page_title: Marie Arago
section_title: Estagel (1778–1797)
hierarchical_section_title: Marie Arago / Biography / Estagel (1778–1797)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Notice jointe&#160;: "To be published by subscription, in royal quarto, the Costumes of the French Pyrenees&#160;: consisting of Thirty Drawings of the Male and Female Peasantry of the Pyrenean Valleys, with a characteristic Background. Copied from the Sketches of J. Johnson, Esq.r; drawn on Stone by J. D. Harding; coloured, and accompanied by a Letter-press Description. The work will be published in six parts, each containing five plates. Price of each part&#160;: twelve shillings." Ancely, René (1876 - 1966). Possesseur
context_page_description: Marie Arago, born Marie-Anne Roig was a French woman, wife of François Bonaventure Arago and mother of François, Jean, Jacques, Victor, Joseph and Étienne Arago.
  She raised her eight children alone after the death of her husband in 1814, passed on her human values and encouraged them to pursue their studies.
  An "Arago clan" was formed around her eldest son, François, at the Paris Observatory, including Claude-Louis Mathieu, Alexander von Humboldt and Félix Savary.
context_section_description: On 12 August 1778, with a dowry of 2,200 livres, she married François Bonaventure Arago in Corneilla-la-Rivière.
  He was a pagès with a degree in law.
  They would have eleven children.
  They raised them in the local Catalan language.
  The couple moved to Estagel, a Roussillon town of 1,000 inhabitants.
  It is located a dozen kilometers north of Corneilla-la-Rivière.
  François Bonaventure Arago was of the same social background as Marie Roig. 
  A farmer and moderately well-off proprietor, he was orphaned at a very young age and was raised by an uncle, a priest who enrolled him in law school in Perpignan. 
  His social background, however, did not allow him to take a more prestigious job as a notary or lawyer.
  In 1779 Marie Arago gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Rose, who died in 1780. 
  1780 was also the year of the birth and death of Arago's second daughter, Marie-Thérèse. 
  A third girl, named Marie-Victoire, was born and died in infancy in 1783. 
  Meanwhile, in 1782, the couple gave birth to another daughter, Rose, who lived until 1832.
  In 1781 her husband began a political career, gradually climbing the ladder in the municipal affairs of the village of Estagel until becoming, from June 1786 to June 1787, first consul of the village, which corresponds to the mandate of a mayor today. 
  In 1789, he wrote a large part of the Cahiers de doléances (Book of grievances) of Estagel. 
  He became in 1790 the first mayor of the commune newly created by the revolution, then in the following years was given high departmental responsibilities.
  Mary gave birth to other children: François (1786), Jean (1788), Jacques (1790), Victor (1792), Joseph (1796) and Marguerite (1798). 
  All were born in Estagel.
  During the War of the Pyrenees in 1793 François Bonaventure commanded the National Guard of Estagel.
  This was an army of volunteer citizens formed to defend the Revolution against the Spanish enemy. 
  The family gave lodgings to many French soldiers and officers, to which François, the eldest son, then aged seven, would later attribute his taste for military matters.
caption: A peasant woman from Roussillon, c. 1830 (lithograph by James Duffield Harding)
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