Jean de Forcade, Seigneur de Biaix

Jean de Forcade (before 1635, in presumably in Boeil, Béarn – 9 November 1684, in Pau, Béarn), was a Fermier des monnaies de Béarn et Navarre (Lessee of the Mints of Béarn and Navarre).

He was a descendant of the noble family of Forcade from Béarn in the Kingdom of Navarre, a Protestant nobleman, but abjured from Protestantism shortly before the end of his life, under intimidation from the policy of harassment of religious minorities through the use of dragonnades, created in 1681, to intimidate Huguenots into converting to Catholicism or to leave France, and under the threat of confiscation of properties of nobles who did not convert.

Jean de Forcade is the founder of the Forcade-Biaix family line, through his 1659 acquisition of the noble fief of Biaix in the city of Pau, and therewith the earliest bearer of the Forcade-Biaix name.

Life and Occupation The earliest known mention of Jean de Forcade is in relation to the provision of an office as Huissier at the Parliament of Navarre on 5 March 1644. Records for wages and other payments by the Chambre des Comptes show that Jean de Laforcade was still a Huissier at the Parliament of Navarre in 1657, when he received a reimbursement for the costs of his robe and bonnet for having assisted at the execution of a person condemned to death.

He is next mentioned in 1652 in relation to three mints being in position to strike new coins using mills, when the Chambre des Comptes de Pau (the Court of Finances of Pau) granted a license to mint to Pierre de Peyré, who, in turn, subcontracted the production to: Jean de Gassie, legislator at the Parliament of Navarre, who was committed to the mint in Morlaàs and Jean Verdoyé to the one in Saint-Palais. Verdoyé was also to ensure the interim succession of Richard Lamy at the mint in Pau until the arrival of Jean de Forcade.

Jean de Forcade was received into the Order of Nobility of the Estates of Béarn as Seigneur de Rontignon from 1 January 1668 until 31 July 1681. The list of these elders shows many of the same names that are also found in notarized acts, marriage contracts and parish registers related to Jean de Forcade and his descendants, several of which are families interrelated by marriage. These elders were: d'Angoueix, d'Argausse, two different d'Artiguelouve, d'Auture, de Balagué (Balaguer), de Batsalle, de Bruchelles, de Casaux, de Colomiès, de Day, de Duplaà, d'Espalungue, two different de Forcade, de Gassies, de Guiraudet, de Joët, de Jurque, de Lafitte, de Lalana, de Lamothe, de Lanabère, de Lapuyade, de Larriu, de Lème, de Maria, de Mirassor, de Missou, de Nays, de Païssa, de Péfaur, de Saint-Martin, de Saint-Orenx, de Somolon, de Veguier, de Vidal, de Vignau, and de Vignoles.

He is named in the minutes of the meeting of the Consistory on 7 April 1669, together with Messieurs de Olivier and de Rival, Pastors, de Vignoles, d'Espalungue, de Mirassor, de Bruchelles, de St.-Orenx, de Duplaa and de Larriu, all Elders, and de Lostau, dean. He was relieved of his responsibilities as an elder by the body of the Consistory of Pau on 5 April 1671.

Biaix - The Family Estate

The etymology of the word Biaix has its roots in the Catalan language and means oblique or biais, in the sense of not expressed or done in a direct way or deviates from the expected according to the laws of probability or physics. The only family known to have carried this patronym prior to Jean de Forcade de Biaix was that of Pierre de Biaix, ambassador of the King of Navarre to Paris and to Brussels (1516), secular Parson of Monein and of Pau, secular Abbot of Lucq (abbé laïc de Lucq), elected Bishop of Aire (évèque élu d'Aire) 1523-26, Chancellor of Foix and Béarn, Chancellor of Navarre and ambassador of Navarre to Spain.

Noble Jean de Forcade, Seigneur de Rontignon, from Gratian von Turon, Seigneur de Beyrie, (Seigneur de Biaix 1684-1737).

