The Brides Of La Baleine

The Brides Of La Baleine. Historic Biloxi. In 1720, eighty-eight French women volunteered for travel from Lorient, France on a "Dutch built" flute named LA BALEINE to Biloxi, the capital of la Louisiane française, the French Louisiana colony. They arrived on January 8th, 1721, when they anchored at Ship Island., The list of the names for these female adventurers was lost (mis-filed) in the French Archives for more than 266 years, only being discovered in 1987, and published by Bruce Ardoin (National Genealogical Quarterly Dec. 1987) who called them the "Baleine Brides.", The Baleine Brides settled in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Illinois, and Arkansas with active descendants from Mobile to New Orleans along the Gulf Coast and today descendants extend across North America., . Prior to 1720, France tried to settle the Louisiana colony using criminals and deportees, . In October 1719, Governor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne de Bienville sent a letter to the King's Council of the Marine in Paris expressing his dissatisfaction with convict labor in Louisiana, . In May 1720, the King's Council issued an edict that prohibited sending criminals to Louisiana, . Women from la Salpêtrière orphanage in Paris were selected for travel to the colony, . The Cardinal Louis-Antoine de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris, approved the list, . On June 12th, 1720, the group was transported to Paimboeuf, France, for embarkation, . In August 1720, LA BALEINE departed Lorient, France, on the Brittany Coast, and anchored at present-day Ship Island, Mississippi on January 8th, 1721, . The women were "housed" at Ft. Maurepas, Old Biloxi, present day Ocean Springs, Mississippi, . Sixty Baleine Brides were married at Old Biloxi in 1721