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Paris · 17th century – now

Famille Cochin

Requiescite vigilo“Sleep; I keep watch”

A legend traces it to the water merchants of Saint Louis, whose registers name Cochins from 1268. The proven line begins in 1656 with a mercer from Montlhéry, at the gates of Paris; then come an alderman whom the city ennobled, a priest who founded the hospital, three generations of mayors and deputies, a prefect, three members of the Institut, a minister of the Great War and two sons who did not come back: three and a half centuries of a Paris family that kept watch over its city.

Arms of the Cochin family: a golden rooster on a silver mount beneath three stars, with the motto Requiescite vigilo. The rooster already keeps watch on the arms registered in 1698.
1268
a Cochin at the parloir aux bourgeois
1748
the aldermanship that ennobles
1780
a hospital that bears the name
5
members of parliament
9
Légion d’honneur
Arms of the city of Paris
Caption
The arms of Paris: their ship was already on the seal of the water merchants in 1210, and is said to go back to the boatmen of Lutetia[1].

I · The lore

From the boatmen of Lutetia to the water merchants

The water merchants of the Middle Ages are held to be the heirs of the boatmen of Lutetia, though no text has established it[1, 2]. Cochins appear in the records of the city of Paris from the 13th century: one sat in 1268 at the parloir aux bourgeois, the forerunner of the Hôtel de Ville, another was a sworn salt broker in 1320[3, 4]. Tradition makes one of them an ancestor, “alderman of the city under Saint Louis”; yet the family’s unbroken descent starts with a mercer born at Montlhéry in 1656[5, 6]. The alderman of 1560 that Chaix d’Est-Ange gives it, Charles Cochin, is not in the city’s registers, which have Jehan Sanguyn and Nicolas Hac elected that year[7, 8].

Read the chapter5 dates · 3 notes on the origins
The boatmen of Lutetia
A Gaulish people who gave their name to Paris, the Parisii were settled in the region by the 3rd century BC, and their power rested on the river traffic on the Seine, which they controlled[1, 2]; their stronghold, Lutetia, stood according to Caesar on an island in the river[3]. Boatmen, shipowners and traders on the rivers of Gaul, the nautae were organized in guilds; the most famous, that of the nautae of the Parisii, raised a carved pillar to Jupiter under the reign of Tiberius, in the 1st century[4, 5]. Its dedication says they paid for it from their common fund: their guild is the first society on record in Paris[6]. Unearthed beneath Notre-Dame cathedral on 16 March 1711, it is the oldest dated monument of Paris and now stands in the baths of Cluny[5, 7]. One of its reliefs is held to show them under arms, with shields and spears[8]. The water merchants of the Middle Ages are held to be their heirs, and the ship in the arms of Paris, already on those merchants’ seal in 1210, is said to go back to them[9, 10]. Yet no text, Lucien Lambeau wrote in 1912, has established the descent[11].
The hanse of the water merchants
As early as 1121, Louis VI granted the water merchants of Paris a duty of sixty sous on every boat carrying wine; in 1170 a charter of Louis VII gave them the policing of the river and the privilege of navigation on the Seine, from the bridge of Mantes to the bridges of Paris[1, 2]. Under Saint Louis the hanse’s sworn men became aldermen and their head the provost of the merchants: in 1263 it elected a first municipality, a provost and four aldermen[3]. The city’s seal, first recognised by Saint Louis, sealed the acts of the provost of the merchants; in the 14th century it bore the legend “Sigillum mercatorum aquæ Parisius”, seal of the water merchants of Paris[4]. Offences were judged at the parloir aux bourgeois, where a Cochin sat in 1268, and in 1320 Jehan Cochin was one of the sworn salt brokers of the river trade[5, 6, 7].

The Cochins of the registers

  1. 1268

    A Cochin at the parloir aux bourgeois

    At the parloir aux bourgeois, the forerunner of the Hôtel de Ville, the provost of the merchants Jehan Augier confiscated two new boats that Denise de Bardouille had brought in without a partner from the Paris hanse; among those sitting with him, the register of the customs of the river trade names a Cochin[1, 2, 3]. Augier then headed the hanse of the water merchants, whose burghers came to form the Paris municipality under Louis IX[4, 5]. Félibien and Lobineau printed the text in 1725 in their Histoire de la ville de Paris[2]; Le Roux de Lincy, who dates it to 2 April 1268, counted in 1846 a “Cochin Martin” among that year’s city councillors[6, 7]. Family tradition makes this Cochin an ancestor, “alderman of the city under Saint Louis”, as Gabriel Hanotaux recalled when he received Denys Cochin into the Académie française in 1912[8]; a profile published that year was “not absolutely certain that this one belongs to the family”[9].

