Jeanne Baré
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Jeanne Baret (; 27 July 1740 – 5 August 1807) is recognised as the first woman to have completed a voyage of
circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...
of the globe, which she did via
maritime transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it pr ...
. A key part of her journey was as a member of
Louis Antoine de Bougainville Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (; 12 November 1729 – 31 August 1811) was a French military officer and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. B ...
's expedition on the ships '' La Boudeuse'' and '' Étoile'' in 1766–1769. Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised as a man, calling herself Jean Baret. She enlisted as
valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...
and assistant to the expedition's
naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
,
Philibert Commerson Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...
, shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed from France. According to Bougainville's account, Baret was an expert botanist.


Early life

Jeanne Baret was born on 27 July 1740, in the village of La Comelle in the Burgundy region of France, and baptized the next day. Her record of baptism survives and identifies her as the legitimate issue of Jean Baret and Jeanne Pochard. Her father is identified as a day laborer and is likely to have been illiterate. Her mother died in November 1741 (according to the parish records at the age of 45); her father then married Antoinette Mangematin, who died in 1745, and then Jeanne Teuvenot, who died in 1747 at the age of 40. Baret's father died in December 1755; the register of his death and burial mentions a son Pierre Baret (born 1734) as well as a son-in-law, indicating that Jeanne Baret had a brother and a sister. Overall, next to nothing is known of Baret's childhood or young adulthood, and she does not reappear in official records until 1764. Her biographer
Danielle Clode Danielle Clode is an Australian author of literary nonfiction, history and children's books. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Flinders University. Early life and education Clode was born in Adelaide in 1968 and spent her ea ...
speculates that she lived with her sister's family in Rosières, close to
Toulon-sur-Arroux Toulon-sur-Arroux (, literally ''Toulon on Arroux'') is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. See also *Communes of the Saône-et-Loire department The following is a list of ...
. It is unknown how Baret obtained an education, but she learned to write by 1764 as evidenced by her signature on an official document.


Relationship with Commerson

Philibert Commerson Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...
was born in 1727 and qualified as a doctor in 1754, by which time he was a passionate botanist. On 17 October 1760, he married Antoinette Beau, the well-to do daughter of a lawyer. He then settled as the town doctor in Toulon-sur-Arroux, where his brother-in-law François Beau was the parish priest. Three days after giving birth to her son Anne-François Archambaud in April 1762, she died. At some point between 1760 and 1764, Baret became employed as housekeeper to Commerson. It seems most likely that Baret took over management of Commerson's household at the time of his wife's death, if not before. It is also evident that Baret and Commerson shared a more personal relationship, as Baret became pregnant in 1764. French law at that time required women who became pregnant out of wedlock to obtain a "certificate of pregnancy" in which they could name the father of their unborn child. Baret's certificate, from August 1764, survives; it was filed in a town away and witnessed by two men of substance who likewise had travelled a considerable distance from their homes. She refused to name the father of her child, but historians do not doubt that it was Commerson and that it was Commerson who had also made the arrangements with the lawyer and witnesses on her behalf. Shortly afterwards, Baret and Commerson moved together to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, where she continued in the role of his housekeeper. Baret apparently used the name "Jeanne de Bonnefoy" during this period. Her child, born in December 1764, was given the name Jean-Pierre Baret. Baret gave the child up to the Paris Foundlings Hospital. He was quickly placed with a foster mother but died in the summer of 1765. (Commerson had left his legitimate son from his marriage in the care of his brother-in-law in Toulon-sur-Arroux and never saw him again in his lifetime.) A second son, Aimé Eugène Prosper Bonnefoy, was born at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris in May 1766. The fate of this child is unknown but he appears to have died before 1775. In 1765, Commerson was invited to join Bougainville's expedition. He hesitated in accepting because he was often in poor health; he required Baret's assistance as a nurse as well as in running his household and managing his collections and papers. His appointment allowed him a servant, paid as a royal expense, but women were completely prohibited on French navy ships at this time. At some point, the idea of Baret disguising herself as a man in order to accompany Commerson was conceived. To avoid scrutiny, she was to join the expedition immediately before the ship sailed, pretending to be a stranger to Commerson. Before leaving Paris, Commerson drew up a will in which he left to "Jeanne Baret, known as de Bonnefoi, my housekeeper", a lump sum of 600
livres Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * F ...
along with back wages owed and the furnishings of their Paris apartment. Thus, while the story Baret concocted for Bougainville's benefit to explain her presence on board ship was carefully designed to shield Commerson from involvement, there is clear documentary evidence of their previous relationship, and it is highly improbable that Commerson was not complicit in the plan himself.


