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Jean Baptiste Bissot Vincennes, sieur de

Vincennes, Jean Baptiste Bissot, sieur de (vĭnsĕnzˈ; Fr. zhäN bätēstˈ bēsōˈ syör də văNsĕnˈ) [key], 1668–1719, Canadian explorer and leader of the Miami, b. Quebec. He was sent to the Miami country by Frontenac (c.1696); he established a fort and trading post there and quickly won the esteem and confidence of the natives. In 1712 he helped to defeat the Fox tribe. He died in a Miami village near the site of Fort Wayne. His son, François Marie Bissot, sieur de Vincennes fräNswäˈ märēˈ, 1700–1736, b. Montreal, was called François Margane after his godfather and uncle. He served as a cadet under his father from 1718 until his father's death, and, like him, won the high respect of the Miami. After 1730 he established a fort on the Wabash (where the French and later the Spanish had previously had a post), and the settlement that developed there was named after him.


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