Francois Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre I: (1676/77 - 1729)
     He was the son of Pierre Picoté & Marie Pars, born in Montreal. Francois I married 1st.to Anne-Francoise Bouthier (daughter of Guillaume Bouthier & Francoise-Jeanne Denys Laronde) in 1709 and married 2nd.to Marie-Catherine Trottier Labissoniere des Ruisseaux de Beaubien (daughter of Antoine Trottier & Catherine Lefebvre and widow of Jean Cuillerier) in 1714. His children were: Marie-Anne (1714-1756) (m.Louis-Cesaire Dagneau, sieur de Quindre in 1736) & Francois-Marie II (1719-1793) (m.Marie-Anne Nivard in 1738).
     His sisters married into the fur-trade, giving him brother-in-laws such as Alphonse Tonti (Baron de Paludy), Michel Godefroy (sieur de Linctot), Pierre Lemoyne (sieur d'Iberville), Antoine La Fresnaye (sieur de Brucy) & Jean Bte.Celoron (sieur de Blainville). Francois-Marie was temporary Commander of Detroit from 1721 to 1722, he died there on 9 October 1729. After being widowed in 1729, Marie-Catherine and her son (Antoine Cuillerier) from a previous marriage, became a trader at Detroit and was said to have been a friend of Pontiac.

Francois Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre II: (1719 - 1793)
     Francois II was the son of Francois-Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre & Marie-Catherine Trottier des Ruisseaux de Beaubien , born at Montreal. Francois II married 1st.to Marie-Anne Nivard dit St.Dizier (daughter of Pierre Nivard & Marie-Anne Prudhomme) at Montreal in 1738 and married 2nd.to Marie-Anne Magnan dit Lesperance at Montreal in 1753. His children were: Francois-Louis (b.1739) (m. Joachime Coulon de Villiers in 1762 at Fort Chartres), Marie-Joseph (b.1741), Etienne (b.1742), Francois-Xavier (b.1743), Anne (b.1746) & Marie-Archange (b.1748).
     Francois was promoted to 2nd Ensign in 1741 and commanding at the St.Joseph post in 1747. In 1751 he led a punitive raid on the La Demoiselle's village and in 1752 he was in France for a treatment of a wound. In April of 1756 Francois was involved in an engagement with 20 Frenchmen, 150 Miami, Ouiatonon & Shawnee under his command, 150 leagues below Ft.Duquesne in which he was wounded in the arm. He was again on a raid to the British Fort Cumberland in Virginia, with 12 French & 40 Native allies but as they were returning to Fort Duquesne they were attacked by a party of British/Indian. Francois was captured in the encounter and his nephew (Philippe Dagneau de la Saussaye), St.Ours and three French soldiers were killed, on May 30, 1757. From 1758 to 1760 he was the French military Commander at Detroit, surrendering (29 Nov.1760) the fort to British Mj.Robert Rogers (of Roger's Rangers fame & sponsor of the Jonathan Carver expedition to St.Anthony Falls). In September of 1760 he sent east his 2nd. in command, Pierre Passerat de La Chapelle, with 200 men to assist in the defense of Canada, but learning of the French defeat in the east he lead his men to the Mississippi River, later arriving in the French held territory on the Gulf.  After the surrender of Detroit to the British, Major Rogers sent Picoté and his 35 remaining French soldiers, under the escort of Lt.Holmes to Philadelphia and they were given passage to France. Francois was back in Canada in 1763 when he became a member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. In 1775 he opposed the American rebels in the invasion of St.Jean with Jean André, René-Amable Boucher de Boucherville, Louis et Luc de Chaptes de La Corne, Alain Chartier de Lotbinière, Antoine Juchereau Duchesnay de Fossambault, Hertel de Rouville fils, Joseph-Hyppolite Hertel de Saint-François, Georges-Hyppolite Le Comte Dupré, Dominique-Emmanuel Lemoyne de Longueuil, Samuel Mackay père, Charles-Roch Quinson de Saint-Ours et Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry.
 

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