More Information on Jacques Clamorgan:

Jacques Clamorgan was born about 1730 in the West Indies and had Welsh, French, Portuguese and probably African ancestors. He was involved in the slave trade between Jamaica and New Orleans by 1780, but by 1784 arrived in Upper Louisiana and worked for trader Francois Marmillion. He began buying land and at one point owned about 850,000 acres. He received exclusive rights to trade with the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri River from the Spanish authorities, and tried to travel overland to the Pacific Ocean three times before Lewis and Clark, failing each time. These activities were conducted by the Spanish Commercial Company, which Clamorgan organized in 1794. Clamorgan almost went bankrupt in 1796. He was one of the chief rivals of Auguste Chouteau and the Chouteau family interests (see Block 34). Clamorgan survived the change to American rule gracefully, and was appointed a judge in the Court of Common Pleas. In 1807, when he was almost 80 years old, he received a license to trade with Santa Fe. He traveled there and returned in 1808. He never married, but had a succession of mistresses, all African American and most slaves. He was the father of four children by three different women. One of these women was Esther, an important woman in the history of colonial St. Louis (see Block 79). Jacques Clamorgan died in St. Louis on October 30, 1814.