Louis Pascault, Marquis de Poleon

Pascault was born in France the son of Anne Marie Pascault and Jean-Charles-Alexandre Pascault, Marquis de Poléon (1717–1779), Captain of Laval Infantry, who married in 1747. His brother was Alexandre Pascault, Marquis de Poléon, who married Jeanne-Henriette Cochon-Dupuy.^[a][2]

His maternal grandparents were Marguerite (née Bouat) and Antoine Pascault (1665–1717), a merchant who traded between La Rochelle and Canada. His paternal grandparents were Françoise Potard and Jehan Pascault, Marquis de Poléon. His ancestor Jean Pascault bought the barony, land and seigneury of Poléon in Saint-Georges-du-Bois in 1635 for 40,000 livres from Marguerite, Duchess of Rohan. In 1638, during the reign of Louis XIII, the family tore down the old château and constructed the Château de Poléon.^[3]

Pascault moved to the prosperous French colony of Saint-Domingue, today known as Haiti, to make his fortune.^[1] Following the Haitian Revolution (where two of his children were killed with their nurses), Pascault and his family fled their plantation and escaped from Saint-Domingue, emigrating to America, instead of France, because of the revolution there (his family's estate in France was watched over by the Count de Hanache, the second husband of his late brother's widow).^[3]

Around 1790,^[4] he settled in Baltimore, Maryland at Chatsworth, a large country mansion on Saratoga Street between Pine and Green,^[5] that was formerly the estate of Continental Congressman Edward Biddle.^[6] He became a prominent merchant, quickly profiting from the rapidly growing city's booming trade. In 1793, Pascault received approximately 1,500 refugees from Saint-Domingue "when their homes were lost in a slave revolt" and "arranged for their shelter and livelihood and established a library for their use which later became the Library Co. of Baltimore."^[4]

In 1816, Pascault, together with master builder Rezin Wight and merchant William Lorman (and president of the Bank of Baltimore), commissioned William F. Small to design the row of Federal style houses adjacent to his estate known as Pascault Row. The row of eight houses were constructed in 1819 on Lexington Street and, today, are among the earliest examples of the Baltimore rowhouse.^[1] The row became home to some of Baltimore's wealthiest and most prominent families, including his son-in-law, Gen. Columbus O'Donnell, and Bishop William Rollinson Whittingham.^[1]

Reportedly, it was at a dinner party at the Marquis de Poleon's residence that Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon I and later King of Westphalia, was formally introduced to the close friend of his daughter Henriette, Elizabeth Patterson,^[7] who was herself the daughter of Maryland businessman and founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad William Patterson. Bonaparte fell in love with Elizabeth and married her in 1803.^[8]