Categories: Discrimination & Prejudice, Free People of Color (FPOC), Genealogy, History, Law, Migrations, Slavery

Louisiana Creoles of Aristocratic Origins: family, love, and law

By Alex Lee and Christophe Landry

 

Colonization changed not only the colonizers, but also the peoples they colonized along the way. The colonial landscape allowed people to reinvent themselves in ways not accessible to them in the old world (reservation, Europe, Africa). In this colonial context, new people were born through all kinds of mixing and acculturation. For the purpose of this article, we are interested in two prevailing ideas that have emerged in this context. The first is that often people with a long presence in the United States claim descent from royalty, aristocrats, and elites. In many cases it is lore. This happens among monied and marginalized US citizens. “Oh, you see, my great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess,” many say. Or, in Louisiana, much more common is “we descend from King Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte.” Second, people usually doubt these claims, especially when race mixture is involved. Instead, the listener will often think that it was the poor white indentured servant, not the elites, who mixed with descendants of Africans. There is some grain of truth in this. As historian F. James Davis points out, “the first extensive mixing [in the United States] was in the seventeenth century in the Chesapeake area […] between white indentured servants and slave and free blacks.” In this article, we will explore one Louisiana family who may defy both of these expectations. The Gradénigo/Gradney family may have legitimate claims to European aristocratic ancestry. They were certainly members of the local colonial elite in Spanish Louisiana and we can infer that one member of this elite family at the colonial Opélousas Post established a long-term, loving relationship with two Creole women of color, producing over a dozen children who the father openly claimed during the Spanish and early American periods.[i]

 

The progenitors of the Gradénigo family in Louisiana are Jean François de Gradénigo, more commonly known as Jean de Gradénigo, and Marguerite Kreps. Marguerite was a Louisiana Creole, born on Lac Catahoula (near present-day Pascagoula, Mississippi) on 25 November 1749 to Hugues Ernest René Krebs, a surgeon and farmer native of Neumagan, Archbishopric of Trier (present-day Germany), and to Marie-Josèphe Simon de la Pointe, a daughter of an admiral in Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville’s fleet. Marguerite married Jean in Mobile on 17 March 1766. Hugues Krebs, Marguerite’s father, is sometimes referred to as Baron Franz von Krebs, or Sieur Francis Krebs, and is said to have sailed for North America in 1730, taking residence on the Rivière des Pascagoulas, near which Lac Catahoula is situated, where he established a large plantation, growing rice, cotton, and indigo. He is credited for having invented the area’s first cotton gin, long before Eli Whitney. The lands on which he established his plantation initially belonged to Marie-Josèphe’s father, Joseph Simon de la Pointe, originating in a land concession issued to Joseph on 12 November 1715, part of which served as a Spanish fort before Hugues’s arrival. Various unsourced descendants have claimed that Hugues was a baron. No sources have confirmed his noble birth. What is certain is that Hugues married into an elite family of the larger Mobile elite, who had intimate ties to a founder of the colony who later served a few terms as colonial governor.[ii]

 

Jean de Gradénigo’s noble status has yet to be confirmed, but it was a status which he seems to have widely claimed in the colony and which he took with him to the nascent Opélousas Post in the 1770s. There, Jean owned considerable property, and served as a trustee of Église Saint-Landry in Opélousas. In the 1789 baptism of Jean and Marguerite’s daughter, Brigitte Gradénigo, the French-born Rev. Fr. Michel Bernard Barrière made the following note: “All those included in this book [Registre des baptêmes] under the name Gradenigo are from the same family, that is to say, the family of the Senate of Venice. This Sir Don Juan [Jean] de Gradenigo, is a brother – among others, are ambassadors as well as senators – of Sir Gradenigo, Canon of St. Mark in Venice – died about 7 or 8 years ago. These are facts without any doubt, having been received from my brother in Bordeaux who corresponded with someone in Venice and sent letters which I in turn gave to the deceased Jean de Gradenigo. In 1356 a Jean Gradenigo was Dogue of Venice. See ‘Ecclisiastical History’ by Fleury in [vol.] 12, page 154. Michel Bernard Barrière, officiating [or substituting for the pastor Fr. Joseph de Arazena]. This worthy gentleman had travelled through all Europe and the two Americas, and, having come finally to Mobile, as he became enamoured with the virtues and charms of Miss Kraps, of a German family, married her at Mobile and remained in this country. The Rev. Martin Duralde and myself were his intimate friends; still we never attempted to pry into the mystery of his emigration to Louisiana. He died here and was buried the first of March, 1809.” Barrière was right, three members of the Gradénigo family served as doges (roughly, “dukes”) of Venice in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Yet, as Barrière noted, Jean’s life before Louisiana remained a mystery to inhabitants at the Opélousas Post, and no records to date have conclusively linked him to the Venetian doges.[iii]

 

