Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

epresentative, state senator and attorney general. At the bar he enjoyed an extensive and distinguished
practice in which he handled the greatest cases of the day, appearing as counsel before the
Louisiana Supreme Court in more than two hundred cases. In the process he amassed one of the
largest law libraries of his day, consisting of more than a thousand volumes in French, English,
Spanish and Latin. He was also renowned for his translations, most notably the first translation
into English (with Henry Carleton) of Las Siete Partidas, the Spanish code.
Despite his eminence as a jurisconsult and lawyer, Moreau Lislet died poor and suffered tragically
in his personal life.
—Vernon Valentine Palmer
Editor’s note: Only Henry Plauché Dart (q.v.) is comparable in the next century.
B ARTHÉLEMY
(1769-1820)
L AFON
A man of many talents, Barthélemy Lafon designed buildings, laid out suburbs, created maps,
surveyed the wilderness, made natural history drawings, taught engineering, speculated in land,
manufactured bricks, acted in theater, and dabbled in privateering. Engineer, architect, artist, surveyor,
he used his skills repeatedly over his thirty years in Louisiana. Lafon had a hand in laying
out two of the faubourgs adjoining New Orleans, St. Mary and Marigny. Famous homes such as
Bosque House at 617 Chartres have been attributed to him. His maps and surveys undergirded
Andrew Jackson’s defense of New Orleans, in 1815, and helped to explain the American victory at
the Battle of New Orleans. He served as chief deputy surveyor for New Orleans for four years, and
then as a chief surveyor for the entire state. Lafon’s 1806 map of Louisiana is one of the “earliest
comprehensive maps of any state or territory in US.” 1
Born in the Province of Languedoc, France,
Lafon arrived in New Orleans soon after 1790
and sought a grant to a key portion of the commons
along the future Canal Street. Soon after
that, however, the Spanish began rebuilding Fort
St. Louis, which overlooked the land. Lafon was
ordered not to develop it, though apparently he
had already constructed an iron works. This valuable
parcel remained forever outside of his grasp.
In 1801, Lafon purchased the 300-arpent Chef
Menteur plantation along Bayou Sauvage in what
is now Eastern New Orleans. His plan of the property, made in 1809, indicates a cypress house sur
sole (on a framed foundation) with cabins of poteaux en terre (posts in the ground), the buildings
roofed en pieux (roofing of elongated stakes), all in the method of early colonial construction.
There, he had four million bricks. He made a will that year, thinking he was dying, leaving his
instruments, books and drawings to his students, and leaving land to his natural children, but
Lafon did not die. At least not then. The property remained in his estate in various legal states until
1827, seven years after his real death.
About 1803 Lafon had joined the Laffites in the business of piracy. His justification was that his
vessels attacked Spanish ships only. Not impressed, the United States Navy condemned piracy
against any nation. In 1813, Lafon’s La Misère brought in as a prize the Spanish vessel Cometa. The
following year the United States government handed down indictments naming Lafon for his
attacks on Spain. Undaunted, Lafon also purchased property in Donaldsonville along the
Land owned by B. Lafon in Faubourg
St. Marie.
THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, 1980.187.
BIOGRAPHIES
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