TONSARD (Mere), a peasant woman of Bourgogne, born in 1745, was one of the most formidable enemies of Montcornet, the owner of Aigues, and of his head-keeper, Justine Michaud.  She had killed the keeper’s favorite hound and she encroached upon the forest trees, so as to kill them and take the dead wood off.  A reward of a thousand francs having been offered to the person who should discover the perpetrator of these wrongs, Mere Tonsard had herself denounced by her granddaughter, Marie Tonsard, in order to secure this sum of money to her family, and she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, though she probably did not serve her term.  Mere Bonnebault committed the same offences as Mere Tonsard; they had a quarrel, each wishing to profit by the advantages of a denunciation, and had ended by referring the matter to the casting of lots, which resulted in favor of Mere Tonsard. [The Peasantry.]

TONSARD (Francois), son of the preceding, born about 1773, was a country laborer, skilled more or less in everything; he possessed a hereditary talent, attested, moreover, by his name, for trimming trees, and various kinds of hedges.  Lazy and crafty, Francois Tonsard secured from Sophie Laguerre, Montcornet’s predecessor at Aigues, an acre of land, on which he built, in 1795, the wine-shop known as the Grand-I-Vert.  He was saved from conscription by Francois Gaubertin, at that time steward of Aigues, at the urgent request of Mademoiselle Cochet, their common mistress.  Being then married to Philippine Fourchon, and Gaubertin having become his wife’s lover, he could poach with freedom, and so it was that the Tonsard family made regular levies on the Aigues forest with impunity:  they supplied themselves entirely from the wood of the forest, kept two cows at the expense of the landlord, and were represented at the harvest by seven gleaners.  Being incommoded by the active watch kept over them by Justine Michaud, Gaubertin’s successor, Tonsard killed him, one night in 1823.  Afterwards in the dismemberment of Montcornet’s estate, Tonsard got his share of the spoils. [The Peasantry.]

TONSARD (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Philippe Fourchon; daughter of the Fourchon who was the natural grandfather of Mouche; large, and of a good figure, with a sort of rustic beauty; lax in morals; extravagant in her tastes, none the less she assured the prosperity of the Grand-I-Vert, by reason of her talent as a cook, and her free coquetry.  By her marriage she had four children, two sons and two daughters. [The Peasantry.]

TONSARD (Jean-Louis), born about 1801, son of the preceding, and perhaps also of Francois Gaubertin, to whom Philippe Tonsard was mistress.  Exempted from military service in 1821 on account of a pretended disorder in the muscles of his right arm, Jean-Louis Tonsard posed under the protection of Soudry, Rogou and Gaubertin, in a circumspect way, as the enemy of the Montcornets and Michaud.  He was a lover of Annette, Rigou’s servant girl. [The Peasantry.]