Domaine du Closel: François Jacques Walsh
François Jacques Walsh (1704 – 1782) was a ship-owner of Irish descent, the son of Philippe Walsh (1666 – 1708) who had been born in Dublin but then made a life for himself in the French navy as a captain and commandant. To describe François as merely a ‘ship-owner’ perhaps does him something of a disservice though. Following in his father’s footsteps François Jacques was heavily involved in the navy, building and commanding ships, and the Walsh family also privately financed the Irish Regiment of the French Army. For the sum of 840,000 livres (the currency that predated the franc) Walsh acquired the seigneurie of Serrant and the associated château, as well as the Château des Vaults with its vineyards, in 1750. Just a few years later, in 1754, he was elevated to the noble rank of Comte de Serrant, having been recognised by Louis XV for services to the French court. To this day, many features at the Château des Vaults still bear the arms of the Walsh family, an image of a swan pierced by an arrow.
On April 26th 1743 in Santa Cruz, Spain, François Jacques Walsh had married Mary Harper, and the union produced numerous children and subsequently great numbers of grandchildren. The eldest sons were Antoine Walsh de Serrant (1744 – 1817), Comte de Walsh-Serrant and Charles Édouard Walsh de Serrant (1746 – 1820), Marquis de Walsh-Serrant. Presumably one of these, most likely Antoine and then the subsequent generation, took on the estate at Serrant until it was ultimately sold in 1830. The Château des Vaults, meanwhile, seems to have changed hands much earlier, as in 1756 – just six years after its purchase along with the Serrant estate – the Walsh family sold it, and it was acquired at this time by Canon Noël Martin. He is said to have purchased the estate along with “dix-septième quartiers de vignes”.
