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First editions. In contemporary leather. Spine gilt, with red title vignette ("Mémoire"). A collection of fourteen early and unrecorded imprints of legal briefs dated and printed between 1803 and 1805 in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe. Each of the fourteen legal briefs is signed by Bertrand Goyneau, and concerns with civil trials of prominent Guadeloupean families. Four of the cases (1, 2, 7, 8) are related to the estate of General Dugommier (Jacques François Coquille; 1738-1794), the illustrious Guadeloupean French military leader, who participated in the defense of Guadeloupe in 1759 during the British invasion, fought in Martinique in the Seven Years' War, and eventually died in the Campaign in the Pyrenees as a commander in the Italian Army. Apart from those, the remainders are otherwise vaguely documented or long forgotten inheritance and divorce cases of the planter aristocracy of Basse-Terre, Pointe-à-Pitré, Trois-Rivier, Lamentin, Havre, and Capesterre. These cases offer a glimpse into the wealth and sometimes the private lives of Guadeloupe's early 19th-century distinguished families such as the Galbert, Marre de Bois-chéry, Duhamel, Ferret, Souffrain, Noirtin, Caillou, Caussade, Bovis, Ithier, Thomas, Brindeau, Lamoriniere, Bory, Pons-Martin, Lombard, Neau, Bosredont, Bellegarde, Giraud-Charbonière Dorzon and Ambert families. The collection belonged to the Goyneau family, each case is signed by "B. Goyneau avoue", apparently Bertrand Goyneau (died around 1830) who served as "avoué près des tribunaux de la colonie", a jurist charged with performing the preparation of cases in front of courts. The ownership inscription of Bertrand's son, Clémentis (Anne Marie Félicité Damien Clément) Goyneau could be found on the front pastedown. The briefs were printed in Basse-Terre, the capital city of Guadeloupe, the majority by the official presses of the colony: Imprimerie de la République (1, 2) and Imprimerie du Gouvernement (3-6, 9, 11, 12, 14), these are adorned with the official headpieces of the colony on their first pages. Three (probably four) further prints were produced by Jean-François Cabre (7, 8?, 10, 13), one of the pioneering Guadeloupean private printers. All papers were published between 1803 and 1805, the dawn of a relatively calm time in the history of the island after the French restored their power and the pre-revolutionary government. Guadeloupe was under French rules until the British invasion in 1759, as part of the Seven Years' War. The island was returned to French control after the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and gained prosperity through the trade of colonial goods, mainly sugar, coffee, and cocoa. The French revolution brought chaos to the colony, and taking advantage of the situation, Britain invaded Guadeloupe again in 1794. The island was soon retaken by French troops led by Victor Hugues, who abolished slavery. In 1802 when the French Empire reinstated the pre-revolutionary government and slavery, a short-lived and unsuccessful slave rebellion broke out. Guadeloupe was occupied again by the British in 1810 and handed over to Sweden in 1813 who ceded it to France the following year. Slavery was eventually abolished in 1848. Printing in Guadeloupe dates back to the second half of the 18th century, the first printer, Jean Benard set up his shop in 1765. Due to the chaotic political situations, and the frequency of natural disasters and fires, only a very few of the early Guadeloupean imprints survived until today. Those we know about are mainly administrative and official documents, newspapers, some almanacs, and a small number of other items. During our research, we couldn't find any of the present pamphlets or other imprints of the same genre and era neither in libraries nor in trade catalogs. 1. [Caption title:] Mémoire pour La Veuve du Général Dugommier, appelante de jugement rendu par le Tribunal de première instance de l'arrondissement de la Basse-Terre, le vingt-huit germinal an onze [April 18, 1803]; Co. Seller Inventory # 2741
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