Categories: Genealogy, History, Slavery

In 1738, the owner of two of my 5th great-grandparents, Sorlingue and Thérèse, the colonial treasurer of New Orleans, Mr. LOQUET, Sieur de la Pommeraye, was sued by the Catholic Vicar-General, for burying a young slave girl outside of the city’s Catholic cemetery and without Catholic rites. The Vicar-General argued that these were clear directives in the Code noir for all inhabitants to follow, which LOQUET did not.

In 1758, LOQUET sold Sorlingue, Thérèse and four of the first four children born to them (Nicolas, Louis, Pierre and Zaïre), as a family unit, to Paul Augustin DE LA HOUSSAYE. Their daughter, Charlotte DE LA HOUSSAYE (born in 1759), was the mother of Charlotte CRANE (1789) who married Jean Narcisse BOISDORÉ-ROCHON in 1803 in New Orleans, Louisiana. These are my 5th, 4th, and 3rd great-grandparents.

 

Case Nº 3 (1738).

Sieur Loquet de la Pommeraye,
Treasurer-General of New Orleans,
Charged with causing the body of a négritte to be buried without religious ceremony and outside the pale of the
cemetery.

This unusual case covers a prosecution by Rev. Father Mathias, Curate of New Orleans and Vicar-General of the Bishop of Quebec, against the Sieur Loquet de la Pommeraye, Treasurer-General of Louisiana, complaining that the defendant has disregarded the ordinance of the King in the black code by causing to be buried a young dark brown complexioned girl of 12 or 13 years of age outside the cemetery and without the ceremonies of the Church. He asks that the Treasurer be cited and sentenced to such penalty as the laws permits and that the body be exhumed and reinterred in the cemetery according to the rites of the Church.

The petition is addressed to Salmon, First Judge of the Superior Council and is signed by the complainant in his official character.

It shows that criminal proceedings could be invoked by others than the Attorney General and it shows also the power and courage of the Curate, who did not hestitate to attack a high official for violation of  duty to the humblest and lowliest inhabitant.

The petition was filed June 14, 1738 and Judge Salmon acted  immediately, ordering the defendant to be cited, and in the meantime ”that the body of said negress be exhumed to be transported to the cemetery of this City.”

The record preserves the petition of the Curate, the preliminary order of the judge, the return of the sheriff, showing service on the Treasurer, and the motion of the Attorney General (Fleuriau) demanding that the accused be condemned to pay a fine of thirty livres for the benefit of the cemetery, and that similar infractions be prohibited. This motion was made July 5, 1738. There* is nothing to show the end of the case.

The document is interesting because it preserves in brief space several of the current formulas of legal practice.

(Petition June 14, 1738).

TRANSLATION

Petition to
Monsieur de Salmon,
Commissaire-Ordonnateur,
First Judge of the Superior Council of the Province of Louisiana in New  Orleans.

Sir:

Rev. P. Mathias, Curate of New Orleans and Vicar-General of His Grace, the Bishop of Quebec, has the honor to report that M. de Lapommeray, Treasurer General of New Orleans, on his own personal authority, caused to be interred by his negroes the body of a negress of twelve or thirteen years, out of the cemetery, contrary to the ordinance of the King in the Black Code, by which His Majesty wills and intends that the masters be obliged to inter the bodies of their baptized slaves in the cemetery, with the ceremonies of the Church. On this report Father Mathias demands that the body of the said negress be exhumed to be reinterred in the cemetery according to the rites of the Church, and that the said Monsieur de Lapommeray be cited before the Council of our Most Christian King and do justice.

At New Orleans the fourteenth of June, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight.

F. Mathias, Curé Vic. Général.
Cabildo Archives 293

Order.

Let the party be cited according to the present demand and in the meanwhile we order that the body of the said negress be exhumed to be transported to the cemetery of this city. This fourteenth of June, 1738.

Signed: Salmon

Sheriff’s Return.

In the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight, on the eighteenth day of June, in virtue of the above order, on petition of Rev. P. Mathias, Curate of New Orleans and Vicar General of His Grace the Bishop of Quebec, I, Marin Le Normand, sheriff of the Superior Council, being in New Orleans where [I cited the] Si[eur] de la Pomeraye, Treasurer of
the Marine, [residing] in New Orleans, [to] appear before the Superior Coimcil at its [nex]t session to proceed to investigation of circumstances, and dependencies and costs and have left him a copy  of petition as well as of the present summons of which act was passed.

Signed :  Le Normand

 

Motion of Considering the present petition, I demand Attorney General, in the King’s name, that Sieur Loquet de la Pommeraye be sentenced to pay a fine of thirty livres to be applied to fencing in the cemetery of this parish, and that he be prohibited to relapse into a like infraction. At New Orleans, July fifth, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight.

Signed: Fleuriau

 

(Original Text.)

 

A Monsieur de Salmon Commissaire, Ordonnateur de la Marine,
premier juge au Conseil Superieur de la Province de la Louisiane à la Nouvelle Orleans. 

Monsieur:

Le Rév Père Mathias Curé de la Nouvelle Orléans, et Vicaire Général de Monseigneur Lévesque de Québec a l’honneur de Vous exposer que Mr. de Lapommeray Trésorier Général de la Nouvelle Orléans auroit fait enterer de son autorité privé par ses Nègres le Corps d’une Négritte de douze à treize ans hors contre l’ordonnance du Roy porté dans le Code Noir, par laquelle Sa Majesté veut et entend que les Maîtres sont tenus de faire enterrer avec les céré monies de dans le Cimetiere les Corps de leurs esclaves qui seront baptisé; sur cet exposé demandé le dit Rév P. Mathias que le corps de la ditte Négresse soit exhumée pour ensuite être enterré dans le Cimetière suivant le Rite de L’église, et Mon dit Sr de la Pommeray cité devant Vous le Conseil de notre Roy très chrétien, et feres justice. A la Nouvelle Orléans Le quatorzième juin mil sept cent trente huit.

F. Mathias Curé Vic. Général.

 

Soit partye appellé aux fins de la présente Reqte et cependant ordonnant que le corps de la d négresse sera exhumé pour être transports dans le cimetière de Cette ville Ce 14 juin 1728.

L’an mil sept cent trente huit et le dix huite jour de juin en vertu de l’ordonnance cydessus le Rév. P. Mathias Curé de la Nelle Orléans et Vicaire Général de Monseigneur Lévesque de Québec, j’ay, Marin Le Normand, huissier au Conseil Supérieur étant à la Nelle Orléans ou . . . . le Si de la Pommeray, Trésorier de la Marine … à la Nelle Orléans …. à comparoir au premier jour en la Chambre du Conseil Supérieur à la pr . . . . Et procéder, sur Et aux fins de la Reqte Circonstances Et Dépendances Et …. dépends Et Luy ay laissé Coppie tant de la Reqte que du présent exploit dont acte.

Le Normand.

 

Vu la présente requeste Jerequiers Pour Leroy que le sieur Loquet de la Pommeraye soit condamné en trente livres damande
applicable à l’entourage du cimetière de cette paroisse qu’il luy soit fait défenses de recidive en pareille contravention. A la Nouvelle Orléans, le cinquième Juillet mil sept cent trente huit.

Fleuriau.

 

Source: Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 3:4 (October 1920), pages 280, 291-94