Pierre Cloistre dit Clouâtre, a gunsmith, reached
Acadia from France by 1722, the year he married Marguerite, daughter of André LeBlanc, one of the pioneers of the Minas
settlement. Pierre and Marguerite settled at Grand-Pré and had at least a dozen children
at Minas, including
Marie-Josèphe in April 1723; Louis in August 1724; Georges in
November 1727;
Dominique in May 1729; Pierre-Sylvain in c1740; Anne in March 1744;
Marthe-Marie July 1746; and Joseph in c1750. Daughter Anne's marriage record calls her a native
of "St. Jean, Acadia," so the gunsmith and his wife may have lived on
French-controlled Île St.-Jean during the 1740s. Only one of Pierre and Marguerite's sons seems to
have married before Le Grand Dérangement: Third son Dominique married
Françoise, daughter of Claude Boudrot, fils and Catherine
Hébert, probably at Minas in c1750. Oldest daughter Marie-Josèphe
married into the Hébert family at Grand-Pré in October
1747. Daughter Anne married into the Capdeville family in
Louisiana.
[See also
Book Three]
LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT
[For the family's travails
during the Great Upheaval, see
Book
Six]
LOUISIANA: RIVER SETTLEMENTS
Most, if not all, of the Acadian Clouâtres
who came to Louisiana arrived in early 1768 from Port Tobacco, Maryland, with the
large party led by brothers Alexis and Honoré Breau of Pigiguit.
After an unfortunate confrontation with the colonial governor, Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish
troops escorted the Breau clan, including the Clouâtres, to the new Acadian community of
Fort San Luìs
de Natchez on the river far above Baton Rouge, where they had not wanted to go. In 1769, after a revolt against Ulloa ousted the unpopular
governor, his successor, General Alejandro O'Reilly, allowed the Breaus
and their kin at Natchez to settle where they wanted. None of them,
including the Clouâtres, remained at Natchez. They moved downriver
to the Acadian Coast communities of San Gabriel or St.-Jacques, where Acadians
from Maryland had settled in 1766 and 1767:
Marguerite LeBlanc, age 62,
widow of Pierre Cloistre dit Clouâtre, came with four adult children--Pierre-Sylvain, age 27, Anne, age 23, Marthe-Marie, age 21, Joseph, age 18, and perhaps son Louis, age 43.
Marthe died at Fort San Luìs de Natchez of illness and was buried in the fort's
cemetery on 30 April 1768. Anne married Bernard,
son of Antoine Capedeville and Catherine Larcosse or Cousan
of Ste.-Foix, Morlaas, Béarn, France, surgeon-major of Fort San Luìs de
Natchez, and widower of Anne Arosteguy, probably at Fort San Luìs in December 1768. They settled at San Gabriel
after Spanish officials released them.
Cécile Breau,
age 30, widow of Georges Clouâtre, came with three of her children--Joseph le jeune, age 7,
Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, age 6, and Charles, age 3. Madeleine married cousin Amand, son of Jean-Baptiste Breaux, at
St.-Jacques in July 1779; she was only 17 years old. She died at St.-Jacques in
December 1800, in her late 30s.
Four, perhaps, five lines of Acadian Clouâtres
arose on the river, but only two of them survived to
perpetuate the name in the Bayou State. Of those two lines, one of them
left the river in the early 1800s and settled in the Bayou Lafourche/Bayou Terrebonne
valley:
Descendants of Louis CLOUÂTRE
(1724-?)
Louis, eldest son of Acadian
progenitor Pierre Cloitre dit
Clouâtre and Marguerite LeBlanc, born at Grand-Pré in August
1724, was deported to Maryland along with his parents and siblings in the fall
of 1755. He was counted with his widowed mother at Port Tobacco, Maryland,
in July 1763, when he would have been in his late 30s. The colonial census
mentioned no wife, so he must have married after July
1763, in his 40s. He may have come to Louisiana with the Breau party from
Port Tobacco in 1768 (his widowed mother and a number of his siblings were in
that party) and followed them to Fort San Luìs de Natchez that spring and then
to St.-Gabriel, downriver, in 1769. He married fellow Acadian Marguerite
Landry probably at St.-Gabriel. Evidently they had no sons, but two
of their daughters, Marie-Anne and Marguerite, born probably at St.-Gabriel, married into the Flore,
Morales, Prosper,
Schlatre, and Suire families, so at least the
blood of this line of the family survived. After her remarriage at
St.-Gabriel in May 1802, Louis's Marguerite followed her husband, French Creole François Suire,
to the Opelousas District, west of the Atchafalaya Basin, where she died in April
1803, perhaps from complications of childbirth. Louis's daughter Marie-Anne remained
on the river.
