The Francis Richard Family: From French Nobility to Florida Pioneers

Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti) (1766 – 1791)

T

he present day island of Hispaniola is divided into two countries: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The capital of the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo – Saint Domingue in French. But Saint Domingue was also the name of the entire western half of the island

(present-day Haiti) when it was a colony of France. It was to here, present-day Haiti (old Saint Domingue), not the present-day Dominican Republic, that the young Joseph Louis FRANÇOIS fled.

The Marriage The Memoirs of Florida reference to him marrying in Bordeaux is almost surely incorrect, because on February 18, 1773 Sir Joseph Louis FRANÇOIS dit RICHARD and Geneviève BIANNE were married in St. Marc Parish, St. Domingue.1 He was one month shy of his 27th birthday. She was 19.While Joseph Louis was a recent arrival in St. Domingue, Geneviève’s family had a much longer history on the island. Her father, Antoine BIANNE, had been born there, about 1718. Her mother, Jeanne LeMOINE, was probably born there, too, as her (Jeanne’s) brother, Jean, was born in St. Marc in 1714. Geneviève’s parents were married in St. Marc Parish on Sept. 13, 1741.2 All of her mother’s four siblings were also married in St. Marc. Many records from St. Marc Parish list Bordeaux as the home town of many of its parishioners. It is possible that the LeMOINE and BIANNE families were originally from Bordeaux as well. Geneviève was baptized on January 12, 1754.3 Her godmother and namesake was Geneviève BLAGUIS, the wife of Sir Michel ARNAUD. Geneviève’s nickname was “Honorine,” and it seems that this is the name by which she was known most of her life. Geneviève “Honorine” was the fourth of six children. She was five years old when her father died.4

Figure 11. Baptismal Entry for Genevieve BIANNE. February 24, 1754. Saint Marc, Saint Domingue (Haiti)

Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti)

From FRANÇOIS to FRANÇOIS dit RICHARD In French culture at this time, and today to a lesser extent, people often had dit names (pronounced “dee”). Dit means called or known as in French. People added dit names often to distinguish their family from another family with the same surname living nearby. The dit name could be the name of place (a town or region) or another name in the family, the mother’s maiden name or father’s first name, for example. At some point between his arrival in 1766 and his marriage in 1773, Joseph Louis (or Louis Joseph as he was also known) FRANÇOIS took on RICHARD as his dit name.

In his marriage entry, he is referred to as Sir Joseph Louis François dit Richard.”5

Figure 12. Marriage Entry. Sieur Joseph Louis FRANÇOIS dit RICHARD & Genevieve BIANNE.

Geneviève’s signature on the 1778 baptismal entry of her son, Jean Baptiste, further demonstrates that they were both using FRANÇOIS RICHARD as a double surname.6 Otherwise, she would have signed “Geneviève Bianne Richard.”

Figure 13. “FRANÇOIS RICHARD” Signatures on Baptismal Entry for Jean Baptiste RICHARD. Saint Marc, Saint Domingue (Haiti). 1778

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Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti) Further proof of this eventual evolution from FRANÇOIS to FRANÇOIS dit RICHARD to just RICHARD can be seen in Honorine’s Renunciation of Dower entry from Charleston, South Carolina, 1793.7 In this document, “François dit Richard” is clearly being used.

Figure 11. Renunciation of Dower by “wife of Lewis Joseph Francois dit Richard.” Charleston. 1793

This last piece of evidence for the name change is the most explicit in that it gives both Louis Joseph’s full name and the name that he is “otherwise called.” Whereas the previous document from 1793 used “François dit Richard,” this next document from 1796 used the anglicized “Francis dit Richard.”8

Figure 14. "Lewis Joseph Francis Dit Richard otherwise called Fr. Richard..." Charleston, S.C. 1796

Why did Louis Joseph add a dit name, and why did he choose RICHARD as his dit name? One possible reason is that he was trying to conceal his identity in case the authorities ever caught up to him for having killed the young man in the duel. An additional reason for taking on the RICHARD surname was due to the added prestige it bestowed on him and his family. The RICHARD family was well established in the colony while the Louis Joseph was the first FRANÇOIS in Saint Domingue. There were at least three different, yet related, RICHARD families living in St. Marc Parish, Saint Domingue.

It was not by accident that Louis Joseph ended up not only in the same colony, but also in the same 15

Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti) parish as these RICHARDs. There was a FRANÇOIS – RICHARD connection back in Lorraine, France. Class, of course, has historically played a large role in the selection of a spouse. There are countless examples of siblings from one family marrying siblings from another family. Sometimes this would occur over several generations, especially in smaller towns or sparsely populated areas. This was probably the case, to some extent, between the RICHARD and FRANÇOIS families in the Duchy of Lorraine going back, possibly, a century or more.

