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1769 |
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| South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. | ||||||||||||
| North America: Virginia's legislature resolve secretly on nonimportation of taxable goods. Virginia settlers are moving into Tennessee in defiance of George III. Daniel Boone leads more settlers to Kentucky. In California Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are established as Spanish missions with early crops of grapes, oranges and olives and Carlos III establishes four armed garrisons. Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa, is murdered at Cahokia, perhaps assassinated to prevent him from raising another army against the British. Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; Jefferson begins Monticello in Virginia. | ||||||||||||
| Europe:Louis Antoine de Bougainville completes circumnavigation of the world. Painting by Jean Baptiste Greuze; theatre by Sebastien Chamfort; Opera by Mozart; Shakespeare festivals; Wedgewood pottery. James Watt patents his steam machine and opens a factory and Richard Arkwright modernizes cotton thread production. Ben Franklin charts the Gulf Stream, which is unknowsn to British sea captains. James Cook, who has been sent to the South Pacific to observe an eclipse, discoves Tahiti and New Zealand. | ||||||||||||
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January 1769
January The Creole revolutionaries try to align Indians against Spain. Gilberto St. Maxent prevails by maintaining friendship with the Indians. |
February 1769
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March 1769
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April 1769
April 1  ElVolante finally leaves Louisiana with Governor Antonio de Ulloa on board. Also in April Carlos III appoints Lt. General Alejandro O’Reilly to proceed immediately to Havana where he would assume control of the forces that will quell the revolt in Louisiana. He leaves Cadiz in late April, arrives in Havana on June 24 and is prepared to sail to New Orleans by July 6 with a 2,000 man force. The rebels had tried everything, but their pleas to the French crown and the British government for help and plans for a republic all fail. |
May 1769
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June 1769
June 24 Lt. General Alejandro O’Reilly arrives in Havana to assemble a force bound for Louisiana. |
July 1769
July 6 Alejandro O’Reilly O’Reilly leaves Havana for New Orleans by with 23 ships and 2,600 hand-picked troops. French Creole scouts announce that there is a Spanish flotilla in the Gulf at the river’s mouth, awaiting winds to ascend the river. There are 24 warships and several thousand troops, 50 pieces of artillery and Alejandro O’Reilly. His force is met in July at The Balize by three men: Lafreniere, Pierre Marquis, and Joseph Milhet. they are sizing up the situation and O’Reilly assures them that he would sort out the facts before he would use force or decide punishment. |
August 1769
August 15 Alejandro O’Reilly and his forces arrive in New Orleans. The next day he formally accepts surrender from Charles Philippe Aubry in the Place d’Armes. O’Reilly also is charged with forming the new government. He formally dissolves the Superior Council and the minutes of the Cabildo from August 18, 1769 describes his assumption of power as governor and Captain-General of Louisiana. Since the Cabildo does not yet exist the meeting consisted of O’Reilly and two scribes (escribano) Francisco Xavier Rodriquez and Jose Fernandez. By late September Joseph Ducros is mentioned as regidore perpetuo and depositario general (court custodian). On August 19 Alejandro O’Reilly and Charles Philippe Aubry discuss the rebel leadership. The next day ten individuals are arrested and O’Reilly issues a general pardon to the rest of the population who are invited to take an oath to the Spanish king, Two months are taken to gather testimony and evidence. Felix del Rey presents the government’s case, the charges being treason, sedition, writing inflammatory documents and leading hostile troops, all aimed at expelling the Spanish authority. The defense states that Spanish law had never been instituted. The Ascension Catholic church is founded on August 15 by Father Angel de Revillagodos on orders of King Charles III of Spain. Cornerstone of the present church is laid June 1876 by Bishop Elder of Natchez and the April 14, 1896 dedication by Archbishop Janssens of New Orleans. |
September 1769
September 17 Governor Alejandro O’Reilly issues a tariff fixing the prices of most staples. Last month when he arrived the food supply of the province was in total disarray. After the Cabildo is formed the council monitors the food supply and alters the tariffs. It also will be responsible for weights and measures, building and supervising the operation of public markets, guaranteeing a plentiful supply of staples and controlling their prices and quality, especial meat and bread. September 26 An inventory of government property is conducted by O'Reilly. |