Joseph Bonaparte de Gradénigo, a son of Jean and Marguerite, was born about 1769 in Pensacola. When his family relocated to the Opélousas Post, and established a well respected presence in the nascent colonial outpost, unlike his siblings, Bonaparte did not marry a white woman in his youth. When he was 50 years old, in 1829, he married Amélie Barré, the recently widowed daughter of Charles Barré of France and Madeleine Décuir, a Louisiana Creole from the Pointe-Coupée Post. This late marriage leads us to ask a number of questions, chief among them, why did Bonaparte not marry a white woman earlier in life. We can approach this from two angles–class and availability of unmarried white women within Bonaparte’s social class and generation in colonial southwest Louisiana. As previously discussed, Bonaparte came from an elite family, at least in colonial Louisiana, and in Canada (through his mother) they occupied the upper echelons of society. There were other elite colonial Creoles, like Bonaparte, who were intimately connected to the Gradénigo-Krebs web who lived at the Opélousas and Attakapas Posts near the Gradénigos.[iv]

 

Given that slaves represented wealth and social status in colonial Louisiana, we can consider young maidens in the largest slaveholding families in the region. In 1777, in addition to Jean de Gradénigo, ten other slaveholders owned ten or more slaves; four at the Opélousas Post and six in the neighboring Attakapas District. At least 14 eligible young women from the Lemelle, Barbeau dit Boisdoré, Bossier, Fusélier de la Claire, Boutté and de Clouet families were in Bonaparte’s age group. They shared his local social status, also, with future governors, daughters of militiamen and district commandants among them. None married him. Maybe they did not want to marry him. Perhaps Bonaparte did not wish to marry a white woman (See Table 1).[v]

 

In any case, instead, in his youth – like Jacques “Estéban” Lemelle, a brother of François Lemelle III –  Bonaparte formed loving and longterm relationships with two Creole women of color–one free, one his slave. The first and older relationship was with Marie-Jeanne, a mulâtresse slave who belonged to Bonaparte’s parents and later to Bonaparte. She was born about 1750 someplace in colonial Louisiana. They produced four children, named Marie, Henriette, Martin and Louis Honoré Gradénigo. Bonaparte claimed all four as his natural children. His children with Marie-Jeanne claimed him as their father, also. For example, when Honoré Gradénigo married Mary Jane Nancy “Marie Jeanne” Chévis on 31 October 1857 in Opélousas, he named Bonaparte as his natural father, which at that time customarily required the father present at the marriage, and/or a notarized document to that effect. Acknowledging paternity, as Elizabeth Shown Mills and Virginia Domínguez point out, required much effort, and in fact prohibited the father from providing inter vivos and mortis causas (donations during life and after death) to natural children. For this reason, in colonial and national Louisiana, many white fathers disclaimed their natural children in order to donate them property, although their white relatives sometimes fought this in court, and won.[vi]

 

Bonaparte’s second relationship was with Adélaïde Jeanne Lemelle, quarteronne libre. Adélaïde was a daughter of François Lemelle III and Marie-Jeanne Lemelle, quarteronne libre, who was born in 1777 at the Opélousas Post. She and Bonaparte produced five children. They were Séverin, Joseph Bonaparte fils [Jr], Marie Aimée, Bienvenue Valmont, and Kreps Gradénigo. Like his children with Marie-Jeanne, Bonaparte acknowledged his children with Adélaïde. But Bonaparte’s relationship with Marie-Jeanne was strongest of them all.[vii]

 

In fact, Bonaparte’s affection for Adélaïde we see after their deaths. Typically when a propertied individual dies, heirs or creditors petition the courts where the deceased passed away and/or owned property, for the settlement of the estate and distribution of its proceeds. If the decedent is married, and his/her spouse predeceased them without the widow(er) filing succession, we see a “joint succession” filed, settling the estate shared in community of both deceased spouses. If the couple never married, and lived in concubinage, with both leaving behind property, it has been the custom in Louisiana that two different successions be filed. In Bonaparte’s case, he left behind a widow (Amélie Barré), but had spent most of his life in open concubinage with Adélaïde. During this time, Bonaparte and Adélaïde amassed property separately and together.

