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Antoine Laumet
( aka Antoine De Lamothe-Cadillac )

and the Cadillac "Family Crest"


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(le résumé en français se trouve en bas de page)

The [not quite true] Story of
Antoine "de la Mothe Cadillac"

Foreword

I would fail in my duty of due diligence if I were not to include an opening statement, here, regarding the elaborate works of Canadian historian, Suzanne Boivin Sommerville, and in particular her scrupulous research into the history of New France, in particular as it relates to le Sieur de Lamothe-Cadillac's stay in the area from around 1683 to 1710.

Suzanne contacted me in September, 2008, pointing out that some of the statements included on this page - particularly in the table, below, entitled "Historical Landmarks in the Life of Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac" - which I had translated from a French version published earlier by French historian Jean Boutonnet - were verbatim quotes from her own published works. 

Apololgies to Suzanne, therefore, for my failing (until now) to give her due credit for her work. Some of the Internet sites that reflect Suzanne's work are listed below, towards the end of the page, at the paragraph headed: Other Web sites of interest to the historian.

.

 

Now the story
[as told by the company in its 25th anniversary brochure in 1927]
...and the true history:

 

[ my comments in square brackets and non-italicized, blue font ]

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac after whom the Cadillac car was named, possessed a pioneering, roving spirit.

He was born at Toulouse in 1657 [in fact, he was born Antoine Laumet on March 5, 1658 at St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave, a small market town just a few miles west of Castelsarrasin, about 40 miles from Toulouse, in France's Tarn & Garonne Department].  At the age of sixteen he entered the army, and saw several years of service in France [guesswork - in fact, little is known about Laumet's childhood, his adolescence or his means of existence up to 1687]. Stories he heard of the New World appealed to his adventurous nature and eventually drew him to these shores.

He came over in 1683 and settled at Port Royal in Nova Scotia. In 1684 the King granted him six square miles of land at what is now Bar Harbor, Maine, and also Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast [Laumet-Cadillac had requested a concession in 1687; it was granted in 1688].   As commandant of Michilimackinac, a post he obtained in 1694, he distinguished himself.

But the event for which he is chiefly noted was the founding of the city of Detroit. This occurred in July, 1701, exactly 225 years ago [remember, this was written in 1927 - also, it was not until 1706 and 1707 that the French crown acknowledged that a colony had indeed developed in Detroit]

Canoeing down the Detroit river  as far as Grosse Isle, he turned upstream and carefully surveying the shore, selected a point near what is now the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street, for the erection of Fort Ponchartrain.

Little did the French pioneer think that he was founding a settlement that two and a quarter centuries later would have grown not only to be the fourth largest city in the United States with a million and a half population [again, in 1927], but also the greatest and largest automobile manufacturing city in the whole world.

Still more impossible would it have been to vision that the name of Cadillac, by reason of its adoption by the Cadillac Motor Car Company of Detroit, should have become a name known throughout the world as emblematic of all that is highest in automobile design and construction.

The name of Cadillac, the man, outside the United States and France would probably have been confined alone to students of history, but the motor car bearing his crest has carried the name to all four corners of the Globe.

With a keen eye to business, Cadillac attracted to him during the first winter in Detroit 6000 Indians and established trade with them.  Cadillac was recalled to France in 1710 [in fact, he was asked to report to Louisiana but refused and instead set sail for France in 1711, of his own free will, with his wife and children; he returned to the American continent (Louisiana) only in June 1713] and was subsequently made Governor of Louisiana, the largest amount of land ever ruled by any governor in America.

In 1716 political troubles beset him.  He was deposed, tried, and sentenced to the Bastile [read "the Bastille"] whence he emerged  in 1718 [reading this, you might think that Laumet-Cadillac spent up to to two years in Paris' infamous Bastille prison; in fact, he was there only from October 1717 to early February 1718, i.e. about five months]. His last years were spent as Governor of Castelsarrasin, in Southern France [he was appointed to that office in 1722], and there he died on October 15, 1730, in his home at Place du Château.

Just as the history of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac stands for all that is significant in pioneering, so does the Cadillac car symbolize actual pioneering effort in the motor world.

The Cadillac car was also a pioneer in many respects, for in its inception it was built but a single cylinder car - though even then it was preeminent in its field.  But slowly the craftsman's instinct of Cadillac effected improvement after improvement in engineering design until ultimately the first V-type eight-cylinder engine in America was evolved  [too early (1927) for any reference to the later sixteen and twelve-cylinder engines of 1930].

There follows an explanation of the Cadillac crest which the copy writer affirms was designed four centuries before Columbus discovered America and that Laumet-Cadillac was descended from the old counts of Toulouse, who were affiliated with the Royal French stock. 

Well, it does make for a good story! But history tells another tale. In fact, many sources agree that Laumet-Cadillac probably designed the crest himself, around the time of his marriage in 1687, borrowing heavily on the authentic coat of arms of an old neighbor of his, Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan, lord of Lamothe-Bardigues, a small township near Toulouse, France.

More on that topic later.

By the way, other sources I have found on the Internet also publish  "fanciful facts" about the history of Detroit's founder.  Considering the amount of accurate information available to researchers today, this defies logic.  One site that I visited in March 2009, that publishes on the Internet an "Antiques Digest" of "Lost Knowledge from the Past", had this to say:

ON THE BANKS of the Gironde River in southwest France stand the ruins of a fourteenth-century  fortress, which once dominated the people of the valley and controlled the river traffic. In its time the castle was a symbol of the prestige and power wielded by the medieval aristocracy. It was called Cadillac. The men of the  family were military leaders through the centuries, but historical fame came chiefly to Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who led a French army into the Great Lakes region and founded the city of Detroit in 1701.

Cadillac is a commune (township) in the Gironde department of Aquitaine, in southwestern France. It was founded in 1280 by Jean the first of Grailly to serve as a river port.  What the writer refers to as a fourteenth-century  fortress was in fact a fortification (the Château Benauges) built simultaneously with the founding of the township of Cadillac. It was all but destroyed in successive wars in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554-1642), first Duke of Epernon, , a favorite of Henry III, got the ruins of the original Château in his wedding basket, in 1587, when he wed Marguerite de Foix-Candale of the Barony of Castelnau, in the Médoc; as she had no male siblings, her new husband, the Duke, got all her family's estates. On these ruins the Duke erected a new and more imposing structure: the Château (de) Cadillac. Work was completed around 1615. It was converted for use as a prison for women (1820 - 1952). Overlooking the Garonne river, the castle is a prime example of early 17th century architecture; in its heyday, it rivaled royal properties. Today, all that remains is the main building with its two wings at right angles, the courtyard and the garden (the latter is open to the public). A visit to the chateau will reveal both the splendor of the seventeenth century (the French fireplaces, painted and decorated ceilings) as well as the harsh reality of the prison that it was for 130 years.

        
Three  two views of Château de Cadillac that was  built on the ruins of Château Benauges

  
Left: historical sketch the Château Benauges, on the ruins of which the Château de Cadillac was built (aerial view, right)

 

The "French army" that Cadillac is reported (above) to have led into the Great Lakes region, consisted in fact of just 50 soldiers and an equal number of civilians.  It is also incorrect to assert that he "founded the city of Detroit in 1701". It would be more accurate to say that  in 1701 he set up a small settlement, mainly for fur trading with France, on the site where now stands the bustling city of Detroit.

