NINTH GENERATION

396. Andre Chamard was born in France. Chamart, Andre I005

1715: Knighted by Louis XIV. "The scroll knighting Andre Chamart is in Natchitoches Parish. Someone in the Bois family has it, I think, related to Stella Bois, near Saline, and was asked about it by Mrs. Blanche Grenaux. The man immediately said, 'Is there anything in it?' (financially). Miss Blanche said it was on a piece of parchment a yard square, like this:

Picture of Palace of Versailles Seal of
Duke of Montmorenci

Aujourd'hui je crier Andre Chamarde
jeune homme d'ancienne et de famille
distingue de France premier ecujenir
du Duke de Montmorenci

(Signed) Louis Quatorze, Roi de France et de Navarre

Seal of Louis XIV"
(From Irma Sompayrac letter to Cammie Henry)

1720: Came to Nova Scotia during the revolutions between the reigns of Louis XIV and XVI.
Passed through Illinois to New Orleans. Placed most of family records in a New Orleans churchwhich later burned.

1734?: Came to Natchitoches via Alexandria "wilderness where he was stopped by a storm" prior to 1735.

The Chamard House is at 104 Amulet St., Natchitoches.

In Irma Sompayrac's 1934 manuscript: Interesting Buildings and Sites in Natchitoches she described the Amulet St. North side: Chamard House, thusly: "Fan doorway. Remodeled many times. This house has some of the earliest and most colorful associations in Natchitoches. Within the newer walls are the old adobe ones from the dayw when it was occupied by Andre Chamard, (a direct descendant of the Bourbon family) who came from France to Nova Scotia about 1721 bearing with him a parchment--testimonial of his knighthood. It was one yard square. At the top was a picture of Versailles and at the right was the seal of the Duke of Montgorency. On it were inscribed the words (above)
With his wife and his possessions (his parchment as a passport) he came down through Illinois and to New Orleans where he stopped and stored his effects in the church rectory. It burned and all was lost except the parchment which he had still carried with him. Eventually they started toward Natchitoches, were caught in a storm and camped over night at the present site of Alexandria and in 1735 there were living in Natchitoches.
They had a son called Louis Charles who married Catherine Bardon and lived in this house. In those pioneer days during intervals when there was no regular curate, the priest from Los Adaes came here to their home where a room was fitted as a chapel and all civil marriages contracted since his previous visit were blessed. In this house, their third child, Marie, was courted by Joseph Tauzin (spelled in France, Tausin) who came to Natchitoches as a youth in 1771 and proposed to her in a poem of seventeen French verses which are still in the family. They were married in 1792 by Father Pavie. It was their son who remodeled the house on Jefferson ST. And Bayou Amulet....Later the house was owned by Alexandre L. de Blieux who lived there for a short time wile having the Willow Plantation house built just before the Civil War. This was later the home of Mrs. Robieu (Miss Rachal) and still later it was the home of Judge Jack, grandfather of the writer, Ade Jack Carver, who as a child must have spent many happy days there watching the pheasants strut in the lovely old-fashioned garden that was still there at the time." (Pg 5-6) Children were:

198 i. Louis Charles Chamard.