Château Pichon-Baron: The Longuevilles
In 1692, within a few years of building his viticultural empire, Pierre des Mesures de Rauzan died. In 1654 Pierre had married Jeanne de Moncourrier, and she had borne him at least eleven children, of whom three were sons. It seems as though the landholdings in Margaux were inherited by these sons, but the estate in Pauillac was bequeathed to a daughter, Thérèse de Rauzan (born 1672). Just two years after the death of her father, on February 14th 1694, she was married to Jacques François de Pichon, Baron de Longueville (1649 – 1731), the first president of the Bordeaux parliament. The vineyard, so recently inherited, was the dowry that secured her marriage and her future.
Both Jacques and Thérèse were descended from influential and powerful stock; Jacques was the son of Bernard de Pichon, Baron de Longueville et de Parempuyre, himself the son of François I de Pichon and Catherine de Bavolier. It was Jacques’ father Bernard who had been ennobled with the Barony of Longueville when he married Anne Daffis de Longueville in 1646. As for Thérèse de Rauzan, her family’s authority stemmed from their extensive vineyard landholdings, in the modern-day appellations of Margaux and Pauillac, and perhaps also from the military service undertaken by her brothers.
