[Succession documents of Jean-Baptiste Robineau (ca. 1680-1730)].

Le Cap (Saint-Domingue), 1732–[1733].

Set of 3 documents, folio, (2), (4), and (2) pp.

Loose.

[With:]

Lettres de rescision.

Le Cap (Saint-Domingue) and Paris, 1735–[1749].

Folio, (7) pp.

Sewn with blue silk ties.

Following his disappearance at sea in October 1730, the planter Jean-Baptiste Robineau left a substantial estate in northern Saint-Domingue, including two habitations near Cap-Français and Fort-Dauphin. His will named his brother Vincent-Marie as universal heir, but the succession was contested by other family members, leading to a series of legal consultations.

The three manuscripts record these consultations in a tabulated format, presenting questions addressed to jurists alongside their responses. They offer a concise insight into the legal treatment of colonial property, notably the classification of enslaved individuals as movable goods within the universal legacy, and address related issues such as revenues, improvements, and minor heirs.

The accompanying lettres de rescision, produced between Le Cap and Paris, document a later attempt to annul the 1733 partition and show that the dispute remained unresolved as late as 1749.

A compact and informative group illustrating the legal and familial complexities of plantation inheritance in early eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue.

Condition: water damage and frayed with loss of text in one of the first documents. The other two a little worn but in good condition without loss. The last, 7-page document in fine condition

Reference: Marcel Chatillon, Gabriel Debien, Xavier du Boisrouvray and Gilles de Maupeou, Les papiers Robineau, in Papiers privés sur l’histoire des Antilles, Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer, no. 216, 1972, pp. 438–442 (does not mention the present manuscripts).