  2. 1320

    A sworn salt broker

    In 1320 and 1321, the book of sentences of the parloir aux bourgeois names Jehan Cochin among the “corratiers de sel”, the salt brokers, whom Le Roux de Lincy counts among the sworn junior officers of the water merchants’ guild[1]. The register gives only his name[1].

  3. 1482

    A royal provost at Montlhéry

    Denis Cochin was royal provost of Montlhéry in 1482, under Louis XI, and again in 1490, according to Malte-Brun’s list, as to that of the Société historique de Montlhéry[1, 2, 3]. Seat of a provostship since Philippe Auguste, over some hundred parishes, about half of today’s Essonne, Montlhéry saw nearly eighty provosts succeed one another until the Revolution: steward of the king’s estates, the provost collected their revenues and dispensed justice[4]. The 1912 profile of Denys Cochin asserts that “the Cochin of Louis XI was the king’s provost”[5]; the mercer of 1656, ancestor of today’s branch, came from Montlhéry, but no document connects the two men[6].

  4. 1560

    An alderman in 1560?

    According to Chaix d’Est-Ange and Gabriel Hanotaux, in 1912, Charles Cochin, sieur de Combreulx, a merchant, burgher and consular judge of Paris, was appointed alderman of the city in 1560; the family already held there, writes Chaix d’Est-Ange, “a distinguished rank” among the bourgeoisie[1, 2]. The registers of the deliberations of the city’s Bureau do not name him: on 16 August 1560 the assembly elected as aldermen Jehan Sanguyn, notary and secretary to the king, and Nicolas Hac, burgher[3]. Nor were there consular judges in Paris before the edict of November 1563: the first were elected on 27 January 1564[4].

  5. 1588

    One of Henri III’s penitents

    On 17 August 1588, at Chartres, Henri III signed the roll of the perpetual officers of the archconfraternity of the Penitents of the Annunciation of Our Lady, which he had founded at the Augustinian convent in Paris: René Cochin was one of its four mandeurs[1]. By his letters of 15 September 1585, the king had given the officers of this “royal congregation of the Penitents” the privileges, exemptions and franchises of the officers of his household[2]. Félibien and Lobineau, who printed these documents in 1725, say nothing more of René Cochin, and no document connects him to the family[1].

Lore and proof
Tradition takes the Cochins back to Saint Louis: “Here is the true Cochin, son of the Cochins who went back to Saint Louis; here is the good parishioner of Notre-Dame!”, Gabriel Hanotaux exclaimed as he received Denys Cochin into the Académie française in 1912[1]. A profile published that year finds Cochins under Louis XI and Charles VIII, but doubts that the alderman of Saint Louis belongs to the family[2]. The unbroken descent that Wikipedia gives starts with the mercer born at Montlhéry in 1656[3].
Arms of the Cochins entered in 1696
Caption
The arms entered in the Armorial général of 1696, borne by the alderman of 1748 according to Chaix d’Est-Ange: azure, a chevron or between two roosters or in chief and a tower argent in base[1]. The register gives them in 1698 to Pierre Cochin, grocer and burgher of Paris[2].

II · The rise

From the counter to city hall

The family’s unbroken descent starts with a mercer born at Montlhéry in 1656[1]. Claude-Denys Cochin, a Paris merchant and a former warden of the mercers’ guild[2, 3], was elected alderman (échevin) of Paris on 16 August 1748, and the office ennobled him[4, 5, 6]. Jacques-Denis Cochin, a lawyer, mayor of the 12th arrondissement of Paris under the Restoration and deputy for the Seine from 1824 to 1827[7, 8], was made a hereditary baron by an ordinance of Louis XVIII dated 10 March 1820[8, 9].

Read the chapter10 dates · 3 notes on the Paris of the merchants · the Cochin engravers

  1. 1656

    A mercer from Montlhéry

    Claude-Denys Cochin is born at Montlhéry, at the gates of Paris, in 1656; a mercer in Paris, he is the man from whom the family’s descent, as Wikipedia gives it, starts[1]. The Pierfit tree has him born in 1653[2]. A Claude Cochin, mercer, burgher of Paris, appears in the index of the insinuations of the Châtelet for deeds of 1697 and 1698[3].

  2. 1696

    Arms on record

    A prosecutor at the Grand Conseil, whom Chaix d’Est-Ange calls Cauchin, and Pierre Cochin, a grocer and burgher of Paris, have their coat of arms entered in the Armorial général[1]. The Paris I register of the Armorial, at the Bibliothèque nationale, carries on page 1331, as no. 2065 of the list drawn up on 7 January 1698 at the Horloge du Palais office, “Pierre Cochin, grocer and burgher of Paris”, who “bears azure, a chevron or between two roosters of the same in chief and a tower argent in base”, for twenty livres[2, 3]. Louis Paris’s Indicateur knows no other Cochin in the registers of the généralité, and no Cauchin[4].

