Adèle Élisabeth Macdonald was nineteen when she married Count Alphonse Perregaux, son of the founder of the Banque de France; her own father was Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Taranto. She died at twenty-eight, in 1822, leaving three children. The second, François Charles Édouard, married Marie Duplessis twenty-four years later — the courtesan whom Dumas fils turned into the Lady of the Camellias.
The story
Adèle Élisabeth Macdonald was nineteen when she married, on 20 November 1813, the comte Alphonse Perregaux, son of the founder of the Bank of France. Her own father was Marshal Macdonald, duc de Tarente.
She died at twenty-eight, on 15 November 1822, leaving three children. The second, François Charles Édouard, would marry twenty-four years later Marie Duplessis, the courtesan Alexandre Dumas the younger turned into the Lady of the Camellias.
Her epitaph is cut in Roman numerals: “née le XXXI janvier MDCCXCIV, décédée le XV novembre MDCCCXXII”. The family vault went on opening long after her: Charles de Perregaux, a civil engineer and lieutenant in the Swiss infantry, born at Neuchâtel in 1891, was laid there in 1918.
On site, do not miss
Division 40 is that of Marguerite Saqui, the tightrope walker who danced on a rope above the festivals of the Empire: exactly the world in which Adèle de Perregaux lived her twenty-eight years.
Visitors' questions
Where is Adèle de Perregaux's grave?
In Division 40 of Père-Lachaise, that of General Augereau and of the tightrope walker Marguerite Saqui. Adèle de Perregaux died in 1822, at twenty-eight.
Armand TrousseauWhat family was she from?
The Perregaux family: she is thought to be the daughter of Count Alphonse de Perregaux and the granddaughter of the banker Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, one of the founders of the Banque de France. The descent is probable, not certain.
James de RothschildHow old was she when she died?
At twenty-eight, in 1822, nine years after her marriage. Her father-in-law, Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, had founded the Banque de France; her sister-in-law had married Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa.
Caroline RivièreWho was Adèle Perregaux?
She was Adèle Élisabeth Macdonald, daughter of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Taranto. Married to Count Perregaux in 1813, she died at twenty-eight; her epitaph is cut in Roman numerals — “née le XXXI janvier MDCCXCIV, décédée le XV novembre MDCCCXXII”. Her second son later married Marie Duplessis, the Lady of the Camellias.
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