September 18, 2022
I was in correspondence with Terry McCormack several weeks before his presentation (see above) and was able to add a little more to his Renaudet research. I had not considered that Elizabeth Seton might have had students of French background, although a reading of her pre-Emmitsburg correspondence would have made that so obvious. Mea culpa for the misidentification of Louise Elizabeth Aglaë DuBourg in Becoming 2:354.
After Terry’s talk, I found a great book on the Bringier line in Louisiana, examined further Elizabeth’s letters, and explored the genealogy of the DuBourg family.
Aglaë (or Aglaé) DuBourg was the daughter of Pierre François DuBourg de Sainte-Colombe (born in Saint-Domingue on 30 December 1767) and Élisabeth Stéphanie Étiennette Bonne Charest de Lauzon (b. 1782, Saint-Domingue-d. 12 May 1811, New Orleans). Aglaë’s paternal grandparents, Pierre DuBourg (1715-Sep 1793, d. Mont-de-Marsan, France) and Marguerite Armand de Voglusan (1742-1786, d. Artibonite, Saint-Domingue), had at least seven children – Patrice dit La Loubère (1761-1792), Françoise Victoire (1763-1825), Marie (1763-), Louis-Guillaume-Valentin (1766-1833), Pierre François (1767-1830), Louis Joseph dit Le Beau (b. 1768; Chevalier de Saint-Christaud), and Paul Lacour (b. abt. 1783). Pierre also had two children in the 1750s with his first wife, Jeanne-Eulalie Rateau.
[Sources: posts by Pierre de Laubier, https://gw.geneanet.org and on the Harrison Vignes Family Tree, Ancestry.com]
We know that three of Pierre and Marguerite’s children – Françoise Victoire, Louis-Guillaume-Valentin, and Pierre François – were living in Maryland at various times. Louis-Guillaume-Valentin is whom we know as the Rev. William DuBourg, well known Sulpician involved with Georgetown College, St. Mary’s College, the Sisters of Charity, and administration of the Church in New Orleans, St. Louis, and France. More will follow on Françoise Victoire later in this section.
Aglaë’s parents were married in Jamaica on 23 or 28 February 1797. The firstborn, she arrived in this world on 4 January 1798, in Kingston, Jamaica, and would have been ten years old when she started school with Elizabeth Seton in Baltimore. Aglaë was followed by Mary Louisa Frances (b. 1 Jul 1799), Aloysius Joseph (b. 21 Jul 1800), Jeanne Charlotte Victoire (b. about 1801 according to one source or in 1809 on her father’s findagrave.com post, ID 15083508), Antoinette Charlotte Noémie (b. 23 Sep 1804), Louise Eliza Marie (b. 6 Jul 1806), Jeanne (b. 1809), and Adèle (b. 1810). The baptisms of Mary Louisa Frances (12 Dec 1799) and Aloysius Joseph (21 Jul 1800) were actually recorded at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Baltimore. Mary Louisa was six months old when baptized, and Aloysius received those rites the same day as his birth and then died the next day. Pierre was not living in Baltimore while Aglaë was a student.
The portraits of many distinguished American residents in that era were done by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, and father Pierre was not denied his moment in 1800 [National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Object No: S/NPG.74.391.34].
Pierre François and his family wound up as residents of New Orleans before 1804. In 1810, DuBourg and Noel Auguste Baron Jr., spouse of Laure Bringier, formed a partnership, DuBourg & Baron, which represented planters’ interests. Like many notable Maryland Catholic refugees described in my recent work, Pierre was a Freemason, serving from 1812 to 1814 as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, even as his brother William began serving as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. This is a very similar situation to the Carroll family in Maryland, with Daniel and John divided on the issue of Catholic participation in Freemasonry.
Aglaë was in Baltimore in 1808 under the general supervision of her Aunt Françoise Victoire (DuBourg) Fournier. Known by her middle name, she was apparently the widow of Antoine Fournier dit L’Hermitage, whom she had married at Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue, on 24 April 1786. Antoine was commandant of Le Bataillon de Milices du Quartier de Jacmel in the 1780s. Victoire made quite an impression on Elizabeth Seton as the latter began her educational ministry in Baltimore. In an older edition of Elizabeth Bayley Seton: Collected Writings, Volume II (2002) edited by Regina Bechtle, SC, Judith Metz, SC, and Ellin M. Kelly, we find these references:
(p. 9) 5.2, Letter to Catherine Dupleix, 20 Jun 1808, APSL 1-3-3-7:63:
“. . . all those little dear attentions oh human life which I was intirely [sic] weaned from are now my daily portion from the family of Mr. Dubourg, whose Sister and Mother [latter misidentified by Elizabeth; actually deceased] are unwearied in their care of us, the little nicities [sic] which I cannot afford are daily sent to us as a part of their family . . .”
(pp. 11-12) 5.2, same letter on p. 9:
“Madame Fournier . . . assists me in all the little cares for my children, if there is a finger ach [sic] she watches over us . . .”