Descendants of Pierre-Sylvain
CLOUÂTRE (1740-1798)
Pierre-Sylvain, fourth son of Acadian
progenitor Pierre Cloitre dit Clouâtre and Marguerite LeBlanc, born at
Grand-Pré in March 1740, was deported to Maryland along with his parents and
siblings in the fall of 1755 and counted with his widowed mother at Port
Tobacco, Maryland, in July 1763. He came to Louisiana with the Breau
party from Port Tobacco in 1768; his widowed mother and a number of siblings
were in that party. He followed them to Fort San Luìs de Natchez that
spring and then to St.-Gabriel, downriver, in 1769, where he married
Marie-Madeleine, called Madeleine, daughter of fellow Acadians Pierre Boudreaux
and Madeleine Hébert and widow of Joseph Landry, in the 1770s. He and his wife were counted on the
"left bank ascending" at St.-Gabriel in 1777. Their daughter
married into the Blanchard and Dupuis families. Pierre died at
St.-Gabriel in May 1798; the priest who recorded his burial said that Pierre was
age 60 when he died, but he was 58. He and his wife had no
sons, so this family line, except for its blood, did not survive in the Bayou
State.
Descendants of Joseph CLOUÂTRE l'aîné
(c1750-?)
Joseph, fifth and youngest son of
Acadian progenitor Pierre Cloitre dit Clouâtre and Marguerite LeBlanc, born
at Grand-Pré in c1750, was deported to Maryland along with his parents and
siblings in the fall of 1755 and counted with his widowed mother at Port
Tobacco, Maryland, in July 1763. He came to Louisiana with the Breau
party from Port Tobacco in 1768; his widowed mother and a number of siblings
were in that party. He followed them to Fort San Luis de Natchez that
spring and then to St.-Gabriel, downriver, in 1769. He married Marguerite,
daughter of fellow Acadians Dominique Babin and Marguerite
Boudreau, at St.-Gabriel in June 1780,
and remarried to Élisabeth-Marie or Marie-Élisabeth, daughter of fellow Acadians Olivier Thibodeaux
and his second wife Élisabeth Boudreaux, at St.-Gabriel in February 1787. All of his children were by his second
wife. Their daughters married into the Babin Bergeron, and Pitre
families. In the late 1810s, his oldest son established a new center of
family settlement in the
Bayou Lafourche valley. Joseph's other married son and his daughters
followed, some of them moving down the valley to Bayou
Terrebonne.
1
Oldest son Joseph, fils, by his
father's second wife, born at St.-Gabriel in December 1789, married Marie Henriette,
called Henriette, daughter
of fellow Acadians Joseph Molaison and Marie Gautreaux
of Lafourche, at the Plattenville church, Assumption
Parish, in October 1818. They settled on upper Bayou
Lafourche.
2
Louis le jeune, by his father's second
wife, born at St.-Gabriel in January 1798, was living in Terrebonne Parish when
he married Marguerite Elmire, daughter of Pierre Victor Chatagnier
and his Acadian wife Marie Modeste Hamon
of Terrebonne Parish, at the Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish,
in April 1837. They settled in
Terrebonne Parish.
3
Youngest son Pierre Treville, by his
father's second
wife, born at St.-Gabriel in October 1804, probably died young.
Descendants of Joseph CLOUÂTRE le
jeune (c1760-1841; Pierre dit Clouâtre)
Joseph le jeune, elder son of Georges Clouâtre
and Cécile Breau and nephew of Louis et al., was born in Maryland in c1760.
He was counted with his
parents at Port Tobacco in July 1763. He came to Louisiana with the Breau
party from Port Tobacco in 1768; his mother, now a widow, two of siblings, and
other Clouâtre kin were in that party. He followed them to Fort
San Luìs de Natchez that spring. Meanwhile, his mother remarried to
fellow Acadian Charles Gaudet at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques in May
1768. In 1769, Joseph followed his stepfather and his mother to Cabanocé,
where he married Marie, daughter of fellow Acadians Jean-Baptiste Poirier
and Marie-Madeleine Richard, in c1785.
Their daughters married into the Breaux and Melançon families.
Joseph remarried to Félicité, daughter of fellow Acadians Charles Louvière
and Isabelle Melançon, at
St.-Jacques in February 1801. Joseph died in St. James Parish in February 1841;
the priest who recorded his burial said that Joseph was 87 years old when he
died, but he probably was "only" in his early 80s. Just half of
his six sons created families of their own. Like their father, they
remained in St. James Parish. One grandson moved upriver to Pointe Coupee
Parish, but the others remained in St. James.
