| Notes |
- BIRTH:
- Full date given as 20 July 1716 in baptismal record (in Latin) for Petrus, the son of Petrus Sellier and Maria Faucourt in the parish records of Saint-Fran?ois, Guadeloupe, page 28v, image 11, left side, second entry in http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=SAINT-FRANCOIS&annee=1716.
- Year of birth would be 1712-1713, according to age (37 years) given in 1750 Census of Carriacou, in Francis Kay Brinkley, "An Analysis of the 1750 Carriacou Census," Caribbean Quarterly 24, no. 1/2 (1978): 57. Enumerated with his wife, a son, a daughter, and several enslaved workers. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40653359
- Parents named as Pierre Sellier and Marie Faucoure in his 1743 marriage record to Marie Fran?oise Desbonne in the parish records of Saint-Fran?ois, Guadeloupe, 1743, pages 2-3. Described as a native of the parish, so was born in Saint-Fran?ois parish. Record available at http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=SAINT-FRANCOIS&annee=1743.
- "Pierre Sellier fils" named as a witness in the 1742 marriage record for Philippe Alexandre Desbonnes and Margueritte Sellier (the daughter of Pierre Sellier and Marie Faucour).
CHRISTENING:
- Full date given as 25 July 1716 in baptismal record (in Latin) for Petrus, the son of Petrus Sellier and Maria Faucourt in the parish records of Saint-Fran?ois, Guadeloupe, page 28v, image 11, left side, second entry in http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=SAINT-FRANCOIS&annee=1716. Witnesses--Simon Sergent and Margarita Faucourt.
MARRIAGE:
- Wife identified as Marie Fran?oise Desbonne in his marriage record and date given as 15 January 1743 in the parish records of Saint-Fran?ois, Guadeloupe, 1743, pages 2-3. Record available at http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caomec2/osd.php?territoire=GUADELOUPE&commune=SAINT-FRANCOIS&annee=1743.
ADDRESSES:
Saint-Fran?ois parish, Guadeloupe (1716 baptismal record, 1743 marriage record)
Anse-Bertrand parish, Guadeloupe (birth records of children from 1744 to 1747)
Cariacou, Grenada (likely arrived in 1748; listed in 1750 census; listed in 1763 capitation tax roll)
Marigot parish, Saint-Martin (his daughter Emelie was a baptismal sponsor in 1773)
In 1782, his widow was described as a resident of Colombier, Marigot parish, Saint-Martin (1782 marriage record of daughter Adelaide)
MURDER, TRIAL, AND ESCAPE FROM GUADELOUPE:
- According to the records of his trial in absentia on the matter, on Sunday, 27 November 1746, Pierre Sellier and his black enslaved servant Francois killed a free Mulatto named Vincent Langlois in the main road of the town of Saint-Bertrand with blows from their sword and their feet. Langlois apparently had beaten up Sellier previously. Pierre escaped from Guadeloupe and was tried in absentia. The court found both him and his enslaved servant to be guilty.
- On 17 August 1748 Pierre was condemned to death, and he was ordered to pay 3000 livres to the widow of Vincent Langlois, in addition to having his property confiscated.
- Since Pierre Sellier was no longer in Guadeloupe to be punished, though, the court ordered that he be executed in effigy by having a painting of him attached to the gallows in Sainte-Anne and executed. Apparently, this was a practice of the time to give the community some sense that justice still was being done when a criminal escaped.
- In November 1775, Pierre Sellier submitted a petition to the authorities in Guadeloupe for "Letters of Rehabilitation" that would restore his legal status, some 27 years after the case against him was decided in absentia. Along with his petition was a copy of the court records from his trial in absentia in 1748.
- The officials involved sought guidance as to whether such Letters could be considered in his case, or if another remedy was available. Their superiors did not reply, and a follow-up letter was sent a year later, on 10 November 1776. There was no apparent reply to this letter either, and the file was closed in 1778 with a notation that the accused (Pierre Sellier) had died.
- This explains why there are no records for the birth of children to Pierre in Guadeloupe after 1747--he and his family had escaped to another location, likely Carriacou where he is recorded as living in 1763.
- The entire case file for this matter (of 100 pages) is available at this link.
LAND HOLDINGS:
- Listed as a landholder paying the capitation tax in Carriacou, Grenada, in 1763, in "Extract from the Capitation Roll of the Island of Carioacou for the Year 1763." Listed as Pierre Sellier with 14 negroes on which he was paying tax, 8 negroes under the age of 16 on which he was not paying tax, and 30 sheep.
- According to Denise Parisis and Henri Parisis, "Le si?cle du sucre ? Saint-Martin fran?ais," Bulletin de la Soci?t? d'Histoire de la Guadeloupe (1994), page 166, Pierre Sellier was repatriated in 1765 to Saint-Martin with many other French residents of Grenada (which had been captured by the British in 1762 and ceded to Britain in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris). In 1768 Pierre Sellier received a concession to farm in Colombier, settled there with his wife and 8 children, and named his estate "Delight". He jointly established a sugar mill there with Thomas Richardson in 1772, and the partnership persisted to 1776. From 1776 to his death, Sellier operated the sugar mill himself. His widow continued the operation until 1792, when she sold it to Richard Richardson. This source gives his year of death as 1786, but that is contradicted by other contemporary records from the 1780s.
DEATH:
- A notation made on a piece of correspondence in his petition to be given Letters of Rehabilitation stated "Cet accus? ?tant mort, il n'y a plus rien ? faire." [This accused being dead, there is nothing more to do.] The date of the correspondence was 10 November 1776, so the notation was made after that. The entire file in which it was located has a cover sheet that gives its dates as 1746-1778. This makes it quite likely that the authorities in charge of this file were informed of Sellier's death in 1778 and closed the file as a result. So, his date of death is listed here as about 1778.
- The place of his death would have been Colombier, Saint-Martin, where he was operating an estate and sugar mill.
- Listed as the late [Fr: fue] Pierre Sellier in the August 1782 marriage record of his daughter Adelaide.
- Wife identified as a widow [Fr: veuve]--as Marie Fran?oise Desbonnes veuve Sellier--in an August 1785 baptismal record of a granddaughter.
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Our Family History
1716 - Abt 1778 (61 years)
Siblings