• By DAMON VEACH
• special to magazine
• Published: Dec 7, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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While 1682 marked the year in which Rene Cavelier Sieur de La Salle claimed, officially in the name of King Louis XIV of France, the vast stretch of land extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in the northern half of the United States, it was not actually until 1699, following the truce of Riswick, that this land truly underwent colonization and development. The first French settlement along the Gulf Coast was founded at this time by Pierre Le Moyne, Seigneur d’Iberville, and established in Biloxi, now in Mississippi.

Biloxi was actually a military outpost, and other posts along the Mississippi River came later. From this point on, the Louisiana legal system was established, making it one of the most unique in the United States. It is a lesson in genealogy just to study the Louisiana legal system from its very beginnings.

This can be done by taking a look at Moreau Lislet: The Man Behind the Digest of 1808 and published by Claitor’s Publishing Division in Baton Rouge. It was updated in this 2008 edition by Alain Levasseur with the assistance of Vicenc Feliu. This one first appeared in 1996 and is now in this excellent revised edition.

It was during the short period that preceded the official cession of Louisiana to the United that President Thomas Jefferson set out to learn how the legal system worked in the new territory. W.C.C. Claiborne was the American governor to whom the inquiries were made. This study takes researchers up to the period when Louis Casimir Moreau Lislet came into the picture. Even after his death, his life remains a mystery. The need for a detailed biography of Moreau Lislet was probably not a priority at the time when biographies of leading figures of the period were being published.

Taking a look at his family tree will enlighten researchers on some of the facts relating to or about his background. Louis Moreau Lislet’s parents and relatives can be divided into groups having six patronymic names or surnames: Moreau, Torel, Deynaut, Vallade, de Peters and de Lagrange.

Jacob Vincent Moreau, father of Louis, was a militia officer, captain of the Limonade battalion. He lived in a placed called La Marre a la Roche, within the jurisdiction of the city of Le Cap Francais, Saint Domingue (now Haiti). On Sept. 28, 1758, Jacob Vincent was married to Elisabeth Torel who bore him three children: a daughter, Elisabeth Francois Ignace Moreau, and two sons, Vincent Pierre Benjamin and Louis Casimir Elisabeth Moreau (Lislet). Jacob passed away on April 1, 1782 in Dondon (Haiti).

Elisabeth Torel (Thorel) Moreau was married on Nov. 9, 1749, to Jacques Christophe Deynaut. She had two sons from this first marriage: Louis Christophe Deynaut and Jacques Louis Deynaut. She was widowed in October of 1755 and then married Jacob Vincent Moreau. She was apparently stricken by a disease that compelled her to go to France for treatment. She left Le Cap Francais for a few months in 1764. Elisabeth Torel Moreau died tragically in 1793 when the schooner The Delaware was wrecked during her voyage from Le Cap Francais to Philadelphia.

Antoine Moreau was a paternal uncle of Louis Casimir Elisabeth Moreau (Lislet) and a landowner in Haut du Trou, district in the parish of Dondon, in Saint Domingue. He was a coffee planter and was murdered by prowlers on his coffee plantation in 1792. He died without children.

Vincent Pierre Benjamin Moreau was an older brother of Louis Casimir Elisabeth Moreau (Lislet). Records show that he was killed in an insurrection in the district of Haut du Trou (Haiti). 

Elisabeth Francoise Ignace Moreau was Louis’ sister and spouse of Joseph Merlhy de Lagrange. She was born in Saint Martin du Dondon in 1759 or 1760. She and her husband lived in Philadelphia from August 1793 until they left for Paris at the turn of the century.

A maternal aunt of Louis was Marie Anne Torel, and she also resided in the district and parish of Dondon in Saint Domingue. She perished in a fire in the town of Le Cap Francais.

Louis Christophe Deynaut and Jacque Louis Deynaut, half-brothers of Louis both lived in the district of la Marre a la Roche, parish of Dondon. Louis Christophe, the younger brother, married in April 1779, Marie Therese Lucille Vallade, native of Dondon, daughter of Antoine Vallade and Marie Anne Beyrac. They had two daughters: Marie Josephine Louise Lucille, born on April 27, 1781, and Marie Elisabeth Antoinette Celeste, born on July 4, 1782. Marie Therese died in New Orleans on Jan. 2, 1832, at the age of 68. Jacque Louis Deynaut, a militia officer, never married. He died several years before his brother Louis Christophe.

Pierre Vallade was an officer of La Legion du Nord of Saint Domingue and a son of Antoine Vallade and Marie Anne Beyrac, brother of Marie Therese Lucille Vallade, the spouse of Louis Christophe Deynaut. Pierre died in Paris in November of 1805.