Huguenot-L Archives

Archiver > Huguenot > 1998-09 > 0904761923


From: "Sandra Delashaw Warden" <>
Subject: [Huguenot-L] Jean Louis Dumesnil de St. Pierre
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 13:45:23 -0500


Three shiploads of French and German Protestants were organized by Jean
Louis DUMESNIL de ST. PIERRE. The passengers were carefully selected as
people who would succeed in the cultivation of wine grapes, silk and indigo.

The first group was going to Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. They left London on
the Brigantine St. Peter Sept. 26, 1767, met bad weather and landed 138 days
later in Charleston, SC (I have a list of passengers; happy to share)

The second and third groups arrived in South Carolina on Dec. 21, 1772 and
on Jan. 6, 1773. All were granted land in New Bordeaux (now McCormick co,
SC), after ST. PIERRE found the area to be
similar in climate to "Marseilles, with a soil infinitely superior."

Louis de ST. PIERRE returned to London and to France at least once, bringing
plants and vine-dressers back to New Bordeaux. While in London on Jan 15,
1772 he was presented a gold medal for having "established and brought to
perfection the growing and making of silk, the culture of vines and the
making of wine at New Bordeaux."

He published a 344-page book entitled The Art of Planting and Cultivating
the Vine. In 1768 he was appointed Commandant of Fort Charlotte.

ST. PIERRE built a home, Orange Hill, near New Bordeaux, overlooking the
Savannah River, with a panorama of Georgia beyond.
A botanist from Philadelphia wrote in 1776 that ST. PIERRE had a very
extensive and well cultivated plantation of corn, rice, wheat, oats, indigo
and other plants.

He died in 1776, falling "in a battle with the Indians".

Can anyone give me more information on this man?

Sandra Delashaw Warden

This thread: