1766 Martinique Hurricane

Background. Martinique was a French West Indian colony in the Lesser Antilles of the eastern Caribbean Sea. Joseph-Gaspard Tascher de La Pagerie, born 5 July 1735, had spent three years in France from 1752 and then returned to Martinique, where from 9 November 1761 he was married to Marie Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sannois. On the island he drew income as a plantation owner and as a lieutenant of the Troupes de marine, besides a small pension from his earlier work in the French royal household.

The Hurricane and Its Victims. The hurricane swept across Martinique in 1766, killing more than 400 people. Among the losses was the plantation of Joseph-Gaspard Tascher de La Pagerie, whose income on the island depended on plantation ownership. The supplied passages date the storm to 1766 but do not specify the month or day, so the commonly given date of 13 August cannot be confirmed from this evidence.

The Tascher Family Context. Joseph-Gaspard was the father of the future Empress Joséphine, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie in 1763. Joséphine was her parents' first child, and they had two more: Catherine-Désirée, born in 1764, and Marie-Françoise, born in 1766. The de Tascher estate on Martinique was described by some as only a pied-à-terre, and the family's connection to the island ran through his father Gaspard-Joseph, who had settled at Le Carbet in 1726.