Who was Jean Laffite?
Most are familiar with the general story of Jean Laffite, the pirate from New Orleans who played an instrumental role in the Battle of New Orleans. However, when you try to learn more about the man himself and his background, you find a confusing mire of theories and lots of historical disagreement. Historians don’t agree on where and when Jean was born or on who his parents were. There are at least five separate theories (that seem to be based on more than just imagination) as to the true identity of Jean Laffite. Even the spelling of the man’s name is often in question—he seems to have typically signed “Laffite” rather than the more commonly used “Lafitte”, but even that seems to not always be perfectly consistent. Laffite told different stories about himself throughout his life, adding to the confusion.
In general, it is believed that Laffite was born either in France (specifically, Bordeaux), St. Domingue (now known as Haiti), or in Louisiana, sometime in the 1770s or 1780s. Pierre Laffite was supposed to have been Jean’s older brother.
Because there is no accepted answer to the question of who Jean Laffite’s parents were, I decided to dig in myself and see if I can form my own opinion after analyzing the available primary sources as well as secondary sources that dive deep on particular theories of Laffite’s origins. Warning: what follows is an information dump of epic proportions.
It made the most sense to me to start where we know Laffite to have been for much of his life: New Orleans. I first checked the Archdiocese of New Orleans records from the 1770s to see if I could find anyone named Laffite.
Here we can see, already, at least three people named Jean Lafitte (I’m going to just use the common spelling from now on in this article to avoid confusion).
Jean, son of Louis Lafitte and [*], native of Bo[*], married Elisabeth Roche in 1777 in New Orleans. They had a son in 1779 named Jean Henri.
Jean, cadet, merchant, militia officer, married Louise Langlois. Son Francois’s godfather was “Lafitte, merchant at Bordeaux”.
I found an article which purports to know the “true” ancestry of Lafitte. The author believes him to have been the son of #1, Jean Henri Lafitte, born in 1779. The article, at first glance, doesn’t look like a great source for information, but on closer inspection, the author has helpfully included scans of the original records consulted for their theory, which is very useful, regardless of if we agree with the interpretation!
Jean Henri’s maternal grandparents were Henry Roche and Catherine Laurendine. The marriage record for his parents, Jean Lafitte and Elisabeth Roche, shows that Jean Lafitte Sr.’s parents were Louis Lafitte and Marguerite Ardi of Bayonne, France.
The author of that article has this to say about Jean Henri’s father:
Jean Henri Laffite's father, Jean Louis Laffite, was a ship captain who died on August 1, 1782, aboard the privateer ship “EL POSTILION” during a hurricane in route from Port Royal (Jamaica) to Cape Francois (Haiti). His body was never recovered. He is listed in the Spanish Census of 1778 as Juan (Jean) Lafitte, Ship Captain, son-in-law of Henri Roche, residing on Rue Royal in the French Quarter. Jean Louis Laffite was a native of Bayonne, France and the son of Louis Henri Laffite and Marguerite Ardi Laffite.
A ship captain who died aboard a privateer ship. That seems pretty spot on for what I’d expect of the famous Jean Lafitte’s family. It’s certainly worth looking into. So I did some digging into the people mentioned!
Henry Roche dit Belair was Elisabeth Roche’s father. He was a “master cobbler” and slave owner in New Orleans. He actually was the owner of the famed voodoo priestess Marie Laveau’s grandmother and her family. He may have actually been the grandfather of Marie Laveau.
Elisabeth Roche married again in 1784 to Jean Pierre Francois Bruno Aubry. She filed an affidavit in New Orleans in 1785 stating that Jean Lafitte Sr. had no property at the time he died or during their marriage. It appears that Pierre Aubry is the progenitor of a large family of free people of color. One son, Pierre Aubry, fought in a colored regiment in the War of 1812. I can’t prove that this Aubry is the same Aubry at the root of the FPOC family, but it seems quite possible that he is. Elisabeth had at least two children with Aubry; Leocadie and Edouard. Edouard died as a baby. However, I found documents from France about an Edouard Aubry, son of Jean Pierre Francois Bruno Aubry and Elisabeth Roche, who was born later in France and died in Paris in 1876. I don’t know if the parents of that Edouard are the same couple, but Aubry’s full name is long enough to make me wonder seriously if they are the same people. Did Elisabeth Roche move back to France?
