Jacques Philippe Villeré (April 28,1761 –March 7,1830) was the second Governor of Louisiana after it became a state. He was the first Creole and the first native of Louisiana to hold that office.
He was born in 1761 near present-day Kenner,Louisiana,on his maternal grandfather's plantation La Providence. [1]
His father was Joseph Antoine de Villeré,an official in the French Navy during the reign of King Louis XV and later a colonial militia captain in the German Coast area of present-day southeast Louisiana. A few years after 1763's cession of La Louisiane to Spain,Joseph was sentenced to death by Spanish Governor Alejandro O'Reilly,who was sent by King Charles III to suppress a local revolt. Joseph Villerémysteriously died prior to the firing squad execution of the rebels,in October 1769. [2] Jacques Villeré's grandfather,Etienne Roy de Villeré,had accompanied Iberville on the voyage from France to the Gulf coast,late in the 17th century,during the reign of Louis XIV.
Jacques's mother was Louise Marguerite de la Chaise,daughter of Jacques de la Chaise and granddaughter,on her mother's side,of Charles Frederick d’Arensbourg.
Villeréjoined the French Army and was educated for two years in France at the Crown's expense,due to his father's death at the hands of O'Reilly. In 1776,while still an adolescent,he was assigned to Saint-Domingue as a first lieutenant in the artillery. His mother's death in the 1780s brought him back to settle in Louisiana (New Spain),which became again a possession of France in 1800 and finally of the United States in 1803 through the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1814–15,he served with distinction in the (War of 1812's) Battle of New Orleans,as a major general commanding the 1st Division of the Louisiana Militia. His men stood fast,assigned to the area near Lake Borgne and Bayou Dupre,as British forces approached New Orleans by sea.
The Villeréplantation,Conseil,located downriver from the city,was overrun by the British. In fact,Villeré's son Gabriel,who had the rank of major and guarded the plantation with thirty soldiers,was surprised and captured when the British Army initially made its presence known. Maj. Villerémanaged to escape and report the news to Gen. Andrew Jackson,who ordered the night attack of December 23,1814. [3]
The Villeréhome was used as British headquarters throughout the Louisiana campaign for nearly one month. [4] The family's property was damaged and they lost a number of slaves,who were taken aboard Royal Navy vessels and later freed.
In 1784,Villerémarried Jeanne Henriette de Fazende,the daughter of Gabriel de Fazende,who owned a plantation seven miles (11 km) below New Orleans in present-day Saint Bernard Parish. The couple raised eight children. Jeanne Villerédied in 1826. [5]
In 1803,Villerésecured a seat on the municipal council (the Cabildo) of New Orleans during the brief return to French colonial administration. The next year,after the Louisiana Purchase took effect,Villeréwas appointed a major general in the territorial militia,a Police Juror in what in a few years would be the "county" of Orleans Parish,and a justice of the peace for the area which would soon become St. Bernard Parish.
Villeréwas a member of the convention which drafted Louisiana's first state constitution. He ran for Governor in 1812,to serve as the first governor after statehood,but was defeated in the election by William C. C. Claiborne who was elected overwhelmingly with over 70% of the vote.
Jacques Villeréwas elected as the second state governor in 1816,narrowly defeating Joshua Lewis. He took office in December of that year and served through 1820,a period of prosperity and growth for the new state. His gubernatorial administration was noted for efforts to provide bankruptcy protection for debtors,the designation of death-by-dueling as a capital offense,and reduction of the level of state debt. [6]
He retired to the family's sugar plantation in St. Bernard Parish after his term,as the law did not permit him to succeed himself in office. [7] Villeréwas brought out of retirement to run again for governor in the 1824 election,but he and Bernard de Marigny split the Creole vote and Henry Johnson was elected governor.
He was preparing to run for Governor again in the 1830 special election;but he died March 7,1830,before the election,at the plantation Conseil after a long illness. His remains were interred at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2,in New Orleans.
Saint Louis Cemetery is the name of three Catholic cemeteries in New Orleans,Louisiana. Most of the graves are above-ground vaults constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Charles Deslondes was an African American revolutionary who was one of the leaders in the 1811 German Coast uprising,a slave revolt that began on January 8,1811,in the Territory of Orleans. He led more than 500 rebels against the plantations along the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. White planters formed militias and ended up hunting down the rebels.
William Charles Cole Claiborne was an American politician and military officer who served as the governor of Louisiana from April 30,1812 to December 16,1816. He was also possibly the youngest member of the United States Congress in the history of the United States,although reliable sources differ about his age.
Joseph Marshall Walker was a Louisiana soldier and politician and the 13th Governor of Louisiana,from 1850 to 1853. He is best known for being the first Governor inaugurated in the new state capital building in Baton Rouge.
Alejandro O'Reilly,1st Count of O'Reilly,KOA,English:Alexander,Count of O'Reilly,Irish:Alastar ÓRaghallaigh,was an Irish-born military reformer and Inspector-General of Infantry for the Spanish Empire in the second half of the 18th century. O'Reilly served as the second Spanish governor of colonial Louisiana,and is the first Spanish official to exercise power in the Louisiana territory after France ceded it to Spain following defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War. For his much appreciated services to the Crown of Spain,O'Reilly was ennobled as a conde de O'Reilly,and granted a coat of arms. He fell out of favour after his calamitous failed attempt at the Invasion of Algiers.
James Pitot (1761–1831),also known as Jacques Pitot,was the third Mayor of New Orleans,after Cavelier Petit served for a ten-day interim following Mayor Boré's resignation. Because he had already attained American citizenship,he is sometimes called New Orleans' first American mayor.
Versailles is an unincorporated community in St. Bernard Parish,Louisiana,United States. It is located along the East Bank of the Mississippi River,approximately 3.5 miles below the lower limit of New Orleans. The community,for governmental and postal address purposes,is considered part of Chalmette and by some designations,part of neighboring Meraux. As a place designation,the name "Versailles" continues in local use.
Jean-Noël Destréhan de Tours was a Creole politician in Louisiana and one-time owner of St. Charles Parish's Destrehan Plantation,one of Louisiana's historic antebellum landmarks. The community of Destrehan was named for his family.
Louisiana Creoles are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French,Spanish,and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.
Jacques Dupré was a Louisiana State Representative,State Senator and the eighth Governor.
AndréBienvenue Roman was Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives and the ninth U.S. Governor of Louisiana.
The Rebellion of 1768,also known as the Revolt of 1768 or the Creole Revolt,was an unsuccessful attempt by the Creole elite of New Orleans,along with nearby German settlers,to reverse the transfer of the French Louisiana Territory to Spain,as had been stipulated in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau.
Jean-Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785–1868),known as Bernard de Marigny,was a French-Creole American nobleman,playboy,planter,politician,duelist,writer,horse breeder,land developer,and President of the Louisiana State Senate between 1822 and 1823.
Charles Jacques Villeré was a Louisiana politician who served in the Congress of the Confederate States for two terms during the American Civil War. He was brother-in-law to P. G. T. Beauregard,whose first wife,Marie Antoinette Laure,was Villeré's sister.
Antoine Jacques de Marigny,,was a Creole military officer,merchant,planter and U.S. Marshal for eastern Louisiana. He was the son of prominent New Orleans businessman and politician Bernard de Marigny.
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Antoine Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville,Chevalier de St. Louis,was a French geographer and explorer. Born in Mobile in 1722,he was part of the Creole elite of French Louisiana.
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