With Bougainville

Baret and Commerson joined the Bougainville expedition at the port of
Rochefort Rochefort () may refer to: Places France * Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department ** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard * Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department * Rochefort-du-Gard, in the G ...
in late December 1766. They were assigned to sail on the storeship, the ''Étoile''. Because of the vast quantity of equipment Commerson was bringing on the voyage, the ship's captain, François Chenard de la Giraudais, gave up his large cabin on the ship to Commerson and his "assistant". This gave Baret significantly more privacy than she would have had otherwise on board the crowded ship. In particular, the captain's cabin gave Baret access to private toilet facilities so that she did not have to use the shared
head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...
with other members of the crew. In addition to Bougainville's published account, Baret's story figures in three other surviving memoirs of the expedition: a journal kept jointly by Commerson and Pierre Duclos-Guyot; a journal by the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, a paying passenger on the ''Boudeuse''; and a memoir by François Vivès, a surgeon on the ''Étoile''. Vivès has the most to say about Baret, but his memoir is problematical because he and Commerson were on bad terms throughout the voyage, and his account – largely written or revised after the fact – is full of innuendo and spiteful comments directed at both Commerson and Baret. Commerson suffered badly from both seasickness and a recurring ulcer on his leg in the early part of the voyage, and Baret probably spent most of her time attending to him. Aside from the ceremony of "crossing the line", which Commerson described in some detail in his memoir, there was little for the botanists to do until the ''Étoile'' reached
Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
. There they set out on expeditions to the surrounding plains and mountains. Commerson's leg was still troubling him, and Baret seems to have done much of the actual labour, carrying supplies and specimens. In
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
– a much more dangerous place, where the ''Étoile''s chaplain was murdered ashore soon after their arrival – Commerson was officially confined to the ship while his leg healed, but he and Baret nonetheless collected specimens of a flowering vine, which he named ''
Bougainvillea ''Bougainvillea'' ( , ) is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees belonging to the family, Nyctaginaceae. They are native to Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Argentina. There are between 4 and 22 species in the genus. The i ...
''. After a second visit to Montevideo, their next opportunity to collect plants was in
Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...
while the ships of the expedition were waiting for favourable winds to carry them through the
Strait of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to the south. Considered the most important natura ...
. Here Baret accompanied Commerson on the most troublesome excursions over rugged terrain and gained a reputation for courage and strength. Commerson, still hampered by his leg injury, referred to Baret as his "beast of burden" on these expeditions. In addition to the manual labour she performed in collecting plants, stones, and shells, Baret also helped Commerson organize and catalogue their specimens and notes in the weeks that followed, as the ships entered the Pacific. Surviving accounts of the expedition differ on when Baret's sex was first discovered. According to Bougainville, rumours that Baret was a woman had circulated for some time, but her sex was not finally confirmed until the expedition reached
Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
in April 1768. As soon as she and Commerson landed on shore, Baret was immediately surrounded by Tahitians who cried out that she was a woman. It was necessary to return her to the ship to protect her from the excited Tahitians. Bougainville recorded this incident in his journal some weeks after it happened, when he had an opportunity to visit the ''Étoile'' to interview Baret personally. In his account, Vivès reports much speculation about Baret's sex early in the voyage and asserts that Baret claimed to be a
eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...
when confronted directly by La Giraudais (whose own official log has not survived). Bougainville's account of Baret's unmasking on Tahiti is not corroborated by the other journal accounts of the expedition, although Vivès describes a similar incident in which Baret was immediately pointed out as a woman by the Tahitian Ahu-toru on board the ship. Vivès also describes a different incident on New Ireland in mid-July in which Baret was caught off-guard, stripped, and "examined" by a group of other servants on the expedition. Duclos-Guyot and Nassau-Siegen also recorded that Baret had been discovered to be a woman in New Ireland, but without mentioning details. Ahu-toru travelled back to France with the expedition and was subsequently questioned at some length about Baret. Modern scholars now believe that Ahu-toru thought that Baret was a
transvestite Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...
, or '' mahu''. However, other Tahitian natives reported the presence of a woman in Bougainville's expedition to later visitors to the island, including
James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...
in 1769 and
Domingo de Bonechea Domingo Bernardo de Bonechea Andonaegui (21 September 1713 – 26 January 1775) was a Spanish Navy officer and explorer. He is known for having tried to incorporate Tahiti into the Spanish Empire. De Bonechea's exploratory voyages were commission ...
in 1772,
Anne Salmond Dame Mary Anne Salmond (née Thorpe; born 16 November 1945) is a New Zealand anthropologist. She was New Zealander of the Year in 2013. In 2020, she was appointed to the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honour ...
, ''Aphrodite's Island'', pp. 164, 255–256
which indicates that her sex was known to the Tahitians if not to her shipmates at the time she visited the island. After crossing the Pacific, the expedition was desperately short of food. After a brief stop for supplies in the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
(now Indonesia), the ships made a longer stop at the island of
Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
in the Indian Ocean. This island, then known as Isle de France, was an important French trading station. Commerson was delighted to find that his old friend and fellow botanist
Pierre Poivre Pierre Poivre (23 August 1719 – 6 January 1786) was an 18th-century horticulturist and botanist. He was born in Lyon, France. He was a missionary to East Asia, intendant of French colonial islands in the Indian Ocean, and wearer of the cordon ...
was serving as governor on the island, and Commerson and Baret remained behind as Poivre's guests. Bougainville probably also actively encouraged this arrangement, as it allowed him to rid himself of the problem of a woman illegally onboard his expedition. On Mauritius, Baret continued in her role as Commerson's assistant and housekeeper. She likely accompanied him in plant-collecting on
Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
and
Bourbon Island Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon, a beer produced by Brasseries de Bourbon * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * Bourbon coffee, a type of coffee ma ...
in 1770–1772. Commerson continued to have serious health problems, and he died in Mauritius in February 1773. His financial resources had dwindled during his time on the island: his patron Poivre had been recalled to Paris. Baret, meanwhile, seems to have established herself independently, being granted property in
Port Louis Port Louis (, ; or , ) is the capital and most populous city of Mauritius, mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's financial and political centre. It is admi ...
, the capital of Mauritius, in 1770.


