Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, Antoine Jacques Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1833).
Mandeville Marigny (1811-1890), Baptized “Antonio Santiago de Marigni de Mandeville,” to accommodate his Spanish mother, was
the third son of Bernard Marigny, and the oldest surviving child by his second wife Anna Mathilda Morales (1789-1859), daughter
of the controversial Spanish Intendant Juan Ventura Morales. His French Creole father and Spanish Creole mother had various views
about his name, the nickname “Mandeville” soon winning out over the Spanish “Antonio Santiago,” and the French version “Antoine
Jacques.” Born just a few years after the untimely death of his uncle Jean Baptiste Marigny, Bernard’s older brother, he was nicknamed
for the uncle, whom Bernard’s father (Pierre Philippe) had called Mandeville.
Born to wealth and shown in the Vaudechamp portrait in the prime of young manhood as a handsome cadet at a French military
school, Mandeville lived a life of sincerity and honor, but increasing misfortune. His marriage to the glamourous Sophronie Claiborne,
daughter of the governor, produced five children, three of whom survived to adulthood, and none of whom stayed close to their father.
Over fifty years of the long and unhappy marriage of his parents, he tried to stand by his mother, who died in 1859. Mandeville’s
investments and attempts at business were generally unsuccessful, his wife eventually suing for separate estates in their marriage. In
1860, she left New Orleans for New York and never returned. There, she resided with her prominent mother, Susannah Bosque
Claiborne Grymes, widow of the successful lawyer and public official John R. Grymes.
At the time of Mandeville’s death in 1890 as a roomer in a boarding house on Dauphine St., his daughters traveled from New York to
New Orleans to identify his remains, but did not stay for his funeral. This was a pity, as they would have seen that Mandeville
Marigny’s funeral cortege to St. Louis No. 3 Cemetery on Esplanade Avenue was accompanied by a lineup of the most prominent and
important citizens of New Orleans.
COURTESY OF THE LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM, FM 1235.
NOTABLE NEW ORLEANIANS: A Tricentennial Tribute
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