Pierre Sidrac Dugue dit Laf, sieur de Boisbriant
(Boisbriand): (1675-1740)
Pierre was the son of Capt. Michel-Sidrac Dugue (Duguay), sieur de
Boisbriant & Marie LeMoyne whose marriage was witnessed in 1667 at
Montreal by R.de
LaSalle. He was first married to Angelique de Leugre (m.1694) and later
married Angeligue Hayot (m.1718). Pierre's children were Genevieve (1695-1731;
m.Andre Bergeron in 1719), Jacques
(b.1698), Pierre (1699-1731; m.Francoise Houde in 1731), Ursule (b.1700;
m.Charles Houde in 1721) & Charlotte-Angelique (b.1711; m.Joseph Bourgoin
dit Bourguinon in 1735).
In 1700 Pierre was at Ft.Biloxi
with his cousins, the Lemoyne brothers, as part
of the French plan to secure the mouth of the Mississippi River for France
and establish the "end link" of a chain of forts that would stretch back
to New France, effectively cutting off further English & Spanish expansion
toward the Mississippi. Pierre's parents friend, de
LaSalle, had claimed the mouth of the Mississippi 15 years earlier
for France and now the LeMoyne's arrived to develop that claim.
By 1717 Pierre is commander at Mobile and the next year he arrives
in Louisiana from France with a commission from the King for Bienville
as Commandant-General of Louisiana and for himself the titles of Chevalier
de St.Louis & Governor
of the Illinois (he arrives in Kaskaskia
in January of 1718). In1720 he finishes construction on Ft.Chartres
(near Kaskaskia) which help secure the Illinois Country for France, in
the European struggle for dominance of mid-America. As commander of Illinois
Country in 1723, he sent de Bourgmont up the
Missouri and west to discover trade oportunities amoung the Kansas &
Comanches and
to learn how far the Spanish expansion from the west was reaching. From
1725
to 1726
he replaces Bienville as Governor
of Louisiana and in 1728 Boisbriant leaves Louisiana for France.
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