Julien LeRoy I, 1730–1779

Julien or (Julian) LeRoy was born in 1730, the son of Jean-Jacques LeRoy and Catherine Larat, both born in Mobile, Alabama. At the age of twenty-five, in Mobile, Julien married Marie Barbe Saucier, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Henry Saucier and Barbe LeCroix.

Julien was a trader and merchant. He was one of the earliest founders of St. Louis, arriving in the same boat as Auguste Chouteau in 1749–50. He built several houses in the “village” and was considered a prominent man. Once, Julien, having just finished his own house, sold it to another so that family could have somewhere to live.

On 12 August 1766, two years after the founding of St. Louis, the Spanish government granted Julien a forty-arpent strip [about forty acres], in what was known as the Common Fields. The grant was lost, cause unknown, and the land then merged back into the Common Fields.

In 1767, Julien LeRoy sold his house and lot, which faced la Grande Rue and ran back to the bluff above the Mississippi.

A legendary story that reveals his character was published in St. Louis: An Informal History of the City and its People, 1764. On page 46, it tells of Julien Roy being pursued by an Indian. When the Indian was gaining on him, Roy shot the Indian in the jaw, severely wounding him. Instead of killing the Indian, Julien tore off his shirt, binding the bleeding, shattered jaw. The Indian, grateful for Roy’s kindness, led him safely through the attackers to the outskirts of town. Julien’s son-in-law, Francis Hebert, was fatally wounded in the same attack.

Several of LeRoy’s children moved to the Carondelet area where their descendants still reside. They dropped the “Le” from their name, simply calling themselves “Roy.” There is no record of Julien’s death in Missouri, so he may have died elsewhere.

Julien and Marie Barbe had eight known children:

1. Marianne, born about 1754 in Illinois, married Louis Baudin in 1778 in Mobile, Alabama.
2. Charles-Julien, born in 1756 in St. Louis, married Susanne Dodier in 1779 in St. Louis.
3. Magdeleine, born in 1758 in St. Louis, married Franҫois Hebert in 1774 in St. Louis.
4. Julien II, born in 1760 in St. Louis, married first Marie-Louise Coté in 1774; married second Reine M. Guilgaut in 1797.
5. Henry-Franҫois, born in 1767 in St. Louis, married Jeanne Montardy in 1793.
6. Pierre-Patrice, born in 1770 in St. Louis, married Victorie Stark.
7. Louis was born in 1773 in St. Louis.
8. Etienne was born in 1776 in St. Louis.

Written by Carol Stelmachowicz Feldman
August 2019

© 2019, St. Louis Genealogical Society