Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec
| Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec July 20, 1781 Paris, France |
| Died | June 18, 1866 (aged 84) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Watchmaker, inventor, businessman |
| Spouse(s) |
married to Anne Marie Delan until (m. 1806) Marie Pierrette Flore Bourdin (m. 1807–66) |
| Children | Joseph-Ferdinand Rieussec (1804-1881) Marie Clotilde Rieussec (died in 1842 and left 2 children) |
Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec (July 20, 1781 – June 18, 1866) was a French watchmaker.
The Rieussec family’s birthplace was the town of Lespinassière. Nicolas was the son of Joseph Rieussec, a merchant born in the 18th century in Lespinassière, in Languedoc, then one of the largest provinces in the kingdom of France. Today, Lespinassière is located in Aude, one of the five départements of the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
Joseph Rieussec was in Paris at the end of 1778, although no one knows when he left his birthplace, the town of Lespinassière, for the kingdom’s capital. His wife, Jeanne Michateau, was expecting. On January 20, 1779, she gave birth to their first son, Nicolas Joseph. On July 20, 1781, a few years before the outbreak of a revolution that was to lead to an upheaval in France and all of Europe, a younger brother arrived and was named Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec. The baby was baptised three days after his birth in the parish of Sainte-Marie du Temple. Nicolas Mathieu Bogganio, a banker residing on the Rue des Victoires in Paris, stood godfather, and the godmother was Marie Victoire Griveau, also residing on the Rue des Victoires. Joseph Rieussec held a literary salon. On an unknown date, probably between 1786 and 1788, he remarried Cécile Paillard. The family grew with the arrival of a third child, Lucile Clotilde Cécile, born on October 25, 1788. She died in 1818. Joseph Rieussec died in 1838. Some may be astonished that Nicolas Mathieu was born in Paris. It is true that several sources put his birth in Toulouse, sometimes on September 1, 1781, which is not supported by a single document. In contrast, the royal warrant naming Nicolas Mathieu a Watchmaker to the King, is accompanied by a baptismal certificate from the registry of the Sainte-Marie-du-Temple parish in Paris.
Still a minor, young Rieussec was set up as a watchmaker at no. 14, Rue du Marché-Palu, on the Île de la Cité. The Almanac du commerce de Paris pour l’an XIII (Paris Business Yearbook for Year XIII), i.e., 1805, lists 190 watchmakers, including the renowned Breguet. Rieussec does not appear. In contrast, five years later, he is listed among the 222 watchmakers in Paris. He did business at no. 14, Rue du Marché-Palu. Married to Anne Marie Delan, he had a son named Joseph-Ferdinand, born on December 15, 1804, a few days after Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French. Two years later, Rieussec became a widower. His wife, born July 21, 1780, died on May 1, 1806. Less than a year later, on February 7, 1807, Nicolas Mathieu married Marie Pierrette Flore Bourdin in Sainte-Marguerite church. Time passed. The year 1815 and Waterloo arrived, during which Napoleon and his Empire was swept away in defeat.
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