1
Oldest son Joseph, fils, by his
father's first wife, born at St.-Jacques in October 1786, probably died
young.
2
Olidon, by his father's first wife, born
at St.-Jacques in May 1789, probably died young.
3
Michel, by his father's first wife, born
at St.-Jacques in August 1791, married Marcellite, sometimes called Manette, daughter of fellow Acadians
Amand Bourgeois and Scholastique Arceneaux, at the St. James church, St. James Parish, in May
1815. Their son, name unrecorded, died in St. James Parish at birth in
February 1816, Michel, fils was born in February 1817, Félix in
September 1821, Edward in April 1824, Drosin Clément, called Clément,
in Ascension Parish in April 1826, and Clairville was born posthumously
near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1834 but died at age 5 in October
1839. Their daughters married into the Dugas and Rome families.
Michel died near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1834; the priest who
recorded his burial said that Michel was age 45 when he died, but he was
43. In September 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish
counted 5 slaves--3 males and 2 females, all black, ranging in age from 28 to
2--on Wdw Mel Cloitre's farm in the parish's Eastern District; this was
Michel's widow, Marcellite Bourgeois.
3a
Félix died near Convent, St. James
Parish, in May 1849, age 27, and did not
marry.
3b
In July 1850, the federal census
taker in St. James Parish counted a single slave--a 9-year-old mulatto
male--on Drauzin Cloitre's farm in the parish's Eastern District.
Drosin Clément married Céline Odile, daughter of Foreign Frenchman Pierre Désiré Letulle
and his Acadian wife Amelie Boudreaux, at the Convent church, St.
James Parish, in November 1851.
Their son Joseph Eugène was born near Convent in July 1853, and Félix
le jeune in March 1855. In June 1860, the federal census taker in St.
James Parish again counted a single slave--this time a 13-year-old black
female--on Clément Clouatre's farm in the parish's Fourth District on
the Left Bank. Clément died near Convent in October 1868; the
priest who recorded the burial, and who did not give any parents'
names or mention a wife, said that Clément died at "age ca. 35 years";
he was 42. His wife gave birth to a daughter only four months before
his death.
4
Georges-Jérôme, called Jérôme,
from his father's first wife, born at St.-Jacques in November 1799, married Émelite,
called Melite, another daughter of Amand Bourgeois and Scholastique
Arceneaux, at the St. James church, St. James
Parish, in January 1818. Their son Jérôme, fils, also called Evariste,
was born in St.
James Parish in October 1818, Joseph le jeune in November 1819, Sylvain,
called Sylvanie, in January 1822, George Livingston was born in 1830, and Amand
Théogène, called Théogène, was baptized at the Convent church,
St. James Parish, age 10 months, 25 days, in June 1835. Their daughters
married into the Berthelot and Bourgeois families. Jérôme,
père died near Convent, St. James Parish, in November 1847; the priest
who recorded his burial said that Jérôme was 50 years old when he died, but he
was 48. In June 1850, the federal census taker in St. James Parish
counted 2 slaves--a 27-year-old black female and a 1-year-old mulatto female--on
Widlow Jérôme Clouatre's farm in the parish's Fourth District on the Left
Bank; these probably were Jérôme's widow, Émelite Bourgeois's, slaves
4a
Joseph le jeune married Marie
Ezilda, called Ezilda, daughter of Nicolas Rome and Eurasie
Webre, at the
Convent church, St. James Parish, in January 1849. Their son Léon
Joseph was born near Convent in July 1851. Their daughter married
into the Duhon family. Joseph le jeune
remarried to French Creole Virginie Berthelot, widow of Émile Favrange,
at the Convent church in February 1860.
4b
Sylvanie married cousin Marie
Scholastique, called Colastie, daughter of fellow Acadian Jean Estival Bourgeois
and his Creole wife Véronique Keller, at
the Convent church, St. James Parish, in January 1849, the day after his older
brother Joseph married in the same church; Sylvain and his wife had to secure
a dispensation for third degree of consanguinity in order to marry.
Their son Joseph Sylvain was born near Convent in December 1849, Florian
in September 1851 but died at age 20 months in June 1853, Joseph le
jeune was born in February 185[4] but died at age 6 months the following
August, and Adam Fulgence was born in September 1863. In
June 1860, the federal census taker in St. James Parish counted 2 slaves--a
40-year-old black female and a 14-year-old black female--on Sylvanie Clouâtre's
farm in the parish's Fourth District on the Left Bank.