In 1708, Jean FRANÇOIS’ maternal grandfather, a widower, married Claudette RICHARD, a widow.9 Two years later, Claudette RICHARD stood as godmother to a daughter of Nicholas FRANÇOIS.10 Before marrying Jean FRANÇOIS’ grandfather, Claudette’s had already been in the FRANÇOIS family circle. Claudette’s first husband was Jean ALLIÉ. Marie Anne ALLIÉ was Jean FRANÇOIS’ paternal grandmother. (See table on p. 8.) Further research would probably uncover more FRANÇOIS – RICHARD (and ALLIÉ and HARMANT) marriages and connections in Lunéville and Nancy during the 17th and 18th centuries. Although the exact relationship between Claudette RICHARD’s family and the RICHARDs in Saint Domingue has not been established, there are too many coincidences of time, place, and name to arrive at any conclusion other than they were close relatives.

The RICHARD Family Lineage André François RICHARD d'ABENOUR was the vice consul to Egypt (1731) and later, the consul to Syria (1733).11 One of his sons, Sylvain, had at least five children, all born in St. Domingue.

Sylvain's cousin, François Pascal RICHARD chevalier (knight) de TUSSAC, made a name for himself as a botanist and naturalist. He traveled extensively throughout St. Domingue, Jamaica, and Cuba, and wrote and illustrated Flore des Antilles. He was the director of the Jardin Botanique d'Angers in Paris from 1816 - 1826. He also wrote Cri des Colons (Cry of the Colonies) in which he argued against giving Blacks more rights under the law. This RICHARD family is from Montmorillon, Vienne, in the Poitou Charentes region of France. Their history is traced to December 31, 1430. Jean RICHARD, Seigneur de Lage, was cited in a homage on that date. Since the beginning of the 16th century, many RICHARDs were "royal prosecutors" in Montmorillon. André RICHARD Sgr. de la Roche, was the treasurer of France in 1588. Jean RICHARD was the progenitor of at least two RICHARD branches - each named for the land they owned: RICHARD de TUSSAC and RICHARD d'ABENOUR. The RICHARD de la MISSARDIÈRE line possibly also originates with this family.12 16

Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti) Interestingly, there is evidence of all three of these RICHARD line in St. Marc Parish, Saint Domingue. Whatever the origins of the FRANÇOIS – RICHARD relationship, Louis Joseph FRANÇOIS became Louis Joseph FRANÇOIS dit RICHARD. His children would stop using their FRANÇOIS surname altogether, and would be known only by the recently acquired surname RICHARD. All of their descendants would also take the RICHARD name, leaving the connection to the FRANÇOIS family in the archives of St. Marc Parish, Saint Domingue and the cathedral in Florence, Italy. It’s also possible that the motivation for changing his name had more meaning than simply a way to get a leg up in a new place. Depending on how much communication and support he received from them, Louis Joseph might have felt forgotten or even betrayed by his family back in Tuscany. If that was the case, then the name change could have been a way for him to sever ties with his family.

Bruno ROSELLI, in his book The Italians in Colonial Florida, mistakenly believed that the RICHARDs were Italian and that their surname was originally RICCIARDI.13 While this is not true, it is understandable why the author would have believed this. On every marriage and baptism entry for his family in Haiti and in the United States from this time period, the family patriarch, Louis Joseph, is described as a “native of Florence, Italy.” ROSELLI simply jumped to the conclusion that the RICHARD name had been changed from its original Italian.

The Plantation On their plantation in the Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite area of St. Marc, Louis Joseph and Geneviève “Honorine” raised three children: Clementine Emèlie Louis Joseph Jr., and Jean Baptiste. A fourth child was born in St. Marc, but he lived less than one week.14 Their fourth surviving child, Jean Charles, would be born much later in the United States. Very little is known about the RICHARD family’s time in Saint Domingue. They enjoyed the privileged life of white, plantation-owning French society for about 18 years. One source, Memoirs of Florida, says the RICHARD plantation produced coffee; another source says it was sugar.