The first Duke of Epernon was indeed a military man; he was active in government until around 1618; in 1617, he participated in the persecution and murder of the Huguenots (Protestants) in Guienne (now Aquitaine). He was made military governor of Guienne (Aquitaine) in 1622 and lived a quiet life there, in the Château Cadillac. Interestingly, Alexandre Dumas based his swashbuckling hero, d'Artagnan, of the Three Musketeers, on the Duke. The well-known actress, Audrey Hepburn, also is descended from him.

This interesting little snippet came from the a book entitled Cadillac Participation in the War
[the Great War of 1914-18], published by the company in 1919!  I have visited this castle on more than one
 occasion but never saw the "Cadueai" [spelling] coat of arms purported to be the same as mounted on Cadillac radiators

 

 

The [true] Story of Antoine Laumet
[ alias Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac ]

Much of the factual information herein comes from translations of historical documents in the Burton Collection, Detroit, others from the archives of the French navy in Paris and of those of Quebec Province. The are consistent with the stories told in a number of historic novels about the man, including Karen Elizabeth Bush's First Lady of Detroit, published by Wayne State University Press in 2001.

 

With only a few gray areas, historians have been able to piece together the saga of le Sieur Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, founder, in 1701, of a small trading settlement on the site where now towers mighty Detroit, motor capital of the world and home to the aptly named Cadillac automobile. But history reveals that he was, nonetheless, a bit of a scoundrel who had but his own interests at heart!

Born Antoine Laumet on March 5, 1658 at St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave, a small market town just a few miles west of Castelsarrasin in France's Tarn & Garonne Department, the self-styled Lamothe-Cadillac was in fact the son of one Jean Laumet, an assistant magistrate in the local court.  His mother, a modest home-maker, was born Jeanne Pechagut.  

French nobility were not usually housed in the smallest dwelling in the village. They had large estates and châteaux.  

What Antoine had not counted on was that one day he would sail to the New World, in search of adventure, and found a tiny settlement there that would become Detroit, the automobile capital of the world.  It was natural that the future residents of that huge metropolis would, one day, want to find out the origins of their founder. When you start digging, you never know what you are going to unearth!

 

The Laumet home at St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave, France

 

Little is known about Laumet's childhood, his adolescence or his means of livelihood up to 1687, when he reached the age of 29 and got married.  It has been surmised, nonetheless, that he was well educated - probably at the University of Toulouse, a city not too far from his home near Castelsarrasin. The style of his letters denotes this, as do his written Statements to the Minister, which reveal also his vast knowledge of British New World territories. 

Lamothe-Cadillac was consistent in signing his name this way
[ could this be the origin of the famous Cadillac script? ]

 

In 1682, at the age of 24, while allegedly serving in the military at Thionville in north-eastern France², where he also allegedly earned a commission, he began to call himself Cadillac³.  It was customary in those days, for aspiring young officers to adopt a so-called nom de guerre (name of war); the name "Cadillac" had a good military "ring" to it.
_________________________________________________________
² Jean Cadilhac, who also has researched the family history of Antoine Laumet, alias de Lamothe-Cadillac, suggests that Laumet may even have borrowed for himself the military records of an older brother
³ Cadillac is the name of a hamlet near Montech, not far from Laumet's birthplace, St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave (it is also the name of a large, market town near Bordeaux, Gironde)

 

In 1683, at the age of 25, Laumet set sail for the New World, in search of adventure. On June 25, 1687, in Quebec (which was New France at that time), he married Marie-Thérèse Guyon, niece of French-Canadian privateer, François Guyon.  It is rumored that they met at the Governors ball at Quebec's Château St. Louis. She was just seventeen [...you know what I mean, and the way she looked was way beyond compare... (Beatles)]. 

 

The banns were published on June 22 and 24 [three publications were required at that time but the couple was exempted from a third posting by the Bishop of Quebec]. In the registry of marriages, Laumet gave his name as Antoine de Lamothe, Sieur de Cadillac.  He signed the register: Lamothe Launay.  He claimed noble descent through both his father and mother. He asserted that Laumet Sr. was actually named Jean de La Mothe, sieur de [sire of] Cadillac, Launay et Le Moutet  [the names of a town and a couple of hamlets around his birth place], Counselor to the Parliament in Toulouse. 

In fact, Tony's dad was a modest assistant-magistrate at the local court in St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave.  He named his mother, ironically, Jeanne de Malenfant; the French particle, de, suggests noble birth.  Taken separately, however, the French words de mal enfant, literally mean of (or with) the evil child. Was Tony being wryly humorous by this veiled admission that, in fact, he was just Mommy's bad boy?

This concise history of  the French "bad boy" is from the Virtual Museum of New France :

Born on March 5, 1658 in Laumont [or "Les Laumets"?], a village near Saint-Nicolas-de- la-Grave in Gascony, Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac was the son of simple middle-class parents. Upon his marriage in Quebec City on June 25, 1687, he glorified his origins [my emphasis], claiming his title was "Antoine de la Mothe, squire, Sieur de Cadillac, aged about 26 years, son of Jean de la Mothe, Seigneur of Cadillac, Launay and Moutet, consultant [counselor] to the parliament of Toulouse and of Jeanne de Malenfant." His parents, however, were commoners. A simple magistrate, his father was called Jean Laumet; he was no Seigneur [squire].

This was far from being the last of the lies told by Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit, whose sojourn in New France began in Acadia around 1683. Without giving any proof, and contradicting himself on many occasions, he claimed to be an experienced soldier. No one knows where he studied, but the briefs he produced for Minister Ponchartrain indicated that he did have a certain level of education and culture.

The following are excerpts from from the Web site of Jean Cadilhac [© 2000], a distant relative of Antoine Laumet-Cadillac (?). The English translations [blue text] of the French originals [dark green text] are my own and are not, therefore, legally binding! Primarily, the French author suggests (and I would agree 100%) that, for the student of history:

Il est plus sérieux de consulter les documents rassemblés au musée Cadillac à St Nicolas de la Grave, ou présentés à la société d'archéologie du Tarn et Garonne ou publiés par la Detroit Historical Society, en particulier pour la commémoration  du cent soixante quinzième anniversaire de la fondation de Detroit (Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1976)

The serious researcher should consult the documents collected at the Cadillac Museum in St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave [which I have visited a number of times], or presented to the Archeological Society of Tarn and Garonne, or those published by the Detroit Historical Society, and particularly those relating to the 175th anniversary of the founding of Detroit (Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1976).

Après la mort de ses parents en 1677, il dit avoir été cadet au régiment de Dampierre-Lorraine puis lieutenant au régiment de Clairambault, mais aucune preuve n'en existe et il est possible qu'il ait emprunté les états de service de son frère aîné.

Following the death of his parents in 1677 (i.e. 10 years before he ever wed Miss Guyon), (Laumet) claims to have been a cadet in the Dampierre-Lorraine regiment then lieutenant in the Clairambault regiment. There is no proof of these assertions; it is even quite possible that he borrowed the service records of his older brother.

Mr. Cadilhac goes on to assert, as I do too, that Laumet decided to change his name and to borrow also the family crest (coat of arms) of a noble neighbor:

A peine débarqué à Port Royal, capitale de l'Acadie, en 1683, il change de nom et se fait appeler "Lamothe", nom d'un seigneur de sa région, de Lamothe-Bardigues, conseiller au parlement de Toulouse. Il lui emprunte aussi ses armes qu'il avait eu l'occasion de voir au portail de sa propriété proche de St Nicolas.

