Bits of Evidence, No. 211 Marriage Contract—Pierre Metoyer and Henriette: Six days after Christmas 1817, Pierre and Marie Henriette Dorothée met with their neighborhood notary—not to marry but to create a marriage contract. Although that document was later deposited in the parish courthouse, its creation was a distinctly different act from the trip Pierre would have also made to that seat of justice, some 18 miles away, to obtain the marriage license American laws required. This December contract—a business document that Pierre and his intended drew up there on Isle Brevelle—gives us a verbal image of the couple and the life they had created. ========= 31 December 1817 In anticipation of their coming marriage, Pierre Metoyer, f.m.c., natural son of deceased Marie Thérèse dite Coincoin, native of this parish, and Henriette, f.w.c., minor and natural daughter of Dorothée, f.w.c., native of this parish reach an agreement as to how their financial affairs will be settled at such time as death dissolves that marriage. The couple recognize and legitimize two infants they had together prior to their marriage: a daughter named Marie Ozitte, aged 23 months; and a small boy named Pierre Nereste, age of 9 months—both natives of this parish. The goods of Pierre consist of (a) a habitation established on Isle à Brevelle of the contents of 40 arpents of frontage on both banks of the Red River, animals, movables of all kinds, all estimated at 2,500 piasters; and (b) six slaves, identified as follows: Negre, Jacques, 1,000 piasters Negre, Malbert, 1,000 p. Negre, Louis, 500 p. Negre, Hilaire, 700 p. Negresse, Constance, 300 p. Negresse, Delphine, 1,000 p. From the 7,000 piaster total valuation, “about 3,000 piasters” was to be deducted for Pierre’s “three children of his first bed from the succession of their mother.” The goods of the future wife consisted of 100 piasters. —Natchitoches Parish, “Book 2 & 3, Marriage & Misc. (1816–1819), doc. 122; Office of the Clerk of Court, Natchitoches; notes taken 1972 by E. S. and G. B. Mills. ========= Does it matter whether the marriage record we use is a contract, a license, a bond, a ministers return, or an official certificate issued by a civil or church office? Yes. Each type of record was created for a specific purpose. Each called for specific types of information. Each can be used to prove different types of facts. Indeed, this contract—as rich in detail as it is—does not prove that the marriage actually occurred. Some such contracts were later voided or simply never acted upon, when a potential spouse had a change of mind or heart. For the actual marriage record of this couple—or what was left of it after a church fire—see E. S. Mills, NATCHITOCHES, 1800–1826: Translated Abstracts of Register Number Five of the Catholic Church Parish of St. François des Natchitoches in Louisiana (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1980), entry 784. —ESM
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 17:00:00 +0000
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