Slave Revolt: The Night of Fire Saint Domingue was the name of present-day Haiti when it was a colony of France from 1659 to 1804. It was the most profitable of all of France's colonies and possessions in the 18th century. Its plantations exported massive amounts of sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton. The money, of course, was made off the backs of the slaves who greatly outnumbered their French masters. Saint Domingue was infamous for the brutal way in which the slaves were mistreated. It is not known if the RICHARDs treated their slaves in Haiti as harshly as their contemporaries. Later documents from Florida, however, clearly show that Louis Joseph’s son, also named Louis Joseph, while owning slaves, viewed and treated them with more dignity than most other slaveholders of his time. Over time, the son would take 17

Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti) three slaves as wives, father many children with them, and, mostly telling, would provide for all of them in his will. Along with a few other like-minded, prominent slaveholders in Florida, the son would also petition the US Congress to revoke certain laws that discriminated against all Blacks, free or slave – and any White man who had sexual relations with a Black woman, slave or free. .

Regardless of how the RICHARDs treated their slaves, the general treatment of slaves in Saint Domingue was horrendous by any standard. The inhumane treatment meted out by French to their slaves came back to haunt them as a horribly bloody and ruthless slave revolt on August 22, 1791.

During this Night of Fire, the slaves unleashed their vengeance on the terrified White, French plantation owners.

Across the whole North Plain, 50,000 rose and with them, an inferno. 200 sugar plantations burned and with them six times as many coffee plantations, a quarter of all those on the island. The flames lit the night’s sky and could be seen as far away as the Bahamas. For three weeks afterwards, smoke and burning cane straw obscured the tropical sun and choked the sea with ash. On each plantation, slaves killed their own masters, those best treated—such as those of Gallifet— paradoxically showing them least mercy...

Thousands of plantocrats were strangled or battered to death that first night. Each atrocity was repayed in kind. Grenada-born Henri Christophe had a carpenter sawed to death between his own boards.

With the war cry of “Vengeance! Vengeance!” Jean Jacques Dessalines carried a White child impaled on a pike before him as a battle standard.

As clear-sighted as the Luddites a generation later, the insurgent slaves had no interest in preserving any part of the system that was enslaving them and so destroyed without restraint.15 After the Night of Fire, the island's surviving white plantation owners fled for their lives. Some members of the white petits blancs class, the merchants and businessmen, remained on the island as the slaves’ wrath was, for the most part, not directed at them. These "Saint Domingue refugees," as they would soon become known, scattered. Some returned to France; some wound up on other Caribbean islands; and some emigrated to the nascent United States, especially to the port cities of New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

1

Etat Civil. Saint Domingue. Saint Marc Marriages. Sieur Joseph Louis François dit Richard and Geneviève Bianne. p. 33.

2

Eglise catholique. Paroisse de Saint-Marc (Haïti). Registres paroissiaux, 1723-1788. Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1723-1770. Antoine Bianne “forty-one years of age” died 29 Sep 1759, p. 8; Jean LeMoine “twentyeight years old, of this parish” died in 1742, p. 104; Antoine Bianne and Jeanne LeMoine were married on 13 Sep 1741, p. 98; For Other LeMoine marriages, see Appendix D Descendants of Pierre LeMoine.

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Chapter 2: Saint Domingue (Haiti)

3

Etat Civil. Saint Domingue. Saint Marc Births. 1754, Geneviève Bianne, p.84.

4

See note #2 for Antoine Bianne.

5

Etat Civil. Saint Domingue. Saint Marc. 1773 Marriages. Sir Joseph Louis François dit Richard and Geneviève Bianne. p. 33.

6

Etat Civil. Saint Domingue. Saint Marc. 1778 Births. Baptism of Jean Baptiste Richard. p. 4.

7

Charleston Judgement Rolls. 1797 #632A, “Elisha Poinsett vs. Lewis Richard.”

8

Ibid.

9

Inventaire des Registres Paroissiaux. Nancy, Paroisse St. Sebastien, Marriages 1688-1720. 17 Jan 1708, Jean Harmant and Claude Richard, p. 229.

10

Inventaire des Registres Paroissiaux. Nancy, Paroisse St. Sebastien, Births 1702-1719. April 1710, Baptism of Jeanne Francois, p. 347.

11

Mézin, Anne. Les Consuls de France au Siècle des Lumières 1715-1792, p. 520.

12

Annuaire de la Noblesse de France et des Maisons Souveraines de l'Europe, p. 253-256.

13

Roselli, Bruno. The Italians in Colonial Florida, p. 44.

14

Etat Civil. Saint Domingue. Saint Marc Deaths. 1775, Infant Richard, p. 61.

15

Connor, John. Children of Guinea Voodoo, The 1793 Haitian Revolution and After, p. 15.

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