The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  4. John Dick to Richard Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA; testimony of Abner Duncan, n.d., Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW.

  5. Nolle prosse, February 20, 1815, motion, March 1, 1815, United States vs. José Toledo, Case #0787, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, Ft. Worth.

  6. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  7. Deposition of Montero, November 22, 1814, Joseph Montero vs. Schooner Esperanza, Case #0761, NAFW.

  8. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  9. Statement, United States vs. José A. de Toledo, Case #0824; Deposition of John Robinson, Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW; Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  10. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  11. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812; Testimony of Abner Duncan, n.d., Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW.

  12. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW; Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  13. Deposition of John Robinson, n.d., Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW; Morphy to Soto, March 15, 1815, Legajo 1796, Morphy to Apodaca, April 10, 1815, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry; Toledo to Peter Ellis Bean, March 23, 1815, Papeles Dirigos por el Traidor Toledo, Archivo General de Indias Transcripts, CAHUT.

  14. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 27, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW.

  15. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA; Amigoni statement, January 1816, United States vs. Schooner Nonesuch, Case #0814, NAFW.

  16. Deposition of General José Toledo, n.d., Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW.

  17. Morphy to Apodaca, April 15, 18x5, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.

  18. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW.

  19. In later testimony Gambi would state that weather did not allow the landing of the fieldpieces at Boquilla de Piedras, a clear falsehood to explain the failure to follow through on the alleged reason that he and Bean took them out of New Orleans in the first place. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, #0812, NAFW.

  20. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 27, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW.

  21. Morphy to Apodaca, April 10, September 4, 1815, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry; Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA; Indictment, May 1815, United States vs. Julius C. Amigoni, Case #0826; Indictment, April 1815, United States vs. Vincent Gambie, John Robinson, and Romain Very, Case #0821; Deposition of F. Carral, Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW. At one place in his letter Dick says that the Eagle took a prize loaded with dry goods before she landed at Boquilla de Piedras to take on munitions and her commission, which would unequivocally have been piracy, but elsewhere when he describes a prize loaded with dry goods he makes it pretty clear that it was the Santa Rita, and she was almost certainly taken after the Boquilla de Piedras stop.

  22. Testimony of Diego Morphy, January 1816, claim filed May 31, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Nonesuch, Case #0814; Indictment, April 1815, depositions of José Herrera and Thomas Garcia, United States vs. Vincent Gambie, John Robinson, Romain Very, Case #0821; Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW; Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  23. Morphy to Apodaca, April 15, 1815, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry; John Dick to Richard Rush, August 19, 1815, Department of State, Miscellaneous Letters, June-August 1815, M-38, RG 59, NA.

  24. Deposition of Vincent Gambie, October 26, 27, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope, Case #0812, NAFW.

  25. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  26. Morphy to Apodaca, April 10, September 4, 1815, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.

  27. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  28. Deposition of General José Toledo, n.d., Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817; Statement, May 2, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811, NAFW.

  29. Morphy to Apodaca, April 15, 1815, Legajo 1836, AGI-Newberry.

  30. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  31. Henry La Fayette Holstein to Latour, August 20, 1814, Latour Papers, HNOC.

  32. Morphy to Apodaca, March 26, 1815, Legajo 1828, AGI-Newberry.

  33. Unidentified to Duplessis, April 3, 1815, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  34. A. Campbell to Duplessis, May 3, 1815, Gilbert to Duplessis, May 24, 1815, Ibid.

  35. A. J. Dallas to P. B. Duplessis, May 19, 1815, M-178, RG 56, NA.

  36. Crowninshield to Patterson, June 6, 1815, Notes from the Spanish Legation in the United States to the Department of State, 1790–1906, RG 59, M-50, NA.

  37. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  38. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, Ibid.

  39. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, Ibid.

  40. Morphy to captain-general, September 4, 1815, Legajo 1836; Miguel de Arambarri statement, October 3, 1815, Legajo 1828, AGI-Newberry; Deposition of Gaston Davezac, January 10, 1816, Diego Morphy for F. Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita and Cargo, Case #0817, NAFW.

  41. Indictments, May 16, 1815, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  42. Soto to Apodaca, April 15, 1815, enclosure 5, Legajo 1796, AGI-Newberry.

