François-Marie Picoté, sieur de Belestre II[1] (17 November 1716[2] – 30 March 1793) was a colonial soldier for both New France and Great Britain.
As a soldier in the French troupes de la marine, Belestre fought against British and American colonial troops for 30 years, from Nova Scotia to the Mississippi River valley.
They had six children: François-Louis (1739) (ref: Joachime Coulon de Villiers in 1762 in Fort Chartres), Marie-Joseph (1741), Etienne (1742), François-Xavier (1743), Anne (1746) & Marie-Archangel (1748).
When Louisbourg fell early in King George's War, Belestre was sent to Acadia to assist in resistance against the British occupation.
In 1755 Belestre commanded a troop of colonial marines and Indians in the decisive Battle of the Monongahela, in which British General Edward Braddock's forces were routed.
In April 1756, he led a raiding party of 20 French soldiers and 150 Miami, Ouiatonon, and Shawnee into the Carolinas, capturing Fort Vause on the way.
This last raid was regarded as a considerable victory for France, by the fact that this relatively small team had succeeded in penetrating deep into New York without opposition.
In 1758 Belestre was promoted to captain and became the 13th official commander of Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit, founded by Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac in 1701.
Assisted by Pierre Passerat de La Chapelle, he commanded a small army in a fort which was more of a fur trading center than a military fortress.
As the French settlements in the east started falling to British forces in 1759, some citizens of New France fled to Detroit seeking protection.
British General Jeffery Amherst then ordered Major Robert Rogers to ascend the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, to take command of the French forts at Detroit, Michilimackinac and elsewhere.
Approaching Fort Detroit in late November, Rogers sent a runner with a letter for Belestre, notifying him that the western posts now belonged to King George.
Belestre's doubts were reinforced by the fact that no French officers had confirmed the situation in Montreal and he sent messengers to try to find out the truth.
He then became a highly respected citizen of Quebec, serving in 1767 on a jury that heard the case of Thomas Walker, a British merchant and justice who was assaulted in his home after he handed down an unfavourable judgment.
When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, and the rebel colonists launched an invasion of Quebec, he volunteered his services in defence of Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River.
1776: on May 1, he was named "Grand Voyer" of the Province of Quebec and as recognition for his services in the Revolutionary War, was made provincial lieutenant-colonel in the Québec Militia on July 12, 1790.
His father was described as an officer or garrison commander of the fort of Ville-Marie (now Montréal), a title that he shared with Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, (1635 – May 1660).
François-Louis, Francois Marie's oldest son by the first marriage, followed his father into the troupes de la marine and later settled in Louisiana.
According to reports found in the Quebec Historical Society, "After the capture of Fort DuQuesne in 1758, General Forbes planned an attack on Detroit.
Sieur de Belestre, having heard that the enemy was marching, put himself at the head of the Hurons and other Indians to give an attack to the advance guard, which he defeated."