“Sheep” in French. Compare the English word “Mutton”.

Although not as numerous as some of their compatriots, the Moutons of Louisiana form one of the most renowned Acadian clans in the state. Concentrated since the late eighteenth century in the area now formed by Lafayette, St. Martin, and Vermilion parishes, the Moutons have produced their share of the state's political, military, and professional leaders. These have included one governor; three lieutenant governors; several U.S. congressmen, state legislators, local mayors, and lesser administrative heads; a few military officers; and engineers, physicians, and lawyers.* After the English had banished them from Acadia in 1755, three Mouton brothers-Salvador, Louis, and Charles, sons of Jean-Jacques Mouton (b. ca. 1689, Marseille, France) and Marie Girouard-and one of their nephews (Jean Mouton dit Neveu) eventually reached Louisiana.

By 1766 Salvador, Louis, and nephew Jean were living along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish;3 Charles was also there by 1777.

However, by 1820 only a few Moutons, descendants of Louis and Charles, remained in St. James;5 none lives there today.

Two of Salvador's sons, Jean (m. 1783 Marie-Marthe Borda of New Orleans) and Marin (m. 1777 Marie Lambert of Mobile) migrated to the Attakapas in the 1770s or early 1780s, both settling along upper Bayou Vermilion in the Carencro district, today the northern part of Lafayette Parish.

Jean Mouton eventually claimed several tracts of land in that area and even as far west as the Mermentau River, apparently engaging in cattle ranching.

Having obtained land on the Vermilion farther south, Jean in 1824 helped to establish the village of Vermilionville, forerunner of the city of Lafayette.

It is from the line of Jean and his eight sons that most of the Moutons of political fame have descended. Of his sons, Jean-Baptiste (m. 1801 Marie-Josephe Martin), Joseph (m. 1809 Cydalise Arceneaux), state governor Alexandre (1843-46) (m. 1826 Zelia Rousseau, 1842 Emma Gardner), and Antoine-Émile (m. 1828 Marie Rousseau) all became antebellum planters and cattlemen; each owned sizable slave gangs in the Carencro area and along Bayou Vermilion in the vicinity of present Lafayette.

Their success may well have stemmed in part from the influence of their well-educated mother, Marie-Marthe Borda (daughter of Antoine Borda, retired surgeon of New Orleans) who introduced her children to the French intellectual tradition, a trait retained by most of their descendants.

Jean's brother, Marin, in addition to his Carencro holdings, obtained land along the lower Vermilion River in what is now southern Lafayette and northeastern Vermilion parishes.

There, his three sons (Marin, Jr., m.

1800 Élizabeth Broussard; Salvador, m. 1804 Anastasie Comeaux, 1807 Suzanne Boudreaux; and Joseph-Onésime, m. 1815 Aspasie Hébert) and their descendants became small farmers in contrast to the more affluent and urbane line of Jean Mouton. From the 1840s through the 1880s Abbeville and Youngsville were the main religious and market centers for Marin's descendants; by the late 1880s some members had migrated westward into Acadia and the eastern part of Calcasieu parishes.

Jean Mouton the Nephew (m. ca. 1763 Elizabeth Bastarache) by the 1780s had joined his uncles in the Carencro area, where most of his descendants remained as small farmers.

Some, however, took up land along the Teche near Arnaudville and farther south near St. Martinville.

Although many Mouton families have migrated into Calcasieu Parish and southeastern Texas since the early 1900s, today 60 percent of Louisiana's households of that name still reside in Lafayette, St. Martin, and Vermilion parishes, with some 280 in the city of Lafayette alone