Robin de Logny (Destrehan Plantation)
Robin de Logny served as commandant of the Second German Coast (St. John the Baptist Parish) appointed by Governor Alexander O’Reilly.
FPO: St. Charles Original Acts, 1782. No. 516-12-10-82. SALE. Guillaume Guignon declares, in the presence of François Aime and Pierre Trépagnier, that he has sold some of his property to Robert-Antoine Robin de Logny, commandant of St.- Jean-Baptiste Parish.
Among the items sold was a farm 20 arpents wide by depth to the lake, bounded below by the property of Jean LaBranche and above by that of the priest, located on the right bank of the river ascending. Guignon also sells Robin de Logny some slaves and animals. Price paid is illegible.
On January 3, 1787, de Logny contracted with the free mulatto Charles to build his house on this property, now known as Destrehan Plantation. The plantation is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is the oldest documented plantation house left intact in the Lower Mississippi Valley. De Logny died on his plantation in 1792 and his family inherited the property.
Jean-Noël Destrehan de Beaupré was the son of Jean Baptiste Honoré Destrehan de Beaupré, royal treasurer of France’s Louisiana Colony. Jean-Noël was a wealthy planter and prominent merchant in the county of the German Coast and very active in local and state government. He was born in Louisiana in 1759 and married Marie Celeste de Logny in 1786, daughter of Robin de Logny, original owner of the plantation now known as Destrehan. In 1798, he was host to the Duc d’Orleans, later King Louis Philippe of France, at the family plantation which he later purchased in 1802. Jean-Noël died at his plantation in 1823 and was buried in St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery. His grave and many others have been lost to the ravages of time and the Mississippi River. Destrehan family members’ tombs remain in Borromeo Cemetery.
This text is © copyright material by Marilyn Richoux, Joan Becnel and Suzanne Friloux, from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana: A Pictorial History, 2010.
