| Notes |
- Capt Jean Alexis was a wine merchant and ran an importing business, and was very wealthy.
Source: Suzanne Coutanceau via email. Information is sources from a book called Mauritius Illustrated, published in 1914
- Headstone photo compliments of Suzanne Coutanceau
- Book Excerpt
- JEAN-ALEXIS COUTANCEAU -
- Franco-Mauritian of Recent Origin -
This new COUTANCEAU, a Sea Captain, landed in Mauritius [ex-Isle de France] at Port-Louis, known for a short time as Port-Napoleon, in September 1848. Born on the 15th February 1817, he was the son of Joseph COUTANCEAU, probably the Captain of the “Marie“ in 1810, and Jeanne-Marie LABORDE, both natives of Barsac, in the Gironde, near Bordeaux. Thus we are now writing about a different family from that of Nicolas COUTANCEAU, who came from Anjou [on the Loire valley]. At best, one could give them a distant parentage, if it could be shown that the name COUTANCEAU came from the town of Coutances in Normandie.
Jean-Alexis intended to stay only a few days on the island to settle some business deals, but, charmed by a local “Creole” girl [a girl of European origin born on the island], Rosalie ROLANDO, he gave up his sea-faring life and decided to settle on the island, where he started a commercial enterprise, based mainly on the sale of wines.
He left behind him an adventurous career. He had served as a sailor on the “Gloire“, a frigate in the BAUDIN Squadron, which had been sent to the blockade of the Mexican coast, in order to force that country to pay compensation to the French settlers there, one of them being a confectioner living in Tacubaya.This blocus, which took place at the time of the United States War with Mexico over Texas, did not lead to any results. And so, on the 28th November 1838, Admiral BAUDIN attacked the fortified castle of St John of Ulloa, near Vera-Cruz, principal Port of Mexico, with three frigates, including the”Gloire” and Prince de Joinville’s Corvette. COUTANCEAU was one of the volunteers in the landing party and later on took part in the unsuccessful operation that tried to capture the port, during which campaign the President, General SANTA-ANNA was wounded in the leg, which had to be amputated. He, however, refused to surrender, expelled the French Nationals and declared war [to France ], which ended through English mediation.
During the years 1841 and 1842, COUTANCEAU was Lieutenant on the brig “l’Africain” on a voyage of exploration to Zanzibar and the Mozambique Channel. Later, from 1842 to 1847, he commanded various vessels, sailing to Senegal, The Antilles and the Southern seas.
Settled in Mauritius, he managed his commercial activities together with many cultural and social ones [President of 4 Welfare Societies], which earned him first the Honour of “Chevalier of the Papal Order of St Sylvestre”, and then, on the 4th February 1887, ”Chevalier of the Legion of Honour”, which was a magnificent reward for a Frenchman settled overseas.
His wife, Rosalie ROLANDO, belonged to an old family of French settlers on the Isle de France. In fact, it was in 1753, only 40 years after France took possession of the island that the marriage of Jean-Baptiste ROLANDO, Officer in the National Guard, and “Works Contractor to the King”, to Marie-Francoise DESVEAUX, was registered at Port-Louis. The couple had many children. Among these we will mention some of his daughters: Jeanne-Francoise, born in 1756 and married in 1785 at Moka to a Lieutenant on one of His Majesty’s Frigates; Anne, born in 1758 and married at Moka to a De NEMOUTIERS; Marie-Louise, born in 1760 and married in 1781 at Moka to an Army Officer; Euphrasie-Francoise, born in 1780 and married in 1799 to a businessman from Brittany, Joseph Etienne COURTOIS. One of their sons, Louis-Fortune, businessman, married in 1799 Marie-Louise PRADIER, daughter of a Mauritian family. The latter couple seems to have been Rosalie’s Grand-parents. (???)*
All these families lived during the troubled years of the end of the Empire, which finished with the Naval and Land combats related above, and they would rejoice whenever French travellers calling at the island would give them news of France and rekindle memories of the past century, the heroic period!
- Alexis Coutanceau's importing establishment burned down at 9.30am on 24 Oct 1877, after being engulfed in a huge fire that started in the kitchen of l'Hotel de l'Univers. Source: Port-Louis Deux Siecles d'Histoire by Pierre Crepin.
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1817 - 1906 (88 years)