  3. 1739

    Henri Cochin, the advocate

    Henri Cochin (1687–1747), a celebrated advocate at the Parlement of Paris and administrator of the Hôtel-Dieu and the Incurables, is granted on 17 April the ennobling office of counsellor and secretary to the king[1]. His branch has since died out: only the line of the alderman of 1748 has lasted to this day, writes Chaix d’Est-Ange[2].

  4. 1741

    Syndic of the Holy Land

    At the request of the Cordeliers of the Great Convent of Paris, Claude-Denys Cochin accepts the office of “general syndic of the Holy Land”[1]: the layman to whom the Franciscans, bound by their vow of poverty, entrust the temporal management of their works[2]. Elected alderman, he resigns in 1750 for lack of time[3]; his descendant Henry Cochin publishes the deeds in 1923, from family papers[4].

  5. 1748

    Alderman, and noble

    On 16 August the city corporation elects Claude-Denys Cochin, a mercer with a passion for botany, alderman of Paris[1, 2, 3]. The office ennobles him: today’s branch descends from him[4].

  6. 1752

    Consul of the merchants

    On 29 January “noble homme Claude-Denys Cochin, former alderman, and mercer” is elected fourth consul of the merchants’ court of Paris, the commercial court set up in 1563[1]; he takes office on 1 August[2, 3] and leaves it a year later[4].

  7. 1754

    At the Paris hospitals

    Claude-Denys Cochin (1724–1796), the alderman’s son[1, 2], is received among the bearers of the shrine of Saint Genevieve: he is listed there as paymaster of the rentes, administrator of the Hôpital général and former warden of the mercers’ guild[3].

  8. 1780

    A hospice in the faubourg Saint-Jacques

    Father Jean-Denis Cochin, parish priest of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, opens a hospice of some forty beds for the poor and the workers of the neighbourhood[1, 2]. In 1784, after his death, the hospice takes his name: it is the Cochin Hospital[2].

  9. 1820

    The title of baron

    By an ordinance of 10 March, Louis XVIII makes Jacques-Denis Cochin, mayor of the 12th arrondissement, a hereditary baron[1, 2]. The title is granted on the promise of setting up an entailed estate, a majorat, and the letters patent are to follow[3]. He sets up the majorat on his estate of La Roche, by an estimate of 23 August, and pays the fee[4, 5, 6]. But the Commission du sceau refuses to write the foundation of the Cochin hospital by his uncle the abbé into his letters of nobility; the baron then gives up the letters, in December 1821[6, 7]. Family tradition has it that the hospital was its majorat[8]. The family goes on bearing the title: the Pierfit tree counts Denys-Guillaume Cochin as the third baron, from 1841 to 1886, and Le Figaro in 1911 names “Baron Denys Cochin, of the Académie française”[9, 10].

  10. 1838

    The majorat annulled

    On 1 September, eleven months after his father’s death, Jean-Denis Cochin, deputy for the Seine, asks the Sceau to annul the majorat set up in 1820 on La Roche; the dossier, opened in his name and his father’s, is at the Archives nationales[1, 2]. He had still looked into the title’s letters patent in December 1830; they were never taken[3]. Révérend, who had the Sceau’s registers, lists the ordinance of 1820 among those the letters never followed, and yet follows the title down to the grandsons of Augustin Cochin[4, 5].

The Paris of the merchants

Burghers of Paris
Under the Ancien Régime, “bourgeois de Paris” was a status: under article 173 of the custom of Paris, one had to have one’s home in the city, as owner or tenant, for at least a year and a day, and one had to be a burgher to hold office there, as provost of the merchants, alderman or consul[1]. Burghers were exempt from the taille and their privileges came close to those of the nobility: Charles V had given them the right to bear a helmed coat of arms and a sword[2]. By his letters patent of 9 August 1371, writes Borel d’Hauterive, that king granted them most of the distinctions of nobility, short of nobility itself[3]. Wikipedia lists the Cochins, under the 16th century, among the surviving families of the Paris bourgeoisie[4].
Merchants with a coat of arms
The Cochins were merchants: Chaix d’Est-Ange makes Charles Cochin a merchant burgher and consular judge, Pierre Cochin was a grocer in 1696, and today’s branch descends from a mercer born at Montlhéry in 1656[1, 2, 3]. Grocers and mercers belonged to the Six Corps, the merchants of Paris organized in guilds from the Middle Ages to the Revolution; the mercers, with statutes of 1407, were the largest of them[4, 5]. A coat of arms did not make a man noble: the Armorial général, which Louis XIV ordered in 1696 to regulate their use and to raise a tax, took in those of nobles and burghers alike[6]. Pierre Cochin had his own entered in it[2].
The office that ennobled
According to La Chesnaye-Desbois, writing in 1770, Henri III reserved nobility in 1577 to the provosts of the merchants and the aldermen of Paris alone; the privilege, abolished in 1667, restored in 1707 and abolished again in 1715, was finally restored in 1716[1]. This is called the noblesse de cloche, the “bell nobility”, after the bells of the town hall that called the assemblies electing the city’s officers[2]. The provost and the aldermen of Paris were elected on 16 August, the aldermen being renewed by half each year[3]. On 16 August 1748 the city corporation elected Claude-Denys Cochin alderman, and the office ennobled him: today’s branch descends from him[4, 5].
Modern arms of the Cochins
Caption
The modern arms, borne today: azure, a rooster or standing on a mount argent, beneath three stars argent in chief[1]. At Denys Cochin’s funeral, in 1922, escutcheons with the family’s arms bore the motto “Requiescite vigilo”[2].

