Jacques Cantrelle Sr. (abt. 1697 - 1777)

Born about 1697 in Saint-Léger, Picardie, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Husband of Marie Margueritte Joseph Larmusiau — married 16 Apr 1730 in St. Louis Church, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana

Descendants

Died 21 Oct 1777 at about age 80 in St. James, Louisiana

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Biography

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Le Sieur Jacques Cantrelle

Jacques Cantrelle, the father-in-law of Nicolas Verret, was born in Picardie, France, around 1697, the son of Claude Cantrelle and Marguerite Turpin.^[1][2]

He came to Louisiana from France on Le Profond in June of 1720. He was listed as un ouvrier-- a workman, and was married to Marie Francienne Minquetz. Marie Francoise was among those massacred by the Natchez Indians at Fort Rosalie on 28 November 1729.^[3]

Marie Francienne having died, Jacques married again on 16 April 1730, this time to Marie Marguerite Larmusiau, daughter of Jean Baptiste Larmisiau and Catherine Hetternin. (Catherine Thereze Severin Larmusiau) Marguerite was the widow of Pierre LeHoux, who was also killed in the massacre.^[4]

In 1731, Cantrelle had a habitation sur le long du fleuve (plantation along the river), a wife, step-daughter, two children, one workman, four slaves, 2 horses, and two armed men. (Census: 1731 Kenner, LA)^[3]

From about 1735 to 1763, Cantrell lived in New Orleans while others tended his plantation property along the river.^[3]

"CANTRELLE purchased a lot in New Orleans in 1735, and not long after, he moved to the city where he became an employee of the Superior Council. He and his son-in-law Nicholas VERRET owned plantations in St. James where slaves were stationed to work before 1763, but he did not move there until between 7 Oct 1764 and 4 Apr 1765. His family apparently did not come until after the census of 9 Apr 1766. He named his new domicile Cabahannocer, where he developed an indigo plantation, and donated the land for a church, called St-Jacques (or St. James)."^[3]

In 1762, Jacques Cantrell and two of his sons-in-law, Louis Judice and Nicholas Verret, acquired a large tract of land just above the second German Coast. Jacques remained in New Orleans while Judice and Verret established plantations on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Verret managed both his and Jacque's land in the vicinity of modern day St. James, while Judice managed his own property upriver toward modern day Donaldsonville.^[3]

The census of 1766 taken on the right bank of the Mississippi River beginning with the habitation of jacques Cantrelle to Bayou Lafourche (approximately from the present-day St. James Railway Station to the town of Donaldsonville.)^[3]

Jacques Cantrelle, age 66, 5 Slaves; 28 arpents of land; 0 cattle; 0 sheep; 20 hogs and 1 gun.

On the Census of the Acadian Coast in 1769 along both banks of the Mississippi River from Jacques Cantrelle to Joseph Hebert to the environs of --l'isle aux mases.^[3]

Jacques Cantrelle, age 72

Marguerite Larmusieux, w[ife] 59

Michel Cantrelle, s[on], 20

Jacques Cantrelle II, 19

On the census of "Saint Jacques a Cabanhan-noces" on the two banks of the river, taken on January 1, 1777, "Le Sieur Jacques Cantrelle" was the first person documented. Nicolas Verret had died but Cantrelle's daughter, Verret's widow and her children were also in the household.^[5]

Le Sieur Jacques Cantrelle, former captain, 80;

Marguerite de Larmuzieaux, his wife, 65;

Michel Cantrelle, their son, lieutenant-commandant, 27;

Jacques Cantrelle, their son, sous-lieutenant, 25;

Marie Cantrelle, widow Verret, former commandant, 44;

Nicolas Verret, son fils, 26;

Jacques Verret, son fils; 24;

Auguste Verret, son fils, 23;

Philipe Verret, son fils, 19;

Louis Verret, son fils, 17;

Marie verret, sa fille, 27;

Marguerite Verret, sa fille, 20.

The plantation owned by Jacques and managed by Verret was named "Cabahannocer" after a Native American word for a mallard duck's roosting place. The entire coastal area between the second German Coast and Judice's plantation became known as "the Cabahannocer Coast." When the first Acadian refugees arrived in New Orleans in 1764, the governor sent them Verret, who assigned each family a small plot of riverfront land adjacent to the large Cabahannocer Plantation. After Jacques joined his sons-in-law in 1765, the practice of assigning land to the Acadians continued until they occupied both banks of the river from the second German Coast to Judice's land. By 1770, when the St. James Parish church was established, people were referring to the Cabahannocer Coast as the (first) Acadian Coast. ^[3]