4c
Evariste married Clara Marguerite or
Marguerite Clara Chutz probably in Pointe Coupee Parish in the late
1840s or early 1850s. Their son Jérôme III was born in Pointe
Coupee Parish in February 1855, and Jean Uranus in January 1862.
During the War of 1861-65, Evariste
may have served in Company F of the 4th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, raised in West Baton Rouge Parish,
which fought in
Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Did he
survive the war and return to his family?
4d
Théogène married Marie Anne
Victorine, called Victorine, daughter of Louis Isidore or Isidore Victor Letulle
and Berthilde Legendre,
at the Convent church, St. James Parish, in January 1857. Their son Louis Jérôme was born near Convent in
March 1858, Arthur Stanislas in March 1866. During the War of
1861-65, Amand
Théogène served in the 5th Battery Louisiana Artillery, also called the
Pelican Artillery, raised in St. James Parish, which fought in Louisiana. He
remarried to Eugénie Lucenty at the Donalsonville church, Ascension
Parish, in January 1870.
5
Joseph Marcellin, called Marcellin,
from his father's second
wife, born in St. James Parish in September 1808, married Philomène Gilchrist,
sometimes Gilbert, a native of Alabama, in either Alabama or St. James Parish in the late 1830s or early 1840s. Their son Pierre
Adam, called Adam, was born in St. James Parish in January 1844 but
died the following May, and Joseph Elphége, called Elphége, was born in September
1846.
Elphége married Ernestine
Fourroux in St. John the Baptist Parish and settled at Lucy and Edgard.
6
Youngest son Joseph Drosin, by his
father's second
wife, born in St. James Parish in January 1812, may have died young.
Descendants of Charles CLOUÂTRE
(c1765-1802; Pierre dit Clouâtre)
Charles, younger son of Georges Clouâtre
and Cécile Breau and nephew of Louis et al., was born in Maryland in c1765.
He came to Louisiana with
the Breau party from Port Tobacco in 1768; his mother, now a widow, two
of siblings, and other Clouâtre kin were in that party. He
followed them to Fort San Luìs de Natchez that spring. Meanwhile, his
mother remarried to Charles, son of Acadian Jean Gaudet, at
Cabanocé/St.-Jacques in May 1768. In 1769, Charles followed his
stepfather and his mother to Cabanocé, where he married Marianne, sometimes called Anne,
daughter of fellow Acadians Jean Arceneaux and Judith Bergeron, in January 1786. Their
daughters married into the Frederick, Hakle, and Selvis
families. Charles died
at St.-Jacques in January 1802; the priest who recorded his burial said that
Charles was 45 years old when he died, but he was closer to 37. Their only
son never married, so this line of the family, except for its blood, died with
him. A daughter, Marie-Marin, wife of Charles Frederick of
Sweden, followed her husband to the western prairies.
Bélisaire, born probably at
St.-Jacques in c1801, died near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1831, age 30, and
probably did not marry.
Other CLOUÂTREs on the River
Local church and civil records make it
difficult to link some Clouâtres on the river with known lines of the
family there:
Augusto Cloâtre served as a
witness to Joseph Clouâtre le jeune's second marriage at
St.-Jacques in February 1801. Who was Augusto?
Marie-Euphrosine, daughter of Jacques Clouâtre,
died at age 15 months near Convent, St. James Parish, in August 1811. The
priest who recorded the girl's burial did not give her mother's name. Who
was her father Jacques?
Madame Clouâtre died near St.
Gabriel, Iberville Parish, age 82, in August 1816. The priest who recorded
the good woman's burial did not give her full name, her parents' names, or
mention a husband.
LOUISIANA: LAFOURCHE VALLEY
SETTLEMENTS
During the early antebellum period, Clouâtre
brothers
from the river moved to upper Bayou Lafourche, creating a second, smaller center of
family settlement:
Descendants of Joseph CLOUÂTRE, fils
(1789-; Pierre dit Clouâtre)
Joseph, fils, eldest son of Joseph Clouâtre
and his second wife Élisabeth-Marie or Marie-Élisabeth Thibodeaux, born
at St.-Gabriel in December 1789, married Marie Henriette, called Henriette, daughter of fellow Acadians
Joseph Molaison and Marie Gautreaux, at the Plattenville church, Assumption Parish, in
October 1818. They settled on upper Bayou Lafourche. Their daughters
married into the Dantin, Gaspard, Gautreaux, and
Laperouse
families. Some of Joseph, fils's children settled in Terrebonne Parish.
