Quarto manuscript ledger, 116 leaves, contemporary limp wrappers with docket title, recording the judicial seizure, inventory, auction, and distribution of the extensive properties of Claude Gaud and Claude Joseph Gaud, merchants of Russey (Doubs), under the Bailliage Royal d’Ornans. Detailed descriptions of houses, barns, presses, gardens, vineyards, meadows, and woodlots, each valued and sold at public auction to nobles, clergy, and merchants including Léonard Blanchard (vicar of Russey), Pierre François Calamand, the Accarin brothers of Besançon, the abbé de Nozeroy, and the Duke and Duchess of Randan, whose seigneurial dues were confirmed in priority. Total realized over 43,000 livres; proceeds distributed to creditors in strict rank. Signed at close by Simon François Xavier Simonin de Deservilliers, lieutenant général, and Jean Antoine Tournier, greffier. An extraordinary survival of rural debt liquidation and feudal law in 18th-century Franche-Comté.
