Louis Antoine de Thomassin de Peynier, known as Antoine de Thomassin, comte de Peynier (27 September 1731 – 11 October 1809) was an officer of the French Royal Navy and a colonial administrator of the Kingdom of France.
Biography
Early years in the French Royal Navy
Peynier joined the Navy in 1744, aged just 13, taking part in the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1751, he was promoted to Ensign, and assigned a diplomatic mission in the Mediterranean between May and September 1752. Serving on the 64-gun Triton, he called the ports of Tripoli, Smyrna, Tunis, and Algiers.
When the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756, Antoine was on a four-year campaign in the Indies. During that mission, in 1757, he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1759, he was shot in the head, sustaining a lasting and debilitating injury.
After the Treaty of Paris restored peace in 1763, Peynier was given command of the 32-gun frigate Malicieuse, making a voyage of exploration and diplomacy in the Lesser Antilles. He arrived at Martinique in March 1765 and remained in the area until the summer of 1766. The governor of Guadeloupe, Count de Nolivos, gave him several diplomatic missions in that time.
In May 1765, he was sent as an ambassador to the British governor of Grenada, Robert Melvill, while also spying on British military and naval forces on the island. His instructions stipulated: "Without compromising the flag of his Majesty, he will acquire all possible knowledge of the English islands that he will approach [...]". After Grenada, Antoine de Thomassin sailed to the Spanish Coast of South America, visiting the ports of Cumaná and Caracas until June 1765. His goal was to explore and open new maritime routes to trade, especially to supply the French colonies with mules. On his return leg, he stopped at Dominica to inquire about the situation of the French on this island.
Peynier was then stationed in Guadeloupe for a while. His Sextius, who served as a Lieutenant on Malicieuse, died at that time. He was buried on 16 August 1765 at the cemetery of the Moule.
In January and February 1766, Peynier conducted reconnaissance of Saint Martin, sounding the seabed as to improve the defences of the island. He mapped the coast of the island, and in April 1766, he similarly mapped the coasts of Guadeloupe.
In 1772 he was promoted to captain.
American Revolutionary War
In 1778, France entered the American Revolutionary War, triggering an Anglo-French War. In 1780, at the request of Lafayette, France sent a 38-ship squadron under De Grasse, ferrying 7,000 men under Lieutenant-General Rochambeau. Peynier took part in the Battle of Martinique on 17 April 1780, commanding the 64-gun Artésien.
With the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in 1780, France and the Dutch Republic found themselves allied against the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Dutch expected the British to send an expeditionary force to try and capture their Dutch Cape Colony, and Suffren was given command of a 5-ship squadron to reinforce it. Peynier became the commander of the second wave of reinforcements sent to Suffren in 1782. Although the British captured part of the convoy, Peynier managed to land troops at the Dutch Cape Colony and sailed on to make his junction with Suffren. At the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783, Peynier was captain of the fleet for the van of the French squadron, with his flag on the 74-gun Fendant.
At the Peace of Paris, Suffren was recalled to France, and Thomassin de Peynier kept command of the French fleet in the Indian Ocean until 1786 with the position of squadron leader, which he obtained in 1784.
After the American War of Independence, Peynier went to the United States where he was admitted in the Society of the Cincinnati, receiving his diploma from George Washington.
In 1786, Peynier returned to France. The following year, he obtained the command of a frigate in Brest.
In 1787, in Béarn, he married Jeanne Timothée Marthe Angélique d'Arros d'Argelos (born 24 January 1761), daughter of Chef d'Escadre Jean-François d'Arros d'Argelos and his wife Mademoiselle de Lahaye (1726–1791). They had two daughters.
Governor of Saint-Domingue
On 26 July 1789, Peynier was made governor general of the French colony of Saint-Domingue. He arrived there in late August, and remained in office until late 1790.