Defining État in Eighteenth-Century France: The Lamothe Family of Bordeaux

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In ancien rŕgime France, one's legal, social, personal, and professional situtation constituted one's état, or one's condition in life. The letters of the Lamothe family of eighteenth-century Bordeaux, a “bourgeois” family in the liberal professions, indicate the ways in which one provincial family defined and maintained its état in life, internal and external, personal and professional, public and private. For the Lamothe family, moderation and balance in life-style and conservation of resources, status, and family were primary goals, rather than risky and psychologically threatening efforts towards social mobility. The solidarity of the Lamothe family and the strength of its values meant that its état was conserved in spite of the challenges it faced.