Nicolas Chauvin (1676 - 1748)

Born 19 Jan 1676 in Montréal, Canada, Nouvelle-France

Ancestors

Husband of Marie Marguerite LeSueur — married about 1724 in Louisiana, New France

Descendants

Died 1748 at about age 71 in Nouvelle Orléans, Louisiane, Nouvelle-France

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Biography

Nicolas Chauvin is Notable.

Nicolas Chauvin, a été baptisé le 19 janvier 1676 Montréal;^[1] Nicolas Chauvin sieur de La Fresnière, marié en Louisiane avec Marguerite Lesueur (fille de Pierre Lesueur et de Marguerite Messier) (établi en Louisiane)^[2]

CHAUVIN DE LA FRENIERE, Nicolas, père, first generation Canadian, pioneer settler on Chapitoulas Coast, member of Superior Council of French Louisiana. Born, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; baptized, June 19, 1676; eighth child of Pierre Chauvin and Marthe Autreuil.^[3]

In Louisiana by 1706, at some point after this date Nicolas Chauvin assumed the name of La Frénière.

After their arrival at Fort Louis de la Mobile, three of the Chauvin brothers Joseph de De Léry, Nicolas de la Freniere, and Louis de Beaulieu, obtained permission from the governor of the colony, Bienville, to undertake a trading expedition to the Presidio del Norte on the Rio Grande with Juchereau de Saint-Denis. They left Biloxi on 10 Oct 1716, taking with them merchandise valued at 43,200 livres, headed toward Texas by way of Natchitoches. They reached the Presidio in April 1717, where the Spaniards rejected Bienville's plan for reciprocal trading rights and seized the merchandise. The brothers returned to Biloxi empty-handed in 1718, but the trail blazed by them across Tejas was for many years the only known road from the Louisiana borderland to the Presidio on the Rio Grande.^[4]

Despite opposition, La Frénière was named to fill a vacancy on Superior Council, governing body of the province. The concern was that La Frénière had only recently learned to read and write and was self taught.

By 1720, Nicolas was with brothers Joseph Chauvin de Léry and Louis Chauvin de Beaulieu, on the Chapitoulas Coast.

Joseph, Nicolas and Louis settled this area with their families. In 1720, the total population of the [Tchoupitoulas] district amounted to 21 white masters, 21 white servants, 365 negro slaves and 11 Indian vassals successfully clearing land, tilling the soil, exploiting the virgin cypress forest, digging canals and drainage ditches. Despite varied success with some crops, his and neighboring brothers' agricultural efforts earned praise of memorialist André Pénicaut, and perceptive traveler Pierre de Charlevoix, S. J.

The Chauvins were early slave owners, having nearly a hundred, according to 1721 census. ^{[citation needed]}

In 1725, at Bienville's suggestion, the Company of the Indies sold its herd of sheep to La Frénière.

Nicolas père was the largest lumber contributor (1,345 1/2 feet) to first church of St. Louis, New Orleans, in 1727. Nicolas married Marguerite LeSueur of Mobile, second cousin to Bienville, ca. 1724.^[5]

He and Chevalier de Pradel opened a tavern stocked with wine and liquor worth 1,000 livres in 1729; it was the first cabaret of record in the capitol.^[6][7] La Frénière increased his land holdings as his family grew, buying nearly 30 arpents of former Bienville lands directly above New Orleans, and portion of Kolly-Sainte-Reyne Plantation. He owned a townhouse in the city but probably reared his children—Nicolas fils (q.v.), Jean-Baptiste, François, Catherine, and Jeanne Marguerite—at his Chapitoulas plantation.^[4]

Largely self-educated, he provided the best school opportunities for Nicolas, his son, sending him to France for law studies. His eldest son succeeded him on the Council, being appointed attorney general of Louisiana in 1763. Nicolas, the father, died in 1749.^[8][4]

Marriages/Children

Marriage 1 Catherine (Indian) Unknown b: 1676 in Mobile, Alabama; married: BEF 1718.

Children:

1. Hypolite Chauvin b: BEF 17 JAN 1717/18 in Mobile, Alabama

Marriage 2 Marguerite Le Sueur b: 4 JUL 1699 in Montréal, Québec; married: ABT 1724 in Louisiana.

Children:

1. Nicolas Joseph (de La Freniere) Chauvin II b: ABT 1725- 1769
2. François (de La Freniere) Chauvin b: BEF 9 APR 1730 in New Orleans, Louisiana
3. Jeanne Marguerite (de La Freniere) Chauvin b: BEF 25 MAR 1731 in New Orleans, Louisiana
4. Jean Baptiste Alexandre Chauvin b: BEF 18 JUN 1733 in New Orleans, Louisiana^[9]

Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere II, the son, (died 26 October 1769) was Attorney General of Louisiana. He was one of the ringleaders of the Louisiana Rebellion of 1768, the others being Joseph Milhet, Jean-Baptiste Noyan, Pierre Caresse and Pierre Marquis. The rebellion succeeded in driving Antonio de Ulloa, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, out of New Orleans. However, the ringleaders, including Lafreniere, were later arrested and subsequently executed on 26 October 1769 by firing squad.^[10]

Also from the Wikipedia article, citing the book, A History of Louisiana (1909):

It was found that there was no hangman in the colony, so the condemned prisoners were ordered to be shot. When the day of execution came, hundreds of people left the city. Those who could not leave went into their houses, closed the doors and windows and waited in an agony of sickening dread to hear the fatal shots. Only the tramping of soldiers broke the deathlike stillness which brooded over the crushed and helpless city. At three o’clock on a perfect October afternoon in 1769, the condemned men were led to the Spanish barracks. Lafreniere, it is said, gave the order to fire. A volley of muskets broke out on the still air, and five patriots went to their death, — the first Louisianians to give their blood for the cause of freedom..^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ Bapt IGD - Drouin collection
2. ↑ Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec - René Jetté pg 242
3. ↑ Abbe Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionaire Genealogique Des Familles Canadienes, 1608-1700, Vol. I
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Stanley Clisby Arthur, Old Families of Louisiana, (Baton Rouge, LA: Claitor's Pub Division; Reprint edition 2020).
5. ↑ Jay Higginbotham, Mobile: City by the Bay (1968)
6. ↑ Henry C. Bezou, Metairie: A Tongue of Land to Pasture, (Gretna, LA: Pelican,1973) p.__.
7. ↑ The papers of de Pradel are located in the Historic New Orleans Collection, The venture is possibly mentioned in 22 Sept 1729 entry.
8. ↑ Henry C. Bezou, Metairie: A Tongue of Land...
9. ↑ http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=rnelsonla&id=I6151
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Wikipedia contributors, "Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicolas_Chauvin_de_Lafreniere&oldid=918742996 (accessed November 28, 2021).