I represent Jean Marcos Coulon de Villiers, a Spanish officer born in New Orleans in 1761. I descended from French aristocracy, though my family had long been in the New World, from Canada to Illinois and down to Louisiana. My parents were Francois Coulon de Villers, Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis and infantry captain in the Louisiana Regiment, and his first wife Maria Magdalena Marin. Both were natives of Illinois; my mother died while the family was still there.
In 1821 I was a Spanish military officer with a long history of service in West Florida (my 1816 petition for a land grant from the Spanish Crown indicates I had serviced 41 years by then). I served as commander of the Louisiana Regiment, captain of the Grenadiers, and comanded the fort at St. Marks de Apalache. My wife was Maria Josefa Catalina Griffon D’Anneville; we married in New Orleans in 1784.
I was the father-in-law of John Innerarity and Arnauld Guillemard. I was one of the officers in the Spanish military who remained behind after the changing of the flags to assist in the completion of the transfer of power, and I was among the Spanish officers who publicly protested the rude treatment of former Governor Jose Maria Callava during the Vidal affair and who were ordered deported to Cuba by General Andrew Jackson.