Degruy is mentioned 8 times in the following document from http://openjurist.org/56/us/14/the-united-states-v-jean-baptiste-dauterieve Not giving whole thing here because too long. Go to link...... Open Jurist content is usable under a Creative Commons License. Home > U.S. > 56 U.S. 56 US 14 The United States v. Jean Baptiste D'Auterieve 56 U.S. 14 15 How. 14 14 L.Ed. 580 THE UNITED STATES, APPELLANTS, v. JEAN BAPTISTE D'AUTERIEVE, PONPONNE LE BLANC AND OTHERS, HEIRS AND LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES OF JEAN ANTOINE BERNARD D'AUTERIEVE, DECEASED. December Term, 1853 1 THIS was an appeal from the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Louisiana. 2 The history of the claim is fully set forth in the opinion of the court. 3 It was argued by Mr. Cushing, (Attorney-General,) for the United States, and submitted on a printed argument, by Messrs. Janin and Taylor, for the appellees. 4 The points made on the part of the United States were the following:------ 5 1. That the claim of the petitioners, founded on the alleged grant by the Western Company is not open for discussion, the petitioners having taken no appeal from the decree of the court below, confirming their claim to the extent only of the forty-four arpens of front, and excepting even out of this confirmation the forty in depth on the front granted to the Acadians. But if it were, then every thing relating to that grant and its extent and locality, and what interest D'Auterieve had in it, are so vague and uncertain that it would be impossible to identify and locate the land, and the grant would have to be declared void. 6 2. That D'Auterieve, by accepting the new concessions from the Spanish authorities, thereby waived all claims under the grant of the Western Company. 7 3. That the edict of 1728, and the alleged order of O'Reilly reducing the extent of the lands and the granting of them to others, subsequent to the alleged concessions, are acts for which the petitioners can have no relief against the United States, being the acts of competent French and Spanish authorities during the time these powers held the sovereignty of the country. ******some omitted 14 The brief of Messrs. Janin and Taylor was as follows:------ 15 The petitioners in this action seek to obtain the confirmation of a tract of land as described in their petition, extending from within forty arpens of the Mississippi river to the Atchafalaya. Their title to it is asserted to result from a grant made by the 'Western Company,' created by the King of France, in 1717, to Paris Duvernay, having four leagues front on the western bank of the Mississippi river, opposite Bayou Manchac, and extending back to the Atchafalaya river. And from the proceedings of the Spanish government in relation to it, after the transfer of Louisiana by France to Spain, under the treaty of 1762, by which the front on the Mississippi was reduced to forty-four arpens, between side lines, the beginning and courses of which were established in 1772, by the proper surveying officer, and approved by the then governor, with the former depth to the Atchafalaya. *****some omitted 1st. Historical Evidence. 19 1st. Mention is made of it in Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 205 and 246. In that work it is spoken of as one of the large grants made by the 'Western Company' to promote the settlement of the colony, and is described as situated on the right bank of the Mississippi, opposite Bayou Manchac. 20 The arrival of the settlers sent out by Duvernay in or about 1718, to be established on the grant, is related in Martin's History, (vol. 1, p. 206,) and it is also spoken of by Bernard de la Harpe, in his 'Journale Historique de l'establissement des Francais a la Louisiana,' p. 142. 2d. Documentary Evidence. 21 1. The existence of the grant is clearly shown by the descriptions of the contents of different papers found by the public officer, who made an inventory in due form of law of the effects left by Claude Trenonay de Chamfret, at Point Coupee, in Louisiana, on the 10th of July, 1793. *******some omitted 34 The act, at page 36, of the transcript, executed by Trenonay, makes mention of his claim against his uncle, Claude Trenonay de Chamfret, for the alienation of property belonging to him; and that at page 37, recites that de Chamfret had given up an obligation of D'Auterieve for the sum of fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty-six livres, the balance of the sale of the plantation at bayou Goula, comprised in the donation to him. In the examination of papers contained in the inventory before referred to, there is one described as the decree of the council, condemning D'Auterieve to pay to Trenonay the amount of his obligation for 14,456 livres. 