October 1769
An October 8 proclamation by Alejandro O’Reilly allows twelve taverns, six billiard halls and one limonadier (lemonade seller) to dispense alcoholic drinks. He ordered them closed at 8 pm, but hours will fluctuate through the years and for a small bribe the night watch could always look the other way. October 20 O’Reilly receives the prosecutor’s recommendations and four days later he hands down the sentences with the advice of Judge Advocate (auditor de guerra) Manuel Jose de Urrutia. On October 25 General Alejandro O’Reilly, an Irishman in the service of the King of Spain and Spanish Governor of Louisiana executes French patriots and martyrs: Nicholas Chauvin LaFreniere, (Attorney-General of Louisiana), Marquis, Jean Baptiste de Noyen, Pierre Caresse, Milhet, Joseph Villere having died previously in prison. Bloody O’Reilly had arrived in New Orleans. Other sentences were: Joseph Petit - life imprisonment (in Havana’s Morro Castle); Jean Milhet, Pierre Poupet and Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc - six years imprisonment and banishment from Louisiana forever. All property was seized except for the dowries of their wives. All prisoners served a year and a half before being pardoned. The commissary Foucault was deported (arrested in France and confined to the Bastille for 18 months). Twenty other individuals were also exiled, most of them for engaging in contraband. Denis Braud, the royal printer was pardoned for following the orders of his superiors. |
November 1769
In November Jean Payroux requested a permit to open an apothecary shop in New Orleans. The Royal physician, François Le Beau, examines Peyroux and gives him a provisional license. His certificate is confirmed by the Cabildo on January 12, 1770. He is the first licensed pharmacist in New Orleans. Le Beau draws up a list of seven rules to be followed by pharmacists, which is approved by O’Reilly and the Cabildo. November 25 Alejandro O’Reilly releases two proclamations: Ordinances and Instructions of Alexander O’Reilly (known as the Code O’Reilly) and Instructions as to the manner of instituting suits, civil and criminal, and pronouncing judgments in general, in conformity to the laws of the Nueva Recopilacion de Castilla, and the Recopilacion de Las Indias. This contains the only evidence of a charter for the Cabildo. |
December 1769
December 1 Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga has been chosen by O’Reilly to be governor of Louisiana. O’Reilly remains in Louisiana as Captain-General with authority outside New Orleans until he leaves around March 1, 1770. December 7 Alejandro O’Reilly declares that it is against Spanish law to enslave and hold Indians captive. December 9 O’Reilly authorizes construction of the first casa capitular, a government building that is built on the same site as today’s Cabildo. Also, the new Spanish administrators move immediately to make property owners comply with Spanish law to furnish sidewalks which they call banquetas. The familiar French banquette is derived from the Spanish word. They are to be five feet wide and sloped one inch per foot toward the street. They also require that awnings be hung ten feet above the walkways. December 12 Governor Luis de Unzaga issues a decree for constructing the sidewalks. Late in the Spanish era sidewalks, like the gutters were prone to damage by fires and flooding and were rebuilt with minimal conformity and uniformity. |
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| In 1769 the government of Louisiana changes to the Spanish system of administration. The Governor and Intendant are retained but the French Superior Council is replaced by the Cabildo, an ancient Spanish form of municipal government. The Cabildo is composed of six regidores perpetuos who elect two alcaldes ordinarios, an attorney general (sindico) and a superintendent of public property (mayordomo de propios) each year. Civil and military authority is invested in the governor who presides at sessions of the Cabildo, and also appoints commandants (tenientes particulares) for each of nine parishes or districts. A notary (escribano) is the permanent, salaried secretary to the Cabildo. The laws come directly from Spain, the Captain-General of Cuba, the Cuban administrative council (Audiencia de Habana), or from the governor, who in his inaugural address announces a list of new laws. |
Alejandro
O’Reilly chooses regidores
perpetuos, five of which are planters who sided against last year’s
rebellion. The sixth is Denis Braud, the colony’s printer, who had been jailed briefly. Original Cabildo regidores: Alferez Real - Francisco Maria de Reggio Alcalde Mayor Provincial - Pedro Francisco Olivier Receptor de Penas de Camara - Dionicio (Denis) Braud Alguacil Mayor - Carlos Fleurian Depositario General - Joseph Ducros Regidore Sencillo - Antonio Bienvenu New Orleans is garrisoned by one infantry battalion from 1769 to 1783. Each battalion has about 600 men. |
The Code O’Reilly consists of two documents.