III · The modern Cochins

From the town hall to the State

A surviving family of the French nobility, it counts among its members Paris administrators, politicians including a minister, a prefect and historians[1]. Jean-Denis Cochin was mayor of the former 12th arrondissement of Paris, then deputy for the Seine[2]; Augustin Cochin (1823–1872), a leading liberal Catholic[3], was mayor of the 10th arrondissement until 1858[4], then prefect of Seine-et-Oise and a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques[5, 6, 7]. Denys Cochin, a municipal councillor in 1881 and deputy for Paris from 1893 to 1919[8, 9], was Minister of State in the Briand cabinet from 29 October 1915 to 12 December 1916[10, 11]; Henry Cochin was deputy for the Nord from 1893 to 1914[12], and his son Claude followed him in 1914[13, 14, 15]. Denys Cochin (1913–2003) sat on the Paris city council from 1953 to 1971[16].

Read the chapter9 dates · 3 speeches

  1. 1827

    The infant schools

    Jean-Denis Cochin, mayor of the 12th arrondissement, builds at his own cost a school house for a thousand children, with a training college for the “salles d’asile”, the schools for the very young he had begun to gather in 1826[1, 2]. His Manuel des salles d’asile appears in 1833[3].

  2. 1861

    Against slavery

    Augustin Cochin publishes L’Abolition de l’esclavage[1], two volumes on the results of abolition, those of slavery, and Christianity and slavery[2, 3].

  3. 1872

    A prefect at Versailles

    Augustin Cochin, a leading liberal Catholic[1] and mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris until 1858[2], dies at Versailles on 15 March, prefect of Seine-et-Oise and a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques[3, 4, 5].

  4. 1893

    Two Cochins in the Chamber

    Denys Cochin, a municipal councillor in 1881, is deputy for Paris from 1893 to 1919[1, 2]. Henry Cochin is deputy for the Nord from 1893 to 1914 and mayor of Saint-Pierre-Brouck for thirty years[3]; Claude Cochin follows his father Henry as general councillor in 1910 and as deputy for the Nord in 1914[4, 5, 6].

  5. 1911

    Under the dome of the Institut

    Denys Cochin is elected to the Académie française on 16 February[1]; Gabriel Hanotaux receives him there in 1912[2]. Henry Cochin is elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres on 19 February 1926[3, 4].

  6. 1915

    In government during the war

    On 29 October Denys Cochin joins the Briand cabinet as Minister of State[1, 2]. His son Jean, a lieutenant commanding the submarine Papin, had been mentioned in army dispatches in August for destroying an enemy minefield, jumping into the water himself[3, 4]. The war takes his sons Jacques (1915) and Augustin (1916) and a son-in-law[5, 6]; his nephew Claude, deputy for the Nord, dies of influenza in the night of 30 to 31 December 1918[7, 8].

  7. 1944

    The Resistance

    Settled in Brittany, Sabine Cochin has founded an escape line that hides Allied airmen and gets twenty to thirty of them to England[1, 2]. Her daughter Agnès de La Barre de Nanteuil, a liaison agent, is arrested on a denunciation on 13 March; deported, she is wounded when Allied aircraft strafe her convoy and dies on 13 August at Paray-le-Monial[3, 4].

  8. 1953

    On the Paris city council

    Denys Cochin (1913–2003), a parachute officer in the Free French Forces[1, 2, 3], is a Paris city councillor from 1953 to 1971[4].

  9. 1997

    Admission to the ANF

    The family is admitted to the Association d’entraide de la noblesse française[1].

Denys Cochin at the Académie

On 29 February 1912 Denys Cochin was received into the Académie française, in the seat of Albert Vandal: his reception speech, and Gabriel Hanotaux’s reply, which tells his life and his family’s. On 15 February 1923 his successor, Georges Goyau, delivered his eulogy. The texts, now in the public domain, are reproduced from the Académie’s website, in the original French.

  • Denys Cochin · 29 February 1912

    Reception speech at the Académie française

    Taking the seat of Albert Vandal, Denys Cochin pays tribute to the historian, his childhood friend, and reflects on liberty, history and politics.

