Martial (or Marthial) Allemand Lavigerie, originally from Angoulême, came to live in Bayonne around 1802 as Receiver of the National Lottery. At the same time, at the beginning of the century, at least three of his brothers and sisters (from a family of thirteen children) also moved to Bayonne.
Martial had married Louise Vaslin. Divorced in 1796, he remarried on 17 June 1801 to Marie-Louise Raymond de Saint Germain, born in St Domingue in January 1776. The household moved to Bayonne probably shortly after their marriage.
Martial Allemand Lavigerie has always remained Receiver of the “National”, “Imperial” and “Royal” Lottery. His duties had certainly put him in touch with important people in the Bayonese financial community. In 1807, Martial became a member of “La Zélée”, the lodge of the Freemasons of Bayonne, and he held several services there. His young wife died in I8I3, one month after the birth of their fifth child.
Léon Philippe Allemand Lavigerie (who will be the Cardinal’s father) was Martial’s first son. He did not live in Bayonne, but in Angoulême with his mother, Louise Vaslin. However, in I8I7, he began his career in customs at the port of Bayonne. He was 22 years old. Apart from two months in Vannes in 1820, all his posts were in or near Bayonne: Ustaritz, Urdos, Aînhoa, Bordeau… He rose through the ranks: from “supernumerary” in 1817 to “Receiver” to Royal Customs Declarations in 1824. It was then that he married, on November 3, 1824, Hermine Louise Latrilhe, who lived in Huire.
The main building of the Huire Estate had only one floor and, despite a few large rooms, it was cramped now that the family was expanding. The young Lavigerie-Latrilhe household went to live in the annex house on the same property. It was here that the first three children of the household were born: Charles (1825), Pierre Félix (1828) and Louise (Mme Kienner) (1832). People say that the whole family lived together at the “Grand Huire”, even though the young Lavigerie household lived in the neighbouring building. Everyone gathered for meals at the “Grand Huire”.
When the Latrilhe family was forced to leave the Domaine de Huire in 1832, the Lavigerie family moved to the Villa Beaulieu in 1832 or 1833, which they had built in 1832, also in the St Etienne district. From there Charles and his brothers went daily to St Leon’s College near Bayonne Cathedral.