between the 1907 newspaper and the plaque is objective. The oblique-light photograph also shows a localised surface irregularity in the title area. This is compatible with a physical alteration to the plaque, but the photograph alone cannot date any intervention, identify its author or establish with certainty what an earlier inscription may have read.
The photocopy of the death record [Back to contents]
A photocopy bearing a certification as a true copy was later used to support the claim that Élisabeth de Jovyac had married Eugène Cheynet “de Beaupré”. The corresponding originals are no longer available: entry no. 11 is missing from the court copy, while the municipal register for 1907 is very largely absent.
The former version of this page stated without qualification that the photocopy was forged. The tonal difference, the missing originals and the documentary contradictions justify describing it as contested and calling for expert examination; they are not, by themselves, a substitute for direct material examination of the now-unavailable original.
Documentary timeline [Back to contents]
Jean Eugène Cheynet marries Marie Euphrasie Delhoste.
Date of the alleged London marriage to Élisabeth de Jovyac in the additions to the Joviac book.
Death of Marie Euphrasie Delhoste.
Death of Élisabeth de Jovyac; the corresponding entry is no. 11.
Funeral in Rochemaure and entry in the parish register.
The Journal de Montélimar names her “Vicomtesse du Chaffaut”.
The municipality compiles its list of missing 1907 death entries.
The prosecutor reports entries nos. 10 and 11 missing from the court copy and a register that appears to have been torn.
In memory of the Vicomtesse du Chaffaut [Back to contents]
These documents restore to Marie-Henriette-Élisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac the title used by contemporary sources and separate her memory from narratives that appeared much later.
Notes and references
1. Les Amis de Joviac, list of publications.
3. Ardèche Departmental Archives, marriage record of Jean Eugène Cheynet and Marie Euphrasie Delhoste, 14 December 1871; see also the comparative plate reproduced on this page.
4. Ardèche Departmental Archives, death record of Marie Euphrasie Delhoste, 7 July 1897.
5. Jean-Yves Le Lan, “The sinking of L’Afrique”, 7 November 2013.
7. Rochemaure Town Hall, “Civil Register 1907 (Deaths) — Missing Entries”, 4 February 1991.
8. Privas tribunal de grande instance, letter from the Public Prosecutor to the Mayor of Rochemaure, ref. 26/91-E02, 12 March 1991.
9. Court-register index: Marie-Henriette-Élisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac, entry no. 11, 16 April 1907.
10. Journal de Montélimar, “Rochemaure — Nécrologie”, 20 April 1907.
11. Full photograph of the memorial plaque of Marie-Henriette-Élisabeth d’Hilaire de Jovyac.
12. Oblique photograph of the title area on the same plaque; a material clue requiring cautious interpretation.