I need to go back to the New Orleans records to find more information to confirm or refute the story of Jean Lafitte Sr.’s death aboard a privateer ship. I have only personally confirmed that Jean Sr. did indeed die prior to Elisabeth Roche’s second marriage in 1784.
Assuming Pierre Lafitte was actually Jean Lafitte’s brother, I haven’t found a way to place him in this family. The author of that article thinks that Jean Sr. was married previously but doesn’t say to whom. The belief is that Pierre was Jean’s half brother from the previous marriage. Without documentation of this marriage and evidence to show that they had the same father, this is really shaky.
The Wikipedia page for Pierre Lafitte, brother of Jean, has this to say:
According to Ramsay, Lafitte, his younger brother, Jean, and their widowed mother sailed from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans, Louisiana (New Spain) in the 1780s. Approximately 1784, his mother married Pedro Aubry, a New Orleans merchant. Jean stayed with his mother while Pierre was raised by extended family elsewhere in Louisiana.
So this Ramsay clearly subscribed to the theory that Jean Lafitte and Elisabeth Roche were the famous pirate’s parents. However, I see no reason to believe that Elisabeth went to St. Domingue with her first husband. I also see no evidence that she had more than one son (Jean Henri) with her first husband. They were only married a few years before he died. I definitely need to read the documents relating to Jean Lafitte Sr’s death more closely to see if there are anymore useful details in there.
I found Henriette Roche’s succession case. It includes biographical details about her son, Jean, from her first marriage to the Lafitte.
There’s more, but to summarize:
He was a sailor by profession. He died about 21 Oct 1817 at sea. In 1799, he married a Mademoiselle Perrine Questel, who died in 1809 or 1810. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who never married and died 10 Feb 1820. In 1811, Jean acknowledged an illegitimate daughter named Elizabeth Zenoide, fathered with Reinette, a "free mulatress". This daughter married Louis Louison on 2 Feb 1836 in Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. The children of this illegitimate daughter were Jean's only living heirs at the time these documents were filed. It's noted that a search was made in Guadeloupe and in Angers, France, for any other heirs of Jean Lafitte.
So… Jean Lafitte, son of Elisabeth Roche, was supposed to be in Guadeloupe in 1818. Apparently, he set out in a schooner for St. Thomas and was caught in a gale and never heard from again. Another part of this case:
“Absent from his domicil in France for these last forty years without any intelligence having been received from him, and without ever having been heard of”. Hmm. Did he live in France, or Guadeloupe?
Let’s move on to the second potential father in the New Orleans records, Jean Lafitte, Cadet, who married Louise Langlois. Known children:
Louise Felicite Leonnarde (Jean, cadet, merchant in this city, and Louise LANGOIS), b. Oct. 29, 1770, bn. Oct. 12, 1770, s. Leonard LAFITTE, merchant, absent, p. Jean SOUBIE, and Louise VILS LANGLOIS, the infant's grandmother (SLC, 86, 94)
Jeanne Celeste, born 1771. Godmother was “Jeanne Lafitte” but she was absent at the baptism; in her place was a sister of the baby, Felicite Lafitte.
Marie Adelaide, born 1773. Godfather was Leonard Lafitte, absent, replaced by Pierre Frise Malahar, ship captain.
Francois, born 1774. Godfather was “Lafitte, merchant at Bordeaux, absent”. Present was sister, Felicite, recorded in this abstract as “Felicite Lafitte La-ch[*]elle”.
Victoire, Jacques (Santiago) - these last two are mentioned in Jean Sr.’s will
Jean Lafitte, cadet, died in 1789.
From an abstract of Jean Sr.’s will:
The record shows the following: The last will and testament of Juan Lafitte Cadet, resident of New Orleans, and native of Damon, Bishophoric of Dac in France, son of Don Jean Lafitte, Sr. and Dame Jeanne Goze, deceased, both natives and former residents of above place, leaving his widow, Dame Louise Langlois, native of New Orleans and the following legitimate childrens Feliciana Lafitte, 19 years old, Celeste, 18 years old; Adalayde, 17 years old; Francisco, 16 years old; Victoria, 13 years old; Jacques (Santiago) 10 years old; all children of said union; naming Don Geromimo Lachiapelle, Testamentary Executor, and his widow as Curatrix ad-bona of children, naming said children as his universal heirs, said will drawn at New Orleans, Sept. 21, 1789.
