L'abbé de Germont (1684-1763)

"From the charity of Monsieur and Madame de Germont" is the inscription on the marble plaque on the building of the Charles Nicolle Hospital at the corner of Rue de Germont and Rue Edouard Adam.

Jacques-Christophe de Germont was born in Rouen on 12 February 1684.

He was a clerk at the Parliament of his native city and was one of the great benefactors of Rouen's hospitals. Among his many actions, we can note in 1728, a gift of 30,000 livres in life annuities to the Hospice-Général and another in life annuities also of 14,000 livres to the Hôtel-Dieu; the assumption of responsibility for the clothing of the poor of the Hôtel-Dieu; in 1763, the allocation of 70,000 livres for the creation of a crèche in the faubourg Saint-Hilaire for the benefit of foundlings sent to nurseries in the country by the two hospitals, which often proved dangerous for them.

The Abbé de Germont died on 24 February 1763. The opening of his will reveals the allocation of 20,000 pounds from one of his lands in Graville to the Hospice Général de Rouen.

In order to perpetuate his memory, a copper plaque was placed in the Vauquelin Chapel and his name was given to the courtyard of the Charles Nicolle Hospital, which adjoins the Cour d'Honneur of the establishment.

Madame la Présidente de Germont, the Abbot's sister-in-law, was also a great benefactor of the hospitals of Rouen, to which she donated the sum of 20,000 livres.