Carrerot Property

The Carrerot family had business interests, but it owed most of its success and standing to administrative talent and a knack for befriending the powerful. Like his father and his brother Philippe before him, André Carrerot (c. 1696- 1749) supervised the royal storehouse for many years and performed other official functions, while keeping up his interests in shipping and property investments.

In 1745 André Carrerot and his wife, Marie-Josephe Cheron, lived here with a large family, their household servants, and one or two lodgers. Marie-Josephe gave birth to at least 15 children, although sadly several died before reaching adulthood. A young black slave, given the name Rosalie, was purchased by the Carrerots when she was 14. We do not know much about her, except that she would have been responsible for helping to care for the many children in the family and the large household.

The siege hit them hard. Philippe Carrerot was captured beyond the walls on the first day and died in captivity. Later, when a siege battery near the Desroches property began firing mortar bombs into the town, the original of this house was hit twice, only one of many homes to suffer damage. The family probably retreated to the King’s Bastion casemates for shelter. Part of the Carrerot walls that survived that attack and later trials has been incorporated in the reconstructed cellars. In the south cellar, look for the strips of glass-laden mortar that reproduce André Carrerot’s attempts to deter rodents.