Evergreen Plantation’s founders embody the complex familial networks that characterized Creole society in Louisiana. The Haydels and Becnels, two of the most prominent planter families of St. John the Baptist parish, continually intermarried over two centuries. Erasie, Aimée, and Jean Jacques Haydel Jr., all children of Jean Jacques Haydel Sr., married Maximilien, Pierre Antoine, and Clarisse Becnel respectively. The Becnel siblings were the children of Magdelaine Haydel Becnel, the daughter of Jean Jacques Haydel Sr.’s brother Christophe, making Magdelaine the first cousin of her daughters and sons-in-law. Further complications in the family tree arose when, upon the death of his first wife Clarisse Becnel, Jean Jacques Haydel Jr. chose to marry Marie Laure Haydel. Marie Laure was the daughter of Felicité Becnel Haydel, sister of Clarisse, and therefore Jean Jacques’s niece by marriage.
Marriages like these created an intricate network of kinship and social ties that further entrenched the Creole elites and insulated them from the rest of an increasingly diverse society. For Creoles, family involvement in such important matters as marital alliances was crucial. Aware that with marriage came shared finances, social circles, business affairs, and status, suitors sought the approval not only of their potential brides’ parents but also of her brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and in-laws.
The applications for marriage dispensations for the Catholic Diocese of New Orleans provide a glimpse into the religious and social mores of Louisiana. Dispensations were necessary in order for anyone related through the sixth degree to marry or for Catholics to marry Protestants. Marriage between cousins or in-laws occurred quite often in Louisiana, and thus many couples were forced to apply for a dispensation before a priest would marry them. Marriages between cousins were purposely arranged in order to preserve family prestige and consolidate wealth and property. In other cases, marriage between cousins seemed unavoidable, as the population of Louisiana was small and Creoles only married other Creoles, thus limiting themselves. As a postscript attached to an 1802 dispensation stated, “Most of the inhabitants of this Coast [First German Coast] are related.” The same could be said of the Second German Coast, where Evergreen Plantation is located. Another priest echoed this sentiment in 1838, stating, “The Creole families are nearly all related so there is rarely a marriage without impediment.” Thus, it seems that the Catholic Church in Louisiana wholly accepted these family alliances through marriage, though it did continue to require that dispensations be obtained.
Mrs. Ambroise Brou née Seraphine Becnel by Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans
Courtesy of the Louisiana State Museum
Pierre Clidamont Becnel, owner of Evergreen Plantation from 1830 to 1846, was the product of a union formed through dispensation. His parents, Drausin Becnel and Emelie Carmelite Brou, created an uproar in the community when they began their relationship. According to their dispensation, “Drosen Becnel of St. John Baptist parish has frequently visited her [Carmelita] in St. Charles parish of the German Coast. This has created a scandal and they wish to marry.” Perhaps neighbors and friends were merely scandalized by Becnel’s frequent visits without intentions of marriage, or the scandal may have been related to premarital relations. Because they were “related in the third degree,” they needed a dispensation from the Church in order to marry. Drausin’s maternal grandfather, Christophe Heidel, was the brother of Carmelite Brou’s mother Francoise Heidel. Pierre Clidamont was born less than a year after his parents’ 1802 marriage.
Decades later, this web became further entangled when Pierre Clidamont Becnel followed his parents’ lead and wed Magdelaine Gesira Brou, daughter of Ambroise Brou, his mother’s brother, and Seraphine Becnel, his father’s sister. In fact, Gesira Brou Becnel’s first name, Magdelaine, was in honor of Magdelaine Haydel Becnel, the grandmother she and her husband both shared. Pierre Clidamont Becnel and his wife were double first cousins and never had any children.