The Cantillon Settlers

Tuesday’s post had me thinking about the Cantillon settlement, established over three hundred years ago. Who were these people? If you remember my post a while ago on it, I said this appeared to be the first real effort by the French at settling the area now known as Ouachita Parish. They set up residence around 1720 where Bayou DeSiard empties into the Ouachita River. It lasted less than ten years. Sickness, isolation, financial trouble and the natives wiping out the settlers at the Natchez fort had the remaining settlers high tailing it back to New Orleans and France.

Buried in the January, 1932 Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Page 73 is a transcribed list of passengers of the ship The St. Louis, which sailed from France on March 21, 1719 for the Louisiana Colony. Listed as those who were sailing with Richard Cantillon for his colony were thirty-nine other souls. They were:

Pierre Ruau
Pierre Texier
Denys Souloone
Guillaume Leyne
Thomas Hussy
Jeanne Broat (Female)
Guillame Jordan
Jean Mathieu la Hosse
Jean Courcy
Simon Courbier
Louis Courcel
Jean Cornelly
Anne Barault (Female)
Jean Owen
Jean Smith
Jonathan Darby (Clerk)
Jean Darling (Clerk)
Robert Cook (Irishman)
Jean Bidet (Wheelright)
Estienne Bonnet (Joiner)
Jean Jullien (Baker)
Elie Bertin (Baker and cook)
Nicholas Crozimier (Laborer)
Michel Foret (Cooper)
Jacques Courtableau (Cooper)
Jacques Garant (Laborer)
Charles Lesne’ (Valet)
Pierre Mongon (Refiner)
Christophle Batteton (Miner)
Olliver Paronneau (Shoesmith)
Charles Dupain (laborer)
Honore’ Rotureau (Miller)
Pierre Sebastien Lartout (Tailor) Note: A Lartout, tailor was listed as massacred at Natchez in 1729. I wonder if this is the same man?
Jean Dessanas (Wig Maker)
Marie Bertin (Serving Girl)
Jacques Autraseau (Carpenter)
Jean Rancon (Tailor)
Jacques Barbier (Carpenter)
Simon Le Gas (Laborer)

So there they are. These are the names of the first forty white settlers in Ouachita Parish (that are known). I wanna know what a wig maker was doing going into the wilderness miles from the nearest other settlement? I doubt anyone would be wearing a wig up here! I really feel sorry for those three women! I also wonder what the local natives thought of these crazy white settlers invading their land? So many questions that will never be answered.

As an addendum to the above, I found another Louisiana Historical Quarterly Article from the January-October, 1930 Issue, Page 224. It is an article discussing early census records of the Louisiana colony and one section talked about a census taken in 1721, just a couple of years after the Cantillon settlers arrived in Louisiana. A section written by Diron Dartaguette, Inspector General of the Troops of Louisiana at that time, states: “The concession of Sr. Cantillon, an Irishman, is located on the Ouachitas River, otherwise called the Black River, which falls into the Red River. We have heard that the soil is good and that there are about ten whites and twenty negroes. Sr. Cantillon manages it himself.” Right there is the mention of the first African-Americans in Ouachita Parish. Also notice thirty of the original settlers are already gone. Interesting stuff!