    « Notre sol produit abondamment un personnage paradoxal : le révolutionnaire homme d’ordre, d’autorité et de gouvernement ; le libéral draconien. »

  • Gabriel Hanotaux · 29 February 1912

    Gabriel Hanotaux’s reply

    The historian Gabriel Hanotaux welcomes the new member and tells his life: the ancestor who was an alderman under Saint Louis, the Cochin Hospital, the campaign of 1870 at Bourbaki’s side, Pasteur’s laboratory, the city council and the Chamber, and the portrait of the “grand bourgeois”.

    « Vous êtes né à Paris, rue Saint-Guillaume ; vous êtes, autant qu’on peut l’être, un Parisien : « Le clocher de mon village, disiez-vous, ce sont les tours de Notre-Dame. » »

  • Georges Goyau · 15 February 1923

    Eulogy of Denys Cochin

    Elected to Denys Cochin’s seat, the historian Georges Goyau pays the customary tribute to his predecessor: the Parisian who walked his city “as through a family museum”, Bourbaki’s pennant-bearer of 1870, the chemist of Pasteur’s laboratory, the speaker in the Chamber, the wartime Minister of State, the father of two sons killed at the front.

    « Un Cochin, dans Paris, se sent l’héritier d’un passé qui oblige, et le serviteur né de ses frères. »

Art

The collection of Baron Denys Cochin

Nine of the paintings that passed through Denys Cochin’s hands, from Manet to Cézanne. The whole collection, its thirty-one Cézannes, Maurice Denis’s decoration and the mourners of the duke of Berry are on a page of their own.

See the collection 103 works found · 31 Cézannes · 20 paintings sold in 1919

Letters

The family’s writings

Nine Cochins published, from the advocate at the Parlement of 1751 to the historian of the Revolution: for each, up to three of his books. Every title, with the libraries that give it to read, is on a page of its own.

See the writings 9 authors · 82 books · 18 articles of the Revue des Deux Mondes

Genealogy

The family tree

The ancestors of Augustin Cochin, the descendants of the alderman Claude-Denys Cochin, from whom he descends, and an interactive chart that brings them together, in another window. A click on a name opens its notice; a coronet marks a baron, a ribbon a decoration.

Alliances

The principal alliances

The principal families the Cochins married into, from the most recent to the oldest. Each card opens on the marriage, the motto and the blazon; 5 families still await their arms.

  • Arms of the Montalembert familyMontalembert1982

    Wikipedia counts the Montalemberts among the family’s principal alliances, in 1982[1].

    « Ferrum fero, ferro feror »[2]

    D’argent à la croix ancrée de sable.[3]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Bourbon-Siciles familyBourbon-Siciles1977

    Wikipedia counts the Bourbon-Two Sicilies among the family’s principal alliances, in 1977[1].

    Parti de deux, en I coupé d’or aux six fleurs de lys d’azur posées 3, 2 et 1 (qui est de Farnèse) et d’argent, à cinq écussons d’azur, posés en croix, les deux de flanc mis de côté, chaque écusson chargé de cinq besants du champ, posés en sautoir, à la bordure de gueules, chargée de neuf châteaux d’or, donjonnés de trois tours, ouverts et ajourés d’azur (qui est du Portugal), en II coupé écartelé en 1 et 4, de gueules au château d’or ouvert et ajouré d’azur (qui est de Castille) et en 2 et 3 d’argent au lion de gueules armé, lampassé et couronné d’or (qui est de Leon) et d’azur semé de fleurs de lys d’or au lambel de gueules (qui est de Naples) et en III d’or à six tourteaux mis en orle, cinq de gueules, celui en chef d’azur chargé de trois fleurs de lis d’or (qui est de Toscane) ; sur le tout d’azur, à trois fleurs de lys d’or, à la bordure de gueules (qui est d’Anjou).[2]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Foras familyForas1966

    Wikipedia counts the Foras among the family’s principal alliances, in 1966[1].

    « Intus et foras undique crucis amor »[2]

    D’or à la croix d’azur.[3]

    The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the des Prez de La Morlais familydes Prez de La Morlais1948

    Philippe Cochin de Billy married Françoise des Prez de La Morlais at Montrozier on 11 October 1948, according to the Pierfit tree[1].

    D’argent à huit losanges de gueules, accolées quatre à quatre et rangées en deux fasces ; au croissant de sable en abyme.[2]

    The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Frévol d’Aubignac de Ribains familyFrévol d’Aubignac de Ribains1947

    Denys Cochin married Thérèse de Frévol d’Aubignac de Ribains in Paris in June 1947[1, 2].

    De gueules, à deux lions d’or affrontés tenant une roue du même, sur un mont aussi d’or.[3]

    The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Menthon familyMenthon1938

    Baron Jean Cochin, a retired naval captain, married Bernardine de Menthon in 1938[1]; Wikipedia dates the alliance to 1940[2].

    « Partout Menthon, toujours Menthon »[3, 4]

    De gueules, au lion d’argent, à la bande d’azur, brochant sur le tout.[4]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Galard Terraube familyGalard Terraube1936

    The marriage of Mlle Cochin and the marquis de Galard Terraube was celebrated on 29 February 1936 at the church of Saint-François-Xavier[1].

    « Ad utrumque »[2]

    D’or à trois corneilles de sable, becquées, membrées et onglées de gueules.[3]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the La Barre de Nanteuil familyLa Barre de Nanteuil1921

    Sabine Cochin married Gabriel de La Barre de Nanteuil at Évry-Petit-Bourg on 27 November 1921[1].

    « Veritas liberavit et servabit »[2]

    De gueules, à trois merlettes d’argent.[2]

    Wikipedia ↗
  • Arms of the Millon de La Verteville familyMillon de La Verteville1919

    Suzanne Cochin took as her second husband, on 18 December 1919, Christian Millon de La Verteville, according to the Pierfit tree[1].

    De sinople, à la tour d’argent, maçonnée de sable, ouverte et ajourée de gueules, enflammée du même, aux deux épées d’argent, garnies d’or, passées en sautoir derrière la tour.[2]

    Wikipedia: Henry de Montherlant, of the same family ↗
  • Arms of the Le Couteulx de Caumont familyLe Couteulx de Caumont1919

    Marie-Marguerite Cochin, daughter of Pierre Cochin, married Guy Le Couteulx de Caumont on 6 October 1919, according to the Pierfit tree[1].

    D’argent au chevron de gueules accompagné de trois trèfles de sinople.[2]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Fenaille1915arms not found

    Claude Cochin married in 1915 Yvonne Fenaille, daughter of the patron Maurice Fenaille[1].

    Wikipedia: Maurice Fenaille, the bride’s father ↗
  • Arms of the Morisson de La Bassetière familyMorisson de La Bassetière1912

    Thérèse Cochin married Henri Morisson de La Bassetière in Paris on 14 May 1912, according to the Pierfit tree[1].

    De sable à trois roquets (fers de lance) d’or.[2]

    Wikipedia: the château de la Bassetière ↗
  • Firmin-Didot1911arms not found

    Jacques Cochin married Mlle Firmin-Didot, daughter of Maurice Firmin-Didot, at the basilica of Sainte-Clotilde[1]; Wikipedia dates the alliance to 1911[2].

    Wikipedia ↗
  • Quenault de La Groudière1909arms not found

    Marie-Anne Cochin married the deputy and mayor Bernard Quenault de La Groudière in Paris on 13 October 1909[1].

    Wikipedia: Bernard Quenault de La Groudière, the groom ↗
  • Arms of the Guéhéneuc de Boishüe familyGuéhéneuc de Boishüe1907

    Geneviève Cochin, daughter of Pierre Cochin, married Charles de Guéhéneuc de Boishüe on 19 November 1907, according to the Pierfit tree[1].

    D’azur au lion léopardé d’argent, accompagné en chef de deux fleurs de lys du même.[2]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the La Motte Saint-Pierre familyLa Motte Saint-Pierre1907

    Suzanne Cochin, daughter of Pierre Cochin, married Henri Léon de La Motte in Paris on 29 January 1907, according to the Pierfit tree[1]; Wikipedia calls the alliance “de La Motte Saint-Pierre”[2].

    D’azur au lion d’or armé et lampassé de gueules, à la barre de sable en devise.[3]

  • Arms of the Ghaisne de Bourmont familyGhaisne de Bourmont1906

    Madeleine Cochin married on 30 June 1906 Count Armand de Ghaisne de Bourmont, a great-grandson of Marshal de Bourmont[1].

    « A Ghisne, Gand, Coucy ! »[2]

    Écartelé, aux 1 et 4 vairés d’or et d’azur, qui est de Ghaisne, au franc quartier de sable au chef d’argent, qui est Gand ; aux 2 et 3 fascés de vair et de gueules de six pièces, qui est Coucy.[3]

    Wikipedia: Marshal de Bourmont ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the d’Astorg familyd’Astorg1905

    Jean Cochin married Thérèse d’Astorg at Orléans on 24 July 1905[1]; she was a granddaughter of Eugène d’Astorg[2].

    « Nihil me payet »[3, 4]

    D’or à l’aigle de sable.[5]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arnaud-Jeanti1883arms not found

    Henry Cochin married Thérèse Marie Arnaud-Jeanti in Paris on 30 January 1883[1]; her family came from Flanders[2].

  • Arms of the Péan de Saint-Gilles familyPéan de Saint-Gilles1876

    Denys Cochin married Hélène Péan de Saint-Gilles, daughter of Léon Péan de Saint-Gilles, in Paris on 20 March 1876[1].