1
Oldest son Joseph III, born
in Lafourche Interior Parish in March 1832, married Philomène, daughter of
Zedeon Calahan and his Acadian wife Cléonice Boudreaux, at the Chacahoula church, Terrebonne Parish, in July
1865. Their son Ferdinand
Joseph was born near Chacahoula in February 1869.
2
Joseph Viléon was born in
Lafourche Interior Parish in October 1834.
3
Joseph Claiborne, born in
Lafourche Interior Parish in August 1836, died in Lafourche Interior Parish in
December 1851, age 15.
4
Pierre married Tarsile,
daughter of fellow Acadians Hippolyte Pitre and Rosalie Naquin, at the Houma church,
Terrebonne Parish, in December 1858.
Descendants of Louis CLOUÂTRE le
jeune (1798-; Pierre dit Clouâtre)
Louis le jeune, second son of Joseph Clouâtre
and his second wife Élisabeth-Marie or Marie-Élisabeth Thibodeaux, born at St.-Gabriel in January 1798,
was living in Terrebonne Parish when he married Marguerite Elmire, daughter of
Pierre Victor Chatagnier and his Acadian wife Marie Modeste Hamon of Terrebonne Parish, at the
Thibodauxville church, Lafourche Interior Parish, in April 1837. They also
settled in Terrebonne Parish. Their daughter married into the Echete
family.
1
Oldest son Louis Amédée was
born probably in Terrebonne Parish in January 1840.
2
Émile Marcel was born probably
in Terrebonne Parish in June 1841.
3
Youngest son Marcellin Jackson
was born probably in Terrebonne Parish in August 1844.
CONCLUSION
The Clouâtre family was a small
one in Acadia; it was only in its second generation when British forces deported them
from Minas to Massachusetts and Maryland in 1755. The
Clouâtres in Maryland came to Louisiana in early 1768 with the large
party from Port Tobacco led by brothers Alexis and Honoré Breau of
Pigiguit.
Spanish governor Ulloa forced the party to settle at remote Fort San Luìs de Natchez,
across the river from present-day Natchez, Mississippi, but in 1769, after Ulloa's ouster, the Clouâtres moved downriver to St.-Gabriel and
St.-Jacques, where other exiles from Maryland had settled in 1766 and
1767. A number of Clouâtre lines were started in those
settlements, but only two of them survived. One of the
St.-Jacques lines, that of Joseph le jeune, was especially prolific.
During the early antebellum period, two of Joseph le jeune's cousins moved from
their native St. Gabriel to the Bayou Lafourche valley and established a second center of family settlement.
Their descendants moved down to the Bayou Terrebonne area, some of them settling
near Chacahoula. No Clouâtre
family put down roots on the western prairies before the War of 1861-65, though at least two Clouâtre
wives may have lived there during the late colonial and early antebellum periods.
Judging by the number of slaves they
owned during the antebellum period, the Clouâtres of
St. James and Terrebonne parishes participated only peripherally in the South's
plantation economy. According to the federal census slaves schedules of
the late antebellum period, one of them in St. James held more than
five slaves at any one time, and their cousins in the Lafourche-Terrebonne
valley held none, at least none who appeared on the federal slave schedules in
1850 and 1860.
According to state and Confederate
service records, only two Clouâtres served Louisiana in uniform during
the War of 1861. Judging by their dates of enlistment, they probably were
conscripts. Both of them survived the war, which was not kind to their
home parishes. Even before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into
effect in January 1863, Federal commands controlling the lower Mississippi freed
the slaves on every farm and plantation their forces could reach.
Meanwhile, Union gunboats shelled and burned dozens of houses along the river.
Successive Federal incursions devastated the Lafourche and Terrebonne valley,
and Confederate foragers also plagued the area when the Federals were not
around. ...
The family's name also is
spelled Chiadtre, Cloac, Cloat, Cloate, Cloatre, Cloeta, Cloistre,
Clouac, Clouain, Clouard, Clouatte, Clouet, Colaitre, Collaitre, Colloite,
Collouer, Collouette, Colluete,
Coloitre, Colonot, Colouet, Colwat, Couatre, Coulaitre. [See
Book Ten
for the family's Louisiana "begats"]
Sources: 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave
Schedules, St. James Parish; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedules, St.
James Parish; Arsenault, Généalogie,
1136-37, 2459-60;
Brasseaux, ed., Quest for the Promised Land,
133; BRDR, vols. 1a(rev.), 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11; Hébert, D., South
LA Records, vols. 1, 2, 3, 4; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vols.
1-A, 1-B; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies,
93, 99, 153, 182; Wood, Acadians in Maryland, 107-09.