On July 10, 1777, a marriage was recorded in the Bengal Parish Registers between Francis Grand, a writer in the East India Company’s servic...
On July 10, 1777, a marriage was recorded in the Bengal Parish Registers between Francis Grand, a writer in the East India Company’s service, and Varle of Chandernagore in present-day West Bengal. Sometime afterwards, the register was annotated in a different hand “This is the famous Madame Grand, afterwards wife of Talleyrand”.
Annotations of this sort in official registers are highly unusual and someone thought Madame Grand famous (or infamous) enough to add the note. So, what was the story of Madame Grand?
Nöel Catherine Werlée (sometimes Worlée, Verlée or Varle) was born in Tranquebar in present-day Tamil Nadu – sources put her date of birth as November 21, 1761 or 1762. She was the daughter of the Captain of the Port, Peter John Werlée, and had both Danish and French heritage.
She met George Francis Grand in Bengal at Ghireti House, home of Monsieur Chevalier, Governor of the French Settlement at Chandernagore, and the couple formed an attachment. At the time of her marriage to Grand in 1777, Catherine would have been in her mid-teens. In Narrative of a life of a gentleman, Grand wrote:
…never did a union commence with more brightening prospects. On our parts, it was pure and disinterested and blessed with the...