His estate consisted of slaves, household furni- ture and personal belongings; no real property.
Tried to find “Damon, Bishopric of Dac, France” and landed on the Diocese of Aire Dax. Dax was located in the southwest part of France in Gascony and is now part of the diocese of Bordeaux.
In 1766 Jean Lafitte, Cadet, and his partner, Dominique Daguerre, sold a boat.
Jean Lafitte, Cadet, is associated with the Ducros family. He was appointed “syndic” of the “Azemar” succession. He is also named as godfather on one of the kids’ baptisms.
Those are all the Lafittes present in the early New Orleans church records. As of yet, I’ve seen neither a son named Jean nor a son named Pierre. There may be more on this family in other records.
There are also a large number of Lafittes present in early Natchitoches records. Many have accepted a particular couple, Paul Bouet Lafitte and Marie Madeleine Grappe, to be the parents of the pirate Jean Lafitte. In that universe, this is the baptismal record of Jean Lafitte:
I will note—even those who adhere to this theory seem to continue to perpetuate the idea that Lafitte was born in St. Domingue. However, if this record refers to pirate Jean Lafitte, he would have been born in the Natchitoches area. His parents were there both before and after this baptism, and the baptism occurred just a few days after the birth of the infant. Also, in my experience, usually (but not always!) babies named Jean Baptiste tend to go by Jean Baptiste, not just Jean. The most convincing part of this theory is probably the fact that Paul Bouet Lafitte also had a son named Pierre.
Marriage record of Paul Bouet Laffite and Madeleine Grappe:
I went through all the Natchitoches records and found every one that mentioned Paul Bouet Laffite. To summarize his known family connections:
Paul Bouet Laffite, son of Francois Bouet Lafitte and Marianne Lafitte, native of Pouilleroque, Lectoure, Gascogne, France.
Married Magdeleine Grappe, daughter of Alexis Grappe and Anne Guedon, 28 Apr 1770, Natchitoches.
Jean Baptiste Francois Lafitte, born 24 Jun 1776. This record is out of order in the registers, being entered way after the fact, apparently.
Marie Therese Rosalie Hyacinthe Lafitte, born 6 Oct 1778. This one also appears to have been entered way later.
Jan. 1781, a son was born and buried.
Around the same time, Madeleine Grappe was buried on 23 Jan 1781. Record just calls her “Mrs. Lafitte” or “wife of Lafitte”.
No baptism record, but they had a son named Pierre Bouet Lafitte who married Ursule Gagne, daughter of Etienne Gagne and Marie Louise Bertrand, on 30 Jul 1798.
Marie Magdeleine Bouet Lafitte, born 17 Nov 1799 at Bayou Pierre
At some point after Madeleine died, married Marie de Soto.
Daughter buried 27 Jul 1782
Marie Josephe Lafitte, born 15 Dec 1783
Joseph Marie Cesar Lafitte, born 9 Aug 1787 (entered twice for some reason). Baptism record has his father from Languedoc, France & mom from Opelousas.
Marie Pompose Lafitte, born Jan 1790.
Louis Bouet Lafitte, born 30 Nov 1794
Manuel, born in Nov 1796 and died as an infant
Marie Felicite Bouet Lafitte, born 16 Sep 1797. Living at Bayou Pierre.
Paul’s place of birth should probably say Pouy-Roquelaure. I looked at the available Catholic records for that place at the time I see trees online claiming Paul was born there (1746) and found no baptismal record for him. I did notice a death that year of a Francoise Bouet. I have seen a specific baptism record for Paul cited that is supposed to be from “St. Balize” church in Pouy-Roquelaure, but as far as I can tell, that isn’t a real church. I can’t find the record referred to. Could the Lafitte/Bouets have been Protestants?