Jacques (James) Cantrelle was one of the most prominent of the early settlers in St. James Parish. Both St. James Catholic Church and St. James Parish were named in his honor. He donated the land for the first church in the Parish, and in appreciation, the Parish church was named St. Jacques de Cantrelle after his patron saint. The first civil parishes in Louisiana were created from the church parishes. Thus, St. Jacques de Cantrelle also became the civil parish of St. James.^[3]

Across the river from St. James Church is St. Michael Church in Convent which was named in honor of the patron saint of their son, Michel Bernard Cantrelle.^[3]

He died in October of 1777^[6] and was buried at the original St. James Catholic Church.^[7]

Research

Marriage:

• The Simon and Related Families; Ernest Simon

"No. 344. Jacques Cantrelle with Margueritte LARMUSIAU. Vicar General. On 16 April 1730, I, the undersigned Capuchin Apostolic Missionary Priest of NerV' Orleans, after having published three marriage banns at the sermon of the parish mass on three consecutive Sundays between Jacques Cantrelle, native of St. Leger in Picardie, Diocese of Amiens, son of Claude Cantrelle and Margueritte Eurquin, his father and mother, widower of Marie Francoise Minquetze, '01120 died at Natchez, on the one hand, and Marie Margueritte LARMUSIAU, native of Rennes in Henault, daughter of Jean Baptiste LARMUSIAU and Catherine Hetternin, her father and mother, widow of Pierre HOUX, who died at Natchez, on the other hand, and finding no impediments to the marriage, I blessed their marriage in the presence of the undersigned witnesses, to wit: Mr. Rossard, Clerk of the Superior Council; Manade, Surgeon-Major; Mr. Michel, Clerk; Jean Louis; who signed with me in the presence of the intended bride, who, having declared that she did not know how to write nor sign, made her usual mark.. (Signed) Cantrelle, Manade, Rossard, Michel, Jean Louis and Father Hyacinthe, Capuchin Apostolic Missionary Priest."

• Very detailed biography - including source material - can be found in a scanned article on the Cantrelle family University Libraries Digital Collections website

• Cochran, Estelle Mina Fortier. "Chapter 33 C. The Cantrelle Family." In The Fortier Family and Allied Families. San Antonio ?: 1963. (Scanned pages 132-134) University Libraries Digital Collections; University of Arkansas Libraries; Colonial Arkansas Post Ancestry; Core Family Papers (MC 1380, Box 21, File 3)

Sources

1. ↑ Glenn R. Conrad, St. Charles - Abstracts of the civil records of St. Charles Parish [LA], 1700-1803 (Lafayette, LA: Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, 1974) p. 424 :Age 72 in 1769.
2. ↑ Karen Theriot Reader, geneanet.org Jacques Cantrelle; citing Glenn R. Conrad, "Dictionary of Louisiana Biography," v. 2 (Lafayette, LA: Louisiana Historical Assoc./Center for LA Studies, USL, 1988)

   Born, Picardy, France, 1697; son of Claude Cantrelle and Marguerite Turpin Cantrelle

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9} Lillian C. Bourgeois, Cabanocey (New Orleans: Pelican Publ., reprint, 1998) Note: Cites Archive General de Indies Papeles de Cuba, 187A. The Papeles Procedentes de Cuba is a section of the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla holding records of the Spanish colonies throughout the Caribbean and on the North American continent. They contain documentation from the mid-seventeenth century well into the nineteenth century and are particularly rich for the period from circa 1760 to 1821. Cuba Genealogy Club pp. 6, 8, 162

   "In 1720 Jacques CANTRELLE came to Louisiana from France on the little barque Le Profond in a voyage which took three months and seven days. He was a member of the personnel of the Natchez concession. In 1729 almost the entire Natchez colony was wiped out in the Indian massacre (including his first wife)."

4. ↑ "Sacramental Records", vol. 1, 1718-1750; Woods, Earl C. & Charles E. Nolan, eds. (New Orleans: Archdiocese, 1987) pp. 39 & 152

   "(SLC, M1, 193)".

5. ↑ Winston De Ville, The Parish of St. James in the Province of Louisiana: Abstracts from the Spanish Census of 1777 (Ville Platte, LA: by Author, 1987) Note: Genealogical Abstracts from the Spanish Census of 1777. Original in: Archives of the Indies, Papeles procedentes de Cuba; legajo 190; folios 192-205; p. 6
6. ↑ Catholic Church Records, vol. 2, 1770-1803; Diocese of Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, LA, 1980) p. 173

   "Jacques, former churchwarden, patron of this church, bur. 21 Oct. 1777 (SJA-1, 56a)"

7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #113787002

Acknowledgements

• Jacques Cantrelle

• The Cantrell Family