Nicolas Félix Vandive


Nicolas-Félix Van Dievoet called Vandive, écuyer, was a French court official
He was court clerk at the Grand Conseil and of the Conseil du Roi, lawyer at the Parlement of Paris and conseiller notaire et secrétaire Maison et Couronne de France près la Cour du Parlement.

Biography

Origins

He was a member of the Vandive family, a parisian family of goldsmiths, a branch of the Van Dievoet family of Brussels. His father was the goldsmith Balthazar Philippe Vandive, who was consul of Paris in 1739.
His grandfather was Philippe van Dievoet called Vandive, goldsmith of the King, counsellor of the King, officier de la Garde Robe du Roi, consul of Paris, trustee of the Hôtel de ville of Paris.
His great-uncle was the sculptor Peter van Dievoet.

Career

Nicolas-Félix Vandive was cited as early from 26 April 1743, court clerk at the Grand Conseil, which conferred personal Nobility upon him from 1743 and hereditary Nobility from 1763 after 20 years on the job. The Almanach Royal of 1789 still mentions him as court clerk at the Grand Conseil.
Thanks to the Edict given at Versailles on 22 May 1775, which fixed the finances of the Grand Conseil, we can read that "We have also fixed the finances of the offices of first and principal clerk of the audience in our Grand Conseil to which the sieur Vandive is provided, at the sum of 25 thousand livres."
He also exerted the ennobling office of conseiller notaire et secrétaire Maison et Couronne de France près la Cour du Parlement. He succeeded in 1774, Étienne Timoléon Isabeau de Montval, who was guillotined in Paris in year II.

The death of King Louis XV

During the last illness of Louis XV, Vandive was sent, on Sunday 1 May 1774 by the Parlement of Paris to inquire on the health of the monarch, as the personal journal of Parisian bookseller Siméon-Prosper Hardy tells us: "The new court of the Parlement, according to ordinary practice, deputised Vandive, one of the first and principal court clerk of the Grand Chambre and of its notary-secretaries, to go to Versailles to obtain news on the King's health. But the secretary could only do this on the following Tuesday, because the Monday 2 May was a respected holiday." And Jean Cruppi in his biography of Linguet writes: "At the Palace, word was suddenly spreading that Louis XV was gravely ill. The Parlement, anxious, and feeling itself as ill as the King, extraordinarily assembled itself. On Tuesday 3 May, they sent their secretary, the sieur Vandive, to Versailles to obtain news of the King. The sieur Vandive, at his return, declared being received by the Duke of Aumont whom told him that the state of the King was Better. Despite this news, on 10 May, we learned that the King was dead."