Later life

After Commerson's death, Baret ran a tavern in Port Louis. She was fined 50 livres for serving alcohol on Sundays in 1773. Then, on 17 May 1774, she married Jean Dubernat, a non-commissioned officer in the French Army who was most likely on the island on his way home to France. Jeanne brought a small fortune to her marriage, presumably from the tavern and perhaps other business ventures she ran on the island. There is no record of exactly when Baret and her husband arrived in France, thus completing her voyage of circumnavigation. Most likely it was sometime in 1775. In April 1776, she received the money that was due to her under Commerson's will after applying directly to the Attorney General. With this money, she settled with Dubernat in his native village of Saint-Aulaye,
Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
where they bought property with Jeanne's wealth and lived with both Dubernat's and Jeanne's nieces and nephews. In 1785, Baret was granted a pension of 200 livres a year by the Ministry of Marine. The document granting her this pension makes clear the high regard with which she was held by this point:
Jeanne Barré, by means of a disguise, circumnavigated the globe on one of the vessels commanded by Mr de Bougainville. She devoted herself in particular to assisting Mr de Commerson, doctor and botanist, and shared with great courage the labours and dangers of this savant. Her behaviour was exemplary and Mr de Bougainville refers to it with all due credit.... His Lordship has been gracious enough to grant to this extraordinary woman a pension of two hundred livres a year to be drawn from the fund for invalid servicemen and this pension shall be payable from 1 January 1785.
She died in Saint-Aulaye on 5 August 1807, at the age of 67.


Legacy and controversy

Commerson named many of the plants he collected after friends and acquaintances. One of them, a tall shrub with dark green leaves and white flowers that he found on Madagascar, he named ''Baretia bonafidia''. But Commerson's name for this genus did not survive, as it had already been named by the time his reports reached Paris; it is currently known as '' Turraea''. While over seventy species are named in honor of Commerson, only one, ''
Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solana ...
baretiae'', honors Baret. In December 2023, Martín E. Timaná published a description of ''
Baretia lanata ''Baretia lanata'' is a species of flowering plant in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae. it is a subshrub endemic to central Chile Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental ...
'', a species in the new genus ''Baretia'' in the ''
Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranth ...
'' family of flowering plants, named in honor of Baret. As of December 2024, the name is considered
unplaced In biological classification, a ''species inquirenda'' is a species of doubtful identity requiring further investigation. The use of the term in English-language biological literature dates back to at least the early nineteenth century. The ter ...
. The
New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
includes a plant specimen, attributed to Commerson but believed to be collected by Baret with him, in their
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...
. Jeanne Baret is referred to in Amitav Ghosh's 2008 novel '' Sea of Poppies'': The fictional character Paulette Lambert identifies "Philippe and Jeanne Commerson" as her "grand-uncle and grand-aunt". In 2018, the
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...
named a mountain range on
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
for her. For many years, Bougainville's published journal – a popular bestseller in its day, in the original French as well as in English translations – was the only widely available source of information about Baret. More recent scholarship has uncovered additional facts and documentation about her life, but much of the new information remained little-known and inaccessible to the general public, particularly outside France. The first English-language biography of Baret, by John Dunmore, was not published until 2002, and then only in New Zealand. Other articles appeared only in scholarly journals. The 2010 biography of Baret by Glynis Ridley, ''The Discovery of Jeanne Baret'', brought Baret to the attention of a wider audience and helped to overturn some of the old misconceptions about her life. However, Ridley's biography has also been highly criticized by some reviewers for its reliance on improbable chains of speculation that are not corroborated by any other primary or secondary sources.
Sandra Knapp Sandra Diane Knapp (born 1956) is an American-born botanist. She is a merit researcher of the Plants Division of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London and from 2018 was the president of the Linnean Society of London ...

The plantswoman who dressed as a boy
''
Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'' 470, 36–37 (3 February 2011).New research
by French researchers has provided clearer archival information on Jeanne Baret's life, as has a new biography by
Danielle Clode Danielle Clode is an Australian author of literary nonfiction, history and children's books. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Flinders University. Early life and education Clode was born in Adelaide in 1968 and spent her ea ...
, ''In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World'', published in 2020. On 27 July 2020,
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celebrated her 280th birthday with a
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. Jeanne Barret was one of the 10 inspirational French women celebrated as golden statues rising out of the River Seine during the opening ceremony of the
2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...
in Paris.


Footnotes


References


Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bare, Jeanne 1740 births 1807 deaths 18th-century French explorers French explorers of the Pacific 18th-century travelers Female-to-male cross-dressers Circumnavigators of the globe