Appendix E: Biographies
Poizat
In 1594, Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), son of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558), published Epistola de Vetustate et Splendore Gentis Scaligerae et J.C. Scaligeri Vita [Letter Concerning the Venerable Character and Splendor of the Scaliger People/Clan and the Life of J.C. Scaliger], a work “in which he put forward the claims of his family to be descended from the Della Scalas, Princes of Verona.”1 This descent was disputed.2 In the nineteenth century, the Poizats also became involved in the dispute, but for the purpose of proving that they too had just claims to the name of “de Lescale de Vérone.”3
The background is as follows. Jules César III de Lescales de Vérone (d. 1792 or 1793) had married in March 1775 a Creole woman named Louise Bousquet, whose parents were from St. Domingo. At some point, he went to St. Domingo to look after his wife’s property, leaving her with their two young daughters, Victoire (b. 15 January 1776) and Julie (b. 1777). He remained in St. Domingo a long time and entered into a second marriage, with Marie Joseph Poupart, from which were born at least six children, four of whom died young. The two surviving children were Marie Anne Cezarine de Lescalle (b. c. 1783) and Marie Jeanne Medarine de Lescalle (c. 1785 – 30 January 1867).4 After the death of Jules César III de Lescales de Vérone (massacred in St. Domingo in 1792 or 1793), this second wife married a Mr. Marchon and died soon after on St. Thomas, where she had moved to with her daughters. Marie Anne married Mr. Antoine Poizat, by whom she had a son, Jean Robert Poizat, born in Port-au-Prince, St. Domingo, on 7 June 1803 (d. 16 July 1868). Marie Jeanne married Mr. Givoy. They had no children. The husbands of both sisters died. In 1815, the two widowed sisters left for the United States, where both married again. Mrs. Poizat became the wife of Mr. Roudolphe Dietz, Mrs. Givoy the wife of Mr. A. Flour (or Flouer). Mr. and Mrs. Flour had a daughter, Louise Cecilia (14 May 1820 – 16 September 1888). The second husbands of both sisters died. In 1826, Mrs. Flour settled in Marseilles for reasons of health, remaining there until 1834. Mrs. Dietz was in France in 1833–34. In 1834, Mrs. Flour left Marseilles for Paris to marry her daughter, Louise Cecilia, to Mrs. Dietz’s son, Jean Robert Poizat (see Image 78). Mrs. Dietz returned to the United States in 1834 after the wedding. In 1837, Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Poizat and Mrs. Flour went to live in Marseilles.5 It was to their home in Marseilles that the Poizats were returning on the Acadia with Anna Whistler in the fall of 1843, via London, apparently having visited their relatives in Philadelphia.6
In 1843, the Poizats were the parents of two children, Charles André (c. 1841 – 12 April 1882)7 and Mary. In July 1844, Mr. Poizat announced in a letter to Anna Whistler the birth of another daughter, on 10 May 1844.8 Charles seems to have been the only surviving child and later became a manufacturing chemist.9
Of the two legitimate daughters of Jules César III de Lescale de Vérone, only Mlle. Victoire (about sixty-nine years old) was still alive in 1843 and was living in the family chateau of Vivés at Agen. Sometime after his return to France in 1843, Mr. Poizat initiated an inquiry at the Collége Héraldique de France.10 From the resulting correspondence with the general secretary, he received the information that his branch of the family was illegitimate but that, as Mlle. Victoire was living in great poverty, he might be able to add “Lescale de Vérone” to his name and obtain the coat-of-arms and all the privileges of nobility if he were to make a financial settlement on her. Mlle. Victoire herself made it clear in her letters, both before and after meeting the Poizats, that she was overjoyed at having found them and at having in Mr. Poizat an heir to the title. She also wished the matter settled before she died. Some time in the summer of 1847, after they had actually met and after extended haggling, Mr. Poizat and Mlle. Victoire settled on 6000 francs outright and a pension of 1200 francs per annum, but from that moment until 1853, when her correspondence ceases, Mr. Poizat failed to honor his side of the agreement, sending Mlle. Victoire sums far smaller than those promised and in general behaving in a manner less than honorable.11 Mlle. Victoire gave him a box of family portraits12 and one of family papers. In March 1848, Mr. Poizat’s petition to the Collége Héraldique was turned down. Sometime after 16 May 1848, the Poizat family left France for New York. In August 1849, Mlle. Victoire suggested that Mr. Poizat might want to try again to change his name, and in 1850 his lawyer wrote from Paris also enquiring whether he wished to pursue the matter.13 In August 1849, the Poizats were in Philadelphia, but the 1850 Census lists them as living in West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where they stayed for some five years: John Robert (45); Louisa C. (30); Charles A. (9).14 In 1857, they were again in Philadelphia,15 where they remained until they died: John Robert Poizat on 16 July 1868, Charles A. on 12 April 1882, and Louise Cecilia on 16 September 1888.16 The entry for John Robert Poizat in the PAHRC Death Register clearly states that he added (despite the decision of the Collége Héraldique) “de l’Escale de Várone” [sic] to his name.17 A few years before her death, Cecilia Poizat gave the Scaliger family portraits and papers to the American Philosophical Society.18
Notes
1 Vernon Hall Jr., “The Scaliger Family Papers,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 92, no. 2 (1948): p. 121.