Hardly had he disembarked at Port Royal, Capital of Acadia, in 1683, than he changed his name and began calling himself Lamothe, the name of a nobleman of his home region (de Lamothe-Bardigues), a counselor to the Toulouse parliament. He also borrowed the latter's coat of arms [crest] that he had seen on the gates of the Bardigues property near St. Nicolas [photos of the Lamothe estate gates may be seen on his page]

 

It was relatively common for adventurous Frenchmen emigrating to the New World in those days to usurp the noble title and armorial bearings of true, blue-blooded noblemen back home who - it was assumed - would never find out about it [there was no Internet in those days!].  Laumet was no exception; he borrowed the name Lamothe,  possibly on account of its consonance with Laumet.  He took over also the noble ancestry associated with the Lamothe name. In fact, he "purloined" the name, title AND coat of arms of Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan, lord of Lamothe [formerly La Motte] Bardigues, a feudal manor located near Toulouse, France⁴. 

The land on which that manor stands was owned in the 14th century by Bernard De La Motte. He sold it in 1315 to  Raymond Arnaud de Goth, Lord of Rouillac; his son, Gaillard de Goth took the title of Lord of La Motte, at Bardigues. The manor was rebuilt in the 18th century for the Esparbès de Lussan family. Declared a historic site, it is not open for public viewing. Nevertheless, in 1989, special arrangements were made to access the grounds of the estate for participants in the First International Cadillac Meet held in the region where Laumet-Cadillac was born. That meeting and subsequent ones were organized by my friend Jacques Delbosc, a Castelsarrasin dentist.

The Esparbès de Lussan family shield is shown below; it comes from this Web site.
_______________________________________________
⁴  On p.176 of the novel, First Lady of Detroit, the author asserts, Modern historians recently have found evidence that Antoine may have had every right to both the Lamothe and Cadillac names and actually may have been the son of one of the younger Cadillacs.  I would like to know who these modern historians are and where they found their "evidence".  I'd also like to know who those "younger Cadillacs" might be !

Full arms of Esparbès de Lussan Henri Joseph d'Esparbes de Lussan (1714-1788) Marquis of Aubeterre, Maréchal of France Knight of the Holy Ghost (from 2 Feb. 1757)

Shield of Esparbès de Lussan Three black merlettes astride a red fess on a silver shield; Look familiar ?

The Family Manor The grounds were open in 1989 to participants and their cars  at the International Cadillac Meet organized there by Jacques Delbosc, President of  the Tarn & Garonne Vintage Car Club)

Louis Charles de La Mothe-Houdancourt (1687-1755)
Marquis de La Mothe-Houdancourt

?????
 

Baron Sylvester was a counselor to the Parliament in Toulouse. As we know, Cadillac claimed that his own father had held that office; was he implying, therefore, that he might have been fathered by the Baron? 

There was indeed a Malenfant family in the region of Toulouse from around the 16th century. First in the lineage was Jacques de Malenfant, a nobleman from Pressac, born circa 1550. He wed one Martha de Poitiers; his occupation was Maître de requêtes [magistrate in charge of claims].  His son, Etienne de Malenfant de Gentien et Pressac was a magistrate for the Parliament in Toulouse. He was followed by Jean de Malenfant et Gentien, who was trésorier du Domaine du Roi en Rouergue [Treasurer of the King's Estate at Rouergue]. The Malenfant lineage ended with Anne, daughter of Jean, who wed Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan in 1659, i.e. one year after the birth of Antoine Laumet⁵.
______________________________________
⁵ A couple of the preceding paragraphs were modified in September 2000, based on information received from Jerôme Malenfant, a descendant of the Malenfant family that has been thoroughly researched by the late Arthur V. Mellefont of Killarney Vale, published in 1983 in Malenfant Families.   Excerpts were previously published, in French, on the Web, but at this writing the site is no longer operational: http://www.cafe.rapidus.net/hmalen/galles.htm.  So Laumet’s choice of the pseudonym Malenfant, for his mother, Jeanne Pechagut, may not have been accidental or ruefully cynical after all.  It is highly plausible that when Laumet was in his early twenties he too thoroughly researched the family history of the noble Baron Sylvester,  before deciding to fabricate his own (alleged) noble ancestry.

It is not enough for a man to claim noble descent. That man must have also the character, the bearing and the noble spirit and deportment that personifies nobility.  Laumet had it all.  When he wrote to the Minister, to register a land claim in the Etroits - that is the straits or narrows between lakes Erie and St. Clair, later to become Detroit - he declared boldly, I am the only nobleman (!) in these parts.

Laumet-Cadillac disembarked in the New World in what was then New France, at Port Royal of Acady. He had served for some time in the French navy, rising quickly to the rank of naval sub-lieutenant ^{(footnote 2, above)}.  It was in that capacity, in 1694, that he was given command of Fort Michillimakinak or Michillimakinac [also spelled MissilimaKina in old records], and of all western outposts.

Cadillac gets a Seigneurie (concession of land) in New France at the hands of King Louis XIV [ Document:  courtesy Common Council, Detroit ]

 

Under Cadillac's command, things appear to have got out of control at the fort. In a long letter by Jesuit father Etienne Carheil to a former pupil, he said: Our missions are reduced to such extremity that we can no longer maintain them against the infinity of disorder, brutality, violence, injustice, impiety, impurity, insolence, scorn, and insult, which the deplorable and infamous traffic in brandy has spread universally among the Indians of these parts.... In the despair in which we are plunged, nothing remains for us but to abandon them to the brandy sellers as a domain of drunkenness and debauchery. He complains bitterly of the officers in command of the fort, who, he says, far from repressing disorders, encourage them by their example, and are even worse than their subordinates, insomuch that all our Indian villages are so many taverns for drunkenness and Sodoms for iniquity, which we shall be forced to leave to the just wrath and vengeance of God. He insists that the garrisons are entirely useless, as they have only four occupations: first, to keep open liquor shops for crowds of drunken Indians; secondly, to roam from place to place, carrying goods and brandy under the orders of the commandant (Cadillac), who shares their profits; thirdly, to gamble day and night; fourthly, to turn the fort into a place which I am ashamed to call by its right name. He goes on to describe in much detail the swarms of Indian girls who are hired to make it their resort, ending thus: Such, monseigneur, are the only employments of the soldiers maintained here so many years.

Nonetheless, Cadillac's many exploratory missions to the Northern territories of New France, combined with his daily contacts with the indigenous population, convinced him of the need to build a trading post.  By concentrating the fur trade at one location, he knew that the British influence in the area would suffer.

It took all of two years and frequent trips back and forth to France to convince the Court of Louis XIV that his plan was a sound one.  Having obtained the royal green light, he set forth from Montreal on June 5, 1701. He left Lachine  with 25 canoes, 100 men (of which 50 soldiers and 50 voyageurs [passengers]) and supplies for three months. He was accompanied by his lieutenants, Alphonse de Tonty, Baron de Palaudy, Pierre Dugué (aka Boisbriand), Chacornac (or Chacornacle), Baron de Joannès, a Catholic priest (Father Constantin Delhalle) and a Jesuit priest (Father Vaillant de Gueslis).

They reached a spot in the straits, between the lakes, that he had selected for his trading post.  He landed there on July 24, 1701.  He immediately took possession of the surrounding lands and built a fort as well as some houses for the future military garrison.  He named the fort Ponchartrain in honor of the then French Minister for Colonies.

[Nota: in December 2001, The French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan erected a statue and bi-lingual plaque to commemorate the voyage undertaken by Cadillac and his men. Here is a link to the site where you can view both the commemorative plaque and the statue.]

