Jean du Plessis,sieur d’Ossonville (died 4 December 1635) was a joint leader of the French expedition that established a colony on the island of Guadeloupe in 1635. He died on the island after less than six months.
Jean du Plessis was a gentleman from Picardy.[1] He was the seigneur d’Ossonville,an advocate in Dieppe and a distant relative of Cardinal Richelieu (Armand Jean du Plessis).[2]
The French adventurers Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and Urbain Du Roissey reached Saint Christopher Island (Saint Kitts) in 1625, and were struck by the potential of the island as a colony once the indigenous Island Caribs were removed. They returned to France and in 1626 with the support of Cardinal Richelieu founded the "Association des Seigneurs de la Compagnie des Isles de l’Amérique".[3] The private venture had the mandate to settle Saint Christophe, Barbados and other neighboring islands at the entrance to Peru that were not possessed by any king or Christian prince. They engaged over 500 men to work on the islands for three years, sailed in three ships in February 1627, and after a difficult crossing landed in Saint-Christophe almost three months later.[3]
The first French settlers suffered from famine and fought with the Caribs and the English, who also had a settlement on the island.[3] Richelieu sent a squadron of six ships commanded by Admiral François de Rotondy, seigneur de Cussac (or Cahuzac) to assist the settlers.[4] Jean du Plessis travelled with this fleet.[1] The fleet arrived at Saint-Christophe at the end of August 1629, defeated the English, reestablished d'Esnambuc and the French settlers in their settlements, and left for France.[5] However, in November 1629 the Spanish admiral Federico de Toledo chased the French from the island. They left on two ships and attempted colonization of Antigua and Montserrat.[6] They returned to Saint-Christophe in 1630.[3]
In 1634 d'Esnambuc and his lieutenant Charles Liènard de l'Olive decided to colonize other islands, and sent an exploratory expedition to Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe under Guillaume d'Orange, who reported that Guadeloupe seemed the easiest to settle.[1] Spanish attempts to colonize the Guadeloupe archipelago in the first half of the 16th century had failed, and since then European sailors had only used it as a resting place.[7]
Guadeloupe expedition
1759 map. Fort St. Peter (Saint-Pierre) is shown on the northern point of Basse-Terre Island, and Old Fort on the south point.
L'Olive left for Paris in 1634 to obtain permission from the Compagnie des îsles d'Amérique to settle Guadeloupe. He met Jean Du Plessis, sieur d'Ossonville in Dieppe, who agreed to join his project.[8] The relationship between Du Plessis and Cardinal Richelieu may have been a factor.[2] The two men went on to Paris to negotiate with the Company.[8] They signed a treaty with the company in February 1635 in which they engaged to take 200 men to settle Dominica, Martinique or Guadeloupe.[1]
Under the contract the Company would provide arms, ammunition and the protection of the government. L'Olive and Du Plessis would have settled at least 800 men after ten years, not counting women and children. They would pay a petun (tobacco) fee, and at the end of the contract the settlements, forts and dwellings would all become property of the company.[9] The contract, signed on 14 February 1635, commissioned l'Olive and Du Plessis to "command together on the island they would inhabit."[8] The two founders could not pay all the expenses, so brought in the merchants of Dieppe in exchange for a share of the profits over six years. The merchants had to supply them with 2,500 men.[9]
The settlers left Dieppe on 25 May 1635 with 554 people, including four Dominican missionaries.[8] There were 40 Norman families of peasant origin, 30 prostitutes from the port of Dieppe or Paris, and 400 hired laborers.[2] Those who paid for their voyage would be given concessions to grow tobacco or sugar in the island, which they would work using slaves from Africa and hired hands from France. The alloués (allocated people) could not pay for their trip, but were on contract to work for three years.[8] The people hired to cultivate the islands were nicknamed trente-six mois (36 months) after the term they were forced to serve. They would be treated, beaten and sold as slaves.[9] However, some of them would later obtain concessions.[8]
Jean François du Buc, who would be Governor of Grenada from 1658 to 1660, was a leading member of the expedition, as was Constant d'Aubigné, father of Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon.[2] The expedition sailed in two ships. One, with 400 men, carried l’Olive, Duplessis and two of the Dominicans, and the other carried 150 men and the other two Dominicans. They reached Martinique on 25 June 1635, which they claimed for the king, then moved on because they found the island "cut by precipices and gullies and infested with poisonous snakes".[1]
Settlement of Guadeloupe
Sugar cane plantation on Guadeloupe
The ships made a very fast passage to Guadeloupe, where they disembarked on 28 or 29 June 1635.[1] The landing point was near Pointe-Allègre (Sainte-Rose).[8] L'Olive established himself west of Pointe Allègre on the banks of what became the Vieux-Fort river, so called because Fort Saint-Pierre was built there. Du Plessis made his base east of Pointe Allègre and built a small fort on the river that became called Petit-Fort river.[1] No traces of these forts remain, but an old map shows their position.[1] The governors went to Saint Christophe for six weeks. Two weeks after they arrived d’Esnambuc sent colonists to settle in Martinique.[10]
Pointe-Allègre proved to be a poor location, and many settlers died from sickness or starvation. The survivors moved to the south of the island beside the present Vieux-Fort. The Caribs helped them fell trees, sow the land, make canoes and fish for turtles and manatees. However, acting against the advice of Du Plessis, l'Olive decided to attack the Caribs and take their food and women.[8] Jean du Plessis seems to have been gentle, human and prudent, and broke with the more brutal Charles de l'Olive.[9] Du Plessis embarked for France with Jean François du Buc late in 1635 after the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe had been ruined. He died on 4 December 1635, apparently on the return boat.[2]
The French West Indies or French Antilles are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
Antillean Creole is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of French, Carib, English, and African languages.
