François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes was born on June 17, 1700 at Montreal, the headquarters for western traders. He was the son of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes and Marguerite (Forestier) Bissot.
His godfather was Francois Margane, Sieur de la Valterie. Hence he frequently signed himself Margane, which confused early writers with the belief that he was not a son of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes.
While merely a lad the younger, Vincennes accompanied his father to his western post, and after his death remained for several years in command at Ke-ki-onga, the Miami village on the site of Fort Wayne. In 1722, he was commissioned ensign in the colonial army. Meanwhile, the several tribes of the Miami began moving down the Wabash River, and Vincennes accompanied the Ouiatenon and built a fort near Lafayette, Indiana, where he commanded for about four years.
The Piankashaw Miami passed still farther down the Wabash, building villages on the White River, then within the jurisdiction of Louisiana, rather than of Canada. For sometime the authorities of the former colony had been attempting to establish a post on the lower Wabash, and now persuaded Vincennes to ally himself with French Louisiana.
Sometime in 1731 or 1732, Vincennes complied with the request of the governor of Louisiana and built a fort on the site that now bears his name. In two letters written by him from that post in 1733, he described his fort, the Indians he controlled, and the commerce for which his post was well situated. He also mentioned the war with the Chickasaw, which was to bring about his tragic death.
Louisiana was at this time engaged in a desperate struggle with the Indians on the Mississippi, especially with the Chickasaw, who harbored the refugee Natchez and traded with the English of Carolina. The governor of Louisiana, Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, in the spring of 1736 gathered all his resources; from Illinois and the Wabash he summoned the French officers and traders to a rendezvous somewhere near the site of Memphis.
Vincennes from his post joined Pierre d'Artaguiette of Illinois, and together they advanced down the Mississippi to the designated place. But Bienville was detained, and the Indians from the upper posts grew impatient and hastened their officers into a premature attack. They were seriously defeated; and Vincennes, a Jesuit priest, and seventeen other young Frenchmen were dragged to the Chickasaw village on the headwaters of Tombigbee River in the present state of Mississippi and there tortured and burned at the stake.
The day of the defeat was Palm Sunday of 1736, although dated two months later by many authorities. Vincennes not only built a post on the Wabash, but he assisted Louisiana in its struggle to maintain the Mississippi Valley for France. His fort was an outpost, and of him it is said "his name will be perpetuated as long as the Wabash flows by the dwellings of civilized man".
In 1733, Francois Marie Bissot married the daughter of Philippe Longpré of Kaskaskia. They had two daughters, Marie Therese and Catherine.
