Dumont de Montigny
| Jean-François-Benjamin Dumont de Montigny | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 31, 1696 Paris, France |
| Died | 1760 Pondicherry, India |
| Nationality | French |
| Other names | Dumont de Montigny; François-Benjamin Dumont |
| Occupation | Military officer, farmer, historian, autobiographer |
| Known for | Writing about history and his experiences in New France in the 18th century |
Jean-François-Benjamin Dumont de Montigny, or Dumont de Montigny, was a colonial officer and farmer in French Louisiana in the 18th century. He was born in Paris, France, on July 31, 1696, and died in 1760 in Pondicherry, India. His writings about French Louisiana include a two-volume history published in 1753, as well as an epic poem and a prose memoir preserved in manuscript and published long after his death.
Dumont was the youngest of six sons of Jacques François Dumont, an avocat au parlement de Paris, that is, a prominent magistrate. In surviving documents, he often signed his name as François-Benjamin Dumont, but history works and library catalogs have preserved the "Jean." The name "de Montigny" was not used by most other members of his family. At least one scholar has asserted that Dumont assumed it as a false title of nobility when living in Louisiana. But scholars have found that a niece is documented as using the same surname.
He was educated at a Jesuit collège, or grammar school, and went into the French military. Through the influence of his family, he obtained a commission in the French colonial navy, and sailed to Quebec in 1715. For two years he spent most of his time as a patient in the Hôtel-Dieu (hospital) until he sailed back to France.
In 1719, Dumont sailed from La Rochelle, France, to Louisiana, with a new commission as a lieutenant and engineering officer. At this time, interest and investment in the colony was strong due to the financial schemes of John Law and the Mississippi Company. Dumont was assigned to a unit of soldiers sent to develop the land grants or concessions owned by a group of rich Frenchmen including Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle, an important patron and protector of Dumont's throughout his life. But in 1720, Law's financial bubble collapsed, and most investors stopped sending supplies to their concessions. As Dumont and hundreds of others lived in camps near Biloxi, Mississippi, they ran short of food and boats to transport them to concessions.
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