The Carib Expulsion from Martinique was the French-led ethnic cleansing that removed most of the Kalinago population in 1660 from the island of Martinique. This followed the French invasion in 1635 and its conquest of the Caribbean island that made it part of the French West Indies.
The culture of Dominica is formed by the inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Dominica is home to a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, it was the Taíno and Island Caribs (Kalinago) tribes that remained by the time European settlers reached the island. "Massacre" is a name of a river dedicated to the murders of the native villagers by both French and British settlers, because the river "ran red with blood for days." Each claimed the island and imported slaves from Africa. The remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) Carib Territory on the east coast of the island. They elect their own chief.
Pierre Belain, sieur d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635.
The Company of the American Islands was a French chartered company that in 1635 took over the administration of the French portion of Saint-Christophe island from the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe which was the only French settlement in the Caribbean at that time and was mandated to actively colonise other islands. The islands settled for France under the direction of the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique before it was dissolved in 1651 were:
As an overseas department of France, Martinique's culture is French, African and Caribbean. Its former capital, Saint-Pierre, was often referred to as the Paris of the Lesser Antilles. The official language is French, although many Martinicans speak a Creole patois. Based in French, Martinique's Creole also incorporates elements of English, Spanish, Portuguese, and African languages. Originally passed down through oral storytelling traditions, it continues to be used more often in speech than in writing.
The Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was a company created and chartered by French adventurers to exploit the island of Saint-Christophe, the present-day Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 1625, a French adventurer, Pierre Bélain sieur d'Esnambuc, landed on Saint-Christophe with a band of adventurers and some slaves. Returning to France, in 1626 he applied for and received a charter from Cardinal Richelieu to create the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe. Richelieu was a major stockholder in the company, contributing some 10,000 livres out of the company's capital stock of 45,000 livres. The company was not very successful. In 1635 Richelieu directed his councilor François Fouquet to reorganize the company under the new name Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique and with a charge to colonize Sainte-Christophe, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Jacques Dyel du Parquet was a French soldier who was one of the first governors of Martinique. He was appointed governor of the island for the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique in 1636, a year after the first French settlement had been established. In 1650 he purchased Martinique, Grenada and Saint Lucia. He did much to develop Martinique as a colony, including introduction of sugarcane.
Adrien Dyel, Seigneur de Vaudrocques et de Gournay was a member of the French minor aristocracy who was governor of Martinique from 1658 to 1662.
François Rolle, Sieur de Laubière was a French soldier who was acting governor of Martinique from 1667 to 1672. As a militia leader he helped defeat the indigenous Caribs and established full French control over the island.
Charles de Pechpeyrou-Comminges, chevalier de Guitaut was a French army and naval officer who became governor of Martinique and then of Saint Christophe. He was three times acting lieutenant-general of the French Antilles.
Pierre du Halde was a French soldier who was the second governor of the French colony on Saint Christopher Island between 1636 and 1638.
Claude de Roux, chevalier de Saint-Laurent was a French soldier, a chevalier of the Knights Hospitaller, who was governor of the colony of Saint Christophe on Saint Christopher Island from 1666 to 1689. He took office in the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67), when the French expelled the English from the island, and left office early in the Nine Years' War (1688–97), when the English expelled the French from the island.
René de Béthoulat, seigneur de La Grange-Fromenteau was deputy governor of the French colony of Saint-Christophe, on Saint Christopher Island, from 1638 to 1639. When the governor arrived the two men began quarreling, La Grange was imprisoned on a charge of high treason, and later was shipped back to France.
Robert de Longvilliers de Poincy was a French local governor of Saint Christophe and Saint Martin in the French Antilles. His uncle, Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, was commander of the French colonies in the Antilles from 1639 to 1651, then commander of the colonies of Saint Christophe, Saint Croix, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Martin for the Knights of Malta. Longvilliers reestablished French control of the northern part of Saint Martin after the Spanish withdrew and the Dutch tried to take over the whole island.
Jean Dupont was the first local governor of Martinique after the island had been taken by French forces under Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc in 1635. Accounts of events are confused, but after some fighting he managed to establish an uneasy peace with the island Caribs, who withdrew to the east of the island. He was returning to report to d'Esnambuc in Saint Christophe when he was shipwrecked, taken captive by the Spanish, and held captive for the next three years.
Jérôme du Sarrat, sieur de La Pierrière was a French soldier who was interim governor of Martinique in 1646–47 when the governor, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, was the prisoner of Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, governor of Saint Christophe.
Charles Liénard, sieur de L'Olive was a French colonial leader who was the first governor of Guadeloupe.
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