page_title: Vincennes, Indiana
section_title: British Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Vincennes, Indiana / History / British Empire
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Diorama of the British Fort SackvilleFrançais&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Fort Sackville à Vincennes
context_page_description: Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. Founded in 1732 by French fur traders, notably François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, for whom the Fort was named, Vincennes is the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in Indiana and one of the oldest settlements west of the Appalachians.
  According to the 2010 census, its population was 18,423, a decrease of 1.5% from 18,701 in 2000. Vincennes is the principal city of the Vincennes, IN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which comprises all of Knox County and had an estimated 2017 population of 38,440.
context_section_description: On February 10, 1763, when New France was ceded to the British Empire at the conclusion of the French and Indian War, Vincennes fell under the dominion of Great Britain. British Lt. John Ramsey came to Vincennes in 1766.  He took a census of the settlement, built up the fort, and renamed it Fort Sackville.  The population grew quickly in the years that followed, resulting in a unique culture of interdependent Native Americans, Canadiens and British colonials and traders.
  Vincennes was far from centers of colonial power.  In 1770 and 1772 General Thomas Gage, the commander in chief of Britain's North American forces, received warnings that the residents of Vincennes were not remaining loyal, and were inciting native tribes along the river trade routes against the British. The British Colonial Secretary, the Earl of Hillsborough, ordered the residents to be removed from Vincennes.  Gage delayed while the residents responded to the charges against them, claiming to be "peaceful settlers, cultivating the land which His Most Christian Majesty [meaning the King of France] granted us."  The issue was resolved by Hillsborough's successor, Lord Dartmouth, who insisted to Gage that the residents were not lawless vagabonds, but English subjects whose rights were protected by the King. In 1778, residents at Poste Vincennes received word of the French alliance with the American Second Continental Congress from Father Pierre Gibault and Dr. Jean Laffont.  They revolted in support of the Americans, as did the local Piankeshaw, led by Chief Young Tobacco.
caption: Diorama of Fort Sackville
exif: {}