35 And this brings us to a new epoch. No trace has been discovered of the original grant. If it remained in the hands of the original grantee, it was doubtless soon lost after he, or his heirs, ceased to have any interest in the land comprised in it. The Western Company ceased to exist long before the transfer of Louisiana by France to Spain, in 1769. After Spain took possession of the Province, O'Reilly, the first Governor, by an arbitrary exercise of power, declared his determination to reduce the front of D'Auterieve, the then owner of the concession, to a front of twenty arpens. There is, however, no written evidence of this fact, but what results from the statement made by Andry, in the proces verbal of his survey. Unzaga, the succeeding Governor, did not carry out the determination of O'Reilly. He reduced the front on the river, however, to forty-four arpens, but left to D'Auterieve the original depth to the Atchafalaya. This appears from the copy of the proces verbal of the survey made by Andry, under the authority of the Governor General, on the 12th of March, 1772, to be found at page 27, of the printed transcript, and the plan or map representing the same at page 40, of the original transcript, and from the express approval of the survey, proces verbal, and plan, which were laid before him on the 28th of March, 1772, made and given in writing on the 12th of July, of the same year, 1772. There are translations of the material parts of the proces verbal of the survey, made by Mr. Janin, and embodied in a brief presented by him to the land office in 1835 or 1836, at page 21, of the transcript, and a translation of the letter of Unzaga approving it, also embodied in the same brief, at page 22. 36 From these proceedings, three facts are rendered indisputable. 1st. That it was to the knowledge of the Spanish government that a valid grant existed, under the authority of France, for a very large tract of land at the point in question, the title to which at the time vested in D'Auterieve, of which the tract comprised in the lines established by the survey, made a part. 2d. That it had a very wide front on the river; and 3d. That it extended back in depth to the Atchafalaya. 37 The parol evidence of Degruys, as to the existence, location, and extent of the grant, is very clear and distinct. The portions of his deposition relating to these points are in harmony with the proceedings and acts of the Spanish government, as shown in the record. *****some omitted 41 These two tracts constituted the upper and lower boundaries of the tract left to D'Auterieve, and the lower and upper lines, respectively, determine the direction of the side lines of the claim. 42 D'Auterieve continued in possession of this property up to his death. He entered into a contract for erecting a mill there in 1772. He died there in 1776. 43 D'Auterieve, at his death, left several young children, who were his heirs. After the death of D'Auterieve, his widow, the same year, (1776,) sold six arpens of the front, with the depth of forty arpens. The remainder of the front, to the depth of forty arpens only, was afterwards comprised in an arrangement made by Degruys, with Governor Galvez, as stated in his deposition before referred to. The statement of Degruys is confirmed by the fact that the surveys of the different portions of the front were all made long after the arrangement spoken of by him, (being, in point of fact, made in 1796,) and that it is stated in the proces verbals of the surveys that these lands were those which were contained in the forty arpens from the concession of Mr. D'Auterieve, for the establishment of the Acadian families. (See proces verbal of survey, by Pintado, and forming part of the concession of Mr. Dotrive, which was destined for the establishment of the Acadian families, and 'which were taken for the establishment of the French Acadian families, from the concession of Mr. Dotrive.' ******some omitted 47 The heirs of D'Auterieve filed their petition under the act of Congress of the 17th June, 1844, which provides for the adjustment of certain land claims against the government, setting up a claim to a large tract in the parish of Iberville, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, at a place called Bayou Goula, some thirty leagues above the city of New Orleans. The decree below is in favor of the heirs, and the case is now before us on an appeal by the United States. 48 The petition sets out a charter from the King of France, in August, 1717, by which the province of Louisiana was granted to the Western or Mississippi Company; and also a grant from that company in the same year, to Paris Duvernay, a wealthy capitalist of France, of a tract of land fronting on the western bank of the Mississippi opposite Bayou Manchac, having four leagues front on the river, and extending back in the rear to the river Atchafalaya. That soon after this, Duvernay fitted out a company of sixty men, under the direction of his agent Dubuisson, all of whom arrived at New Orleans in the spring of 1716, and immediately thereafter settled upon the tract; the settlement was known as the 'Bayou Goula Concession,' the principal establishment being in the neighborhood of the village of the Bayou Goulas Indians. That the settlement was kept up by Duvernay for many years at great expense, and under many difficulties, and contributed materially towards the establishment of the French dominion in Lower Louisiana. 49 The petition further states, that in 1765, Duvernay, through his agent, Tremonay De Chamfret, sold the tract in question to Bernard D'Auterieve, the ancestor of the present claimants, and delivered to him the possession. That in 1769, after O'Reilly had taken possession of the province, on behalf of the King of Spain in pursuance of the treaty of 1762, he gave orders that the Bayou Goula Concession should be reduced from four leagues to twenty arpens front, but that Unzaga, his successor, in 1772, enlarged it to forty-four arpens on the river, and ordered a survey of the same by Luis Andry, the government surveyor, which was made accordingly on the 12th of March, 1772, and approved by the Governor, 12th July, of the same year. D'Auterieve continued to occupy and improve the tract, making it his place of residence, from 1765, the date of his purchase, till his death, 24th of March, 1776. That the widow remained in possession with her children till 1779, when she married Jean Babtiste Degruys, who resided at Attakapas, to which place they removed. 