Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (1721 - 1824)

Born 22 Nov 1721 in Basel, Basel Canton, Switzerland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 27 Oct 1824 at age 102 in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Huguenot Migration Project WikiTree [send private message] and George Blanchard [send private message]

Joseph DesBarres was a Huguenot emigrant. Join: Huguenot Migration Project Discuss: huguenot

Early Life

Joseph DesBarres is Notable.

Joseph DesBarres was a centenarian, living to age 102.

The family of Vallett des Barres (the old spelling) is a very ancient one in the county of Montbeliard in the South East of France, not far from the Swiss frontier, the village of Hericourt having been probably its place of origin.^[1] The name DesBarres has been found as far back as the 13th century... but the first of the family of whom a record exists was Jean Vallet des Barres, a Councilor of the Province of Montbeliard in 1685. He was dismissed from this position and banished to Basel in Switzerland, on account of his religious convictions; there he died in 1719 leaving six children. One of these was named Joseph Leonard, who married Anne Catherine Cuvier, of the family of the celebrated Cuvier, who also belonged to Montbeliard. They had the following children:

1. Joseph-Frederic Vallet (November 22, 1721)
2. Charles Christophe Henri
3. Catherine Elizabeth

Military Career

After schooling in his native Switzerland DesBarres went to England and attended the Royal Military College at Woolwich. On finishing his course he was offered a Commission in the Artillery or the Royal Engineers. He desired immediate active service and chose to go to America in 1756, being appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal American Regiment then in process of formation.^[1] Upon reaching the colonies DesBarres was assigned to raise 300 recruits from the pioneer families in Pennsylvania because he himself was from the same area (modern French/Swiss border - Montbeliard) as many of these families.

The French and English Empires were embroiled in what became known as the Seven Years' War at this point in history. We would undoubtedly know much more about DesBarres' personal role in the fighting if his journal had survived, but it was loaned to a researcher in the early 1900s and lost. What we do know of his involvement is from notes of other officers and the general location of the 60th Regiment to which he was assigned. Highlights of his service may include;^[1]

• July 1758 - Elements of the 60th Regiment were a part of the Battle of Carillon/Ticonderoga.. an embarrassing loss based on poor intelligence. This failure in proper reconnaissance may have driven DesBarres' career as a cartographer.
• Late July 1758 - DesBarres was at the Siege of Louisbourg where we know he was employed in developing plans for the approaches and siege of the Fortress.
• Winter 1758/59 - his work at Louisbourg had impressed General James Wolfe who tasked him with preparing charts of the St. Lawrence River from French maps acquired at Louisbourg.
• 1759 - he accompanied Wolfe on his campaign against Quebec City as an Engineer with elements of the 60th Reg. where the British were successful in a major victory.
• 1760/61 - DesBarres was sent to Halifax to make plans and estimates for fortifications at the dockyards there.
• 1762 - he was Engineer and Quarter Master General under Colonel Amherst who recaptured St. John's, Newfoundland where he made surveys of several major harbours and plans for their defense.

Cartography

In early 1763 the war officially ended and several high ranking officials in the Admiralty complained about the lack of accurate surveys of coastal North America. Several more senior officers declined this work, but Rear Admiral Spry found DesBarres more than willing to take on the task. He is said to have thrown himself into the work which earned him the praise of many high ranking officers.^[1]

The result of 10 years of survey work by DesBarres and a following 9 or so years of publishing and revising (and more than £100,000 according to sources at the time^[1]) was the monumental "Atlantic Neptune." The most important collection of maps, charts and views of North America published in the eighteenth century. At times during the publishing process DesBarres had 20 full time staff and 23 assistants working under him.

The publishing of the Atlantic Neptune came at a very opportune time for DesBarres as the American Revolution broke out in 1775/76. With the British Navy scrambling for accurate military surveys of American ports the government allowed DesBarres access to ALL charts made by naval surveyors; including influential cartographers at the time like Samuel Holland. Indeed much of the survey work in the Neptune is attributed to others such as Holland, but the credit for the final product is general given fully to DesBarres.^[1] Rather strangely DesBarres was given the rights to privately publish his atlas which meant copies of his work were sold and circulated around Europe as early as 1784 (the end of the American Revolution).

Governor

DesBarres was appointed on June 24, 1784, and had the honour of kissing His Majesty’s hand in July. In addition to being Lieut. Governor he was invested with the command of the troops and Garrisons which might be placed both in Cape Breton and the Island of St. John (now Prince Edward Island).^[1] In his work Webster speculates that this position was given to DesBarres to quiet his constant complaining about not being paid for his work on the Atlantic Neptune. DesBarres had been given approximately £4,000 (roughly £700,000 today) which the Admiralty paid after an investigation into his accounts. They stated this was the last time they would pay him, but DesBarres at the time said it would barely cover the interest accrued.

He served as Governor of Cape Breton from 1784 to 1788, but it was not the honour DesBarres had expected. He had difficulties at Louisbourg which had been mostly torn down, and thus moved the settlement to Spanish River naming it Sydney in 1785 (a street there still bares his name). The treasury and admiralty refused to make advances of money to him in order to establish the new colony and thus he was forced to take matters into his own hands. He sold off or mortgaged several of his own properties in hopes that the Crown would eventually pick up his bill.^[1]

After he had been recalled in 1788 an investigation into his accounts was launched and found that, "he had exerted himself to establish and support the Government committed to his charge in a manner deserving commendation." The treasury agents paid out approximately £10,000 (£1,800,000 today) to various creditors absolving DesBarres of most of his debt.^[1] A further bill of more that £6,000 was produced but never paid, thus DesBarres went back to pleading for reimbursement year after year.

