Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac
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Antoine Laumet, dit de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (March 5 1658 – October 15 1730), a French explorer, was a colourful figure in the history of New France. The self-styled Lamothe-Cadillac was the son of one Jean Laumet, an assistant magistrate in the local court. His mother, a modest home-maker, was born Jeanne Pechagut.
Born at Les Laumets in the hamlet of St. Nicolas de la Grave, in Gascony, he arrived in 1683 at Port-Royal, Acadia, where Governor Frontenac made him a lieutenant and later a captain.
Hardly had he disembarked than he changed his name and began calling himself "Lamothe", which is the name of a nobleman of his home region (de Lamothe-Bardigues) who was a counselor to the parliament in Toulouse. He also borrowed the latter's coat of arms that he had seen on the gates of the Bardigues estate near St. Nicolas. It is a variation on that coat of arms that has graced the Cadillac automobile for close to 100 years.
On June 25, 1687, in Quebec (which was New France at that time), he married Marie-Thérèse Guyon, niece of French-Canadian privateer, Denis Guyon. It is rumored that they met at the Governors ball at Quebec's Château St. Louis. He signed the marriage license de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac. The style "sieur" is derived from the French formal address "monsieur," and equates to the English title "sir"; it is roughly equivalent to a title between "gentleman" and "lord." It is believed that the name Cadillac is a reference to a hamlet near the town of Montech, not far from Laumet's birthplace.
He moved with his family to Quebec City in 1691 and was commissioned in the Troupes de la Marine. In 1694 he was named commander of Fort Michilimackinac in Michigan, where he stayed until 1697. He convinced the comte de Pontchartrain to found a colony at Detroit, which he commanded 1701-1710. Originally, the settlement was called "les Etroits" (the narrows) and Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. He was removed from that post when it became apparent he was using it for his own gain. His lieutenant, Alphonse de Tonty, became the new fort commandant.
He was then named governor of Louisiana, but returned to France in 1717, where he died at Castelsarrasin. His former house is in Montréal; it is now converted into a McDonald's restaurant.
Cadillac's name lives on in General Motors' luxury Cadillac automotive line, the town of Cadillac, Michigan, and in Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island in Maine.
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- A detailed history of Antoine Laumet
- Catholic Encyclopedia article
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