Ninth Generation

352. Joseph Grégoire GUILLORY Sr. was born about 1712 in Massacre Island (Mobile County), Alabama (Dauphin Island), USA. He moved his family to the Opelousas area in about late 1764 and this can be confirmed by a petition he filed with the Louisiana Superior Council on 29 December 1766 at Opelousas regarding a piece of land he had claimed after receiving an order from Commandant Pellerin which permitted to choose a tract of land in Opelousas and settle himself on it. According to the petition, Guillory moved to Louisiana to live among the French and his countrymen after the cession of Mobile to the British which took place in 1763. Based on the info in the petition, one can also surmise that there the death of his wife in April 1764 also played a factor in the timeframe of his move to Louisiana. According to "The Guillory Manuscripts ..." (DeVille), an inventory of the Guillory property was made on 22 July 1764 at Mobile. It is very likely that the inventory of the property was made due to the death of Marie Jeanne LaCasse and/or in preparation for the family to sell their property in order to move to Louisiana. He appeared in the census in 1771 at Opelousas Post in (St. Landry Parish), Louisiana, USA. Listed in his household are his sons - Baptiste, Claude, Joseph and Louis. He has seven slaves (including Marguerite who was pregnant at the time), 30 cattle, 15 horses and 18 arpents of land "with title". Interestingly, it is possible that the unnamed slaves were Marguerite and her four mulatto children (although none of the slaves were listed in the census as being of mixed race) - all the undisputed children of Marguerite and Joseph Grégoire Guillory. The first is believed to have been born c1764 which would seem to indicate that the relationship between master and slave began prior to the death of Joseph Gregoire's wife - Marie Jeanne Lacasse in late April 1764. (This is confirmed by the fact that Marguerite was listed as pregnant in the 22 July 1764 inventory.) Sometime after the birth of his fourth child (c1770) with Marguerite, Joseph Grégoire went through the motions of freeing his Negro mistress and their children. Their emancipation had become a point of contention between Joseph and his children but he had convinced them that he could free these five slaves and still manage to pay them their undivided half interest in the slaves of which they were entitled from their mother's estate. The emancipation papers were drawn up on 31 December 1770 and were recorded in New Orleans. Based on the circumstances that followed, it can be assumed that Marguerite and her children remained living with Joseph Grégoire and were, possibly, listed as slaves in the 1771 Census. However, in 1773, in order to settle the estate of his deceased wife, Joseph legally conveyed his mistress and four mulatto children to his legitimate children, ignoring the 1770 emancipation. (It turns out that the 1770 emancipations were not legally prepared and, therefore, invalid but it is unclear if Joseph knew this at the time.) Regardless, what ensued was a fascinating legal battle over the freedom of Marguerite and her children that ended in 1783 with the emancipation of her and her children (The Margarita Case). (Note: An inventory was made on 13 March 1773 of the property and assets of Joseph Grégoire GUILLORY Sr. at his request and that of his sons. This inventory was placed into evidence during the "Margarita" case in 1782.)³⁰⁶⁸ He died about 1777/8 at the age of 66 in Louisiana, USA.¹⁵⁵⁶ Marie Jeanne LACASSE and Joseph Grégoire GUILLORY Sr.^{782,1557,1558} were married on 20 August 1739 in Mobile (Mobile County), Alabama, USA.¹⁵⁵⁹

353. Marie Jeanne LACASSE was born and baptized on 20 March 1726 in Mobile (Mobile County), Alabama, USA.^{1558,1560,1561,1} She died on 27 April 1764 at the age of 38.¹⁵⁶² Marie was buried on 28 April 1764 in Mobile (Mobile County), Alabama, USA.^1562,1563,1

[Note: Marie Jeanne's 1st marriage was to Joseph Joseph Stamaÿer dit Châteauneuf at Mobile on 21 November 1737.]

Children were: