- François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes
François Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes (
June 17 ,1700 inMontreal, Canada -March 25 ,1736 nearMobile, Alabama [Cayton, pgs 17, 20] ) was aFrench Canadian explorer and soldier who established several forts in what is now the U.S. state ofIndiana , includingFort Vincennes .Early life
François Bissot was named François Margane after his godfather and uncle. [The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. s.v. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Vincennes,+Jean+Baptiste+Bissot,+sieur+de "François Marie Bissot, sieur de Vincennes,"] http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Vincennes,+Jean+Baptiste+Bissot,+sieur+de (Accessed May 17, 2006).] He was born in
Montreal toJean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes and Marguerite Forestier onJune 17 ,1700 . In 1717, he joined his father atKekionga , a village of the Miami People in present dayFort Wayne, Indiana . When Jean Baptiste died in 1719, François seemed to be the natural replacement for his father.Military career
In May of 1722, Vincennes was commissioned an Ensign. He took control of the fort at
Ouiatanon , near present dayLafayette, Indiana , in the 1720s. [Cayton, 5.] He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1730, and made commandant in what is now southern Indiana. He was commissioned to build a trading post on theWabash River , and established a Fort Vincennes, which is modernVincennes, Indiana .Although the colonial government of Louisiana did not support him, Vincennes convinced local
Piankeshaw to establish a village at the post. In 1733, he married the daughter of Philippe Longpré ofKaskaskia . They had two daughters, Marie Therese and Catherine- the first children of his new village. [Derleth, pg 9]Vincennes was captured and burnt at the stake by the
Chickasaw Indians on25 March ,1736 , in the modern state ofArkansas .Notes
References
*cite book |author=Cayton, Andrew R. L. |title=Frontier Indiana |publisher=Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN |year=1996
*cite book|author=Derleth, August |title=Vincennes: Portal to The West |year=©1968 |publisher=Prentice-Hall , Inc, Englewood Cliffs, NJ LCCN|68|0|20537
* [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Vincennes,+Jean+Baptiste+Bissot,+sieur+de The Free Dictionary]
* [http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/encyclopedia/FrancoisMarieBissotSieurdeVincennes-QuebecHistory.htm Quebec History]
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