    Écartelé, aux 1er et 4e, de gueules à l’épée haute en pal d’argent, la garde et la poignée d’or, accompagnée de trois étoiles d’argent, 2 en flancs, 1 en pointe ; aux 2e et 3e d’argent à la croix de gueules chargée de neuf coquilles d’or.[2]

    Wikipedia: Léon Péan de Saint-Gilles, the bride’s father ↗
  • Arms of the Benoist d’Azy familyBenoist d’Azy1849

    Jean-Denis Cochin married Augustine Benoist in 1820[1, 2, 3]; Augustin Cochin married in 1849 Adeline Benoist d’Azy[3, 4], his first cousin on his mother’s side[5].

    « Benefacientes benedicti »[6]

    Écartelé : au I et IV, d’azur au faucon essorant d’or et tenant une branche de laurier du même ; au II et III, de gueules à 4 flèches d’argent rangées en fasce, au chef alésé du même chargé de 3 étoiles du champ.[7]

    Wikipedia: Denys Benoist d’Azy, the bride’s father ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Arms of the Carron de La Carrière familyCarron de La Carrière1816

    Marie-Rosalie-Hugues Cochin, daughter of Jacques-Denis, married Ange-Marie-Simon Carron de La Carrière on 30 May 1816[1]; Chaix d’Est-Ange and Wikipedia count the alliance among the principal ones[2, 3].

    D’azur au chevron d’or accompagné en chef de deux croissants d’argent et en pointe de trois losanges du même rangées en fasce.[4]

    Wikipedia ↗The drawing on Wikimedia Commons ↗
  • Matigny de La Boissière1783arms not found

    Jacques-Denis Cochin married Angélique Matigny de La Boissière in 1783, according to the descent Wikipedia gives[1]; the list of alliances in the same article says 1788[2], but a deed of 21 January 1786 already calls her his wife[3].

The title of baron

Seven barons in two centuries

On 10 March 1820 an ordinance of Louis XVIII created Jacques-Denis Cochin, mayor of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, a hereditary baron[1, 2, 3]. In France a title passes from male to male, by order of primogeniture from the first holder: to the eldest son, and, when the eldest dies without a son, to the next line[4, 5]. Twice the title has thus passed from an uncle to his nephew, in 1886 and in 1962[6, 7]. The title is granted on the promise of setting up a majorat: an estate whose income supports the title, and without which the letters patent that complete it are not issued[8]. Jacques-Denis does what is required: from 26 February 1820 he asks for his title to be registered; on 23 August an estimate of his estate of La Roche makes it the majorat, worth 5,000 francs a year; the fee of 4,000 francs is paid[9, 10, 11, 12]. He also asks that his letters of nobility mention the foundation of the Cochin hospital by his uncle the abbé[12]. The Commission du sceau refuses the mention; father and son then give up the letters, in December 1821, rather than take them without it[9, 12, 13]. Jacques-Denis’s will, in November 1827, authorises his son to obtain them; Jean-Denis looks into it in December 1830, then lets it rest[14]. On 1 September 1838, eleven months after his father’s death, he has the majorat annulled[15, 16]. The title has thus stayed without letters patent, by the family’s choice[8, 12]. Its tradition has it that the hospital was its majorat: it is the memory of the refused mention[12, 17]. The only letters patent a Cochin ever obtained from the king, as far as the research has found, are those of May 1790, sought since 1785: they approve the foundation of the abbé Cochin’s hospice by his brother Claude-Denis[18, 19].

The baron’s coronet, or tortil, drawn from its description: a circlet of gold around which a string of pearls is wound in a spiral[1, 2].

  1. First baron

    Jacques-Denis Cochin 1757 – 1837

    1820 – 1837

    Mayor of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, he was created a hereditary baron by an ordinance of Louis XVIII of 10 March 1820[1, 2].

    Show in the tree

  2. Second baron

    Jean-Denis Cochin 1789 – 1841

    1837 – 1841

    The first baron’s only son, he inherited the title on his father’s death, on 12 October 1837[1, 2].

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  3. Third baron

    Denys-Guillaume Cochin 1822 – 1886

    1841 – 1886

    The second baron’s elder son, he inherited the title on his father’s death, on 18 August 1841[1, 2]. He died without issue, on 16 April 1886[3, 4].

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  4. Augustin Cochin 1823 – 1872

    The third baron’s younger brother, he died before him, on 15 March 1872; the title would go to his eldest son[1, 2].

  5. Fourth baron

    Denys Cochin 1851 – 1922

    1886 – 1922

    Augustin’s eldest son, he inherited the title from his uncle Denys-Guillaume in 1886[1, 2]. Le Figaro calls him “le baron Denys Cochin” in 1911[3].

