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Spanish authorities?1111. Jean Claude was clearly the catalyst for the settlement of Hancock County by its more famous historic personages
Bartram 1776 visit
It is likely that Jean Claude Favre was living, at least part- time, along the Pearl River in 1776, when William Bartram explored the mouth of the Pearl by boat from Mobile. ?An aged Frenchman bound for his Pearl River Plantation? accompanied him. This was possibly Jean Claude Favre. He would have been about 56 years old at this time.
However, before he could explore the river itself, Bartram became ill and was forced to recover at the home of an Englishman named Rumsey, who lived on Pearl Island, a six mile stretch of sandy plain and salt marshes at the Lake Borgne end of the Rigolettes (insert footnote on Pea island being also Pearl island) (Weddle 1995:59-60). So it is unfortunate that we do not benefit from a possible description of Favre and his Pearl River settlement, a sad fact for local historians, given the detailed records the Bartram left of the Pearl Island stay.
Choctaw relations
It may not be coincidental that Jean Claude Favre, clearly conversant with Choctaw language and customs, was granted land the same year that an incident is reported of ?marauding? Choctaws killing cattle of the settlers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Choctaws apparently attacked from Pascagoula to Pearl River, driving families from the Bay of St. Louis to Cat Island X1V. An earlier, isolated account of Choctaw uprising against the French tells of their attack in 1767 on the settlers of Bay St. Louis area, killing their cattle and causing them to escape to Cat Island.xv Who these settlers were and where their settlements were located is not yet fully known, but they were most likely original French settlers, though none apparently lived along the East
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