Jacques Villeré was an American politican and second Governor of Louisiana after it became a state. .
Background
Jacques Phillippe Villeré was born on April 28, 1761, in the parish of St. John the Baptist, near New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the son of Joseph Roy Villere, naval secretary of Louisiana under Louis XV, and of Louise Marguerite de la Chaise, granddaughter of one of the treasurers of the colony.
His father was executed by the Spanish authorities under Alexander O'Reilly in 1769, after the revolt of the French inhabitants against the Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa.
Education
Villere was educated in France at royal expense as reparation for the death of his father.
Career
Villere served for a time as lieutenant of artillery in Santo Domingo, resigning to return to Louisiana. In time, he became one of the leading sugar planters of the vicinity of New Orleans. In his plantation residence the British established headquarters in 1815 just prior to the battle of New Orleans, while Villere was serving as a major-general of Louisiana militia.
Meanwhile, he had been a member of the convention which in 1812 framed the first constitution for the state of Louisiana, and unsuccessful candidate for the governorship in the election of that year. He was elected governor in 1816, and served four years. The second governor of the state and the first Creole to hold that position, he used his office to diminish the friction between the French element of the population and the United States authorities, but was criticized for neglecting his fellow Creoles in matters of patronage.
He exerted an administrative influence for better educational facilities, but his term in the governorship was on the whole uneventful "quiet, prosperous and healing. " In the last year of his administration he announced the entire extinguishment of the state debt and the existence of a current surplus of $40, 000 in the treasury. He was honored in death with a military funeral.
Achievements
Views
In opposition to certain views of the contemporary medical fraternity, Villere advanced the opinion that yellow fever was not due directly to climate, observing that Louisiana prisoners, segregated from the city, did not become victims of the disease.
Personality
Villere was a man of vigor with an interest in practical and public affairs, and direct descendants bearing his name have continued to play important roles in the affairs of New Orleans.
Connections
In 1784, Villere married Jeanne Henriette Fazende. They had eight children.