What is This Plaque About?

The short answer is nobody knows. But I will now proceed to write a long blog post with lots of speculation.

I've known of the existence of the plaque for some time, but only recently got to see it. Along with lots more people who will get to see it now, I paid a visit to Malcolm Motté's new joinery showroom [link]. It is off a courtyard that used to be private, which you enter from a corner of the market square in Preuilly.

Reading a thread on Facebook concerning the plaque it seems that some locals assume it is a funerary memorial. But before I read the thread that didn't occur to me. I thought it was something more joyous, celebrating a birth or a milestone for a much loved child. What is interesting is that the child in question, who clearly must have meant a great deal to whoever erected this unusual plaque, is female.

The plaque, which is carved limestone, isn't very big, and it's positioned rather high up on the wall. There is no indication if it is in its original position or has been brought here from elsewhere (for example, one suggestion is that it has come from a columbarium). But it doesn't seem to be a gravestone or marking a grave, although it is presumably a memorial of some sort.

It is not very difficult to read, but interpreting it is proving challenging for even our most informed local history sleuths. It says "Félicité Nabon Agée de 5 mois le Jour [illegible] Ap(rés/rit) sa Prem(ière) Robe 1809". Which would translate as 'Felicity Nabon Aged 5 months the Day [illegible] After/Took her First Dress 1809'.

According to Fabrice Doucet, who is my go to source for this sort of local history, Félicité Nabon was born on 18 December 1808. She was the daughter of Félicité Abraham and Mathieu Francois Xavier Nabon. Her father was from an old Preuilly family, a branch of which owned the Hotel l'Image on the other side of the market place to the house with the plaque. The young married couple had tied the knot on 15 February 1808 in Angers. The house that now has the plaque was owned at the time by Mathieu Nabon.

Fabrice can't find any record of little Félicité dying in 1809 though. He had done a bit of research because he'd been asked by my friend Christiane, who is a descendant of the Nabon family. She doesn't know the background to the plaque but was curious. However, Claudette, who grew up in our house, has been doing some rummaging in the archives and found a young woman named as Félicie Nabon, the daughter of Mathieu Nabon and Marie Abraham who died at the age of 17 at the Convent de la Grand Maison in Poitiers on 5 December in 1825. Could this be 'our' Félicité we all wonder? As Fabrice pointed out, she would have been very nearly 17 at that date. He added that this boarding school for young women in Poitiers, being close to Preuilly, may well have been popular with the local bourgeoisie. He'd like to see a bit more evidence, but thinks it is an interesting idea. He's not too bothered by the differences in the first names, as errors of transcription were very common at the time.