Curiously, when Bonaparte and Adélaïde passed away, the considerable movable and immovable property which they had acquired over the course of their lifetime, their natural children filed succession and the estate went to probates as the “Estate of Joseph Gradénigo and Adélaïde Lemelle.” In other words, a joint succession was filed, which customarily is done for married couples. Bonaparte’s widow, Emélite Barré [sic] did petition the parish court on the 17 October 1833 to commence proceedings on her deceased husband’s estate through John Close and witnessed by Cornelius Voorhies Jr. But his children by way of Adélaïde petitioned on the same day through attorneys Bowin and King. There was a bit of a quarrel between Amélie, Bonaparte and Adélaïde’s natural children, and Bonaparte’s siblings, nieces and nephews. Yet, they all convened to deliberate on a respectable way to put an end to the schism Bonaparte’s estate had caused, and decided, in a notarial act filed in the St. Landry Parish Court House, to divide all proceeds in two equal parts. Half would go to Bonaparte’s collateral heirs, and the other half to his natural children with Adélaïde. Crucially, Adélaïde is recognized as Bonaparte’s “concubine,” even while his widow, Amélie, was still alive. No doubts were left about Bonaparte’s love and affection for Adélaïde and the children he fathered with her and acknowledged publicly. Mills and Domínguez remind us of the laws of Louisiana prohibiting such inheritance, inter vivos, and mortis causas. Yet, here we have the scion of a local elite family, with a living widow, whose family came together to share the proceeds from his estate with the decedent’s “heirs” (as his children with Adélaïde were termed throughout the probate documents), and included Adélaïde’s estate as part of the joint community. Perhaps the laws of the state held a firm grip on paternity, inheritance, and the transfer of property between whites and people of color elsewhere. But the Gradénigo case, as well as that of François Lemelle III, serves as proof that on the Louisiana frontier, family and love sometimes trumped law. [viii]

 

The paternal affection and fatherly duty Bonaparte provided, he also imparted on his own natural sons with Adélaïde Lemelle. In 1837, Kreps Gradénigo sold to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte Gradénigo fils, a 16-year-old mulâtresse named Anna, Joseph’s daughter, so that Joseph may emancipate her, entitling her to all the benefits of liberty. In 1839, François Gradénigo, another son of Bonaparte and Adélaïde, purchased a 7-year-old mulâtresse named Mélite from his deceased parents’ estate, who François recognized as his natural daughter. Once again, the purpose of the purchase was to liberate Mélite from slavery to live as a free woman. Against all odds, Bonaparte held true to his paternal duty to acknowledge and provide for his children, regardless of the legal impediments in place, a legacy which his sons carried into subsequent generations. No Maury Povitch worthy stories in this elite Creole family of Italian, French, and West African descent![ix]

 

Although the Gradénigo surname was carried by numerous white sons and grandchildren of Jean de Gradénigo and Marguerite Krebs, the only descendants who today still carry the Gradénigo surname, or Gradney (its local Creolized version), are from Honoré Gradénigo and Nancy Chévis (Bonaparte’s son with Marie-Jeanne), and from some slaves who adopted the surname as their own after emancipation (but who do not necessarily descend from the Gradénigo family). Some of these Gradénigo or Gradney descendants today identify as Creole, American, black, white, mixed, and Indian. A living legacy that love and duty can triumph the greatest of social and legal handicaps.

 

 

Table 1 Eligible young ladies at the Opélousas and Attakapas Posts

 

#	Surname	Forename	Birth	Parents	Marriage	Spouse surname	Spouse Forename
1.	Lemelle[x]	Marie-Louise	1766	François Lemelle and Charlotte Christine Labbé[xi]	1789	Boutté	Jean-Baptiste
2.	Boisdoré	Marie Euphrosine[xii]	1766	Antoine Boisdoré and Marie Françoise Magdeleine Veillon	1786	Grévemberg	François Charles
3.	Boisdoré	Marguerite[xiii]	1768	ibid.	n/a	n/a	n/a
4.	Boisdoré	Céleste Geneviève[xiv]	1770	ibid.	1790	Lastrapes	Jean Henri
5.	Boisdoré	Louise “Louison”[xv]	1772	ibid.	1796	Peytavin du Bousquet	Jean-Baptiste
6.	Boisdoré	Félicité Magdeleine[xvi]	1774	ibid.	1791	Desgens or Déjean	Barthélemy fils
7.	Bossier	Victoire Émérante[xvii]	1773	François Paul Bossier fils and Rosalie Charlotte Barré[xviii]	n/a	n/a	n/a
8.	Bossier	Buena[xix]	1778	ibid.	n/a	n/a	n/a
9.	Fusélier de la Claire	Louise Ludivine[xx]	1776	Gabriel Fusélier de la Claire and Jeanne Roman	n/a	n/a	n/a
10.	Fusélier de la Claire	Hélène[xxi]	1772	Gabriel Fusélier de la Claire and Hélène Soileau	n/a	n/a	n/a
11.	Fusélier de la Claire	Joséphine Anne Hélène[xxii]	1777	ibid.	1800	Stagg	Henry
12.	Fusélier de la Claire	Euphémie[xxiii]	1778	ibid.	1800	Zerban	Phillip
13.	Boutté	Marie Louise Hiacinthe[xxiv]	1779	Antoine Boutté and Françoise Hiacinthe Verloin de Gruïs	1797	Judice	Jacques
14.	de Clouet	Marie Louise Hiacinthe[xxv]	1776	Alexandre Joseph François de Clouet and Marie-Louise de Favrot	1793	Benoît de Sainte-Claire fils	Jean-Baptiste

 

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Endnotes

 

[i] F. James Davis, Who is Black?: One Nation’s Definition (University Park: Penn State Press, 2010), 33, as found in Joel Williamsom, New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the United States (The New Press, 1980), 6-14.