(p. 14) 5.3, Letter to Julia Scott, 4 Jul 1808, APSL 1-3-3-6:73:
“Mr. Dubourg’s sister who conducts the regulations of the establishment [Seminary or College reference] is a most amiable affectionate character and tho’ beyond forty a very elegant woman. She arranges my affairs for me such as cloathing [sic] my dear boys, placing and providing necessary furniture, provisions etc etc with an ease and gaiety of manner as if the favour was all on my side.”
(p. 19) 5.4, Copy to Antonio Filicchi, 8 Jul 1808, AMSJ A 111 049:
“. . . immense happiness of living in such a Society as here surrounds us. . . [with] the sweet company and friendship of one of the most amiable Women in the World, the sister of the Rev. Mr. Dubourg, who suffers me also to call her Sister. . .”
(p. 22) 5.5 Letter to Cecilia Seton, 8 Jul 1808, APSL 1-3-3-8:151:
Reference to “our Gentlemen [Sulpicians] and My Sister [Victoire]” leaving soon for a six-week vacation.
(p. 30) 5.8, Letter to Cecilia Seton, 26 Aug 1808, APSL 1-3-3-8:152:
While Rev. DuBourg is away, Elizabeth writes that “here I am Alone with God. . . [and] only my Sister Madame Fournier remains of my most intimate. . .”
(p. 163) 6.63 Letter to Françoise Victoire DuBourg Fournier, n. d. (probably in 1810), APSL 1-3-3-3:23:
« My dear Friend,
How happy I should be to answer your amiable letter in your own sweet language, but since I left you the imperfect Knowledge I had of it has not been improved and you must now, Ma chère Soeur, take your lesson of English.”
(p. 719) A-6.3a, APSL 7-2-1. Sister Rose White’s Journal. [Journey to Emmitsburg, Summer 1809]:
“We began to make our arrangements and by the morning of the 30th [Jul 1809] we were ready to start at half past two o’clock [for Emmitsburg]. We drove through College yard and Madame Fournier, Rev. Dubourg’s sister, opening the casement of her window, waved her hand to bid us adieu.” (Aglaë’s presence was no longer noted and she did not continue her studies in Emmitsburg.)
First perceived (wrongly) by Elizabeth Seton as being a cousin of classmate Celanire Delarue in Baltimore, Aglaë did have something in common with the South Carolina-born classmate: Celanire had a younger sister also named Louise Elizabeth Aglae, who was born in New Orleans on 19 August 1807! While Celanire later married Francis Bernoudy, her Delarue sibling wed a physician, John Moore White Picton, in 1829.
Elizabeth Seton spoke lovingly of little Aglaë during her brief year in Baltimore. She referred to her as “Sweet Agli” in a letter to her sister-in-law Cecilia (5.9 – APSL 1-3-3-8:157, 5 Sep 1808), in which she wrote about her daughter Anna and Aglaë devoutly wearing Agnus Dei necklaces. In another letter to Cecilia on 6 October, she described the eldest DuBourg child in this way: “Agli is the fairest most perfect child you can imagine, diligent and faithful in every duty, always remembering our dear Lord’s eye is upon her.” (5.10 – APSL 1-3-3-8:153). In correspondence with her friend Julia Scott in Philadelphia on 6 December (5.13 – APSL 1-3-3-6:75), Elizabeth continued to praise how well Anna and Aglaë were getting along with one another: “. . . they are two lovely beings and very much united.” Several months later, in another letter to Julia, date 2 March 1809, student Becky Nicholson of Baltimore was mentioned as well as part of Anna’s (or Annina’s) “invaluable society,” which would not hold together much longer because plans for the move to Emmitsburg were rapidly developing (5.20 – APSL 1-3-3-6:76).
Aglaë managed to marry well: at age fourteen, she wed Michael Doradou Bringier at St. Peter’s, Baltimore, on 17 June 1812, further uniting two business families just one day before Madison declared war on Great Britain.
By midsummer 1813, Pierre (or Peter F., as he was also known) was expressing his appreciation for having been named collector of customs for the District of Mississippi by President James Madison. [“To James Madison from Peter F. DuBourg, 30 August 1813 (Abstract),” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-06-02-0558]. He resigned that position a year later. On 29 Jan 1830, he passed away in a rented house on St. Louis Street (between Chartres and Royal Sts.) in New Orleans, even though he then owned a house on Dumaine Street (between Royal and Bourbon Streets). A son-in-law (husband of Elsa), Seaman Field, was designated executor of his estate [Louisiana Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984, 1 Feb 1830; Will Book, Orleans, LA, Vol. 4, 1824-1833]. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery, No. 2, there.
Not to spoil Aglaë’s story in Louisiana, I highly recommend reading Craig A. Bauer’s Creole Genesis: The Bringier Family and Antebellum Plantation Life in Louisiana (Lafayette: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2011). She lived a long life, passing away on 11 June 1878, in her 81st year.
Francophones in Maryland 