JEAN D’ANGELY, Saint, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Charente-Inférieure, France, is situated in a fertile vine-bearing district on the right bank of the river Boutonne, 16 miles south-east of La Rochelle. The most interesting buildings are the ruined abbey, destroyed in 1568, two large towers used as a prison and forming the remains of a 17th century church, an embattled clock-tower dating from 1276, a handsome colonnaded market-place, and a hospital. The inhabitants are engaged in distilling brandy, wool-spinning, and the manufacture of cast-iron tools, agricultural implements, serges, &c.; and a trade in spirits, wines, cereals, and oil seeds is carried on. The population in 1876 was 6309.

St Jean d’Angély (Angeriacιιm) owes its origin to Pippin the Short, who founded a monastery on the spot about 768. The report that the head of John the Baptist was deposited there attracted crowds of pilgrims, for whose accommodation a town gradually grew up. In 157’2 the duke of Anjou captured it from the Huguenots; but they retook it soon after. Its fortifications were razed under Louis XIII.