2 Hall, “Scaliger Family Papers,” p. 121.
3 APS: Scaliger. There are seven boxes of documents and correspondence from Mlle. Victoire de Lescale de Vérone, the last direct, legitimate descendant of Jules César III de Lescale de Vérone, chiefly to the Poizat family, and a group of parchments, which give the history of the Scaliger family. The papers record the attempt by Jean Robert Poizat to obtain the title, coat-of-arms, and privileges of nobility from his aunt with her consent and help.
4 In the document of February 1848 requesting permission for Jean Robert Poizat to be called “Poizat de Lescale de Vérone,” it is stated that she was born in St. Domingo in April 1785 (APS: Scaliger, box 1). However, in her application for an American passport in 1844, she gives her age as sixty-one (NAUS: Passports, M1371, roll 2, p. 30, no. 2450).
5 Most of the abovementioned background information is taken from two documents dated 15 Décembre 1843 and signed by Michel Seillard, a merchant at Marseilles, who claimed to have known the family for some forty-five years. The documents were drawn up during the time of Mr. Poizat’s correspondence with the Collége Héraldique de France concerning the addition of “Lescale de Vérone” to his name and seem to constitute an attempt to legitimize this branch of the family (APS: Scaliger, box 2). Information can also be found at the City Archives, Philadelphia, and the PAHRC).
6 While in Philadelphia, they had their silhouettes cut by Auguste Edouard on 24 July 1843 (see Image 78).
7 The 1850 Census for West Chester, Chester County, PA, lists Charles A. Poizat, nine years old, born in France.
8 Entry for Wed. [July] 24ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I. Although the baby’s name is not given in this entry, she is most certainly Amata Poissat, legitimate daughter of Johannes, born in France, who died on 27 April 1850, age six, of brain fever in West Chester, Pennsylvania (Death Register of Holy Trinity Church, 1810–1828 and 1849–1871, p. 3, PAHRC).
9 The correspondence of Mlle. Victoire refers after a time only to Charles, and the 1850 Census for West Chester, Chester County, PA, lists him as the only child in the household (see Note 7 in this biography). For his occupation, see, for example, Philadelphia directories for 1862, 1864, 1869, and 1872.
10 APS: Scaliger, box 2. The correspondence from the Collége covers a period of two years, from 27 October 1843 to 13 October 1845. Hall is wrong in saying that the Poizats arrived in France in 1847 to pursue this matter and that Mlle. Victoire knew nothing of them (Hall, “Scaliger Family Papers,” pp. 121, 122). She had an idea that her father had had other children in St. Domingo. See the letter to Mlle. Victoire from Mr. Magny dated 27 June 1844.
11 Mlle. Victoire’s correspondence (APS: Scaliger, box 2) amounts to some forty letters, many of them piteous pleas for the money promised her. What she received was far less than promised and was delivered irregularly. After the Poizats moved to the United States in 1848, Mr. Poizat sometimes greeted her letters with silence. In 1853, she dictated a letter to a friend of Mr. Poizat in Paris, who handled this financial matter, asking that the information be passed on to Mr. Poizat, and through this intermediary proudly closed the door on their relationship.
12 List of portraits of the Scaliger de Vérone family, APS: Scaliger, box 2. These portraits were given by the American Philosophical Society to the Museo Civico in Verona, Italy (Hall, “Scaliger Family Papers,” p. 120).
13 Letter of 14 August 1849, APS: Scaliger, box 2; letter from Alexander Froyez, 18 July 1850, APS: Scaliger, box 3. Mr. Poizat seems not to have pursued the matter a second time, but when the Count of Paris visited Philadelphia in January 1862, Mr. Poizat wrote him a note expressing his desire to meet with him to pay him homage and received an answer granting his request (letter of J.R. Poizat 25 January 1842, and note of Captain Morhaine, 28 January 186[2], APS Scaliger, box 2).
14 APS: Scaliger, box 2; 1850 Census for West Chester, Chester County, PA. See also an advertisement for the sale of personal property by John R. Poizat, American Republic, July 24, 1855.
15 A. M’Elroy’s Philadelphia Directory for 1857, p. 540. Mrs. Poizat appears in directories and census returns as Louisa C., Cecilia L., Cecilia, and L.C.
16 Death certificate for John Robert Poizet [sic], no. 17066, City Archives, Philadelphia; death certificate for Louisa C. Poizat, no. 16579; death certificate for Charles A. Poizat. The son of Charles A. and Annie E. Poizat was still alive in 1900 and working as an upholsterer in Philadelphia (Gopsill’s Philadelphia Business Directory for 1900 (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1900), p. 1827).
17 Death Register of Holy Trinity Church, 1810–1828 and 1849–1871, p. 1, PAHRC.
18 Louise Cecilia Poizat offered the Scaliger Papers to the American Philosophical Society through Dr. Daniel G. Brinton prior to 6 April 1883; they were accepted on 18 May 1883; the trunk of documents was reported on 21 March 1884 as having been received from Brinton (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 20 (1882–1883): p. 647; 21 (1883–1884): pp. 210, 448). It was opened in 1900 (Hall, “Scaliger Family Papers,” p. 123). Hall incorrectly believed that (Louise) Cecilia Poizat was the daughter of the Poizats (Hall, “Scaliger Family Papers,” p. 122).