 

[ii] Jean François de Gradénigo, Gianfrancese di Gradenigo in Italian, was born about 1730 in Venice to Antonio Donato di Gradenigo and Maria Bettio. He [Jean] served as president of the trustees of the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile: see St. Louis Catholic Historical Review 3 (1918-1923): 24-25. For the marriage of Jean de Gradénigo to Marguerite Krebs, see Jacqueline O. Vidrine, Love’s Legacy: the Mobile marriages … 1724-1786 (Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies, 1985), 345. Marguerite Krebs’s baptism occurred at Église de l’Imaculée Conception [Immaculate Conception Cathedral-Basilica] (Mobile, Ala.), “Registres des baptêmes vol. 1,” p. 173a.

Hugues Ernest René Krebs, né Hugo Ernestus Renet Krebs, was a son of Johann Krebs and Anna Charitas Fritsch: Orleans Parish Notarial Acts, Garic, 21 September 1776, no. 250, document in Spanish. Marie-Josèphe Simon de la Pointe, Hugues’s wife, was a daughter of Joseph Simon de la Pointe and Marie Foucault: succession, Marguerite Creps, 11 March 1820, St. Landry Parish Court House, Clerk of Court’s Office, conveyances, no. 186.

For information on the property possessed by Hugues and Marguerite, and additional biographical information, see Firestone News (Firestone, Col.), 1 March 1963, p. 3; “Historic American Buildings Survey, Engineering Record, Landscapes Survey: Old French Fort, Jackson County, Mississippi,” Library of Congress, online database, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ms0175/; Renée Le Conte, “Les Allemands à la Louisiane,” Journal de la Société des Américanistes 16, no. 1 (1924): 13.

Joseph Simon de la Pointe, sometimes Joseph Simon dit La Pointe, is said to have arrived at the lower Mississippi Valley on 8 January 1700 with Bienville and his brother, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville. See Edmond Boudreaux Jr., Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast (The History Press, 2013), 89; O. Lawrence Burnette, Historic Baldwin County: A Bicentennial History (HPN Books, 2007), 7; Jim Fraiser and Rick Guy, The Majesty of Eastern Mississippi and the Gulf Coast (Gretna, La.: Pelician Publishing, 2003), 94; Jay Higginbothom, Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Mobile, 1702-1711 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991), 73. Joseph Simon de la Pointe’s daughter (with Catherine Doussin), Marie-Jeanne Angélique Simon dit La Pointe, bore children for Louis Augustin “Augustus” Rochon, son of Charles Rochon of Canada and Henriette Colon of Kaskaskia, Illinois. Marie-Jeanne died 3 February 1764 at Mobile: Winston de Ville, Mobile Funerals, 1726-1764: Alabama Church Records of the French Province of Louisiana (Ville Platte, La.: Smith, 1994), 42. Augustin Rochon, his father, or one of his brothers, served as godfather to Marguerite Krebs’s baptism – signed “M. Rochon.”

 

[iii] St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registres des baptêmes 1-A,” p. 90, Brigitte Gradénigo; Claude Fleury, Histoire ecclésiastique vol. 12 (Paris: Le Mercier, 1751), 154. On the Gradenigo doges in Venice, see John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice (Penguin, 2012), 40-43, 172-73, 181, 183, 185-194, 214, 223-24, 228, 244, etc.; Claudio Rendina, I dogi di Venezia (Rome: Newton Compton, 1984); Edgcumbe Staley, The Dogaressas of Venice: the Wives of the Doges (London: T.W. Laurie, 1910), 316.

 

[iv] Joseph Bonaparte de Gradénigo married Amélie Barré, widow of William Pitt Higbee of New Jersey, on 2 September 1829 : St. Landry Parish Court House, marriages, no. 52. Amélie had married William, a son of Joseph Higbee and Rachel Wright, on 12 November 1811, with Vital Estillette and Dr. Louis Tauriac serving as witnesses: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des mariages vol. 1,” p. 217.

 

[v] François Lemelle married Charlotte Christine Labbé, a daughter of Jean Labbé and Christine Allard, all of New Orleans–see François and Charlotte’s joint succession, dated 18 July 1789 in Opélousas: Louisiana State Archives and Records (Bâton Rouge), Opelousas, 1789. See also another succession related to the community of François and Charlotte, both deceased, dated 14 December 1789, naming 3 legitimate children: Louisiana State University Archives, Opelousas, no. 15; and François’s last will and testament, dated 16 July 1789: Louisiana State University at Eunice, “Records from the Opelousas Post,” 1789.

 

[vi] Marie-Jeanne may be the 14-year-old slave named Jeanette who belonged to Jean Gradiné [sic] in 1777 at the Opélousas Post: see 1777 Spanish Louisiana Census of the Attakapas and Opélousas Districts, Papeles Procedentes de Cuba, Archivo general de Indias, 1777, legajo 2351, annotated online at https://www.scribd.com/doc/235071430/1777-Census-Slave-Schedules.