    Show in the tree

  6. Augustin Cochin 1876 – 1916

    The fourth baron’s eldest son, the historian was killed in action on 8 July 1916, before his father, without issue[1, 2, 3].

  7. Fifth baron

    Jean Cochin 1878 – 1962

    1922 – 1962

    The fourth baron’s second son, he inherited the title on his father’s death, on 24 March 1922[1, 2]. The Journal des débats calls him “le baron Cochin” in 1938[3].

    Show in the tree

  8. Augustin Cochin 1907 – 1934

    The only son Wikipedia gives the fifth baron, he died before him, on 13 May 1934, aged twenty-seven[1, 2].

  9. Jacques Cochin 1879 – 1915

    The fourth baron’s third son, he died for France in February 1915; on his brother Jean’s death, the title would go to his son[1, 2, 3].

  10. Sixth baron

    Denys Cochin 1913 – 2003

    1962 – 2003

    Jacques’s only son, he inherited the title from his uncle Jean, who died on 24 March 1962, by order of male primogeniture[1, 2, 3, 4].

    Show in the tree

  11. Seventh baron

    Augustin Cochin 1950 –

    since 2003

    The sixth baron’s eldest son, he inherited the title on his father’s death, on 24 July 2003[1, 2].

Places and legacy

A name on the map

A hospital, streets, a square: the Cochin name remains attached to Paris and to a handful of French towns. Pick a place to find it on the map.

« Un Cochin peut errer à travers Paris comme à travers un musée familial. »
Georges Goyau, Denys Cochin’s successor at the Académie française: “A Cochin can wander through Paris as through a family museum.”

Paris

Around Paris

The North

The battlefields

Elsewhere in France

Far away

1915 – 1944

Died for France

Ten members of the family, born Cochin, descended from the alderman or married to his descendants, died for France in the two world wars.

The Great War 1914 – 1918

  1. Jacques Cochin 1879 – 1915

    The third son of Denys Cochin and a captain in the 325th Infantry Regiment, he fell on the Xon, at Lesménils, on 13 February 1915 according to his “died for France” record[1, 2]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  2. Henri de La Motte Saint-Pierre 1881 – 1915

    The first husband of Suzanne, daughter of Pierre Cochin[1]. A quartermaster corporal in the 13th Artillery Regiment, in the motor service, he died at Amiens on 8 June 1915 in an accident on duty[2, 3]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  3. Charles Lempereur de Saint-Pierre 1894 – 1915

    The son of Henri Lempereur de Saint-Pierre, of the descent of the alderman Claude-Denys Cochin[1]. A second lieutenant in the 101st Infantry Regiment, he died for France at Mourmelon-le-Grand on 25 August 1915, aged twenty-one[2]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  4. Augustin Cochin 1876 – 1916

    The son of Denys Cochin, a historian and sociologist, and a captain in the 146th Infantry Regiment, he was killed in action at Maricourt, in the Somme, on 8 July 1916[1, 2, 3]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  5. Armand de Ghaisne de Bourmont 1880 – 1917

    The husband of Madeleine, daughter of Denys Cochin[1]. A captain in the 101st Artillery Regiment, he was killed in action in the ravin des Fontaines, at Vaux, in the Meuse, on 23 July 1917[2]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  6. Charles de Guéhéneuc de Boishüe 1875 – 1918

    The husband of Geneviève, daughter of Pierre Cochin[1]. A major in the 59th battalion of chasseurs à pied, he was killed in action at Priez, in the Aisne, on 20 July 1918[2, 3]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  7. Jean Dufour de Quetteville 1884 – 1918

    The son of Berthe Lempereur de Saint-Pierre, of the descent of the alderman Claude-Denys Cochin[1]. A sergeant in the 84th Heavy Artillery Regiment, he died for France on 11 October 1918 at Pars-lès-Romilly, in the Aube, in auxiliary hospital no. 30[2]; the Pierfit tree adds that he died of the effects of gas poisoning[1]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  8. Claude Cochin 1883 – 1918

    The son of Henry Cochin, whom he succeeded as deputy for the Nord, and a reserve lieutenant on the staff of the 55th Division, he died in Paris on 31 December 1918 of an illness contracted in service[1, 2, 3]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

The Second World War 1939 – 1945

  1. Victor de Galard-Terraube 1903 – 1940

    The husband of Adeline, daughter of Jacques Cochin[1]. A cavalry captain taken prisoner, he died of illness in captivity in Germany on 22 November 1940[1, 2]. Mémoire des hommes ↗

  2. Agnès de La Barre de Nanteuil 1922 – 1944

    The daughter of Sabine Cochin and a liaison agent of the Resistance, she was arrested in March 1944; wounded on the train deporting her, she died at Paray-le-Monial on 13 August 1944[1, 2, 3, 4]. Mémoire des hommes ↗