The Rieux Wedding Rings

 

Accession #: 1962.4.1

Item: Wedding Rings

This week's post comes from Savannah, who spent a week of her summer with the staff and interns of Wilton gaining some "valuable" insight into the world of the small museum.  Savannah spent the week researching for her blog entry, inventorying the collection, and firing a musket.

           On October 14, 1780, Justin Pierre Plumard Comte de Rieux exchanged thin, gold weddings rings with Maria Margarita Martin in the royal court of France.  These late 18^th century rings are considered “damiani” style due to the engravings on the outside.  Justin Pierre de Rieux wore his ring with his wife’s name, “M Maria Martini” engraved on it, while “JP de Rieux” and the wedding date are on Maria’s ring.

            The Rieux couple wore their wedding rings on the third finger of their left hand for the entirety of their marriage.  This custom started with the Ancient Egyptians about 4800 years ago.  In Egyptian hieroglyphics a circle means eternity, which is why they used a ring to symbolize the never-ending bond between husband and wife during marriage.  The Egyptians also started the tradition of wearing weddings rings on the ring finger because they believed the vein that carried sentiments began in the third finger and ran straight to the heart.  

Unlike the Egyptians, 18^th century Europeans used wedding rings simply to represent the husband’s possession of his wife.  When Maria and Justin got married a strong patriarchal society still existed, so their wedding most likely had more to do with hierarchy and economics than love, thus the rings probably resembled the same concepts.  Unfortunately, there is no way to confirm this theory because only a limited number of documents exist about Mr. and Mrs. Rieux.

We do know that Maria Margarita Martin was born in England in 1762 to Maria Petronille and Joseph Martin.  Maria’s mother later married Philip Mazzei in London.  Mazzei moved to Virginia in order to introduce vines, silkworms, olives and citrus trees to America, where Thomas Jefferson was instrumental to his success.  Jefferson gave Mazzei 193 acres of his own estate, Monticello, which Mazzei used to create their family estate called Colle. Mazzei’s success was displayed when prominent Virginians such as George Washington and Thomas Adams received Mrs. Mazzei and her daughter upon their arrival to America.  After Maria Martin and Justin le Compte de Rieux’s wedding, Mazzei gave them Colle where they lived with their five children until Maria’s death in 1852. 

Francois Guyon Leroy and Pierre Justin Deriuex had Justin Pierre Plumard de Rieux on March 10, 1756 in Nantes, France.  Justin de Rieux later became le Compte de Rieux when he served as Captain of the Guard of Louis XVI.  He met and married Maria during her visit to France in 1780.  They moved to Colle in 1783 where Thomas Jefferson again assisted the family with legal advice, supplies, and more.  Justin Pierre de Rieux died in 1824 in Virginia. 

The thin gold rings that Mr. and Mrs. Rieux wore throughout their long marriage were donated to Wilton House Museum by Ms. Lancaster and Mrs. John Guy because of the Rieux’s friendship with Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson was directly related to the Randolphs through his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson.  The rings can be viewed during the “My Love Ten Thousand Times: Love and Courtship Since the 18^th Century” exhibition at the Wilton, opening February 4, 2012.

Bibliography

"Justin Pierre Plumard Comte De Rieux (b. March 10, 1756, d. December 23, 1824)." Genealogy.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jul 2011.  <http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/a/s/Robert-L-Pasco/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0161.html>.

“Letter Book of Thomas Jett.” Thomas Jett, The William and Mary Quarterly. Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jul., 1908), pp. 20-26. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1921492>.

"Philip Mazzei." The Jefferson Monticello. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jul 2011.

<http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/philip-mazzei>.

"The Dereuix Family of Virginia." ancestry.com. 21 Jul 2001. Web. 29 Jul 2011.

<http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.derieux/5/mb.ashx>.

 "The History of Wedding Rings." Italian Wedding Designer. Web. 29 Jul 2011.

<http://www.amalfi-wedding-planner.com/eng/StoriaFedi.htm>.

"The Wedding Ring: Brief History." The American Wedding. Web. 29 Jul 2011.

<http://www.theamericanwedding.com/blog/?view=plink&id=360>.

"The History of Wedding Rings." The History of Wedding Rings. Web. 29 Jul 2011.

<http://www.atlantisring.com/History_of_Wedding_Rings.htm>.