Louis Honoré Gradénigo, homme de couleur libre, son of Joseph Bonaparte de Gradénigo and Marie-Jeanne, mulâtresse libre, married Marie Jeanne Nancy Chévis, mulâtresse libre, daughter of John Chavis and Rachel Keys (free people of color from North Carolina), at Opélousas on 1 November 1857 : Église Saint-Landry [St. Landry Catholic Church] (Opélousas, La.), “Registres des mariages vol. 1,” p. 302.

Henriette Gradénigo bore children for the Canadian (Quebecer) Pierre Hubert Lachapelle. Henriette Gradénigo died 12 December 1882, age 83, in Ville Platte: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registres des sépultures vol. 2,” p. 393.

Martin Gradénigo, homme de couleur libre, married 2 January 1839 Rosalie Soileau, femme de couleur libre, daughter of Augustin Guillory and Euphrosine Soileau, a freed slave of Noël Soileau: St. Landry Parish Court House, Clerk of Court’s Office, “Marriage Book Q,” p. 12.

Marie Gradénigo bore children for (1) Louis Thierry, free man of color, and (2) Jean-Baptiste de Fils, a native of France.

 

[vii] Adélaïde Jeanne Lemelle, quarteronne libre, native of the Opélousas Post, was a natural daughter of François Lemelle III and Marie-Jeanne Lemelle, quarteronne libre. She was born in 1777: Adélaïde, libre, daughter of Marie-Jeanne, mulâtresse or quarteroon libre, baptized 4 January 1778. Baptismal sponsors were Joseph Barthélemy and Marie-Louise Lemelle. Fr. Luís, curé: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1-A,” p. 5.

Séverin Gradénigo died 18 July 1841 unmarried. But he fathered a daughter, Félonise Gradénigo, sometimes known as Félonise Séverin, with Julie Robin. This daughter, Félonise Gradénigo, free woman of color, married 21 November 1857 Ozémé Émmanuel Aubespin, free man of color of St. Landry Parish, son of Joseph Aubespin and Lise Meaux or Moore, free woman of color: St. Landry Parish Court House, marriages, no. 1676.

Joseph Bonaparte Gradénigo fils married 11 October 1842 Rachel Ferguson, sometimes known as Rachel McPherson, free woman of color, daughter of unknown and Rachel Hicks, free woman of color.

Marie Aimée Gradénigo married twice: first on 7 April 1831 to Edmond Donato, de couleur libre, native of Opélousas, son of Martin Donato-Bello, de couleur libre and Marie Duchesne, mulâtresse libre: St. Landry Parish Court House, marriages, no. 10; second, on 24 February 1843 to Philippe Louis Dubreuil Olivier, quarteron libre, native of La Côte-aux-Puces [Grand Marais, present-day Iberia Parish], son of Hugues Charles Honoré Dugué Olivier de Vézin of Trois-Rivières (Quebec) and Adélaïde Dubreuil, mulâtresse libre of New Orleans: St. Mary Parish Court House, Clerk of Court’s Office (Franklin, La.), “Marriages vol. 3,” no. 225.

Bienvenue Valmont Gradénigo married on 19 January 1843 Félicité Paillet, quarteronne libre, native of New Orleans, daughter of Auguste Antoine Paillet and Félicité Hoursole, both quarterons libres of New Orleans: Église du Sacré-Cœur [now St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church] (Grand Côteau, La.), “Registre des marriages vol. 1,” p. 142.

François Gradénigo fathered a natural child named Mélite Gradénigo, mulâtresse, who belonged to his parents Joseph Bonaparte de Gradénigo and Adélaïde Lemelle.

Kreps Gradénigo died a bachelor without known offspring.

 

[viii] Estate of Joseph Gradénigo and Adélaïde Lemelle, St. Landry Parish Court House, estates, no. 636. For François Lemelle III and Marie-Jeanne Lemelle and her children as heirs of his estate, see the reference in endnote v above.

 

[ix] “Kreps Gradenigo To Joseph Gradenigo
Sale of Slave
Recorded 13th June 1837

Know all men by these presents that Kreps Gradenigo of the State of Louisiana and Parish of St. Landry for and in consideration of the sum of four hundred  dollars Cash in hand the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged has bargained and sold, and does by this public act grant bargain, sell alien transfer set over and deliver unto Joseph Gradenigo of the aforesaid State and Parish a certain Mulatto girl named Ann [it appears it may be ‘Anna’; the last ‘a’  appears very faded] aged ab[ou]t. sixteen years. To have and to hold the said Mulatto girl to the said Joseph Gradenigo his heirs and assigns from and after the date hereof until she shall have arrived at the age of thirty years, when he the said Joseph Gradenigo obligates himself his heirs, executors &  administrators to Emancipate her in due form of Law. And the said Kreps Gradenigo for himself his heirs &c the title to the said Slave against the Lawful claims of all persons whatsoever to him the said Joseph Gradenigo his heirs &c does warrant and will forever defend. The purchaser dispenses with the production of the certificate required by the 3328th Article of the Louisiana Code. In testimony of all which the parties have hereunto signed in presence of Richard M. Garwood & Pierre Labyche Competent witnesses and
before George King Parish Judge & ex-officio Notary Public in and for the Parish of St. Landry at Opelousas this thirteenth day of June in the year One thousand eight hundred and thirty seven.

