babymakers - some historical notes

Firstly i want to thank family members Françoise C and Richard for researching our family tree - i wish i had your skills and patience in sifting through all the recordss you could access. These notes are a combination of theire work and my own superficial research, with some guess work to fill a few gaps

Our ancestor, Antoine Cantin, originally "de Quentin", arrived in Mauritius in the late 18th C, around the beginning of the French Revoution. He was a Master Hatter from central France

Marie Louise's (no family name recorded) arrival from Bengal as an enslaved person appears to have been unrecorded. She is thought to have come from French territory in what is now West Bengal and is recorded as being a seamstress. I have no record of when her manumission was granted.

by 1795 Marie Louise and Antoine had met and had their first child, Pièrre Louis, the first Mauritius-born Cantin of my ancestry.

Laws and social convention prevented a marriage, but Marie Louise and Antoine had 3 children in quick succession, they were the origin of the Mauritius Cantins who are now spread all over the world.

I know little of the lives of my Mauritian antecendents, unlike my French ones. But after exploring a little of their history as slave owners through Hidden Histories, i wanted to give some thought to the lives of the Mauritian women whose partners were my male Cantin ancestors, and who produced the family i come from

5 generations of mauritian women had children with Cantin men in my ascendancy:

Marie Louise (no family name) partner Antoine     

3 children: Pièrre Louis, Jean Pièrre, Suzette

Marie Eulalie Ollier m Pièrre Louis C         Virginie Dioré m Jean Pièrre C    

13 children including Marie Angélina         7 children including Jean 

 Marie Angélina C m Jean C

 6 children, including Angélo

Marie Elizabeth (Leonie) Berthellier m Angélo C 

10 children including Pière Roger

Marguerite (Maggie) Marie Mazoue m Pière Roger C  

7 children including Pière Henri Angélo (my father)

46 children in all 

(excuding the possible unrecorded miscarriags and early deaths)

My grandmother, Margurite, was the last Mauritian woman in my ascendancy

What i do know of their lives is that:

Marie Louise and the mothers of her two daughters-in-law, Marie Flore (no family name, partner Ollier),  and Babet (no family name, partner Dioré) all came to Mauritius as enslaved women -  like Marie Louise, Marie Flore came from French Bengal and Babet is recorded as being from South India. All three were unmarried, but their children were officially acknowledged by their partners and took their family names

The first 3 generations owned and employed enslaved people. Most of the enslaved people worked on sugar plantations, but the women also owned household slaves who are listed separately in the British Slave Registers.

The last two employed servants. My grandmother's household had more servants than family members, including a nanny and assistant to the nanny, Marguerite had little to do with bringing up her own children - she had no paid occupation outside the home.

Marie Louise is the only partner/wife of a Cantin recorded as having an occupation (dressmaker/seamstress), like her fellow Bengali, Marie Flore. Sewing would also have been a regular activity for all the women, mostly in the form of decorative embroidery and sewing occasional, mainly small, personal items of clothing, such as the chemise at the centre of Baby Makers. Most clothes would have been made by dressmakers and taylors, with repairs largely being carried out by servants.

The family were Catholic, and the church was a strong influence on their lives. My grandmother was known for the prayers she sent to family members.

July 2025 - recently noticed: Virginie Dioré's mother, Babet was of ? Indian ethnicity, their is confusion over Virginie's father Jean Dioré who is quoted by one source as being of mixed ethinicity, being the son of a free european (?French) and an enslaved woman, but also recorder by the same source as being a baker and miller, born in Brittany of parents from the same area  (Source: Françoise C) 

also, at the time of the birth of Virginies's older sister, Marie Françoise (at least Babet's 4th child), Babet was living at the address of Benoit Ollier, trader and former soldier living in the same street as Antoine Cantin - said Benoit Ollier was also to become the father-in-law to Antoine's older son (Virginie's brother in law) - he was the father of several children by two women, both formerly enslaved, but he only married one, the mixed race daughter of a doctor who freed her prior to her marriage - this leaves me wondering about the true parentage of Babet's children who may have had little say in the matter?????

it seems that it was common for enslaved women to be freed by their masters when they became pregnant - it seems odd to me that Jean Dioré is recorded as having freed Babet while they were not living at the same address, but this may have been normal or accepted practice at that time