Because Biaix was acquired in 1659, any reference to parents or grandparents in this family line with de Biaix as a part of the name are in error.

Family

Parents Jean de Forcade was the son of Isacq de Forcade (* Before 1601), from Boeil, and Marie de Bordes, from Nay, who married by notarized contract at the Notary Nicolas de Lavie in Nay on 26 March 1624.

Isacq de Forcade, in turn, was the son of Pierre de Forcade, Lawyer, Guardian of Mint of Pau (Garde en la monnaie de Pau) and his wife Marie de Maserolles. Marie de Bordes was the daughter of Pierre de Bordes, Lawyer and Special Prosecutor for the District of Nay, and his wife, Marie de Foron.

There is no document that names the parents of Jean de Forcade, Seigneur de Biaix. There is no birth or baptism record. His parents are not named in his marriage record at the Protestant Temple in Morlaàs on 23 December 1659, nor are they named in his marriage contract made at the Notary Jean d'Agoeuix in Pau on 12 February 1660. The evidence linking him as the son of Isacq de Forcade is nonetheless strong, if not conclusive.

Jean de Forcade, Seigneur de Biaix, assisted at the marriage by notarized contract at the Notary Jean d'Agoeuix in Pau, between Pierre de Bordes, Seigneur de Rontignon, and Damoiselle Marie de Belça on 11 December 1661. In this contract, he is confirmed to be a cousin of Pierre de Bordes.

...11 December 1661: Marriage contract between Noble Pierre de Bordes, Seigneur de Rontignon, and Damoiselle Marie de Belça, daughter of the late Mr. Pierre de Belca, attorney, Counsellor and dean in the court of the Parliament of Navarre, who made out his will on 29 June 1654, and made a codicil on 10 May 1660. The Seigneur de Bordes was assisted by: Messire Jean Marquis de Gassion counsellor to the King on both his state and private councils, and President of the Court of the Parliament of Navarre, Noble Arnaud de Bordes, Seigneur de la Salle, his brother, Noble Jean de Forcade, Seigneur de Biaix, Noble Henry d'Arrosès, Seigneur d'Idernes, his cousins. Demoiselle de Belça was assisted by: Noble Pierre de Belça, a lawyer at the Court [of the Parliament of Navarre], and Jean-Louis of Belça, her brothers, Damoiselle Claude de Belça, her sister, Messire Bernard de Saint-Martin, Viscount d'Echaux. ...

Marriage and Children Jean de Forcade married 23 December 1659 at the Protestant Temple in Morlaàs with Madeleine de Lanne († aft. 1701), daughter of Ramon de Lanne, bourgeois in Pau. The couple had at least 14 children together. Among them, Isaac (1660), Sophie Philippine (1661–1730), Jean who follows (1663), Marie (1662–1732), ) Magdelaine (1668), Abraham (1670), Armand (1671), Marthe (1673–1731) ), Pierre (1673), Marthe (1676), Paul (1677–1705), Henri (1678), Jacques (1681) and Anne (1682).

Jean de Forcade de Biaix, Pau in Béarn; † 2 February 1729, Berlin) who left Béarn and became a Royal Prussian Lieutenant General. Herr of Sulzau, Weikenburg and Erdeborn, his first cousins, and Pierre du Pont, his brother-in-law. Nicolas de La Forcade, Lawyer, Bourgeois and merchant in Pau married in a second marriage with Marie de Vignau, from Bizanos, daughter of Noble Samson de Vignau and of Marguerite du Pac. Pierre de Laforcade, Notary at the Seneschalty of Oloron, and David d'Arripe were present at the writing of the testament of Henry de Lacroix, a painter from Paris, resident in Oloron for forty years, on 12 July 1663. Nicolas de La Forcade, Lawyer and Bourgeois from Pau, assisted Camille de Vignau at her marriage by notarized contract on 14 July 1682 to Jean d'Abbadie, Lawyer, from Morlaàs, together with, among others, Suzanne and Marie de Bizanos, her full sisters.