Kreps Gradenigo Joseph Gradenigo Witness Richd. M. Garwood & Labyche Geo.
King P. Judge.”

 

“State of Louisiana

Parish of St Landry

This day the eighteenth of July in the year One Thousand eight hundred and thirty nine, personally came and appeared before me George King parish Judge and Ex officio notary Public in and for said parish Joseph Gradenigo free person of color of said parish who declared and confirmed that at the probate sale of the succession in community between the heirs and & legal representation of the late Joseph Gradenigo decd & of Adélaïde Lemelle f.w.c. decd made on the twentieth day of December eight hundred & thirty three there was adjudicated to him the said appeared a mulatress slave named Mélite then aged about seven years for the price of three hundred dollars on the express condition that the same Mélite should have and enjoy her liberty from the state of said sale and be duly enfranchised as soon as the laws of this state would permit as will appear by reference to the proces [sic] verbal of said sale Lot no 81. The said Joseph Gradenigo further declares that the aforesaid Mélite had always been recognized as the natural child of his decd brother François Gradenigo decd in consideration of which all the heirs of said Joseph & Adélaïde deceased by common accord permitted said Mélite to be adjudicated to him the said appearer at the aforesaid price which was that of her estimation as will appear by referance to Lot No 43 of the Inventory of said succession upon the express terms & considerations aforesaid that the heirs & representative of heirs of said Adelaide Lemelle that is to say Emé Gradenigo wife of Edmond Donato, Edmond Donato representing Valmont Gradengio whose interset in said succession he has purchased, Séverin Gradenigo, Kreps Gradenigo, and the said Joseph Gradenigo, contributed to the payment of the aforesaid price of the said Mélite when the same become (??) by voluntary contributions. The said Joseph further declares that the said Mélite has continued under his care, protection & guardianship enjoying her liberty & freedom as fully as though duly emancipated ever since the date of the aforesaid sale & the confines & acknowledges that he has not now nor has he ever had since said sale any right, title, or interest in or to said Mélite or to her services and in consideration of the premises, he promises & obliges himself his heirs & in favor of the aforesaid heirs & representatives of Joseph Gradenigo & Adélaïde Lemelle deceased as well as in favor of the said Mélite, to emancipate & enfranchise the said Mélite in due form of law as said Joseph contracted in relation to the said Mélite all of which are now repeated & acknowledged the remaining heirs of said Adelaide Lemelle decd have also appeared before me the aforesaid Notary & accept as they have heretofore accepted the obligation of said Joseph Gradenigo to emancipate the said Mélite in due form of law recognising the following act to set forth truly & correctly the agreement & stipulations entered into at the term of said sale in relation to said Mélite they further acknowledge that they have not now nor have they ever had any right or title to said Mélite or to her services and if any such they ever had they now formally abandon them as they abandoned them in fact and verbally at the date of the aforesaid probate sale. In witness wherefore the said parties have hereunto signed at Opelousas the day & year first above written before me the aforesaid Judge & Notary in presence of ________________ & ________________ competent witnesses Witness B Debaillon, “signed” Joseph Gradenigo, Emé Gradenigo, Séverin Gradenigo, Kreps Gradenigo.”

Mélite Gradénigo died 8 March 1864 in Opélousas: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des sépultures vol. 2,” p. 180.

 

[x] Marie-Louise Lemelle married Jean-Baptiste Boutté on 18 December 1789 in St. Martinville, a son of André-Claude dit La Lime Boutté and Françoise Bonin dit Miragoine, who was deceased at the time of the nuptials: St. Martin Parish Court House, Clerk of Court’s Office (St. Martinville, La.), “Original Acts vol. 92,” no. 29-A. This original act volume number is likely erroneous, given the early time period of the marriage. The volume number is probably 2. Someone needs to confirm this.

For information on the customs in Creole Louisiana declaring paternity, see Gary B. Mills and Elizabeth Shown Mills, The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013), 30, 51, 119; Virginia R. Domínguez, White By Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993), 62-90.

 

[xi] François Lemelle married Charlotte Christine Labbé, a daughter of Jean Labbé and Christine Allard, all of New Orleans–see François and Charlotte’s joint succession, dated 18 July 1789 in Opélousas: Louisiana State Archives and Records (Bâton Rouge), Opelousas, 1789. See also another succession related to the community of François and Charlotte, both deceased, dated 14 December 1789, naming 3 legitimate children: Louisiana State University Archives, Opelousas, no. 15; and François’s last will and testament, dated 16 July 1789: Louisiana State University at Eunice, Opelousas, 1789.