After several years of lobbying DesBarres (then a man of 80+ years) was given the Governorship of Prince Edward Island which he held from 1804 to 1812.^[2] This was a much easier position as the population at this time had already been improving the land here since 1769. As a result DesBarres found himself in more of a political role.^[1] In November of 1805 he met with the first House of Assembly in Charlottetown where they discussed issues surrounding absentee landlords, and the relative defenselessness of the local militia. The militia was an issue DesBarres continued to push for until the War of 1812 broke out and the British government finally listened to his pleas. However they decided that, being 92, DesBarres should be released from his duties and gave him a retirement pension.

Family and Vital Records

While the 1770 census of Nova Scotia mostly lists individual families, Castle Frederick at Falmouth is uniquely listed with DesBarres as the head of a staff of 42 men, 13 women, 5 boys, and 33 girls. They are categorized as 54 Protestants and 39 Catholics, with 14 from England, 21 from Scotland, 24 from Ireland, 17 from Germany, and the difference of 17 (probably mostly Catholics) of unspecified origin.^[3]

When Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres died on 27 October 1824, those awaiting the event must have been both relieved and expectant... his earlier days of boundless energy and driving ambition has passed into a gradual decline, marked by acrimony, petulance, and the bitterness of unfulfilled promise. When he died, one month short of 103, he left not one, but two families, plus countless forgotten offspring.^[4] DesBarres' recognized family had tended him during his final years... almost certainly senile and yet apparently active enough to celebrate his hundredth birthday by dancing on a tabletop.^[5]

DesBarres' legitimate family born of his wife Martha Williams (although there are questions about whether they were officially married) numbered at least 11 children. According to biographer Evans, the children did not inherit DesBarres' artistic gifts but they did take after him in his quarrelsome disposition. After his passing in 1824 there were legal battles over the inheritance for more than 16 years with little being gained by anyone but the lawyers.^[6] Those children who survived to adulthood were^[7];

1. Joseph Frederick (died in India 1817)
2. James Lutterell (1787 - 1831)
3. Augustus Wallet (1793 - 1866)
4. Dolben Wyndham (?)
5. Martha Frederica (?)
6. Isabella Matilda (1786 - 1832)
7. Clara (?)
8. Louisa (?)
9. Grace Frederica (?)

Mary Cannon is remembered today simply as DesBarres' mistress, a woman of dubious moral integrity. Her role in managing DesBarres' huge Nova Scotian land holdings is rarely recalled.^[4] Mary Cannon was born about 1751, probably in Halifax, although definite proof of her parentage remains elusive... she met DesBarres in 1764 at the age of 13. By her own court testimony given in 1810, she stated that she lived with DesBarres from 1764 to 1773.^[8] Mary Cannon and DesBarres conceived 6 children (Although DesBarres had no intention of legitimizing these children by marriage, he did grant them his surname);

1. Amelia Louise Matilda Lutterell
2. John Frederick William
3. Spry Ann
4. Martha Sophia (Chalmers)
5. an unidentified daughter who died in childhood (1783)
6. Mary

Colonel JFW DesBarres passed on 27 Oct 1824 at the age of 102, and was buried in the crypt of St. George's (Round) Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} The Life of Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres, John Clarence Webster, privately published, Shediac, 1933 accessed via archive.org
2. ↑ Prince Edward Island Governors, Lieutenant Governors and Administrators 1769 to May 2009; Pictures and Biographical Information Published By: Elections P.E.I. Office; Update No. 3 - May 2009
3. ↑ J. F. W. DesBarres, Falmouth, Hants County — 1770, Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 vol. 443 no. 11 accessed at https://archives.novascotia.ca/census/RG1v443/returns/?ID=522
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Kernaghan, Lois "A Man and his Mistress: J.F.W. DesBarres and Mary Cannon" https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/viewFile/11188/11924
5. ↑ Deposition of John Sterling, physician and surgeon, 7 September 1825, Estate Papers, D49, Probate Court, Halifax County; G.N.D. Evans, Uncommon Obdurate: The Several Public Careers ofJ.F.W. DesBarres (Toronto, 1969), p. 97.
6. ↑ Uncommon Obdurate: The Several Public Careers of J. F. W. DesBarres, 1969, Geraint Nantglyn Davies Evans accessed via archive.org
7. ↑ Desbarres family fonds (also known as Desbarres-Jennison Collection) MG 1 volume 1725, Nova Scotia Archives, 1762-1892 Donated by Ann DesBarres Clifford, Nepean, Ont. in 1981
8. ↑ Acadian Recorder (Halifax), 13 October 1827. Mary was always referred to as "Mrs. Cannon", no doubt out of deference to her position as agent/attorney
9. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/198340243/joseph-frederick_wallet-desbarres: accessed 04 November 2022), memorial page for COL Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (22 Nov 1721–27 Oct 1824), Find a Grave Memorial ID 198340243, citing Saint George's Round Church, Halifax, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, Canada; Maintained by Brian McConnell (contributor 48857516) .

See Also:

• Wikipedia article on DesBarres https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Frederick_Wallet_DesBarres
• R. J. Morgan, “DesBarres, Joseph Frederick Wallet,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed February 2, 2016, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/desbarres_joseph_frederick_wallet_6E.html.