Francisco Bouligny


Francisco Domingo Joseph Bouligny y Paret was a high-ranking Spanish military and political figure in Spanish Louisiana. As a francophone in Spanish service, he was a bridge between Creole and French Louisiana and Spain following the transfer of the territory from France to Spain. Bouligny served as lieutenant governor under Bernardo de Gálvez, founded the city of New Iberia in 1779, and served as acting military governor in 1799.

Early life

Bouligny, called "Frasquito" by his family, was born in 1736 in Alicante, Spain, to Jean Bouligny, a successful French merchant, and Marie Paret, who was from Alicante. At the age of 10, he was sent to a boys' school founded by the Bishop of Orihuela, from which he graduated in 1750 and joined the family import-export business.

Early military career

In 1758, Bouligny enlisted in the Spanish army, joining the Regiment of Zamora. A year later, he transferred to the Royal Regiment of Spanish Guards and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the infantry and sent to Havana, Cuba, in 1762. He was stationed there until 1769 when he joined Alejandro O'Reilly's expedition to put down the Louisiana Rebellion. Since Bouligny was fluent in French, he was charged with delivering the Spanish government's messages to the Francophone inhabitants of Louisiana and he acted as an interpreter during the military trial of the rebellion's leaders.
Bouligny was promoted to the rank of brevet captain in the newly formed Fixed Louisiana Infantry Battalion. In 1772 he was appointed a full captain. In 1775, Bouligny was granted leave to return to Europe to settle family affairs. While in Spain, Bouligny wrote a discourse on the population of New Orleans and Spanish Louisiana. Memoria brought the Spanish court's attention to its Louisiana holdings and their potential for agricultural development and trade. It also highlighted the importance of good relations with the region's Native American peoples, and the need to improve the territory's defenses as a strategic buffer against British North America. To this end, Bouligny included in Memoria detailed suggestions for new and strengthened fortifications along the territory's many waterways.

Return to Louisiana

In 1777, Bouligny returned to Louisiana, where he was named lieutenant governor by Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez. Among his responsibilities was managing trade and relations with Native American tribes and founding new settlements. In Memoria, Bouligny advocated settling Spanish and other Catholic immigrants throughout Louisiana to bolster Spain's hold on the territory, including Anglo-Americans who were willing to switch their loyalties to Spain. Following on this settlement plan, in April 1779, Bouligny brought a group of 500 Malagueño and Isleño colonists up Bayou Teche to establish the city of New Iberia.
However, the relationship between Bouligny and Gálvez was a tense one. The two clashed over issues around trade and settlement, in particular the location of the New Iberia settlement and Gálvez's approach towards British encroachments on the Mississippi River. Bouligny also mixed personal and official business, including at least one occasion paying himself for the use of his slaves. Gálvez steadily worked to isolate Bouligny, calling into question his actions, auditing heavily the expenses of the New Iberia settlement and Bouligny's personal finances, and not recommending him for advancement.
In late 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, Spain attacked British holdings in West Florida, and Bouligny participated in the capture of Fort Bute and the Battle of Baton Rouge. In 1780, Bouligny led an expedition against the British at Mobile, and he later participated in the Siege of Pensacola.
In 1783, Bouligny was ordered to eliminate a colony of fugitive slaves downriver from New Orleans. By June 1784, the expedition captured 60 people, including the colony's leader, Jean Saint Malo; in the following investigation, officials identified a dozen slaves as helping to plan escapes from plantations.
In 1784, while Gov. Esteban Rodríguez Miró travelled to West Florida to treat with the Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, Bouligny served as acting governor of Louisiana. The next year, Miró sent Bouligny to Natchez to enforce Spanish rule in the area and to resist American encroachment related to the West Florida Controversy. In March 1791, Bouligny was appointed colonel and placed in command of the Fixed Louisiana Infantry Regiment, a post he held until his death in 1800.
Following the death of Gov. Manuel Gayoso de Lemos on 18 July 1799, Francisco Bouligny was appointed as military governor of Louisiana, with Nicolás María Vidal as civil governor, until the new governor general, Sebastián Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrill, Marquess de Casa Calvo, reached the colony on 18 December 1799.

Death and honors

Bouligny died in New Orleans on 25 November 1800 following a long illness. He was honored by being buried in St. Louis Cathedral. In September 1800, the Spanish Crown appointed Bouligny brigadier general, but the written copy of the commission did not reach Louisiana until after his death.
Bouligny left behind what was considered an extensive library of 148 books, a wine cellar holding some 500 bottles of wine, and 31 slaves.

Personal life

Bouligny was described as being "rather tall and slight, with a noble military bearing, easy and dignified in his manners, and warm in his friendship." Throughout his life, Bouligny kept up active correspondence in both French and Spanish with his family and officials around the world. Depending upon the language used, his first name is given as "Francisco" or "François."
On 29 December 1770, Bouligny married Marie-Louise Le Sénéchal d'Auberville who belonged to a prominent French Louisiana family. They had four children, including Charles Dominique Joseph Bouligny who was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate in the 1820s, and Louis Bouligny, after whom the Faubourg Bouligny neighborhood of New Orleans was named.
Bouligny's older brother, Juan Bouligny, served as the first Spanish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from May 1779 to September 1782.