Tesson () is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France.
Toponymy
According to a widespread theory, that name, which is not unique to this particular commune, is a distortion, in the medieval period, from the Late Latin taxo, ionis, itself of Celtic origin, meaning “the badger”. In Old French, it became Taisson. The first settlements were allegedly built in a place where badgers used to dig their burrows.
But the name Tesson could also very well be a reference to a Gallo-Roman villa belonging to a certain Tessius or Thessius, hence in Latin Tessionem (Tessius estate and Tessianus, a, um as an adjective (applied to villa or fundus) and, alternatively, Tessiacum, with the suffix of Gallic origin acum, also meaning "belonging to".
In fact, in some ancient documents, including the lists of parishes of the archpriest of Pons (diocese of Saintes) contained in two “pouillés” (a “pouillé” being an inventory of ecclesiastical benefices) of 1648 and 1683, the village seems to be called Thessac, which clearly originates from Tessiacum.
History
Located on the Bronze road linking Merpins (near Cognac) with the Atlantic coast, the current territory of the municipality of Tesson has been inhabited for a long period. In the hamlet "Le Maine" in particular, prehistoric tools and weapons have been discovered, including a ceremonial anthropoid dagger (the top of the handle is shaped like a human body) dating back to 150 BC. It is being kept at the National Museum of Archaeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
In the Middle Ages, the village happens to be situated on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. On both sides of the pediment of the Romanesque church of the village (built in the second half of the twelfth century), two strange sculptures in high relief depicting, one a pilgrim, the other a robber armed with an ax, recall that time.
In the early sixteenth century, the seigneury of Tesson belonged to the Gombaud family. Then they were succeeded by the Bremond, thereafter the Guinot. Tesson got some fame of its own in the eighteenth century when Étienne Guinot, Lord of Tesson and Marquis of Monconseil, Lieutenant General of the King’s armies, decided in 1760 to retire to his estate, after a successful military career. This is the single celebrity of the village. He (re)built there one of the most beautiful castles in the region, later demolished in the nineteenth century. In the village he had a covered market built ( the “Halles”), still visible, so that his cherished Tesson could host fairs and markets, as well as a hospice.
Quarrying also began in Tesson in the eighteenth century. The beautiful (dressed) stone of Tesson, renowned and used for construction, including for saintongeais style houses in the village and elsewhere in the department happened to be a lasting flourishing business. The operation of the quarries ended in 1960. The “route des carrières” street allows to trace the entrances.
Tesson benefited in the nineteenth century from the development of the production of Cognac brandy, especially under the Second Empire. Several beautiful mansions of the village and of some outlying farms date back to this period. In parallel to this, the area devoted to the exploitation of cereals decreased. Also due, of course, to the competition from industrial mills, the many windmills (14 counted in 1820), whose location is still reflected in the names of several hamlets, were abandoned or, for most of them, destroyed. Only two remain.
At the beginning of the Third Republic, Tesson, which had reached a peak population in 1866 (762 inhabitants against 573 in 1806), suffered like other wine-producing towns of Charentes and France from the impact of the crisis of phylloxera (1875). Also affected in its young population through the victims of World War I, Tesson did not exceed again this level until the late 1980s.
The opening in 1894 of the railway line between Saintes and Mortagne-sur-Gironde, which ran through the village - with a stop which was still visible until the 2000s (opposite the present bakery) - was nevertheless a positive development bringing it closer (in time) to the town of Saintes. The line was closed in 1947.
The Government's decree of 13 January 1938 included Tesson in the production area of Cognac brandy called "Fins Bois", one of the six authorized areas based on soil characteristics. It was a comparative advantage for Tesson vis-à-vis some neighboring municipalities (to the west or south) which belong to the slightly least valued area called "Bons Bois."