  43. Abstract, May 18, 1815, United States vs. Vincent Gambie, Case #0821, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  44. Power of Attorney of "Juan Roux alias Vicente Gambi," August 14, 1815, Notary Pierre Pedesclaux, Vol. 71, item 802, NONA. Jean Roux bought slaves in New Orleans as late as 1818–19, and maybe earlier as Jean de la Roux.

  45. John Dick to Richard Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Duplessis to George T. Ross, May 10, 1815, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  48. Diego Morphy vs. Ship Cleopatra, Case #0857, Statement, October 12, 1815, United States vs. the Ship Cleopatra, Case #0860, NAFW.

  49. Duplessis to Patterson, July 13, 1815, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  50. Libel, September 4, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Eugenia otherwise called Indiana, Case #0853, NAFW; Fatio to Apodaca, November 14, 1815, Notas Diplomaticas, III; Morphy to Juan Cienfuegos, September 17, 1816, Legajo 1873, AGI-Newberry.

  51. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  52. Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, Ibid.; Verdict, United States vs. J. A. de Toledo, Case #0824, NAFW.

  53. Bond, April 25, 1815, undated note, United States vs. José A. de Toledo, Case #0824, NAFW.

  54. Order to ascertain condition of the President, April 30, 1815, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  55. Minutes, n.d., United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope alias Eagle alias Petit Milan, Case #0812; United States vs. Presidente, Case #0811, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  56. Decree, May 1815, Claim of Diego Morphy, May 31, 1815, Claim of Captain Carral, May 25, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Nonesuch, Case #0814, NAFW.

  57. Claim of Julius Amigoni, May 25, 1815, Deposition of Vincent Gambie, May 27, 1815, United States vs. Schooner Philanthrope alias Eagle alias Petit Milan, Case #0812; Minutes, July 22, 1815, United States vs. Presidente, Case #0811, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW; Dick to Rush, August 19, 1815, M-179, RG 59, NA.

  58. Minutes, August 3, 1815, Carral et al. vs. Santa Rita, Case #0817; Minutes, August 3, 1815, Vincent Gambi testimony, October 26, 27, 1815, United States vs. Eagle, Case #0812; Court order, February 1, 1816, United States vs. Petit Milan, Case #0812, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  59. J. Amigoni to Duplessis, May 6, 1815, RG 36, Entry 1627, NA.

 
60. Finding, February 1, 1816, Morphy for T. Carral et al., Case #0817; Finding, February 1, 1816, United States vs. Goods and Merchandise on the Nonesuch, alias Santa Rita, Case #0814; Finding, February 1, 1816, United States vs. Goods on the Eagle alias Petit Milan, Case #0816, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  61. Court order, February 22, 1816, United States vs. Schooner Presidente, Case #0811; Court order, February 22, United States vs. Goods on the Presidente, Case #0815, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  62. Appeals, April 16, 1816, Cases #0815, #0816, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  63. Account of sales filed February 28, 1816, United States vs. Schooner Eagle, alias Petit Milan, Case #0816, NAFW.

  64. Court order, August 3, 1815, United States vs. Presidente, Case #0811; Morphy vs. Presidente, Case #0830, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  65. Livingston to Lewis Livingston, October 1, 1815, Hunt, Livingston, p. 244.

  66. Duplessis to Alexander Dallas, December 1815, Entry 1627, RG 36, NA.

  67. Dallas to P. B. Duplessis, July 3, 1815, M-178, RG 56, NA.

  68. Indictment, July 15, 1815, Verdict, July 18, 1815, United States vs. Vincent Gambie, Case #0844, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG, 21, NAFW.

  69. Louis Dolliole to Marie Louise Villart, July 10, 1815, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 12, item 296, NONA.

  70. Citation, July 18, 1815, Petition of Jean Laffite, July 14, 1815, receipt July 18, 1815, Jean Laffite vs. Joseph Sylvestre, Case #829, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.

  71. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Mercantile Advertiser, July 1, 1815, September 26, 1815.

  72. Pierre Laffite power of attorney, July 18, 1815, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 12, item 317, NONA. This is the date Pierre filed the power of attorney with the notary. It was actually executed earlier on an unspecified date.

