Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac

40

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac : biography

March 5, 1658 – October 16, 1730

After his career in North America, he returned to France. In a record of service he filled out in 1675, he said that he had enlisted in the military as a cadet at the age of 17 in the Dampierre regiment, in Charleroi. Two years later in personal letters, however, he reported that he had been an officer in the Clérambault regiment in Thionville, and in 1682 he had joined the Albret regiment, in Thionville. This part of his military service has not been confirmed. It may be the record of his older brother François, because it appears inconsistent with Antoine’s academic level.

At the age of 25, Antoine Laumet departed from France to the New World. His father lost a lawsuit against a lawyer in Castelsarrasin that caused him financial difficulties. In addition, he had lost financial support following the death of Cardinal Mazarin and suffered the current intolerance against Protestants. Laumet may have embarked on his voyage by devious means, as historians have not found his name on any passenger list of ships departing from a French port.

New France

In 1683, Antoine Laumet arrived at Port Royal, the capital of Acadia. During the next four years, he explored his new country in all directions, extending his explorations to New England and New Holland, pushing south to the Caroline, now North Carolina and South Carolina, and learning some Native American languages and habits. He probably entered into a business relationship with Denis Guyon, a merchant of Quebec. On June 25, 1687, he married Guyon’s daughter, Marie-Thérèse, 17, in Quebec.

The marriage certificate is the first document that records his new identity. He identified as "Antoine de Lamothe, écuyer, sieur de Cadillac", and signed as "De Lamothe Launay". Like many immigrants, he took advantage of emigrating to the New World to create a new identity, perhaps to conceal the reasons that drove him from France. This new identity "ne sort pas de son sac" ("I did not create this identity out of nowhere"), as he wrote later. Antoine Laumet likely remembered Sylvestre d’Esparbes de Lussan de Gout, baron of Lamothe-Bardigues, lord of Cadillac, Launay and Le Moutet; adviser to the Parliament of Toulouse. He knew him for at least two reasons: Bardigues, Cadillac, Launay and Le Moutet are villages and localities close to his birthplace, Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, and Antoine’s father Jean Laumet was a lawyer in the Parliament of Toulouse.

The sons likely encountered each other during their studies. Second son in his family, Laumet identified with the second son of the baron. He used the phonic similarity between his own name and that of Launay, creating the name: Antoine de Lamothe-Launay. He took the title of écuyer (squire), the rank held by a family’s second son, followed by the title sieur (sire) of Cadillac. This accorded with the Gascon custom whereby the junior family member succeeds the elder son upon the latter’s death. Laumet created a new name, identity and boble origin, while protecting himself from possible recognition by persons who knew him in France.

In addition, he presented his own titles of nobility, as illustrated by armorial bearings that he created by associating the shield with the three « merlettes » (birds with no legs or bill) of the baron de Lamothe-Bardigues and that of the Virès family (of France’s Languedoc region) .

The marriage prove to be a fertile one. The Lamothe-Cadillac couple had six daughters and seven sons: Judith (1689), Magdeleine (1690), Marie Anne (1701-1701)? (1702-1702), Marie-Thérèse (1704), Marie-Agathe (December 1707) and Joseph (1690), Antoine (1692), Jacques (1695), Pierre-Denis (1699–1700), Jean-Antoine (January 1707 – 1709), François (1709), René-Louis (1710–1714).

Les Douacques

In 1688, the governor Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville gave him the concession of the seigniory (estate) of Les Douacques (which later became the town of Bar Harbor, Maine, well known for fishing and lobsters.) His concession brought him no income, even from agriculture. Lamothe entered into a trading partnership with officers of Port Royal, an activity facilitated by using a ship owned by his brothers-in-law Guyon. In 1689, he was sent on an expedition in the vicinity of Boston. Upon his return, he asked the governor of Acadia, Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Méneval, for a job as notary, to bring in a minimum income; his request was turned down. Then, Cadillac was introduced to the governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac in Quebec, who sent him on an exploratory mission along the coasts of New England, aboard the frigate L’Embuscade (The Ambush). Strong head winds forced the ship to return to France.