Ordinances and Instructions of Alejandro
O’Reilly are designed for the New Orleans Cabildo.
Instructions as to the Manner of Instituting Suits, Civil and Criminal, and Pronouncing Judgments in General, in Conformity to the laws of the Nueva Recopilacion de Castilla, and the Recopilacion de Indias was for the courts of the alcaldes ordinarios. O’Reilly appoints Juan Bautiste Garic as the first Cabildo escribano. Garic is the former clerk of the Superior Council and his knowledge of Louisiana s laws and customs is important in a smooth transition from French to Spanish rule. He had begun a notorial practice in New Orleans in 1739 and was already a trained lawyer and a doctor of civil and canon law. The post of notary public was remunerative and as a consequence was valued greater than a regidore. It was not a salaried post and enjoyed only the modest fees proscribed by law. Tips, bribes and peculation probably added to the income of the notaries. Andres Almonester is a second escribano. |
Oliver
Pollock who has been a merchantile agent in Havana moves to New
Orleans and receives contract from O’Reilly to supply flour.
Balthazar Mazan a grantee and retired military captain is sent to Morro Castle in Havana and loses his plantation. The plantation is purchased by Etienne de Bore in a public auction. It is here that sugar is first granulated for commercial purposes by Cuban Antoine Morin. Only 18 years of age at the time, Casa Calvo first comes to Louisiana with Governor O’Reilly . He is a close friend of O’Reilly, whose son married a niece of Casa Calvo. |
O'Reilly grants the two squares of the old governors house to builder François Hery to pay a contract for erecting the first Cabildo building. He also gives the lands of the old barracks flanking the Place de Armes to members of the Cabildo on a ground rental basis. Most of these Cabildo members sold the lots to others and they eventually end up belonging to Almonester. In a change of Charity Hospital policies, the Spanish governor will now appoint and administrator, although the vicar general remains nominal head. The administrator is usually the sindico procurador general. Church of the Iberville Coast built by Acadian exiles near St. Gabriel. Francois Bonaventure, French Indian trader, builds a house on 2000-acre tract near Bastrop. La. and names the plantation "Old Cabbins" He was well established when Don Juan Filhoil came into this region. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church is built on the German Coast the church which gave its name to the civil parish contains the grave of the wife of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard and the John Slidell family tomb. |
Founded by French traders in the middle of the 18th century the Poste des Opelousas is the headquarters of the District of Opelousas under Spanish in 1769. In 1808 it is the Parish Seat of Old Imperial St. Landry . Opelousas is the temporary site of the State Capital 1862-1863. During the Spanish period a Frenchman, Athanase de Mezieres, was made the commandant at the Spanish garrison in Natchitoches because the native Indians did not trust or want to trade with the Spanish. A census commissioned by General Alejandro O’Reilly in 1769 reported about 100 settlers, including slaves & Apache Indians near the post. By the late 18th century numerous families from Virginia, Maryland, Georgia & the Carolinas had settled in the vicinity, taking advantage of liberal land grants extended by the Spanish government. Prior to U.S. annexation by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the post served as portage station along Nolan’s Trace, a trail blazed in the horse trade between Spanish Texas and the American Southwest. In the early 19th century an influx of merchants, farmers, and herdsmen gave rise to the community of Pineville. Throughout the century Pineville served as an important commercial link to towns and villages north of the Red River. On March 14, 1878, the town was incorporated. Pierre Caresse PAC Bourisgay Derbigny Henry Schuyler Thibodeaux |
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