 

[xii] Jean Antoine Barbeau dit Boisdoré was born 23 July 1737 at Mobile to Joseph Antoine Barbeau dit Boisdoré of Boucherville, Canada (Quebec) and Marie Jeanne Louise Brest or Brette of La Rochelle, France. Antoine married 22 March 1762 Marie Françoise Magdeleine Veillon, a New Orleans Creole, daughter of Jean-Baptiste Veillon and Marie Françoise Charlotte Aubert. Witnesses were Veillon – the bride’s father, Louis Barbo [sic] – surgeon, Joseph Barbo, Braud – merchant, Doussin – master gunner, Lemelle, Françoise [Au]bert Veillon, Revoil, Veillon, L. Boisdoré: Église Saint-Louis de la Nouvelle-Orléans [now, St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica] (New Orleans, La.), “Registre des mariages vol. 4,” p. 68.

Marie Euphrosine Boisdoré, was born 25 August 1766 to Antoine Boisdoré and Magdeleine Veillon. She married 25 January 1786 François Charles Grévemberg, a Louisiana Creole native of New Orleans, son of the late Jean-Baptiste Grévemberg dit Flaman and Arsène Judice. Witnesses to the civil marriage contract were Louis Veillon, Baptiste Boutté, Jean Gradénigo; Alexandre Chevalier de Clouet: St. Martin Parish Court House, “Original Acts vol. 4½,” no. 75.

 

[xiii] Marguerite Boisdoré was born 1 November 1768 and baptized 27 August 1772 (same day as 2 other sisters): St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 7,” p. 12.

 

[xiv] Céleste Geneviève Boisdoré was born 17 July 1770 and baptized 27 August 1772 (same day as 2 other sisters): St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 7,” p. 12. She married 14 October 1790 at Opélousas, Jean Henri Lastrapes, native of Castelnaudary, Département de l’Aude, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, son of Barthélemy Lastrapes and Laurence Vernède. Witnesses were A.  Boisdoré, J. Lesassier, Duviblon, Luke Collins, P.  Marchan, Jⁿ Collins. Fr. Pedro de Zamora, curé: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des mariages vol. 1-A,” p. 32.

 

[xv] Louise “Louison” Boisdoré was born 5 February 1772 at Convent and baptized 27 August 1772. Baptismal sponsors were Louis Boisdoré – surgeon and Marie Délande: St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 7,” p. 12. She married 19 March 1796 Jean-Baptiste Peytavin du Bousquet, native of Saint-Martin, Province de Castille, France, son of Henri François Peytavin and Antoinette Rigolet. Witnesses were Wits:  Jean-Baptiste Lastrapes, Louis Chalhert.  Fr. Pedro de Zamora, curé: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des mariages vol. 1-A,” p. 63.

 

[xvi] Félicité Magdeleine Boisdoré was born in 1774; she married 16 June 1791 Barthélemy Desgens or Déjean, native of France, son of Barthélemy Desgens or Déjean and Anne Gilet. Witnesses were J. Gradénigo,  Martin Duralde, Joseph Sharp. Fr. Pedro de Zamora, curé: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registres des mariages vol. 1-A,” p. 35.

 

[xvii] Victoire Émérante Bossier was born 23 January 1773 and baptized at La Côte-des-Allemands [German Coast] on 28 February 1773. Baptismal sponsors were Jean Dénoie and Marianne Censier: Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste-des-Allemands [now St. John the Baptist Catholic Church] (Edgard, La.), “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1,” p. 6.

 

[xviii] François Paul Bossier dit Lebrun, also known in Spanish as Francisco Bozie, was born 4 October 1734 at the Pointe-Coupée Post to Jean-Baptiste Bossier and Marie Anne Chaigneau. He first married at the Pointe-Coupée Post on 21 May 1754 Geneviève Découx, daughter of Jacques Descoux and Anne-Catherine Décuir: Église Saint-François-de-la-Pointe-Coupée [now St. Francis Catholic Chapel], “Registre des mariages vol. 1,” p. 40, “Registre des mariages vol. 2,” p. 102. Geneviève died 19 December 1755, interred the next day: St. Francis Catholic Chapel, “Registre des sépultures vol. 1,” p. 158, “Registre des sépultures vol. 2,” p. 117.

François Bossier remarried Rosalie Charlotte Barré, also known as Rosa Barré, daughter of Paul “Pedro” Barré and Marie Jeanne “Juana” Girardy.

Rosalie Charlotte Barré, widow of François Bossier, remarried in New Orleans on 15 April 1782 Louis Dutiny de Tisène: Église Saint-Louis de la Nouvelle-Orléans [now, St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica], “Registre des mariages vol. 4,” p. 133.

 

[xix] Louise Ludivine Fusélier de la Claire was born in 1776.

