François Dominique Rouquette

(1810-1890)
Louisiana

"François Dominique Rouquette, the elder brother of the Abbé Rouquette, was born in New Orleans, January 2, 1810, and was educated at Orleans College, continuing his classical studies at Nantes, France. He returned to the United States in 1828 and studied law at Philadephia with Counsellor Rawle, afterwards well known at the bar through his book on the Constitution of the United States. Alike his brother, he soon abandoned the law for literature; but unlike him, he returned to Paris to live and adopt a literary life.

In Paris, in 1889, he published a volume of poetry, "Les Meschacébéenns', which received the encomiums of Victor Hugo, Beranger and other eminent littérateurs. . . . .

Early in the seventies he was said to have, in MS. a work on the Chootaws, which was to be published both in French and English. Beyond this time I can find no farther record of François Rouquette, except that he died in Paris in May, 1890. Some of the French critics consider him the best of the Franco-American poets." ["François Dominique Rouquette," in Alexander Nicolas De Menil, The Literture of the Louisiana Territory 124-126 (St. Louis: St. Louis Nes Co., 1904)]