Jean du Plessis d'Ossonville

Jean du Plessis, sieur d’Ossonville (died 4 December 1635) was a joint leader of the French expedition that established a colony on the island of Guadeloupe in 1635.

[1] He was the seigneur d’Ossonville, an advocate in Dieppe and a distant relative of Cardinal Richelieu (Armand Jean du Plessis).

[3] The private venture had the mandate to settle Saint Christophe, Barbados and other neighboring islands at the entrance to Peru that were not possessed by any king or Christian prince.

They engaged over 500 men to work on the islands for three years, sailed in three ships in February 1627, and after a difficult crossing landed in Saint-Christophe almost three months later.

[1] The fleet arrived at Saint-Christophe at the end of August 1629, defeated the English, reestablished d'Esnambuc and the French settlers in their settlements, and left for France.

[1] Spanish attempts to colonize the Guadeloupe archipelago in the first half of the 16th century had failed, and since then European sailors had only used it as a resting place.

[2] Those who paid for their voyage would be given concessions to grow tobacco or sugar in the island, which they would work using slaves from Africa and hired hands from France.

They reached Martinique on 25 June 1635, which they claimed for the king, then moved on because they found the island "cut by precipices and gullies and infested with poisonous snakes".

[8] L'Olive established himself west of Pointe Allègre on the banks of what became the Vieux-Fort river, so called because Fort Saint-Pierre was built there.

[8] Jean du Plessis seems to have been gentle, human and prudent, and broke with the more brutal Charles de l'Olive.