The other PELTIERS

Lacking any relevant family records we have had to resort to the Archives of Loire-Atlantique. There we have been able to identify in the ships'muster rols and in the records of "Gentlemen Volonteers" signed on bord merchant ships several Peltiers (more often written PELLETIER) who could he our relations.

In the 1770's, when we were looking for work, we used to apply to uncle Jean, he, who never hesitated to fix us up with a career. Thus he obtained from Francy, for on of his nephews, the command of a vessel which Beaumarchais had just bought. But Beaumarchais was not happy about this choice and wrote to Francy as follows: "This nephew is a young man and very limited experience and it si we who have to employ his tendes years at our risk. Could you refer back to me about this ?"

Amongst these Peltiers we have identified these who sailed in vessels fitted out by, or under the overall management or Jean Pelletier-Dudoyer. These were young midishipmen or future officiers originating from Nantes or From Ile of Ré ; exciting lives insued !

-Joseph PELLETIER, 1751 - ,

Recorded on the list of « Volonteers » ; born 10th of November 1751 at St Martin-de-Ré. Son of Simon and Thérèse Chicatau (Sicatau), small, dark-haired. Living at the Pelletier-Dudoyer's ; he was a nephew of Jean Pelletier-Dudoyer.

On the ship's muster rolls of the Peltier merchant fleet Joseph appears as folloows:

- Le Terray, June 1773, Joseph was 19 and descrived as from the "L'isle de Ré". He was still only a midshipman. The ship sailed south to the coast Angola via Sao Tome. Then it crosses the Atlantic to arrive at Port au Prince, Haïti, a year later ! Got back to Nantes on ther 12th of November 1774 : a long voyage and costly in human lives - four, out of a crew of thirtynine.
- L'Amitié, October 1775, Joseph is recorded as 23 years old, from Nantes. Sailed for the Gold Coast, via Gorée (1 the december) and Gambie. Reached Port au Prince, 31 th March 1776. Back at Nantes on 26th September 1776. It had been a long but unventful voyage. On the same ship, on which Joseph was by then a second lieutenant, the second-in-command was a certain Louis Peltier, from Nantes (see below).
- Le Mercure, January 1777, Joseph was « still » 23 and a second lieutenant. Officialy the destination was Port-au-Prince but the war of American Independence was in full swing. In March a stop was made at Portsmouth, New England, and the ship was back home by the 27th of June 1777.
- Le Duc de Choiseul, left the river of Nantes on the 9th of Febuary 1778 for Cap Haïtien. Joseph was 24 and now a First Lieutnant. Despite the size of the vessel and a crew of 99, it was wrecked at Liverpool on the coast of Nova Scotia on the 24th of April 1778 and was captured by the British.
Joseph's name re-appears briefly on the "List of Volonters" as follows:
1780 "at sea,"
1787 "reportely in India".

Louis PELTIER or PELLETIER, 1740 - 1811.

Born 23 Febuary 1740 at St Martin-de-Ré. Son of Simon and Magdeleine Nivière (Rivière), youngest brother of Jean Pelletier-Dudoyer.

Louis' name appears one the following ships' new list :

-Boynes, Louis Pelletier, of Nantes, second-in-command, 30 years old. Departed from Nantes, on the 21st of september 1773. In the 15th he landed on the West-African coast and left ship to look after the business interests of the shipping company. He returned to France arriving on the 24th january 1775, as ship's chronicler to pay for his passage on the Belle Nantaise of the Pelletier-Dudoyer company. By living the Boynes Louis had escapded the horrors of the rest of its voyage: 20 killed, including the captain, mutiny, and return to Nantes over year later ! (October 1775).
-L'Amitié, as second-in-command at 34 years old, Louis left Nantes on the 26th October 1775 for the Gold Coast. Stopping first at Gorée on the 1st of December, the voyage was finally completed at Port-au-Prince on the 28th of June 1776. There Louis left ship with the permission of his captain.

After a period in business at Niort, Louis inded his career as a juge on the Ile Maurice (new Mauritius). It was there, for the last time, that is path crossed with that of his nephew Nicolas Baudin in 1803. Louis dead at Port-Louis, Ile Maurice, on the 17th of April 1811.

Augustin PELLETIER,

Must have been born between 1764 and 1765. He is recorded on the ship's rolls in the Peltiers fleet as follow:

-L'Anonime, addition to the crew at Nantes : Augustin Pelletier of Nantes, midshipman, 13 yeas old, first voyage. Sailed on the 9th April 1778 for the Cape of Good Hope ; the ship was captured by the British on the 11th of October 1778.
- L'Union, Augustin was a midshipman and fiften years old when the vessel left for Brest under order from the French King on the 3rd of September 1779. After some months of waiting, the ship left for Martinique and San-Domingo ; he did not return until the 5th of January 1781 !
-Le Drake (captured from the British) sailed in September 1781 ; Augustin Peltier was the first lieutenant, aged 17 years. Unlike to some of the crew he completed the whole voyage too the Indian Ocean, Mauritius, Reunion and India. The ship was sold by prior agreement to the King of France at the Cape of the Good Hope in September 1782. Returned to France in September 1783.

Was it to this man that Augustin de LANGLAIS owed his christian name ? His grand-father, Marie-Etienne Peltier and Augustin Pelletier must have been about the same age.

Alexandre PELLETIER, 1764 -

Must have been born in 1764 in the recorded on the folowwing ship's roll.

- La Jeune Héloïse: Alexandre Pelletier, of Nantes, midship man, 19 years old, left on the 24th of November 1781 for Mauritius, unlike his relation Marie-Etienne (see under disembarked at Brest on the 30th January 1782), Alexandre continued the voyage. This ship too was sold to the King of France at the Cape or Good Hope, on the 2st September 1782.
François PELLETIER, 1756 -

From Nantes, born the 3rd of Febuary 1756 at St Saturnin, son of François Pelletier and Elizabeth CHEVAS, inscribed on the list of captain 1777-78 approx : "living on the ile Faydeau (doutless at the home of Pelletier-Dudoye)", then "in Chézine at the Thébaud's (his the futur wife's family)". He was a nephew or cousin of Jean Pelletier-Dudoyer.

Amongst all the ships on which he sailed on can pick out his name on the ship's role for the:

- Petit Cousin, owned by Pelletier-Dudoyer, François Peltier of Nantes, second deputy capitain, 22 years old. Sailed from Nantes on the 23rd of March 1780, via Brest for San-Domingo, Boston and Providence to transport Rochambeau ; returned by the 25th of January 1781.

Toussaint PELLETIER, 1765 -

Must have been born in 1765. His nam first occurs on the roll of a ship in the Chauffart and Morin fleet:

- Le Conte du Nort: Toussaint Peltier, of Nantes, 17 years old, sailed in October 1782, disembarked at Brest.

then on :

- Le St Rémy, Pelletier-Dudoyer & Carier fleet, left of the 22st June 1785, "transporting Acadians bak across the Atlantic to Louisiana", Toussaint Peltier, of Nantes, 18 years old, midshipman. The Bon Papa qui faisait parti de la même expédition commanded by Marie-Etienne Peltier.
Toussaint deserted at the New Orléans on the 15th of September 1785.

Was he really a relation ? ?


Translation Terence O'HARA