 

Cadillac lands at Detroit Cadillac landing at the place now called Detroit; The upper painting is not identified The lower one is by John S. Coppin [ Image: Burton Historical Collection, Detroit ] This is the cover design of the program of the 6th International Cadillac Meet held at Castelsarrasin, near Cadillac's birthplace, in 1997.   It shows a 1931 Cadillac convertible coupe against a  background painting depicting the landing of Lamothe-Cadillac at Etroits in 1701 [ Document:  courtesy Jacques Delbosc, CAVE 82 ]

 

 

On account of its topographical location, the tiny settlement was called Ville d'Etroits - or town on the straits (narrows).  The spot chosen by Laumet  is quite near the corner of Detroit's Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street. There was no doubt in Laumet's mind that the future Detroit was strategically located and that it's growth rested on increasing trade and a concurrent growth in the population.  But our man lost favor with the local Jesuit missionaries and fur traders; they accused him of being motivated only by personal greed.  Gradually too, he lost the support of the French Minister and the Royal Court.  On May 13, 1710, by Royal decree, he was appointed Governor of Louisiana ...just to get him out of the Detroit area.

In Louisiana, once again, he did not see eye to eye with the local authorities.  He was on bad terms with his own officers and men, with the Crozat Company, that he had convinced to invest in the new territories ...and even with his friends, the Indians.  The King relieved him of his duties on March 3, 1715.  Cadillac wheeled and "dealed" for a while until he returned to France in October, 1717.

He was immediately arrested there and thrown in jail, in Paris'  ill-famed Bastille prison. He was suspected of some unlawful dealings at La Coruña, in Spain, where his boat had accosted, temporarily, before proceeding to its final port of call in France.  However, in the absence of any tangible evidence of the suspected evil-doings, and with help from his wife, Marie-Thérèse, Laumet-Cadillac was released five months later, in 1718, and busied himself, thereafter, trying to clear his good (?) name and to recover his former rights to the town of Detroit. 

So obstinate was he that he succeeded in obtaining from the French government payment in arrears of his stipend as Governor of Louisiana.  He even was awarded the Cross of Saint Louis (Knight's Military Order)!

No sooner had he been recognized full and rightful ownership of Detroit than he sold those rights to the Canadian, Jacques Baudry de Lamarche, in order to buy for himself the position of Governor and Mayor of Castelsarrasin, in December, 1722.

 

It was in that city that Lamothe-Cadillac died on October 15, 1730, around the midnight hour, at the age of 72.  He is buried in an unmarked grave in one of the chapels of the Church of Carmelite Fathers at Castelsarrasin, the next big town, a  few miles from where he lived.

 

It would be another 172 years and one week, to the day, before the first automobile to bear the Cadillac name rumbled out of the Leland & Falconer  workshops on Trombly avenue, into the glorious fall sunshine, in the booming big city of Detroit...

 

Any Lamothe-Cadillac Left ?

It is of historical significance that Cadillac had a reported thirteen children by his only wife, Marie-Thérèse. My initial research revealed only twelve names and some dates of birth and death:

No.	Sex	Year/Date of Birth	Place of Birth	First Name	Year/Date of Death	Place of Death	Notes
1	F	1689	?	Judith	[ became a nun]
2	F	?	?	Madeleine or Magdelene	?	?	Also became a nun
3	M	04/26/1692	?	Antoine	1730?	?	Same year of death as his father?
4	M	03/16/1695	?	Jacques	?	?
5	M	06/13/1699	?	Pierre-Denis	[12 months later]	?	5
6	F	1701	?	Marie-Anne or Marianne	1701 [2 days late]	?	5
7	M	[1702]	?	?	?	?	This child survived; he is #7 in the Boivin-Sommerville listing, below
8	F	02/02/1704	?	Marie-Therese	2/1753	?
9	M	01/19/1707	?	Jean-Antoine	1709	?	5
10	F	12/28/1707	?	Marie-Agathe	?	?
11	M	03/27/1709	?	Francois	[after 1730]	?
12	M	03/17/1710	?	Rene-Louis	[4 years later]	?	5
13	M	?	?	Joseph	?	?	[see child #7, above]

For those with a special interest in the Cadillac family and offspring,  I recommend you consult the in-depth study of the subject by Ms. Suzanne Boivin Sommerville who kindly sent the following revised table listing the male and female Cadillac family members; as you will see her sources offer more detail than mine:

No.	Sex	Year/Date of Birth	Place of Birth	First Name	Year/Date of Death	Place of Death	Notes
1	F	After 1687	Acadia?	Judith	No further record after enrolling with the Ursuline nuns in 1711 as a permanent boarder
2	F	By 1690	Acadia?	Marie-Madeleine	After 1723?	France	Became a nun in the  monastery of St. Sernin, in Toulouse, in 1723
3	M	04/25/1692	Quebec	Antoine	08/23/1721	W. Indies
4	M	03/15/1695	Quebec	Jacques	?	?
5	M	06/12/1699	Quebec	Pierre-Denis	07/041700	Quebec
6	F	06/05/1701	Quebec	Marie-Anne	06/09/1701	Quebec	This child died within days
7	M	[1702]	Fort Pontchartrain	Joseph	[after 1742]	France?
8	F	02/02/1704	Fort Pontchartrain	Marie-Therese	?	?
9	M	01/19/1707	Fort Pontchartrain	Jean-Antoine	04/09/1709	Fort Pontchartrain	Died aged 2 yrs+
10	F	12/29/1707	Fort Pontchartrain	Marie-Agathe	?	?
11	M	03/28/1709	Fort Pontchartrain	Francois	[after 1733]	France?
12	M	03/17/1710	Fort Pontchartrain	Rene-Louis	10/06/1714	Quebec	Died aged 4 yrs+

Only four of the preceding births were officially registered.

Of the two male children who made it to adulthood (Joseph and Jacques), neither of them had any male offspring⁶.  Joseph, the eldest son had a daughter, Marie-Thérèse; in the latter part of the 18th century, she laid claim (unsuccessfully) to part of her grandfather's estate in Massachusetts.

Nota: Part of the Cadillac lineage may be viewed on this Canadian Web site: http://membres.lycos.fr/stephanecardinal1/dat122.htm
(search for Guyon, Marie-Thérèse ( born April 19, 1671).

_{_________________________________________________}
⁵ These children all died very young [at or before the age of four]
^6a  In February 2000 I got an e-Mail from one Christi Miller, a school-age American girl who claimed to be descended from the Lamothe-Cadillac family.  She wrote:  ...Cadillac had at least one male heir [in fact he had two] from whom we are descended. They kept the LaMothe name, not Laumet. Proof was readily available till the family home in Alton, Ill. was destroyed in the 1800's or thereabouts.  Your site was very informative and I will pass it on to the rest of the clan, we did know there was NOT a family name of Cadillac-Lamothe.  As it was told to us, an officer switched his name accidentally while introducing him to a superior officer and the name stuck. We are aware that he was NO Lamothe.  However,  the children kept the [Lamothe] name. I can offer more info when I get home for spring break  [I never heard from Christi again].
^6b I had a further communication in Nov.  2006 from enthusiast Don Teeter.  Don believes that he too is descended from Laumet-Cadillac; his information was compiled decades ago; it seems that Antoine's unnamed son (mentioned above) had a son, Joseph, from whose daughter, Marguerite, Don may be descended.  He adds: I guess this may be incorrect; it may be an erroneous generation was inserted, or that the unnamed son was really a daughter and the surname somehow was maintained. Someday I hope to be able to clear it up.

