| Notes |
- BIRTH:
- Year of birth would be 1796-1797, according to his age (34 years) in his February 1831 burial record in the records of St. Joseph RC Church, St. Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago, a copy of which is in the possession of Patricia Wight. The place of birth given in this record is Trinidad. Since the record with Alexandre's age is so early in 1831, it is more probable that he was born in 1796.
- Four pieces of evidence point to his father being Pierre Fabien Sellier of St. Joseph.
> His earliest record is a 1825 slave register in which he owns two enslaved servants. This record is similar to the earliest slave registers for Jean Baptiste Sellier and Charlotte E. Sellier, both resident at the time of their first slave register returns in the Quarter of St. Joseph (where Pierre Fabien Sellier owned the Marguerite Estate, a large sugar plantation with numerous enslaved workers). If it is assumed that one had to be 21 years of age in order to own an enslaved person, then this would indicate a year of birth on or before 1804.
> In 1827, Fabien Sellier was listed as the Commandant of the Quarter of St. Joseph, and Alex[ande]r Sellier was listed as the Adjoint Commandant. This would be consistent with a father-son relationship. [Source: The Trinidad Almanac for the Year of our Lord, 1827 (Port of Spain: J. Holman & Co., 1827), page 26.]
> His 1831 burial record in the records of St. Joseph RC Church states that he was buried in the cemetery of Fabien Sellier (presumably at La Marguerite Estate).
> His name, Alexandre, was also the name of the father of Marie Fran?oise (n?e Desbonnes) Sellier, the wife of Pierre Fabien Sellier.
- Since he is listed as having been commissioned a Captain in the local Trinidad Militia on 16 July 1816 (see below), he must have been at least 15 years of age at this point (the age at which free Trinidadian men were required to enlist in the Trinidad Militia in 1816, and officer commissions were bought from the Governor or his Secretary, so could theoretically go to a person at any age). This means he would have had to have been born before 16 July 1801, which is consistent with the birth year estimated from his 1831 death record. [Source for information on the Trinidad Militia: Randolph T. Jones, "The Trinidad Militia, 1801-38," Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 82, no. 330 (2004): 132-54. Accessed December 13, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44231056 ].
MILITARY:
- Captain in the Loyal Trinidad Light Infantry Battalion, Second Division, Trinidad Militia, with a commissioning date of 16 July 1816 [Source: The Trinidad Almanac for the Year of Our Lord, 1827 (Port of Spain, Trinidad: J. Holman & Co., 1827), page 36.]
DEATH:
- Date of death would have been on or just before the burial date of 11 February 1831 given in his burial record in the records of St. Joseph RC Church, St. Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago, a copy of which is in the possession of Patricia Wight.
- This date of death is consistent with other evidence of his death from land and slave records in 1834:
> He is not listed as a co-owner of Marguerite Estate in the 1834 slave register return for the estate, which names three other siblings as co-owners.
> Both of the enslaved servants listed in his 1825 slave register return (Jenny and Pierre Sanderson) and one of the servants from his 1828 return (Dieudonn? Malbrook) are listed in the 1834 slave register return for the estate, showing that they had passed from his possession to that of his siblings.
BURIAL:
Full date given as 11 February 1831 in his burial record in the records of St. Joseph RC Church, St. Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago, a copy of which is in the possession of Patricia Wight. The record states that he was buried "en el cimentee Mr Fabien Sellier," which likely means that he was buried in a cemetery on La Marguerite Estate.
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Our Family History
Abt 1796 - Abt 1831 (~ 35 years)
Siblings