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Marie-Louise O'Murphy

Rouen, 21 Oct 1737 – Paris, 11 Dec 1814

6 facts3 sources

Facts and their sources

  • Born21 Oct 1737, Rouennot verified1 source
  • Died11 Dec 1814, Parisnot verified1 source

A life in time

  1. 21 Oct 1737

    Born in Rouen

  2. 20 Jun 1754

    A daughter is born

  3. 11 Dec 1814

    Dies in Paris, aged 77

Family

See the tree

Children · 1

During her lifetime

She lived through 9 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Rouen.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1730s · Marie-Louise is born in Rouen

In the news1738

Introduction of road labor corvee

In 1738, the crown introduced the corvee, a system of forced labor requiring peasants to build and maintain the royal roads.

At the table

Bread as the Foundation of Daily Meals

The staple of the ordinary diet was bread, often consumed as a soup by soaking pieces in water, broth, or vegetable mixtures. This meal structure, centered on a starchy base accompanied by secondary savory foods, remained remarkably stable for centuries.

What people wore

Carefully Patched Clothing

Respectable poor individuals often wore carefully patched cast-off clothing, where the patches were chosen to match the original faded fabric.

Getting around

Travel by mule

A trip between San Remo and Genoa over 90 miles could take three days on muleback due to narrow, rugged mountain paths.

What it cost

High cost of basic food

Meat was a luxury item; a single kilogram of beef, veal, or mutton could cost two days of labor for an ordinary worker. In 1725, due to shortages, the price of bread rose significantly, sometimes costing up to four days of work to afford a kilogram.

Music

Public concert series started in Paris

Starting in 1725, Parisians could attend public concerts organized by the Concert Spirituel society, which performed in the Tuileries Gardens when the Opéra was closed for religious festivals.

Daily life

Daily struggles for light and water

Domestic lighting relied on oil lamps, tallow candles, or wax candles, which were expensive and labor-intensive to manage. Families often had to fetch water manually from communal fountains, as running water in homes was not available.