 

 

Historical Landmarks in the
Life of Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac
[translated and adapted from French by Yann Saunders]

In the table below are recorded the principal dates, places and events that marked Cadillac's colorful existence. We are grateful to Jean Boutonnet, the noted French historian⁷, and to Ms. Annick Hibert-Carthew, a French writer and historian who has lived in Detroit for more than 30 years, for their invaluable work on this interesting facet of Cadillac history.  I had the pleasure and honor of meeting them both when I attended an International Cadillac Meet in Castelsarrasin, near Toulouse, France, in July 1995;  I had been invited there to give a talk on Cadillac advertising themes. 
__________________________________________________
⁷  In 2001, Mr. Boutonnet published the 340-page book, Lamothe-Cadillac [in French], with a preface by Jean-Michel Baylet, mayor of Castelsarrasin, and an introduction by French-Canadian historienne, Annick Hivert-Carthew (publisher: Guénégaud, 2001)

 

 

The Story of the Cadillac Crest
[ used on the motor cars of the same name ]

Build-up and evolution of the "Cadillac" coat of arms [ my comments in square brackets and blue font ] This is the authentic coat of arms of  Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan, lord of Lamothe, at Bardigues, a hamlet in France's Tarn & Garonne region It would appear that Antoine Laumet, alias Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, "borrowed" it for the 1st and 4th quarterings of his own, alleged family crest (below) The first and fourth quarterings of the "Cadillac" family  crest clearly replicate the shield of Baron Sylvester      Left: these merlettes (birds) were used on the crest of Cadillac automobiles until the dawn of the New Millennium Right: the cleaned up Cadillac crest used on Cadillac  cars since 2002 From the authentic coat of arms of  France's noble Lamothe family, of Bardigues [left], originated the first and fourth quarterings of the renowned Cadillac crest [center and right] that was duly registered as the trade-mark of the Cadillac Automobile Company in Detroit, on August 7, 1906 under  #54,981.  Derived from the crest of the genuinely noble Lamothe family, the "made-up" Cadillac family  crest was duly recorded in Quebec province, in 1687,  by the self-styled Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac,  born Antoine Laumet The authentic Lamothe coat of arms is still displayed over the gates to the Lamothe estate in the hamlet of  Bardigues, near Castelsarrasin in SW France, not far from the village of St. Nicolas-la-Grave where "Cadillac" was  born "Laumet"; the Lamothe family coat of arms belongs still to the descendants of Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan [ Photos: © 1989, Yann Saunders ] Large ceramic crest (circa 48" dia.)  on display at the factory's Historical Collection in Detroit [ Photo: © 2002, J. Scott Harris ]   Evolution          Left: radiator emblem used from 1916-1917 [ with swans in lieu of merlettes ] Center:  radiator emblem from 1918-1919 [ again featuring swans ] Right: radiator emblem from 1942-1946 Cadillacs         Left: 1953, Center: 1970, Right: the New Millennium crest first used on the 100th Anniversary models in 2002; gone are the merlettes of France's reigning Lamothe family

 

But first, here's an amusing explanation of the Cadillac coat of arms, I found on this French Web site while surfing, in November, 2004:

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, founder of Detroit, and the descendants of the Earl of Toulouse are not only immortalized by their names, but also by their coat of arms that can be found in the Cadillac blazon [shield]. The blazon has been updated about thirty times. The first logo, registered on August, 18th [actually August 7] 1906, consisted of a decorated crown symbolizing the French Royalty topped [encircled?] by a bouquet of tulipped leaves. The coat of arms were [were?] completed with a picture of a female blackbird [no doubt the author is referring to the six "merlettes" belonging to the martin family!!!] which is often found on the blazon, and taken from the coat of arms of la Mothe Cadillac.

The "home-made" coat of arms of Sieur Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac  was registered as the firm's trade-mark on August 7, 1906 under  #54,981.  Heraldic explanations of the composite parts of the shield are given in a small booklet, published by Cadillac in 1918, then again in 1919, 1922, 1927, 1931, 1943 and 1960. I have four of these booklets in my collection.  On pp. 10-11 of the Self-Starter issue dated January, 1994, is reproduced the 1931 edition owned by Ansel Sackett.  In the first part of this section, above, is the text from the 1927 version. The Cadillac crest was described also in an advertising flyer published by Cadillac in 1962.

As explained above, Tony Laumet, alias Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, was no French nobleman, nor did he marry into any noble family [his "uncle-in-law" was François Guyon, a French-Canadian privateer]; this is historical fact. The Cadillac coat of arms probably was designed by the man himself. This notwithstanding, the crest was well devised and stands up to heraldic scrutiny and interpretation. In addition it was recorded officially by the heraldic authorities of Quebec (formerly New France, now Canada) in 1687, the year of Laumet-Cadillac's marriage. This fact appears to have been corroborated at one time by Canada's Institut généalogique Drouin (I.G.D.).  A similar (but not identical) description of the crest appears also in the Armorial Universel, by Koller & Schillings and an International Committee [of heraldic experts?]; that book on family crests was published in Belgium in 1951. The latter differs from the actual crest used on Cadillac motor cars in that the merlettes (birds) in the first and fourth quarterings are said to be overlaid on a silver background rather than a gold one.

In the 1918 and 1919 editions of the Cadillac-published booklet, it was remarked that the family records of le Sieur Antoine de la Mothe [Lamothe] Cadillac are burned and that just when or where he was born we shall never know. 

Later, however,  in the 1943 and 1960 editions, the Cadillac Motor Car Co. said  it is fairly certain [i.e. the writer was still not 100% sure] that he [Laumet-Cadillac] was born on March 5, 1658, in a little town in Gascony [St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave].  It appears, therefore, that some additional research was done by the firm between 1919 and 1943!

It was asserted also, blatantly in error, that the armorial bearings [the crest] of the Cadillac family were older by four centuries than the coming of Columbus, suggesting that they go back to around 1092; yet it was not before the 13th century that heraldic rules and terminology started to form. As may be seen above, however, the truth is more prosaic. 

In all these merchandising booklets the Cadillac company asserted also that in all France there are few families more ancient than the Cadillacs. Again a bold statement considering the historical facts. The late Harry Pulfer, who researched the Cadillac coat of arms in America, in the early seventies, was not so emphatic. He said that its origins were less known although he did assert, again in error, that the armorial bearings of the Cadillac family had been set down in French heraldry. We must assume he was referring to the records of Canada's Drouin Institute of genealogy.  In reality, however, thorough research conducted in France has not turned up any ancient, noble Cadillac family to which Antoine Laumet might be connected, nor any crest like the one used on Cadillac motor cars since 1906. The closest such crest is that described above, that belongs to the Lamothe family and estate at Bardigues, a hamlet in France's Tarn and Garonne region.

As has been shown above, there never was a noble Lamothe-Cadillac family in France until Antoine Laumet  himself created it for his own ends around the turn of the 17th century. The Cadillac coat of arms is an assemblage, or montage, of bits and pieces of authentic heraldry that Laumet put together to achieve his own purpose.

It is the confirmed opinion of many writers and historians that the Cadillac family crest is a fake, even though it was duly and officially registered and recorded, circa 1687, by the heraldic authorities of Quebec in New France (now Canada). By "fake" crest, I mean an authentic family coat of arms that has been falsified by appropriate alterations such as to impart to it a false character or appearance.  The only authentic parts of the Cadillac crest are the first and fourth quarterings; these feature legless birds (or hen-blackbirds); in heraldry they are known as martlets ^{7a, 7b, 7c}, 7d [merlettes in French].  They are the heraldic adaptation of the martin⁸. 

