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.