The Charette family is documented in the province of Brittany, specifically in the city of Nantes and its surrounding areas, including the communes of Sautron and Couffé.

[1] In their respective works, Michel de Saint Pierre [fr] (1977), Roger Coindreau, and André Borel d'Hauterive posit that in 1370, Jean Charette, a resident of Trévignet in the vicinity of Plermoël, was knighted on the battlefield at Chisey in Poitou by Constable Bertrand du Guesclin (1320–1380).

[2][3][4] Additionally, Borel d'Hauterive (1851) posits that the family may have originated in Italy, descending from a son of Galeas Carretto [fr], Marquis of Finale, who settled in Brittany in 1240.

This ancestor is said to have married Jeanne Dubois de la Salle, a lady-in-waiting to Alix, Duchess of Brittany.

Gustave Chaix d'Est-Ange [fr] wrote in 1911: "[...] It is generally supposed, though without certain evidence, that the currently existing Charette family shares a common origin with a family of the same name that, during the Middle Ages, owned the noble house of Trévignet, in the parish of La Chapelle-sous-Ploërmel.

The descendants of this gentleman appeared in the reformation and musters of the nobility of the Saint-Malo diocese from 1426 to 1543 and became extinct around the mid-16th century.

[8] He lists the key family members up to the 16th century and writes: "(...) The nobiliary status of these various individuals does not seem to have been very elevated.

One might wonder whether, despite the judgment of confirmation of nobility in 1668, the Charette family did not derive its noble status merely from the mayoralty of Nantes or the offices its members held starting in 1572 at the Chamber of Accounts of Brittany [fr].

"[8] Regarding the nobility of the Charette family, Régis Valette [fr] (2002) writes: "extraction, confirmed in 1668.

[29] Recent works and the 2023 film Vaincre ou Mourir [fr] commemorate François Athanase Charette de La Contrie.