Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Victor Marie DU PONT
Du Pont de Nemours, Victor Marie, diplomat and manufacturer, was born in Paris, France, Oct. 1, 1767; eldest son of Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours. At the age of sixteen he was employed in the Ministry of Finance and from 1785 to 1787 travelled over a large portion of the kingdom, collecting statistics in regard to French agriculture, commerce and manufactures. In 1787 he was appointed
attaché to the French legation in the United States but went back to France at the outbreak of the Revolution, becoming aide-de-camp to Lafayette when the latter was in command of the National guard. In 1791 he returned to America as second secretary of legation and in 1793 was ordered to France by Minister Ternant to demand fuller instructions from the committee of public safety. M. Genet, however, had sailed for America as French minister in Ternant's place when Victor Du Pont reached Paris, and the latter remained without employment until the close of 1794, when he was assigned to duty in the ministry of foreign affairs. In 1795 he was made first secretary of legation and came to the United States for the third time. The deplorable condition of French interests in North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia induced Minister Adet to appoint him in the following July acting French consul for those states and his appointment was confirmed by the Directory. The next year he was made French consul at Charleston, where he gave so much satisfaction to his superiors that in the
beginning of 1798 he was appointed consul-general of France at Philadelphia. President Adams having refused him an exequatur on account of the grave difficulties then existing between the French republic and the United States, Victor Du Pont returned to Europe with his family. Finding that his father and
brother had decided to emigrate to America he left the diplomatic service and sailed with them for the New World in September, 1799, arriving at Newport, R.I., Jan. 1, 1800. In connection with other members of his family he established and directed the business house of Du Pont de Nemours, Fils et Cie, at New York, recrossing the ocean in 1801 and visiting France and Spain in the interests of the firm. The business was very successful until 1805, when the house failed on account of heavy advances made to refit a French squadron which had put into New York in a disabled condition, end to purchase subsistence stores for the French troops at San Domingo, payment of the drafts on the French treasury
to make good the loans being refused by the personal order of Napoleon, who thus manifested his animosity against Du Pont de Nemours. The zeal of the members of the firm for the interests of their native land having thus brought about its financial ruin, Victor Du Pont retired with his family in 1806 to
Angelica, Genesee county, N.Y., and three years later he joined his younger brother, Irénée Du Pont, in Delaware, where he established a cloth manufactory at Louviers near Wilmington. During the war of 1812 he served as captain of a company of Delaware volunteers. He was a member of the Delaware legislature and a director of the United States bank. He was married in 1794 to Gabrielle Josephine de la Fite de Pelleport. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 30, 1827.
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