Félix Le Pelletier de La Houssaye

Félix Le Pelletier de la Houssaye(25 March 1663,Paris– 20 September 1723,Paris) was a French statesman who becameController-General of Finances.

From a family with a long history of service to the French king, Le Pelletier de la Houssaye held several posts, includingIntendant(representative of the royal power in the provinces), a post he held inSoissons(1694), atMontaubaninRouergue(1698 - 1700) and atStrasbourginAlsace(1700 - 1715).

Under the Regency, the protection of d'Aguessau allowed him to enter the entourage ofPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans,whose properties he administered

After the flight ofJohn Law,he was named Controller-General of Finances on 12 December 1720. He also became Provost and Master of Ceremonies of theOrder of the Holy Spiriton 25 March 1721.

In 1701, while Intendant of Alsace, Le Pelletier de la Houssaye issued a ruling permitting Jewish worship inclandestine synagoguesin response to a complaint brought by an abbé. It reads, "The worship which the Jews established in Reichshoffen is not as public as one would have you believe. There is no synagogueper se,only, by a custom long established in this province, when there are seven Jewish families in one locale, those who compose them assemble, without scandal, in a house of their sect for readings and prayers. "

Sources

A. de Maurepas and A.Boulant,Les ministres et les ministères du siècle des Lumières, 1715-1789,Paris: Christian, 1996

External links

• Biography on the site of the Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France(in French)