50 The petition further states, that about this time, Galvez, the then Governor of Louisiana, desirous of introducing some Spanish families from the Canary Islands as colonists, and to provide a settlement for them, made contracts with various persons for the construction of small houses, and, among others, with Degruys; who undertook to build a number on the Bayou Goula Concession, and to give up the front on the river to the use of these colonists, with forty arpens in depth; that he built a number of these houses, and delivered them to the Governor, and was paid for them; but not in accordance with the agreement. That the government having become engaged in a war against the province of of West Florida, the Governor changed his purposes in behalf of the Spanish families, and assigned a different location for their accommodation, but subsequently set apart this tract with the cabins erected, to a number of Acadian emigrants, who had been some years previously driven from their ancient possessions in Nova Scotia by the British government. The petition states, that Degruys and his family continued to reside at Attakapas, where they had other property; that the back land in Bayou Goula Concession, being either low swamp land, or nearly inaccessible, and of little value, was neglected by the family, and especially by Degruys, the head of it, and some portions were subsequently granted to others by the Spanish government, in ignorance of the rights of the ancestors of the present claimants. The petitioners admit that no claim was set up to these back lands, from the time the front was surrendered to Governor Galvez, which must have been about the year 1780, down till 1821 or 1822, when the heirs employed the late Mr. Edward Livingston, as their attorney, to inquire into their claims. They state that the children of D'Auterieve, at the time of his death were under age; that there were four of them; and at the time of the removal of the family from the Concession to Attakapas, the eldest, Antoine, was only fourteen years old, the second, Louis, twelve, the third, Marigny, six; the fourth, Dubrelet, died in infancy. Antoine died in 1812, leaving four children; Marigny in 1828, leaving no issue; Louis, in 1814, leaving four children. These descendants of D'Auterieve have instituted the present proceedings. The widow died in 1811. Degruys, the husband, was living at the commencement of this suit, and had been examined, as a witness, on behalf of the claimants. *** some omitted 52 As it respects the first ground of title, the grant to Duvernay in 1717, no record of it has been produced, and, after a thorough examination of the archives of that date, both at New Orleans and at Paris, and in the appropriate offices for the deposit of such records, none can be found. The only proof furnished is to be found in the historical sketches given to the public, of the first settlement of Louisiana by the French government, under the direction of the Western or Mississippi Company, together with some documentary evidence relating to the settlement of the plantation by Duvernay, through his agents, such as powers of attorney, and some intermediate transfers of the titles, in the course of the agency. But unfortunately, neither the historical sketches, or documentary evidence, furnish any information as to the extent of the grant or its boundaries. 53 The several historians of the transactions of the Western Company in Louisiana of that date, concur in stating that agriculture was one of the first objects of encouragement in the colony; that the company thought the most effectual mode of accomplishing it would be to make large concessions of land to the most wealthy and powerful personages in the kingdom. Accordingly, one of four leagues square, on the Arkansas river, was made to John Law, the famous projector of the company, and *** some omitted 55 And in the second place, the tract claimed as derived from Duvernay is without boundaries or location. The only description that has been referred to, or which we have been able to find, after a pretty thorough search, even in historical records, is that it was a grant of a large tract upon the right bank of the Mississippi river, opposite Bayou Manchac, a point some thirty leagues above New Orleans. In the intermediate transfers and powers of attorney, found in the record, it is referred to as a plantation or concession, known by the name of 'Le Dubuisson,' the name of the first agent, or by the name of 'Bayou Goula Village,' the name of an ancient Indian village at that place on the river. We have no evidence of the extent of the concession on the river, or of its depth back, or of any landmarks designating the tract, by which it can be regarded as severed from the public domain. 59 These acts of O'Reilly and Unzaga have been urged as a confirmation by the Spanish government, pro tanto, of the French grant to Duvernay; and it may be admitted that they are entitled to great weight in that aspect of the case. But this view cannot avail the petitioners here, as the effect would be simply the confirmation of a complete and perfect title, which we have seen cannot be dealt with under this act of 1844. The title thus confirmed must necessarily partake of the nature of the one derived under the French concession or grant. *** rest omitted