Saugrain and Sougrain

The Saugrain were counted in the 1703 Census, here transcribed by De Ville. Their three children may have been Francois, Alexis (died in 1744), and Charles.

One family name that consistently appears in the archive is Saugrain. Apparently derived from the word for a grain of salt, the white Saugrain of Bainet and Jacmel were from Normandy, like that well-known family of booksellers and printers. Unlike the perhaps distantly related family that converted to Protestantism and moved to Paris, the Saugrain of Saint-Domingue were planters. According to the 1703 census, they managed a small indigo plantation with only about 8 slaves. Perhaps the heads of the household in 1703 were a François Saugrain and his wife, Magdelaine Trésorier, both from Normandy (the latter from Rouen). 

In 1717, a François Saugrain married Marguerite Francq. According to this document, Saugrain's parents were François Saugrain and Magdelaine Trésorier of Normandie.

Early on in the records of Bainet and Jacmel, mixed-race Saugrain appear. One was Marie Françoise or Françoise, the daughter of an Alexis Saugrain, baptized in 1718 with Charles Saugrain as her godfather. Marie Françoise's mother was not named, but her grandfather (François Saugrain) freed her. Another one, baptized in 1723, was Louise, the daughter of Susanne (a black slave) and Louis Saugrain. To make matters even more confusing, Susanne, the enslaved women of the Saugrain, gave birth a daughter named Marie Françoise in 1721 and twins in 1725. These mixed-race Saugrain went on to marry or produce children with other free people of color in Bainet and Jacmel throughout the 18th century. 

In 1719, François Saugrain died in Bainet. We assume this was the François Saugrain from Normandie.

One confusing factor is the appearance of two Saugrain women using the name Françoise or Marie Françoise. The one married to a Gory seemed to have been closer to Alexis Saugrain (who was a godfather to one of her children), so we assumed she was the one baptized in Bainet in 1718. However, the woman who married François Gory could have been a child of Suzanne, which might explain Victoire Suzanne's full name. Or did Suzanne have 2 daughters named Marie Francoise?

Our connection to the Saugrain is through the Gory. Beresfort François's mother, Anne Marie Joseph Gaury (or Gory), was born in 1793. Her mother was only named as a Victoire Gory, but an examination of the other Gory in 18th century Bainet suggests she was a descendant of Marie Françoise Saugrain. Where things get confusing is the appearance of a second Marie Françoise Saugrain in 1721, daughter of Susanne. Which one was the ancestor of Anne Marie Joseph? The Bainet one born in the 1710s appears more likely because of her documentary trail consisting entirely of Bainet parish records and close connections to other Bainet-based Gory with the same Saugrain origins (to Alexis?).

Alexis Saugrain, the father of Marie Françoise, died in 1744. His age range makes it likely he was one of the children counted in the census from 1703.

Marie Françoise Saugrain married François Gory (presumably the brother of Jean-Baptiste Gory, son of Louis Gory) and had multiple children, including Françoise, François, Marie Victoire, Marie Louise and Marie Françoise. Their daughter, Marie Françoise, married a François Monteise from Clermont-Ferrand in 1759 and later went on to have Victoire Susanne. This Victoire Susanne was probably the mother of Anne Marie Joseph Gaury, although more documents would be nice to confirm it.

Marie Françoise Saugrain passed away in 1781, about 20 years after François Gory. Note that Jean-Baptiste Marillac served as a witness. He was also a godfather of Anne Marie Joseph in 1793. 

If we are correct about the Saugrain ancestry of Beresfort François, it would also be interesting if our theory about Leopold François's wife was correct. If so, then she too had Saugrain ancestry from the marriage of Jean Pierre Cangé to a Marie Louise Saugrain in 1783, the daughter of a Louis Saugrain and a Marillac. Their union went on to produce Jean Charles Celin Cangé in 1788, the man we theorized could have been the father of Jean Michel Cangé. 

A Cangé-Saugrain marriage was something to be expected in the 1700s. It seems that, over the course of the 18th century, free people of color were less likely to marry whites (due to increasing discrimination?) and of course few of them formed formal unions with enslaved people. 

If our theory about the origins of Leopold François's wife is correct, then she was actually a cousin of Leopold. It would not surprise me in the least, and in fact might explain how their families knew of each other. After all, Jean-Baptiste Marillac knew Anne Marie Joseph and was presumably related to the mother of the Louise who married Jean-Pierre Cangé. Alternatively, Leopold could have met his wife through the small world that was 19th century Bainet. But the idea of both Leopold and Marie-Thérèse sharing Saugrain ancestry is not too surprising. It is a perfect illustration of the pattern of marriages between distant cousins in small towns or rural areas.