In the Diocese of Baton Rouge records, there’s an Elie Lafitte:
Elie, soldier in the La. Militia (Jean, of Languedoc, France & Jeanne Degas) m. 6 Sep 1778 Marie Louise [omitted], widow of Jean Retre (parents not given) wit. Joseph Patin & Joseph Descuir (PCP-2, pt. 2, 198A) also (PCP-4, 143)
He married Marie Louise Porche in Pointe Coupee in 1778. Elie is the son of Jean Lafitte and Jeanne Degas. One interesting note is that his father, Jean, was from Languedoc, France, the same place where Paul Bouet Lafitte is noted as being from in some records. Elie and Marie Louise had a son named Elie. His marriage record has his dad as “Pierre, decd”. Elie Jr.’s wife, Marie Celeste Mercier, was from Natchitoches.
Marie Celeste, nat. Natchitoches, res. Pointe Coupee (Louis and Marie Louise LEFEBVRE) m. 16 Aug 1808 Elie LAFITTE (Pierre, decd. and Marie Louise PORCHE) wit. Nicolas Lavergne; Etienne Leruit (PCP-19, 134)
They also had a daughter named Charlotte who married Louis Ambroise Lacour.
Charlotte (Elie & Marie Lunois [sic]) bt. 14 Feb 1779 bn. 15 Jan 1778 spo. Pierre Godeau & Henriette Dufour (PCP-2, pt. 2, 205) also (PCP-4, 150)
Louis Ambroise, nat. Suzarche, Diocese of Paris, France (Jean Pierre and Marie Francoise Nicole ANTHIAUME) m. 31 Aug 1814, civil marriage 4 Aug 1812, Charlotte LAFITTE (Elie and Marie Louise PORCHE) wit. Simon Croizet; Pierre Petriesant (PCP-19, 165)
I kind of suspect Elie and Jean Sr., Cadet who married Louise Langlois were brothers and their mother’s maiden name was wrong somewhere (Degas in one place, Goze in another), but I can’t prove this and it’s only a suspicion.
There is a group of Lafittes in south Louisiana that now go by Talbot. They all descend from Louis Andre Lafitte. Louis Andre’s mother was a Talbot, and it seems that Louis Andre took his mother’s surname instead of his father’s to avoid being associated with the Lafitte pirates. Louis Andre was also apparently from Bordeaux. It seems to me that this family probably was associated with the pirates’ family. The Bordeaux connection and the fact that the name weighed that heavily on them (despite there being plenty of other Lafittes in the world besides Jean and Pierre, then and now, who didn’t need to change their name to avoid being looked down on). The Lafittes have always been seen as heroes as much as villains, during the time they were active all the way up to the present. It’s nothing like if your name was Hitler today or something. The avoidance of the name smacks of complicity or at least connection to me, honestly.
None of these Jean Lafittes is considered to have been the famous pirate by the Laffite Society, who should be the foremost experts on the topic. The best-researched book I’ve seen, The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World Of The Corsairs Of The Gulf by William C. Davis, like the society, asserts that Jean and Pierre were both born in Bordeaux, France. The society also asserts there was another brother named Alexander. Some people think Alexander and Lafitte’s close associate, Dominique Youx, were the same person. From what I have seen, this doesn’t seem likely to me.
There was an article published in 1940 that claims to explain why Lafitte became a pirate. The author vaguely asserts that he has found records in Mexico of a Juan Lafita born around the right time as the pirate who had been imprisoned in Mexico for being born in France. This, the author explains, is why Lafitte had a vendetta against Spain. “Juan Lafita y Miramon” was supposed to be a Spanish citizen, but he was still oppressed by the Spanish government. This article is almost never mentioned in serious discussions of the Lafittes; kind of seems like it may have been discredited at some point. Were it valid, surely this information would have been considered very relevant. Need to do some more digging as to why it’s basically been ignored. It wouldn’t be the first or last source to contain utter BS about Lafitte if that is indeed what this is. This 1956 article’s author seems to have believed the Juan Lafita theory, but clearly the Laffite Society doesn’t.