Laumet "borrowed" the authentic family crest of Baron Sylvester of Esparbes [or Esparbès] de Lussan (see above), Lord of Lamothe, a baronial estate located at Bardigues, in Tarn & Garonne (that family's coat of arms still graces the imposing wrought-iron gates of the Château de Bardigues, near Castelsarrasin, where international Cadillac meets have been held regularly for many years); he merely changed the colors. The parts and the configuration of the shield remain the same but he added [in the 2nd and 3rd quarters] the additional coat of arms of either Virès, in France's Languedoc region, or Albret in Gascony  [source: Report on Canadian Archives, Ottawa, 1911].   We know that Antoine Laumet was an officer in the Albret regiment while stationed at Thionville in 1682; that is the time he began to use the name "CADILLAC" as his "nom de guerre" or alias.
___________________________________
^7a  Merlette,  Petit oiseau stylisé, posé de profil, sans bec ni griffe [i.e. small, stylized bird, viewed in profile, with neither beak
      nor claws].  Also, martlet, merlion.  In heraldry, a representation of a bird without feet.
^7b  Martlet  [Cf. F. merlette] (Her.) A bird without beak or feet;  generally assumed to represent a martin. As a mark of
      cadency it denotes the fourth son.
^7c  Martlet  The word martlet is used in English translation of similar birds (footless) that appear in French, Dutch and
     German arms, and the equivalents in those languages are frequently used for the English bird. The French term merlette
     actually indicates a footless duckling, not a martin or swallow, as in the case of the English bird.  Merlettes (in the duckling
     form) appear frequently in Dutch heraldry.
^7d The martlet is another example of an apparent mistake by heraldic artists. Martlets are traditionally drawn without legs
       but tufts of feathers. The real reason for this apparent mistake is unclear, but some say legless birds like these were found
      in the Holy Land at the time of the Crusades, others say that the birds like these followed ships endlessly for scraps of food
      and as they never seemed to land, they had no legs. Whatever, the real reason, it matters not as martlets are always correctly
      drawn without legs, even as the mark of cadency for a fourth son.

 

Shield of the Esparbes (or Esparbès) family

_{_______________________________________}
⁸ White swans replaced the traditional black merlettes  on Type 53, 55 and 57 Cadillacs of 1916 through 1919; the reason for the latter change is given in the magazine Antique Automobile for November-December 1993, as also in the CLC's Self Starter magazine for  February, 2001.  The writer, Mr. Ed Jacobowicz of Connecticut, explains that, to the best of his knowledge, this was a gesture of gratitude towards a Mr. Amos [Albert?] C. Swan, former co-owner of Smith & Swan, a company that had given Cadillac precious help following the disastrous plant fire of April 1904 when it had not been possible for Cadillac to build any cars for some three months. The firm reverted to the black merlettes in 1920. 

 

 

Description of the Cadillac Coat of Arms
[ as published by the motor car company of that name ]

The following descriptions are drawn from the merchandising booklets published a number of times between 1918 and 1960 by the former Cadillac Motor Car Company, subsequently the Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors Corporation. There was also a piece entitled The Cadillac Crest on p. 46 of The Cadillac Serviceman for August 1960 to encourage Cadillac employees to take pride in their work; it said, inter alia, Both the crest and the slogan [Craftsmanship a Creed, Accuracy a Law] stand as our constant reminder that leadership in any field is won and held only through deeds well done."

Again, the additional explanations and comments in blue, between square brackets, are my own.

The Couronne or Coronet [above the crest] is that borne by the six ancient counts of France^8a and is emblematic of descent from the old counts of Toulouse, who were affiliated with the royal French stock. The seven pearls in the couronne indicate the nobleman's descent from these royal counts [we know for sure that Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac  was born Antoine Laumet, the son of an assistant magistrate at the local court and a modest home-maker].

________________________________________________________________________
^8a  France's oldest (non-ecclesiastical)  peers were (1) the Duke of Burgundy, (2) the Duke of Normandy, (3) the Duke of Aquitaine,
      (4) the Count of Flanders, (5) the Count of Champagne and (6) the Count of Toulouse

 

The Shield: is significant of the heroic origin of the Cadillac arms. This is the form in which the coat of arms of the Cadillac family was first displayed by some ancient Holy Crusader [in-depth research in France, by Jean Boutonnet and Jean Cadilhac has uncovered no noble de Lamothe-Cadillac family in that country, nor any such coat of arms].

 

The First and Fourth Quarterings [the only authentic part of the de Lamothe-Cadillac coat of arms]. These quarterings are strictly the arms of the Mothe family [in fact de Lamothe, not la Mothe and - yes - these arms belong strictly to the de Lamothe estate at Bardigues, France]:  Gold ⁹, a fess [bar], sable [black] between three merlettes of the same [i.e martlets or martins (birds)   of the same color] posed two in chief  [i.e. two of them placed above the black bar] and one in base [i.e. below the bar]. The birds or "merlettes", legless and without beaks, are a heraldic adaptation of the martin. Appearing in threes they have a holy significance, being considered sacred to the Trinity. They were granted to Knights by the ancient School of Heralds, together with the "fess" for valiant conduct in the Crusades. The birds shown in black against a gold background in this section [or "quartering"] of the Cadillac coat of arms denote wisdom [yes, there is no doubting that Laumet-Cadillac was one smart guy], riches [Cadillac did get rich, trading with the Indians around what became Detroit], and cleverness of mind [yes, indeed!], ideal qualities for the adventurous and zealous Christian Knight [and for an equally zealous and adventurous soldier of fortune, Antoine Laumet!]

Of the merlette, Guillaume, an ancient historian, says: "This bird is given for a difference, to younger brothers to put them in mind that in order to raise themselves they are to look to the wings of virtue and merit, and not to the legs, having but little land to set their feet on" [the Laumet family, it is known, were not landed gentry]¹⁰. Of the "fess", he says: "This is a military girdle of honor," and signifies that the bearer "must always be in readiness to undergo the business of the public weal" [i.e to work for the general wellbeing of the people - ...Laumet appears to have been working mainly for his own wellbeing].
______________________________________________
⁹    In Koller & Schillings Armorial Universel, silver (argent) is shown in lieu of gold (or)
¹⁰  Guillim [on the martlet]  - "they have not such use of their feet, as other birds have.  And if perchance they
       fall upon the ground, they cannot raise themselves upon their feet, as others do, and prepare themselves to
       flight.  For this cause they are accustomed to make their nests among rocks and other high places, from
      whence they may easily take their flight."

 

 

The Second and Third Quarterings [sometimes described as the "flags"] were probably adopted [the writer is admitting he doesn't really know, for sure] by some fortunate intermarriage in time long ago, another "Seigneurie" [a domain or large tract of land] was added to their possessions.  In these quarters the colors used denote that the marriage added to the fame of the family de la Mothe [de Lamothe], something besides broad acres  - "marked prowess and boldness in action" for the red; "purity, charity, virtue and plenty" for the silver. The repetition of the cross bar or "fess" [the blue band on the silver base] indicates more knightly prowess in the far fields of the Crusades [in Laumet-Cadillac's case it probably indicated more "nightly prowess" in the bed of Guyon's 17-year-old niece... Nevertheless, according to the Report on Canadian Archives, Ottawa, 1911, these arms could be those of either Virès, in France's Languedoc region, or Albret in Gascony]

 

Apart from the purely heraldic aspect of a coat of arms is its historic aspect. Every crest is linked with a history in which is enfolded the origin, genealogy, deeds, services, honors and alliances of the family bearing it. In all France, there are few families more ancient than the Cadillacs [as previously stated, in-depth research into French genealogy has uncovered not a single, noble Cadillac family from which Laumet-Cadillac might be descended]. In both dignity of design and significance of detail, the Cadillac coat of arms speaks volumes in courage and honor for the forebears of the Father of Detroit."

