Claude Testot-Ferry

[1] He descended from the Testot family (from Côte-d'Or in Burgundy), which had "provided intellectuals, magistrates, army officers and ecclesiastics from an early date" .

After the death of his great-uncle and godfather, Jean-Claude Testot-Ferry, knight of the order of Saint-Louis and captain in the Grenadiers Royaux, Claude Testot joined the name of Ferry to his own.

Claude Testot-Ferry, then a sous-officier in the 10e Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval and dressed his uniform, climbed on a wall and greeted them in an ostentatiously respectful and courteous manner.

This courageous act was admired by the crowd; the "prisoners" were won over by this young man and offered him an audience to propose he accompany them on their trip.

Unfortunately, the cavalry found itself entirely routed by the Russian infantry but Testot-Ferry, saving the situation, reorganised his troops and led another charge within sight of Marshal Ney and Napoleon.

During the Hundred Days, Colonel Testot-Ferry was made first aide de camp of Marshal Marmont and in March 1815 escorted king Louis XVIII as far as the frontier on his way to exile in Ghent.

Rejecting political intrigues, Général Baron Testot-Ferry distinguished himself on the field of battle - seriously wounded on several occasions and several times remarked upon by Napoleon - and was faithful to his oaths under all regimes in one of the most troubled periods of French history, with one of his mottoes being il vaut mieux mériter sans obtenir, qu'obtenir sans mériter ("it is better to deserve without gain, than gain without deserving").

The heraldic description is : Of azure, with a fess or, accompanied by a helmeted head in profile, or, flanked by two stars, argent, and in the bottom half a lion passant, or, with claws and teeth, gules, holding in his right paw a sword, argentThe family motto is "In honore et virtute ferri".