Years of service 1758–1800 Role Military Officer | Name Francisco Bouligny Rank Brigadier general | |
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Born September 4, 1736Alicante, Spain ( 1736-09-04 ) Spouse(s) Marie-Louise Le Senechal d'Auberville Other work Acting military governor of Louisiana (1799) Died November 25, 1800, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States | ||
Don Francisco Domingo Joseph Bouligny (; 4 September 1736 – 25 November 1800) was a high-ranking military and civilian officer in Spanish Louisiana; he served as lieutenant governor under Bernardo de Gálvez and as acting military governor in 1799. He founded the city of New Iberia in 1779.
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Early life
Bouligny, called "Frasquito" by his family, was born in 1736 in Alicante, Spain, to Jean (Juan) Bouligny, a successful French merchant, and Marie Paret, who was from Alicante. At the age of 10, he was sent to a boys' school founded by the bishop of Orihuela, from which he graduated in 1750 and joined the family import-export business.
Military career
In 1758, Bouligny enlisted in the Spanish army, joining the Regiment of Zamora. A year later, he transferred to the Royal Regiment of Spanish Guards and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the infantry and sent to Havana, Cuba, in 1762. He was stationed there until 1769 when he joined Alejandro O'Reilly's expedition to put down the Louisiana Rebellion. Since Bouligny was fluent in French, he was charged with delivering the Spanish government's messages to the Francophone inhabitants of Louisiana and he acted as an interpreter during the military trial of the rebellion's leaders.
Bouligny was promoted to the rank of brevet captain in the new Louisiana Battalion. In 1772 he was appointed a full captain. In 1775, Bouligny was granted leave to return to Europe to settle family affairs. While in Spain, Bouligny wrote a discourse on the population of New Orleans and Spanish Louisiana (Memoria histórica y política sobre la Luisiana).
Return to Louisiana
In 1777, Bouligny returned to Louisiana, where he was named lieutenant governor by Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez. Among his responsibilities was managing trade and relations with Native American tribes and founding new settlements. In April 1779, he brought a group of 500 Malagueño colonists up Bayou Teche to establish the city of New Iberia. During the American Revolutionary War, Spain attacked British holdings in West Florida. In 1780, Bouligny led an expedition against the British at Mobile and he later participated in the Siege of Pensacola.
In 1783, Bouligny was ordered to eliminate a colony of fugitive slaves (cimarróns) south of New Orleans. The expedition captured 60 people; in the following investigation, officials identified a dozen slaves as helping to plan escapes from plantations. In 1785, Gov. Esteban Rodríguez Miró sent Bouligny to Natchez to enforce Spanish rule in the area and to resist American encroachment related to the West Florida Controversy. In 1791, Bouligny was appointed colonel and placed in command of the Louisiana Regiment, also called the Spanish Regiment.
Following the death of Gov. Manuel Gayoso de Lemos on 18 July 1799, Francisco Bouligny was appointed as military governor of Louisiana, with Nicolás María Vidal as civil governor, until the new governor general, Sebastián Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrill, Marquis de Casa Calvo, reached the colony on 18 December 1799.
Death and honors
Bouligny died in New Orleans on 25 November 1800 following a long illness. He was honored by being buried in St. Louis Cathedral. He had been appointed in September 1800 by the Spanish Crown as brigadier general, but the written copy of the commission did not reach Louisiana until after his death.
Personal life
On 29 December 1770, Bouligny married Marie-Louise Le Sénéchal d'Auberville (1750–1834). They had four children, including Charles Dominique Joseph Bouligny who was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate in the 1820s.
At the time of his death, Bouligny left behind what was considered an extensive library of 148 books, and a wine cellar holding some 500 bottles of wine.