 

 

The "official" Lamothe-Cadillac Crest
as recorded in Quebec, in 1687, and published in the Armorial Universel

Here is the description of the de Lamothe-Cadillac coat of arms included at page 255 of the Belgian Armorial Universel by Koller & Schillings.  It differs slightly from the version found in the booklets mentioned earlier, that the Cadillac Motor Car Company published a number of times, starting in 1918:

écartelé, aux 1 et 4, d'argent à la fasce de sable, chargée de trois merlettes du même; aux 2 et 3, contre-écartelé : aux 1 et 4, de gueules et aux 2 et 3 , d'argent chargé de trois fasces d'azur.

This may be translated roughly as follows:

A shield divided into four sections; at 1 and 4 [i.e. in the fist and fourth quarterings] silver  with a sable [black] fess [bar], overlaid with three merlettes [martlets, or martins] of the same color; at 2 and 3 [i.e. in the second and third quarterings] counter quartered [i.e. another shield with diagonally opposed quarterings] : at 1 and 4, gules [red] and at 2 and 3 silver overlaid with three fesses [bars] of azure [blue].   

The version published by Cadillac reads slightly differently, as follows:

écartelé, aux 1 et 4, d'or [gold] à la fasce de sable accompagnée de trois merlettes de même, posées deux en chef et une en pointe; aux 2 et 3, de gueules, écartelé d'argent à trois d'azur.

This version mentions gold (or) in lieu of silver (argent) in the first and fourth quarterings; it also positions the merlettes precisely: two above the black bar and one below it. The description of the second and third quarterings is less precise than the Koller & Schillings version although the colors are the same. Could K & S have incorrectly transcribed the 1687 version they presumably got from I.G.D. in Canada? Or have we been using gold in lieu of silver, in error, on the Cadillac crest for a hundred years? 

The I.G.D. was acquired some years ago by Jean-Pierre Pepin, of Quebec. I contacted him in December, 2002. I wanted to find out if the Institute's description of the crest, entered in 1687, was the same as that published by the Cadillac Motor Car Company [i.e. merlettes on a GOLD background] or like the one in the Armorial Universel [i.e. merlettes on a SILVER background]. Unfortunately, Mr. Pepin was unable to provide that information.

A subsequent visit to the I.G.D. Web site revealed that anyone interested could acquire from the Institute [[ for a mere $15,000!]] document #CC-10, entitled  La Masculine, a directory of French-Canadian marriages in Quebec from 1760 - 1935; this consists of 61 bound volumes. Perhaps Cadillac's marriage to Ms. Guyon is included there! In any case I have found this genealogical Web site that lists that marital union.

As we have seen, the so-called Cadillac family crest is recognized by Canada's Institut généalogique Drouin [the Drouin Genealogical Institute].  The reason is that, as previously stated, said crest was duly recorded in Quebec by Cadillac himself.  As a result, there is also a heraldic description of what I shall call the "questionable" Cadillac crest in Tome 1 of the 1951 Belgian Armorial Universel, on p.255. The entry is cross-referenced "I.G.D." ( Institut généalogique Drouin).

There is no record in France of any Lamothe-Cadillac family or crest, other than the one "invented" by Antoine Laumet when he was in the New French Territories.

Again in my opinion, the renowned crest that has graced the radiator shrouds, front hoods, trunk lids and wheel covers of Cadillac automobiles for 100 years was "concocted" by Antoine Laumet himself, around 1687, the year of his marriage to Marie-Thérèse Guyon.  That is when he gave the registrar the alias Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac.   He actually signed the registry: Lamothe Launay [which, in its pronunciation, closely resembles Laumet].

It is believed that he borrowed the name Cadillac from a small hamlet of the same name near Montech, in the vicinity of Laumet's birthplace, St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave. In France, names ending in "ac" have the distinct "ring" or "signature" of the people and places of Gascony.

At the time of his betrothal, Antoine not only knocked four years off his age (stating it to be 26 instead of 30) but also he invented for himself a noble ancestry. He asserted that his (late) father was one Jean de Lamothe, sieur de Cadillac, Launay et Semontel; he said that he (Jean) had been a Counselor to the Parliament in Toulouse. He identifies his mother as a noblewoman by the name of Jeanne de Malenfant. His official birth records establish, nevertheless, that his dad was called Jean Laumet; he was an assistant magistrate to the court in St. Nicolas-de-la-Grave, the small township where "Cadillac" was born. His mom was called Jeanne Pechagut; she was a modest home-maker.

 

All this is historical fact. The Internet currently offers a number of Web sites [listed below] that  corroborate this writer's opinion and findings about Mr. Laumet, aka Lamothe-Cadillac. Further sources of reliable information about this adventurer include the following books and articles:

(1) Cadillac, a historical novel by Agnes C. Laut,  published in 1931

(2) New France and the West, 1701-1713, history by Yves F. Zoltvany, from Canadian Historical Review 1965 46 (4): 301-322

(3) The Western Country in the Seventeenth Century: The Memoirs of Lamothe Cadillac and Pierre Liette (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1947), from Modern Editions of Early Modern French Sources Translated into English compiled by Jeffrey Merrick and David A. Bell [http://jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu/~dabell/sources.html]; ed.: Milton Quaife

(4) La Mothe Cadillac: A Stormy Figure of New France, history by Sylvia C. Mitchell, from the Detroit Historical Society Bulletin, 1955 11 (10): 6-10

(5) The Problem of Western Policy under Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, 1703-1725, 1964, 9, Yves F. Zoltvany, from the Canadian Historical Association Index to Historical Papers, 1967-1994

(6)  Historama magazine, 1964 [which month?], related a slightly different version of the French adventurer's "colorful" past

(7) L'Homme qui fonda Detroit, a historical novel by Robert Pico

(8) Cadillac and the Dawn of Detroit, a historical novel by Annick Hivert Carthew,

(9) First Lady of Detroit, a historical novel about Marie-Thérèse Guyon, wife of Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac) by Karen Elizabeth Bush

(10) One of Cadillac's letters to the Minister was reproduced on this Detroit Web site in 1999 (?): http://www.lib.cmich.edu/clarke/detroit/cadillac1702.htm
[this site was no longer current in 2004]; it showed Cadillac to be well-educated and knowledgeable about the area that was to become Detroit

(11)  This other Web page entitled The Explorers describes Cadillac's life and times (uploaded circa 1999?): http://www.civilization.ca/vmnf/explor/cadi_e2.html

(12) On the Web page, Family Tree Magazine, writer Allison Stacy also has a piece entitled False Start [2000?] in which she too refers to the colorful past of Detroit's founder: [http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articles/aug01/cadillac.html]

(13) In the Detroit Free Press for July 24, 2000, appeared an article entitled Despite local history lessons, city's founder was no hero.  It was written by Free Press writer Bill McGraw The substance is very similar to what you will find in these pages; however, I believe Mr. McGraw got the bulk of his facts from historian Yves Zoltvany: [http://www.freep.com/news/locway/caddy24_20000724.htm]

(14) Lamothe-Cadillac history [in French] by French historian, Jean Boutonnet to whom I am grateful for much of the information contained herein, published by Guénégaud [2001]

Other Web sites of interest to the historian:

http://fchsm.habitant.org/Journal.html

http://fchsm.habitant.org/Plaque.html

http://www.leveillee.net/roots/index.html + http://www.leveillee.net/roots/indexmay.htm + http://www.leveillee.net/roots/authorindex.htm#suzanne

http://pages.infinit.net/lej/dictc.htm [click on letter "C", then "Cadillac"]

http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Cadillac.htm

http://www.historydetroit.com/people/antoine_cadillac.asp

http://www.historydetroit.com/places/fort_ponchartrain.asp

http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articles/aug01/cadillac.html

http://jecadi.free.fr/antoine_laumet.htm

 

 

 

Origins of the name Cadillac

We owe to Jean Cadilhac, a distant relative of the Cadillac (and related) French families, some interesting historical information that I have summarized here. Nothing in Jean's extensive research has turned up even a distant connection between Antoine Laumet De Lamothe-Cadillac and any Cadillac (or related) family in all of France.