  73. Power of attorney, July 15, 1815, Notary Pierre Pedesclaux, Vol. 70, item 738, NONA.

  74. Edward Livingston statement, July 15, 1815, Deposition of Jean Laffite, July 15, 1815, John Gourjon vs. Vincent Gamby, Suit Records, #751, First Judicial District Court, Orleans Parish, NOPL.

  75. Petition of Jean Laffite, July 14, 1815, Laffite vs. Sylvestre, Case #829, Parish Court Civil Suit Records, NOPL.

  76. New Orleans, Louisiana Gazette and New-Orleans Mercantile Advertiser, July 20, 1815. The Francis is the only vessel clearing the port at the right time, given Livingston's statement on July 15 that Laffite was expected to leave the state immediately. John Dyer later maintained without giving his source that a daughter of Pierre's traveled with Jean on this trip, and then went on to Quebec for education. There seems to be no reason to credit this as anything more than one of the many imaginative stories that Dyer collected from aged and inventive Galveston residents late in the nineteenth century. Galveston, Daily News, September 19, 1926.

  77. Philadelphia, United States' Gazette, August 18, 22, 28, 1815. Laffite does not appear on Philadelphia passenger lists for 1815 and 1816, but that is explained by the fact that the lists contain only immigrants, not travelers from other states.

  78. Ibid., August 29, 31, 1815.

  79. Washington, Daily National Intelligencer, September 12, 1815.

  80. Ibid., September 9, 1815.

  81. Proclamation, September 1, 1815, Richardson, Messages and Papers, I, pp. 561–62.

  82. Harris Gaylord Warren, "The Origin of General Mina's Invasion of Mexico," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XLII (July 1938), pp. 6—7.

  83. William Fry, The Baltimore Directory for 1810, containing the Names, Occupations and Residences of the Inhabitants, Alphabetically Arranged; also, A correct List of Streets, Lanes and Alleys Within the City and Precincts. A List of Officers in the General Government of the United States, Government of the State of Maryland, Officers of the Corporation, Custom-House Duties, Banks, Insurance Offices, Turnpike Roads, £sfc. (Baltimore, 1810), n.p.

  84. Information derived from Col. S. M. Williams respecting Lafitte, n.d. [certainly prior to Williams's death in 1858], Lamar Papers, TSL; Bollaert, "Lafitte," p. 439. Williams recalled that Laffite had a brother and his father with him, clearly an error with regard to the father. As to the brother, Pierre was certainly still in New Orleans, though Williams may have meant Latour, who was in Baltimore at this time and certainly spending some time with Laffite. It should be noted that Williams's recollection is imprecise as to what year he met Laffite in Baltimore, and seems to confuse the two brothers, and also this visit with Pierre's in 1818. However, context suggests that this recollection regarding Peter A. Gustier can only relate to Jean's 1815–16 trip.

  85. Hunt, Livingston, p. 222.

  86. Edward Livingston obligation, August 2, 1815, Notary John Lynd, Vol. 12, item 344, NONA.

  87. Latour [John Williams] to Intendant at Havana, March 26, 1817, enclosed in Onís to Pizarro, November 22, 1818, Cienfuegos to Fatio, April 12, 1817, Legajo 1898, AGI-Newberry.

  88. On January 29, 1816, Onís made reference in a letter to having met Laffite. Smith, "Editor's Introduction," Latour, Historical Memoir, p. xxviii.

  89. Petition, July 28, 18x5, finding July 29, 1815, Patterson et al. vs. Certain Vessels, Goods and Merchandise, Case #0734, Parsons Collection, CAHUT.

  90. Motion, July 28, 1815, Court order, July 29, 1815, Patterson et al. vs. 16 plates of Bullion and 8 pieces of cannon, Case #0734, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  91. See, for instance, court orders on August 3, October 27, and December 4, 1815, Minutes, 7RA-119, RG 21, NAFW.

  92. Nolan and Dupont, eds., Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Volume 14, 1820–1821, p. 229. The baptismal record states only that the son was named Pierre. However, on October 24, 1832, a Jean Lafitte, listed as the son of Catiche Villard and a father identified only as Lafitte, died at the age of sixteen. Taking the record at face value, and cognizant of the idiosyncrasies of stated ages in the records of this period, that would mean he was born after October 25, 1815, and before October 24, 1816. The son Pierre fits that time slot perfectly, suggesting that the two are one and the same, and that the son's full name was Jean Pierre. It is faintly possible that Jean and Catarina could have conceived another son during Jean's brief visit to New Orleans in March 1816, but there is no other evidence of such a second son. Funerals S-Free Persons of Color, Vol. 9 1829–1831, Part 1, page 317, entry #2015, SAANO.

