PHELYPEAUX  , a

French family of Blesois . Its two principal branches were those of the siegneurs of Herbault, La Vrilliere and Saint Florentin, and of the counts of Pontchartrain and Maurepas . Raimond Phelypeaux, seigneur of Herbault and La Vrilliere (d: 1629), was treasurer of the Epargne in 1599, and became secretary of state in 1621 . His son Louis succeeded him in this latter office, and died in 1681 . Balthazar Phelypeaux, marquis de Chateauneuf (d . 1700), and Louis, marquis de La Vrilliere (d . 1725), respectively son and grandson of Louis, were also secretaries of state . Louis Phelypeaux (1705-1777), count of Saint Florentin and afterwards duke of La Vrilliere (1770), succeeded his father as secretary of state; became minister of the king's household in 1749, a minister of state in 1751, and discharged the functions of minister of foreign affairs on the disgrace of Choiseul (1770) . He incurred great unpopularity by his abuse of lettres de cachet, and had to resign in 1775 . Raimond Balthazar Phelypeaux, seigneur du Verger, a member of the La Vrilliere branch, was sent as ambassador to Savoy in 1700, where he discovered the intrigues of the duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II., against France; and when war was declared he was kept a close prisoner by the duke (1703-1704) . At the time of his death (1713) he was governor-general in the West Indies . The branch of Pontchartrain-Maurepas was founded by Paul Phelypeaux (1569-1621), brother of the first-mentioned Raimond; he became secretary of state in 16zo .