Jean Baptiste Baudreau II
Jean Baptiste Baudreau Dit Graveline II (1715-1757) is notorious for being the only individual known to be executed by being broken on the wheel on American soil.Born in the 1710s (presumably 1715) on the French Louisiana settlement of Massacre Island (modern day Dauphin Island, Alabama), Jean Baptiste Baudreau Dit Graveline II was the son of Jean Baptiste Baudreau Dit Graveline and an Indian woman named Suzanne. Having originally been born as an illegitimate child, his father married the Indian woman in 1727 in an attempt to legitimize him. In 1734, Baudreau married Marie Catherine Viconneau, with whom he would have all of his legitimate children.
No doubt the marriage of Jean Baptiste and Marie Catherine was an arranged one. She was only 19 and was marrying a half-Indian boy 17 years old! Their first child was born 10 months after they married. Sons Jean Baptiste Baudreau III and Claude followed quickly thereafter, only a year apart.
Apparently it was after their third child’s birth that Jean Baptiste began to have an eye for the ladies as there is a five-year gap before their 4th child was born in 1742. It was not long after that when Jean Baptiste became involved with Marie Henriette Huet, whose family owned a plantation in the area around modern day Portersville Bay. He had two illegitimate children with her. One of these children, Pierre Baptiste, is regarded by modern historians to be the founder of Coq'd'Inde (Coden, Alabama).
The affair of Jean Baptiste and Marie Henriette has lent itself to several works of great interest. It is chronicled in "Jean Baptiste and Henriette, A Creole Tragedy" by Randall Ladnier. The novel by Eloise Genest entitled “The Passions of Princes” also is based upon the love affair of Jean Baptiste and Marie Henriette . In describing the work of Genest, Jay Higginbotham states that “The Passion of Princes” is "a gripping, convincing novel that takes the reader deep into the heart of this romantic Gulf Coast setting" and is a compelling story of suspense, romance, and intrigue.
An interesting note here... Those lombards who are prodigy of William Adolph Lombard and Norma Ione (Sis) Seaman, are twice-descended from Jean Baptiste Baudreau II. He is the 4th great grandfather of William Adolph Lombard through his mistress, Marie Henriette Huet; and the 5th great grandfather of Norma Ione Seaman, through his wife, Marie Catherine Vinconneau. Click one of these links to see the lineage chart:
William Adolph Lombard
Norma Ione Seaman
During the course of his life, Jean Baptiste Baudreau II had problems with French authorities and was subject to imprisonment several times. Despite his warm relations with Bienville, he was regarded with suspicion by some French authorities, because of his unique relationship with the local Native American population, due in no large part to his half Indian heritage. At the same time however, he was a vital part of the French colonial operation, as he was often the one who was sent on trading excursions into Creek territory. In the 1740s, he had been imprisoned by French authorities on kidnapping charges after he and Marie Henriette took off to Havana, Cuba. He broke out of prison and took refuge in Native American villages north of Mobile. The native Americans refused to engage in any further trade with the French until he was pardoned. Governor Vandrieul petitioned for King Louis XV to drop the charges, which he did.
In the 1750s, Baudreau was imprisoned at the French prison on modern day Cat Island, Mississippi for charges of illegal salvaging of wrecked ships. In 1757, soldiers stationed at the prison, staged a mutiny and killed the commanding officer. They took Graveline hostage and forced him to be their guide as they went into the hinterlands away from the colony. They provided him with a signed certificate saying he had not been a party to the mutiny. Goveror Kerlerec had him court martialed and he was sentenced to death. He was executed by breaking wheel in front of the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 7, 1757. The French authorities subsequently mutilated what were left of his remains and deposited them in the Mississippi River. A movement is currently ongoing by some of his descendants to get the City of New Orleans to erect a marker in Jackson Square commemorating his life and brutal execution at that site.
There is disagreement among historians as to the location of Jean Baptiste Baudreau II's execution -- New Orleans vs. Mobile. One source on his execution is from The History of Alabama by James Albert Pickett, Chapter XVI, pp. 304-308. According to Pickett, Jean Baptiste Baudreau II was executed at Mobile. p. 308: "Such a man was Beaudrot, whom the French authorities in Mobile broke upon a wheel!"
Notwithstanding his certificate which declared his innocence, a trial was held and a court martial condemned Jean Baptiste Baudreau II to death. Word was sent back to Kerlerec in New Orleans, who signed the death sentence, and Jean Baptiste Baudreau II was led out from his imprisonment at Fort Conde and broken on the wheel in front of the people of Mobile. That same day, the captured soldiers were brought out and the French soldier was also broken on the wheel, while the Swiss soldiers were nailed up alive in a coffin and the box was then cut in two with a cross-cut saw.
In 1747, while he was on the run from French authorities following his prison escape, the mother of his illegitimate children, Marie Henriette Huet, filed a claim with the French authorities for support of her children. The senior Graveline, the grandfather of the children, agreed to help provide for their support. Graveline also disowned his son in his will, stating that he had only married his mother to legitimize him, and then proceeded to list a number of reasons justifying the disinheritance.
JEAN-BAPTISTE BAUDREAU II and Marie Catherine had four children:
1. Marie Catherine Baudreau b. 4 Jan 1735 m. Francois Louis Mazurier -- no children
2. Jean-Baptiste Baudreau III b. 14 Sep 1736 m. Marie Louise Fayard on 10 Feb 1801 - 5 children
3. Claude Baudreau b. Sep 1737 d. bef 1797 - no information on him regarding marriage/children
4. Louise Catherine Baudreau b. 13 Jan 1742 m. Joseph Bosarge - 7 children
(on occasion, her name is written Catherine Louise Baudreau)
JEAN-BAPTISTE BAUDREAU II and Marie Henriette Huet had two children:
1. Julie Baptiste Huet b. Dec 1743 m. Jacques Milon on 21 Dec 1761 - 8 children
2. Pierre Baptiste Huet b. Mar 1745 d. 14 Jan 1836 m. Marguerite "Jacob" Hamon in 1778 - 8 children