  93. Deposition of John Blanque, April 22, 1815, United States vs. Certain Goods taken at Barataria, Case #0746, Parsons Collection, CAHUT.

  94. Latour, Memoir, p. 16. This is the only source for Jean having such documents to show, and suggests that Laffite must have shown them to Latour during the visit.

  95. Smith, "Editor's Introduction," Latour, Historical Memoir, p. xxviii.

  96. Jean Laffite to Madison, December 27, 1815, Madison Papers, Library of Congress.

  97. No record survives of any communication to Laffite from any officials in Washington. Madison's surviving outgoing correspondence is extensive, though he does not seem to have retained copies. However, if any encouraging response was sent to Laffite, Jean would have used it in petitions to Rush, Dallas, and others, and copies would have survived in the archives of the Justice and Treasury departments. Such copies do not exist.

  98. Washington, Daily National Intelligencer, December 27, 1815.

  99. Ibid., December 21, 1815.

  100. Onís to Picornell, December 28, 1815, cited in Faye, "Great Stroke," p. 744.

  101. Washington, Daily National Intelligencer, December 7, 9, 12, 27, 1815.

  102. Newark, NJ, Daily Advertiser, February 12, 1840. This article, reprinted from an unknown 1840 issue of the Galveston, Gazette, has some features that suggest it is an authentic account of recollections by Galvestonians who had known Laffite before he left that island twenty years before. The publisher of the Gazette was Hamilton Stuart, who collected stories of early Texas history later published by his son Benjamin and contained in the Benjamin C. Stuart Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galvesto
n, TX. Certainly in 1840 there were several people still at Galveston who could provide Stuart with such stories as told by Laffite, regardless of their accuracy. Citing no source, Yoakum, Texas, I, p. 190, said in 1856 that Laffite went to Washington in 1815 and "squandered his wealth with princely profusion."

  103. Marixa Lasso, "Haiti as an Image of Popular Republicanism in Caribbean Colombia," David P. Geggus, ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (Columbia, SC, 2001), pp. 178–79; Aury to Maignets, March 15, 1816, Aury Papers, CAHUT.

  104. Statement of Diego Morphy, May 1816, United States vs. William Mitchell et al., Case #0909, NAFW; Patterson to David D. Porter, April 24, 1816, Parsons, CAHUT. This is possibly the origin of a story that Bollaert encountered in Texas in the 1840s that had Jean Laffite as the protagonist, putting into an unnamed West Indies port to kidnap the governor and others and then threatening them with hanging unless they paid him a $50, 000 ransom. Another candidate is the September 1816 capture of the governor of Pensacola by the privateer General Humbert, or Job Northrop's December 1816 attempt to demand ransom from Pensacola. See Bollaert, "Lafitte," p. 437, and Faye, Privateers of the Gulf, pp. 10-n.

  105. United States vs. William Mitchell et al., Case #0909, NAFW.

  106. Robert Vogel reports that in research on privateers of Cartagena, Gran Colombia, Artigas, and the United Provinces of South America, he found many references to Barataria and Galveston, but not one mention of the Laffite brothers as owners, masters, armorers, or officers of privateers, nor of them or their agents paying any taxes or duties on prizes disposed of in the "patriot" admiralty courts.

  107. Pedro Gual to Toledo, February 8, 1816, Gual to Iturribarria, February 8, 1816, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry.

  108. Onís to Cienfuegos, January 29, 1816, Sedella to Onís, December 29, 1815, Legajo 1837, AGI-Newberry.

  109. Onís to Apodaca, February 8, 1816, in Faye, "Great Stroke," pp. 743–44.

  110. Nothing fixes the precise date of his departure, but in Gual to Toledo, February 8, 1816, Legajo 1815, AGI-Newberry, written from Washington, Gual says that Jean Laffite has offered to take this and another letter to New Orleans for him, suggesting a departure soon thereafter.