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The expression Irish of Nantes denotes a community formed in the 17th century and of great importance in the 18th century. It was originally composed of Jacobite political refugees from Ireland fleeing the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This community eventually extended to the ports of Bordeaux and La Rochelle as well as to the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
The refugees were largely aristocrats, no longer able to bear arms or command troops. They threw themselves instead into colonial trade, creating numerous trading companies, among them those leading in the Transatlantic slave trade. They also integrated themselves fully into the city of Nantes, marrying the daughters of the local nobility. In Ireland these refugees in France were known as Wild Geese by their detractors.
Nantes was the foremost port for the Irish trading fleet. Out of sixty Jacobite company headquarters and trading houses in Europe in the mid-18th century, two thirds were based in four ports: 12 in Nantes, 9 in Bordeaux, 8 in Cadiz and a dozen in Stockholm and Gothenburg (although these were essentially branch offices). [1]
The community also included a large number of priests. Bishop Robert Barry of Cork, Bishop Cornelius O’Keefe of Limerick and Bishop Patrick Comerford of Waterford all lived in Nantes. [2] In 1695, the Bishop of Nantes gave them the use of his residence during the summer, the manoir de la Touche, which was to become a seminary for Irish priests, active until the French Revolution. [2]
Lastly, there were Irish people of more modest rank or means, who generally took on occupations relating to maritime commerce – captains, pilots, coopers and porters.
The standing of the Irish in Nantes grew steadily, if we observe the course of events across three generations. The first generation, of Nicolas Luker, Paul Sarsfield, André Geraldin and Nicolas Lée, emigrated to France in the middle of the 17th century, after the Irish Rebellion of 1641. They were joined later on by other Irish refugees following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691. This wave of emigres was not confined to Nantes. The historian Gabriel Audisio notes the presence of Irish Catholic soldiers in the armies of the Duke of Savoy and of the Marquis of Pianezza, which took part in the bloody repression of the Waldensians during the Piedmont Easter. [3]
The second generation included Luc O'Shiell, the pirate Phillip Walsh, based in Saint-Malo, and Jean Stapleton, with his associate Jacques Rulidge. They were welcomed with open arms by a country in the midst of the War of the League of Augsburg and Louis XIV welcomed several thousand Irish exiles at the Jacobite court of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He made the Irish the spearhead of his army, and above all of his navy, particularly during the Jamaica Expedition of 1694. On 8 June 1694, Irish ships formed the bulk of a fleet of 22 vessels and 1,500 men which left Nantes under Admiral Jean-Baptiste du Casse, heading for Jamaica. They burned hundreds of houses and seized 1,300 slaves, whom they took to Saint-Domingue. They did not however attempt to seize the island of Jamaica as they judged this too difficult. [4]
The third generation included the wives and daughters of Luc O'Shiell, Antoine Walsh, Jean Stapleton Junior and Jean-Baptiste MacNemara. They had considerable fortunes, which they invested in property while plotting to overthrow the British government.
The Irish expatriate community was also notable at Bordeaux, where, from 1715, it developed an important trade in salted beef with Ireland, which was used in supplying merchant fleets and overseas colonies. [5]
Bordeaux is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department. Its inhabitants are called "Bordelais" (masculine) or "Bordelaises" (feminine). The term "Bordelais" may also refer to the city and its surrounding region.
Nantes is a city in Loire-Atlantique of France on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 320,732 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabitants (2020). With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms one of the main north-western French metropolitan agglomerations.
Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1697 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer specifically to the Spanish-held Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. The borders between the two were fluid and changed over time until they were finally solidified in the Dominican War of Independence in 1844.
Nicolas Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana from Southeast Asia, depositing them at a botanical garden on the Caribbean island of Martinique.
The Treaty of Limerick, signed on 3 October 1691, ended the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland, a conflict related to the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War. It consisted of two separate agreements, one with military terms of surrender, signed by commanders of a French expeditionary force and Irish Jacobites loyal to the exiled James II. Baron de Ginkell, leader of government forces in Ireland, signed on behalf of William III and his wife Mary II. It allowed Jacobite units to be transported to France, the diaspora known as the Flight of the Wild Geese.
Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat was a prominent shipbuilder and merchant of the port of Bordeaux in the late 18th century. His son, André-Daniel Laffon de Ladebat, succeeded him, and later became involved in politics. In 1789, he participated in the French Revolution.
The Williamite War in Ireland took place from March 1689 to October 1691. Fought by Jacobite supporters of James II and his successor, William III, it resulted in a Williamite victory. It is generally viewed as a related conflict of the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War.
The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the largely Irish Jacobite army loyal to James II and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691, near the village of Aughrim, County Galway.
Jean-Baptiste du Casse was a French naval officer, privateer, slave trader and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Saint-Domingue from 1691 to 1700. Born on 2 August 1646 in Saubusse, France to a Huguenot family, du Casse enlisted in the French merchant navy before joining the French East India Company and the Compagnie du Sénégal. He subsequently enlisted in the French Navy and took part in several victorious expeditions during the Nine Years' War in the West Indies and South America.
Charles Chalmot de Saint-Ruhe was a French cavalry officer, serving in the armies of Louis XIV.
Pierre Lafitte was a pirate in the Gulf of Mexico and smuggler in the early 19th century. He also ran a blacksmith shop in New Orleans, his legitimate business. Pierre was historically less well known than his younger brother, Jean Lafitte. While not as much of a sailor as Jean, Pierre was the public face of the Lafitte operation, and was known for his wit and charm, in addition to his handling of the sale of smuggled goods.
Mary O'Shiell, was a French shipowner and slave trader. She is a known figure in the history of Nantes, alongside her sisters Agnés O'Shiell and Anne O'Shiell.
Honora Burke became Honora FitzJames, Duchess of Berwick on Tweed, married Patrick Sarsfield and went into French exile where he followed her soon afterwards. After his death at the Battle of Landen, she married James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II. She may have introduced the country dance to the French court.
Antoine Vincent Walsh was a French merchant, ship owner and slave trader of Irish descent who operated in Nantes. Born into an expatriate Irish family who had settled in Nantes, France, his support for Jacobitism led Walsh to assist Charles Edward Stuart during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.
Anne O'Shiell was a French businesswoman. She managed the major slave trade firm Grou et Michel in Nantes from 1774 to 1793, which at that time was one of the most successful companies of its kind, making her a millionaire.
The Nantes slave trade resulted in the deportation, from the late 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, of more than 500,000 black African slaves into French ownership in the Americas, mainly in the Antilles. With 1,744 slave voyages, Nantes, France, was the principal French slave-trading port for the duration of this period. The slave trade was explicitly encouraged by the royal family and described by the church as an "ordinary occupation."
Jean-Baptiste Mac Nemara, baron du Mung, seigneur de la Rochecourbon, Tourfou, Moullet et autres lieux was a French Navy officer of Irish origin.
The Marie Séraphique was a late 18th-century slave ship that made six slave voyages out of Nantes, France. There are two illustrations of the ship that show how captives travelled, believed to have been painted by the captain and second lieutenant. There is a diagram showing densely-packed shackled slaves on the ship, and a painting showing slaves being sold aboard.
Saint-Domingue Creoles or simply Creoles, were the people who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue prior to the Haitian Revolution.