Just a transient thought: How do we actually know that Pierre and Jean were brothers at all? So much of the reasoning on where Jean may have been born and who his parents were hinges on finding a brother or half-brother named Pierre in the family, but as far as I know, we only believe this because that’s how the two presented themselves, not because there’s any particular evidence for it besides what they said. And we know they often changed their stories.
There’s a wild story about Jean Lafitte fathering two children out of wedlock in Savannah, Georgia, between 1800-1805 with a woman named Susannah Deakle. I have no opinion on this, really, not having dug into the story much myself. A Jean Lafitte died in Savannah in 1779, apparently; seems possible to me that if a Lafitte fathered Susannah’s children, it was a son of this guy.
From the Laffite Society’s FAQ:
I have seen this in some Ancestry trees, as well. It would certainly be a very interesting thing if Lafitte really did use Billiot as a pseudonym. Etienne Billiot, one of the founding ancestors of the modern Houma tribe in southeast Louisiana, was of mixed French and African ancestry (specifically Benin & Togo, according to Billiot descendants’ DNA). Etienne served in Lafitte’s company during the Battle of New Orleans, according to the petition of his widow to receive a pension on his behalf. That application was filed way after the fact and denied, but it was denied because their marriage wasn’t considered legally valid due to him not being white, not because her claims weren’t true. I haven’t found a whole lot of concrete evidence about the Billiot family’s origins beyond the parents of Etienne and his brothers. The history is quite murky.
It’s known that Lafitte was an associate of Arsène Lacarrière Latour. In 1816, he is believed to have accompanied Latour on an expedition to survey the Arkansas territory. Something interesting that I have found myself, however, is newspaper ads dating back as early as the 1790s for “Lafitte and Latour”, wines produced in Bordeaux. The ads were published primarily in Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, SC, and Philadelphia.
This may not refer to the same Lafitte and Latour, but… I feel like it’s at least relevant to how they came to be buddies. Were their families in the wine business together way back in the day in France? A bottle of this “Lafite” wine was in Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection and became the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at a public auction. More on Lafite wine here. The chateau that produces it has been owned by the Rothschilds since 1868. Before Rothschild, these chateaus were both owned by a guy named Segur. While I was digging for information on the Roche/Lafitte family in New Orleans, I ran into a Sigur that married a Roche. I’m just saying…I don’t know what I’m saying. But it’s interesting, yeah?
I don’t have a nice neat conclusion to give you after analyzing all this stuff. There’s yet more stuff to go through, and I can totally see how there’s an entire society actively dedicated to researching the Lafittes. I feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Everyone has a theory and an opinion, and these are often backed up by at least some evidence, but just as often they include contradictions or impossibilities. I haven’t gone through the later church records that are supposed to show the brothers being from Bordeaux (such as the baptisms of Pierre’s children with Marie Villard), but my suspicion is that the Laffite family was indeed from the Bordeaux region, and that at least some members of said family were present in the New World well before the famous Jean Lafitte was born, regardless of where the man himself was born. Out of the Jean Lafittes I studied who were born in Louisiana, Jean Henri, son of Elisabeth Roche, seems the likeliest candidate, but there’s nowhere near enough evidence to conclude he was Jean Lafitte, pirate. You would have to assume that the story of his death at sea in 1818 was incorrect and that his family was either wrong or lying. (Not the hugest leap to make, honestly, given the leaps everyone has been making regarding the Lafittes for over 200 years, but there’s no great reason to think he’s actually the one.) I think there’s a decent chance that most or all of the Lafittes in the Louisiana records are connected in some way; they all seem to come from the same part of France, and there are lots of merchants/sea captains in these families and lots of connections to southwestern France/Bordeaux specifically. There aren’t really all that many of them total.
To sum up my present thoughts: 🤯🤷♀️
Chuckling a little because I took a wild guess after your first "info drop" and guessed that Juan and Elizabeth might be the parents.
Solely on the basis of Joseph Bellamy being a witness.
Up here in Massachusetts Black Sam Bellamy was the pirate captain of the Whydah which sank off the Cape Cod coast. There's a museum there with some of the treasure on display...very cool. So my writer's mind went to: ahh...the captain maybe left descendants in LA, and one pirate leads to another.
Another fascinating rabbit hole you've found! Is Lafitte in your tree?