(French) Of the Meadow [Latin prat-um, a meadow] See Pratt and Pray in the Dict.

“Little Meadow” - corruption of “Petite Prairie” in French.

The present widespread distribution of the French patronym Dupré in Louisiana reflects a long and complex history of settlement by people of that name within the state. Among the first colonists of Lower Louisiana, Dupré families migrated from France or from French Canada.* From the latter area came Jean-Jacques Dupré dit Terrebonne, one of the major progenitors of the clan in southern Louisiana. From France came Jacques Dupré dit la Suisse, who began the Natchitoches line, and later Jean Dupré of Bordeaux became the founder of most members of the clan in Terrebonne Parish. Finally, in the last century a few Duprees, possibly descendants of French Huguenots from Georgia and the Carolinas, entered the northern part of the state.

Jean-Jacques Dupré dit Terrebonne, son of a rich merchant and land owner of Montreal, arrived in New Orleans from Canada ca. 1724, via the Illinois country where he had married Anne-Marie Bienvenu.

For a time he lived at Mobile and Biloxi but later (ca. 1743) settled at Cannes Brulées (present Kenner) above New Orleans.

Jean-Jacques sired four sons who reached adulthood: Antoine-Alexandre (m. 1770 Marie-Anne Godin), Laurent (m. 1772 Marie-Josephe Fontenot), Guillaume (m. 1782 François Margotte), and Jean-Jacques, Jr. (m. Françoise Larche); like their father, all carried the nickname "Terrebonne,"

probably derived from the name of their grandfather's estate in Canada.

Of the four sons Laurent was the more important in establishing the Dupré name in southern Louisiana. Before his marriage he had migrated to the Opelousas District, obtaining land in the Grande Prairie area near Plaisance and Bayou Grand Louis, where a large number of his descendants remained for much of the nineteenth century.

His sons Laurent, Jr. (m. 1795 Marie-Josephe Pitre), Jacques (m. 1792 Théotiste Roy), and Antoine (m. 1801 Célestine Roy, 1807 Eugénie Savoy), reared large families and were granted holdings along Bayou Boeuf in the northern part of St. Landry Parish.

Jacques also acquired land and cattle in the prairies near present Ville Platte and Eunice, where many Duprés began to settle in the 1800s.

As one of the several St. Landry Duprés who became wealthy and politically renowned, Jacques represented his parish in the state legislature and senate and was acting governor in 1830.

His son, Cyprien, in 1850 was working 122 slaves on his Gold Dust Plantation on Bayou Boeuf.

Laurent's brother, Guillaume Dupré dit Terrebonne, by the early 1800s had moved his family from the Mississippi River to the vicinity of Thibodeauxville on Bayou Lafourche.

There, he and his descendants discarded the patronym Dupré and took "Terrebonne" as the family name, now common in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

Thus the present Duprés of that area do not stem from the Canadian line; rather, they descend mainly from one Jean Dupré of Bordeaux, who in 1788 married an Acadian refugee, Olive Naquin, and settled along Bayou Terrebonne as one of the early pioneers.

During the nineteenth century Jean's descendants lived chiefly along the bayou between Houma and Montegut.

Their prolificacy equaled that of most rural families of the time, one of Jean's five sons, Mathurin-Fortunat (m. 1827 Azelie Pitre) siring ten male progeny who in turn produced large families.

Today a fifth of Louisiana's Dupré households live in Terrebonne Parish.

Possibly some of the Duprés of north Louisiana descend from Jacques Dupré dit la Suisse of Paris and wife Anne-Marie Philippe who first settled near Cannes Brulées above New Orleans, ca. 1730, but soon moved to Natchitoches Post where most of their children were born.

His three sons, Joseph (m. 1757 Marie Darbonne), Jean-Baptiste (m. 1754 Élizabeth Verger), and Robert (m. Marie-Jeanne Cavé) and some of their children were farmers in the Cane River country (Isle de Brevelle) below the post.

By 1773, however, Robert and wife had moved down the Red River to Rapides Post (near present Alexandria).

The spelling Dupree appears to have been associated with Protestant settlers of that name who entered Louisiana from the eastern United States during the mid-nineteenth century. One of these, Rev. John Dupree, an itinerant Baptist minister from Georgia, settled ca. 1862 near Coushatta, Red River Parish.

His three sons may have carried on the name in that and adjacent areas where many Duprees live today. Available records tell little of other Duprees who may have come into northern Louisiana with the waves of Anglo-Celtic settlement that occurred during the last century