[1][2][3][4] Joseph Abeille was born in Vannes, a coastal town protected by its position at the head of the Gulf of Morbihan on the southern side of Brittany.
At the time of her marriage to Blaise Abeille, Joseph's mother, born Renée Jameron, was already a (young) widow, whose first husband, Jacques Pavin, had been a minor aristocrat and a tax collector.
The family's move to Brittany may was probably in connection with Blaise Abeille having obtained a government job, since at the time of his sons' births he was employed as a "receveur général des impôts et Billots" (tax collector) in the Bishopric of Vannes.
Joseph Abeille came to the attention of the Paris-based scientific establishment in 1699 when he applied successfully to the Académie royale des sciences to patent his radical design for flat vaulted roofing.
[1] His first significant Swiss project involved producing plans for what became Thunstetten Castle, which would become a prestigious new home of the Bernese Schultheiß, Hieronymus von Erlach.
By that time Abeille had sold half his shares "to Geneva investors", and had found himself facing a legal challenge from co-investors who believed he had failed to honour all his early commitments.
However, during 1732 he disposed of all his remaining shares, over a three months period, to a number of different investors, ending his association with the Bazacle Milling Company, which thereby returned to its former, more conventional, governance structure.
[12][13] Three hundred years after its completion the dam that Joseph Abeille constructed across the Garonne continues to serve Toulouse, but in 1888 the mill wheel was replaced by a small electricity generating facility: this was taken over by EDF in 1946, and in 2020 remains in production.
[13] In 1717 Abeille was working in Montpellier where he was involved with planning and supervising the Place du Peyrou, a prestigious urban redevelopment programme which featured a city water supply with an aqueduct, along with an equestrian statue celebrating the (by this time recently deceased) king.
[7] 1724 found him in Dijon, where he teamed up with Jacques Gabriel to draw up plans for the construction of a stone bridge over the Saône, the "Pont de Seurre" (which unfortunately collapsed in 1731).
Although it remains uncertain how far the project progressed at this stage, the report which Abeille prepared jointly with Jacques Gabriel, and which they presented to the Estates in 1727, was retained and has survived.
A decree issued by the king's Council of State dated 20 July 1764 confirms that the plaintiff received satisfaction on all counts, on behalf of his wife's late father.
This time his plans were implemented, the large hospital being constructed between 1734 and 1742: nearly three hundred years later in full splendour, notwithstanding a recent renovation and conversion exercise.
[17][18] On this occasion he spent a further three years in Switzerland, undertaking commissions not just in Bern, but also in Morges, where he implemented major improvements to the port, and Solothurn, where his plans for a new bridge over the Aare, failed to progress, but hospital and church buildings that he designed were constructed almost immediately, and had been largely completed by the time he went back to the west of France in 1735.
Nevertheless, in 1749 he accepted a job that involved re constructing some of the wharfs of the Brancas river dock and redesigning the foundations and structure for the adjacent market hall proposed by the city architect.
The city authorities passed the job his son, Jean Saturnin Abeille-Fontaine, who was given a fixed annual salary and completed the work, based on the plans his father had submitted in 1750.