 

[xx] Gabriel Fusélier de la Claire was born 27 August 1722 in Lyon, France, and baptized 28 August 1722 at Saint-Nizier Catholic Church. His parents were Pierre Fusélier de la Claire – landowner and captain of the Militia at Lyon, France – and Ludivine Chaufouran: Église catholique Saint-Nizier (Lyon, France), “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1722,” no. #71. Gabriel first married in New Orleans on 4 March 1764 Jeanne Roman, native of La Côte-des-Allemands, daughter of the late Jacques Roman and Marie Josèphe Daigle: St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, double entry: “Registre des baptêmes vol. 5,” p. 175 and “Registre des mariages vol. 2,” p. 4.

Gabriel Fusélier de la Claire remarried in Opélousas on 29 April 1771 Hélène Soileau, native of the Natchez Post, daughter of the late Noël Soileau – King’s warehouse guard at Natchez – and Marie-Josèphe Richeaume. Witnesses were Jean-Louis Zéringue, Jacques Courtableau – Opelousas Post Militia Captain, Marie-Josèphe Richeaume – her mother, Noël Soileau [fils] – her brother and tutor, Donatto Bello, Luc Hollier, Pierre Maillet, Joseph Carron, François Marcantel, Jean-Baptiste Soileau, and Jacques St-Amant. Dowry included 84 arpents of land, several slave cabins, 24 slaves of all ages: St. Martin Parish Court House, “Original Acts vol. 4,” no. 385; Église Saint-Martin-des-Attakapas [now St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church], “Registre des mariages vol. A1,” p. 13, “Registre des mariages vol. 1,” p. 22; St. Francis Catholic Chapel, “Registre des mariages vol. 2,” part 2, p. 111a, “Registre des mariages vol. 4,” p. 73.

 

[xxi] Hélène Fusélier de la Claire, born 8 February 1772, baptized 13 July 1772. Baptismal sponsors were Noël Soileau [her uncle] and Marie-Josèphe Richeaume [her grandmother, wife of François Marcantel]: St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes vol. A1,” p. 14, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1,” p. 23.

 

[xxii] Joséphine Anne Hélène Fusélier de la Claire, also known in Spanish as Josefa or Josefina Fuselier, was born in New Orleans and baptized 18 May 1777 in Opélousas. Baptismal sponsors were Étienne de la Morandière and Angélique Fonténeaut [sic] [wife of Noël Soileau fils]: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1A,” p. 1. She married in New Orleans on 11 July 1800 Henry Stagg, also known in Spanish as Enrrique Stagg, a Protestant and native of New York, son of John “Juan” Stagg and Anneke “Anaka” Dally Stoutenburg. Witnesses were Samuel Moor[e], Roberto Moor[e], Phelipe Chervin [Phillip Zerban], Elena Soileau [Hélène Soileau], the bride’s mother: St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, “Registro de matrimonio vol. 5,” p. 130.

 

[xxiii] Euphémie Fusélier de la Claire, also known in Spanish as Eufemia Fuselier, was born in New Orleans, and baptized 3 September 1780 at age 2 in Opélousas. Baptismal sponsors were Stephen Minor [represented by Étienne de la Morandière, Captain of the Militia of the Opélousas Post], and Magdeleine-Victoire de Livillier [spouse of Paul-Augustin de la Houssaye], represented by Hélène Fusélier, the child’s older sister: St. Landry Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes vol. 1A,” p. 37. She married in New Orleans on 26 December 1800 Phillip Tebbens, also known in Spanish as Felipe Zerban or Cherven, a Protestant and native of Philadelphia, son Wendell Zerban and Catherine “Catalina” Baker. Witnesses to the marriage were Samuel Pimooer [Samuel P. Moore], Genery Stagg [Henry Stagg], Besur Fussellier [sic]: St. Louis King of France Cathedral-Basilica, “Registro de matrimonio vol. 5,” p. 133.

 

[xxiv] Marie Louise Hiacinthe Boutté was born 18 July 1779 and baptized 20 April 1783. Baptismal sponsors were Claude Boutet [sic] and Louise de Favrot, spouse of Chevalier de Clouet [sic]: St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes” 2, no. 107. She married Jacques Judice, native of New Iberia, son of Captain Louis Judice and Marguerite Patin: St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, “Registre des mariages” 4, no. 137.

 

[xxv] Marie-Louise-Hiacinthe de Clouet was born 8 Apr 1776, baptized 25 Aug 1777 at Saint-Bernard-des-Attakapas Parish. Baptismal sponsors were Jean François Lédée and Hiacinthe de Gruÿ [sic]: St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, “Registre des baptêmes vol. B-1.” She married 29 May 1793 Jean-Baptiste Benoît de Sainte-Claire fils, son of Jean-Baptiste Benoît de Sainte-Claire – Commandant of the Illinois District and Marie-Louise Ralon: St. Martin Parish Court House, “Original Acts vol. 14,” no. 12.

 

Many thanks to Paul Leblanc and Jan B. Strickland for their assistance.

– Alex Lee and Christophe Landry