ABSTRACT
Nérac was a fortified stronghold of Huguenot power from the late sixteenth century. Its Reformed church held sway not only over the town but also in a swath of rural parishes around it. Nevertheless, Catholic immigration reduced the hold of Calvinism as time went on. Calvinist baptismal records are discontinuous, but the non-notable newborns display very marked sex ratios to the advantage of boys in both the first and the second half of the seventeenth century. Catholic commoner sex ratios (although these included the “nouveaux convertis” after 1685) were closer to the natural level in many years, with frequent and statistically significant spikes during hard times well into the eighteenth century.
