Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
Before following the Marigny myth further, it will be interesting to
notice a late echo of the "Fontainebleau" story. In 1910 the Reverend
Gordon Bakewell, then in his eighty-ninth year, gave some interesting
reminiscences of Audubon, and spoke very definitely concerning both the
time and place of his birth. Dr. Bakewell was a nephew of Mrs. Audubon,
and as a youth, in 1834, had passed some time at her home in London.
John W. Audubon, with his father's assistance, painted at that time a
portrait of young Bakewell, who at a later day was welcomed in their
home on the Hudson. Dr. Bakewell's contribution was as follows:[58]
The uncertainty as to the place of Audubon's birth has been
put to rest by the testimony of an eye witness in the person
of old Mandeville Marigny now dead some years. His repeated
statement to me was, that on his plantation at Mandeville,
Louisiana, on Lake Ponchartrain, Audubon's mother was his
guest; and while there gave birth to John James Audubon.
Marigny was present at the time, and from his own lips,
I have, as already said, repeatedly heard him assert the
above fact. He was ever proud to bear this testimony of his
protection given to Audubon's mother, and his ability to bear
witness as to the place of Audubon's birth, thus establishing
the fact that he was a Louisianian by birth.
We do not doubt the candor and sincerity of the excellent Dr. Bakewell,
but are bound to say that the incidents as related above betray a
striking lapse of memory and an even greater misunderstanding of
recorded facts. Singularly a footnote to the paragraph quoted shows that
the Marigny to whom he refers was, as must have been the case, Bernard
Mandeville de Marigny, who was born in 1785, the same year as the
naturalist. Since both were in the cradle at the same time, he is hardly
available as a witness. Moreover, the official records of the United
States Government prove that the estate called "Fontainebleau" was not
in possession of the Marigny family at the time of Audubon's birth.
The land in question was granted to a creole named Antonio Bonnabel,
on January 25, 1799, by Manuel Goyon de Lemore, Governor-General of
the Province of Louisiana and West Florida. Bonnabel sold his tract to
Bernard Marigny in 1800, and Congress confirmed his title to it by a
special act in 1836.[59]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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