The name Cadilhac or Cadillac has Latino-Celtic origins. It appears to have originated from the Roman family name Catilus or Catilius, or from the Celtic word catus, meaning battle or struggle. Combined with the Latin suffix -acus, the name Catilusacus means owned by or belonging to Catilus or Catilius. A person with that name would be considered to have a brave and battling spirit. Perhaps it was the name of a brave Roman legionnaire who settled in ancient Gaul.

Related names are found in the VIIth century (Cadolaicum and Cadolaico), in the IXth century (Cadolac and Cadelac), in the Xth and XIth centuries (Cadilo and Cadelo) and in the XIIIth century (Cadilha, Cadeillac and Cadiac). The names Cadilhac, Cadillac and (sometimes) Cazilhac are derived from these. Some distant Cadillac and Cadilhac families appear first in Brittany (north-western France) and in Rouergue (south-western France, between the plateaus of Larzac, to the east, and Ségala, to the west).

From family name to place name there was but a short step. Gradually the names Catilusacus or Catiliusacus came to signify the land or domain owned by Catilus or Catilius.  Here are a few, related place-names in France:

-  near Bordeaux, the market town of Cadillac (of which Antoine Laumet took the name as his own); a
   bastide or fortified village was first built there in 1280; all but destroyed in successive wars, the Duke
   of Epernon got the ruins of it in his wedding basket, in 1587; he decided to build a new castle there, in
   the renaissance style; work was completed around 1615.

-  in the north Dordogne area, Cadillac en Fronçadais, once home to the Cadilhac's of Aquitaine;

-  in Brittany, a site called Moulin de Cadillac [Cadillac mill], near Noyal-Muzillac in the Morbihan
    region, slightly off the beaten track between Nantes and Vannes;

-  near La Croix Barrez, in the same area, the tiny hamlet of Cadillac;

-  at Mur de Barrez, also in the Aveyron region, a renaissance home called Maison Cadillac that was
   declared a historic site in 1929.

-  in the parish of Paulhac, in the Lot & Garonne region, the small village of Cadilhac;

-  Near Rieupeyroux in the Aveyron region, a site known as Cadilats in the parish of Rivière [may
    be a relative of the name Cadillac];

-  back in the mid-seventies, aboard our 1960 Eldorado Seville, Gita and I drove through a tiny
    hamlet called Quédillac, in Brittany; is it too a distant cousin of Cadillac ?

 

-  finally, at Muret, on the Garonne river, near Toulouse, in south-western France, the
   Château de Cadeilhac, built in 1560, destroyed around 1750 and replaced that year with an
   Italian-style palazzo; that castle was owned (circa 1999) by a Mr. Arcens who was attempting
   to restore it; this could be the Castle Cadillac   mentioned in a letter from a US serviceman
   of WW1, published by the Cadillac Motor Car Company, in 1919, in a book entitled
   Cadillac Participation in the World War. In March 2003, however, I got information about that
   castle from its present owner, Mr. Gilbert Arcens.  He sent me two Cadeilhac family crests, neither
   of which resembles the Cadillac (automobile) crest; Mr. Arcens opined that the WW1 soldier may
   have been referring to the castle of the Duke of Epernon, downstream from his own. However, he
   added, there is no such crest on that edifice.

 

In her historical novel, First Lady of Detroit, author Karen Elizabeth Bush asserts that ...Modern historians recently have found evidence that Antoine may have had every right to both the Lamothe and Cadillac names and actually may have been the son of one of the younger Cadillacs.  The only recorded instance of the family name Cadillac (other than in the alias Lamothe-Cadillac used by Antoine Laumet himself) is in a book on French heraldry (in French), of which an excerpt was sent to me kindly by Maurice Hendry of New Zealand, author of the definitive Cadillac - The Seventy-Five Year History.

On pp. 406-407 of that book are grouped together under a broad family lineage the names de Vassal, de Rignac, de Purecet, de Sineuil, de Cadillac, de la Barde and de Montviel; included also on the page is an illustration of the family crest, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to that of Lamothe- Cadillac as recorded by Antoine himself, in 1687, and subsequently registered as the trademark for Cadillac automobiles in 1906.

Four generations of de Cadillac are mentioned there:

-  the first, Léonard-Antoine, Baron de Cadillac was a direct descendant of Jean de Vassal, Lord of
   Rignac; 1772 (that is twenty-two years after self-styled Laumet-Cadillac had passed on!)
   Léonard-Antoine married Marie-Thérèse de Narbonne-Pelet;

-  the second, Armand, was the son of the preceding union; he was known as Baron de Vassal-Cadillac;
   in 1824 he married Marie-Zélima de la Faurie de Monbadon;

- the third, Maximilien, was son of that union; he too was known as Baron de Vassal-Cadillac;
   in 1849 he married Caroline de la Myre-Mory; their eldest male child died in 1871, leaving no heirs;
   the second son, Gérard had a girl child by Jeanne de Truchis de Laye;

-  the fourth, also a girl, Laurence de Vassal-Cadillac (of uncertain lineage), married her cousin
   Raoul in 1862; he was a descendant of the Marquis de Montviel.

Thus ended the Cadillac-Vassal lineage. History has shown that Antoine Lamothe-Cadillac (born Antoine Laumet) is unrelated to any of them. He started his own Cadillac family and lineage from scratch when, in 1687, he married Marie-Thérèse Guyon.

 

 

Epilogue

This from Washington, DC, August 1999: Cadillac announced the first change in its shield-and-crest emblem since 1963. It will be used in ads, starting in 1999, and on Cadillac cars beginning in 2002. The emblem appears slightly wider and flatter; the crest remains but the crown over the shield is gone; the red-black-silver-gold-blue colors remain, but the merlettes are gone.

As an aside, there is a story in The Journal of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan, Vol. 18 #3, July 1997, by Roger Durand, entitled Why I’ll Drive an Oldsmobile but never a Cadillac. To the student of history it does provide some interesting insight into the life and times of Cadillac's illustrious (or notorious?) founder.

In conclusion, despite the man Cadillac's many recorded foibles, I for one will continue to admire and drive the great cars that have borne his name for more than a century.

In the words of writer-historian, Annick Hivert-Carthew, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Castelsarrasin in 1989: 

Enveloped in a cloak of assumed identity and past ... Cadillac emerges victorious. He has accomplished
what many of his detractors have not: a lasting masterpiece -- the city of Detroit. He has achieved immortality.

 

 

 

Go back to the Cadillac insignia index page
or return to the "Miscellaneous Cadillac Stuff" index page
or Return to The (New) Cadillac Database© Index Page

© 1996, Yann Saunders and the Cadillac-La Salle Club, Inc.
[ Background image: Armorial bearings of the Lamothe family of Bardigues,  France ]
( courtesy CAVE   82, France )