page_title: Arnaud I de La Porte
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Arnaud I de La Porte / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Portrait de Madame de La Porte
context_page_description: Arnaud I de Laporte
context_section_description: According to Laffilard, archivist of the Marine, as the French Navy was known, Arnaud de La Porte was born around 1706, near Bayonne, (no doubt in the family home at Lembeye, a village a few miles from Pau in the province of Béarn which lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees). Laffilard goes on to say that "...recognizing that his son had spirit and drive, his father Jean sent him to Paris, entrusting him to Pierre de Casamajor, a physician from his province, to teach him the ins and outs of government officialdom so as to be able to acquire a favourable position within it.
  To this effect, the good doctor placed him with a Solicitor to the Councils where he quickly learned the ropes. In 1731 he then introduced the lad to his friend Pierre de Forcade, at that time First Commissioner of the Colonial Office, who took an immediate liking to him and hired him as a clerk in his office. French colonial affairs fell within the purview of the Ministry of the Marine at that time, since the navy was the only conduit of supplies, defense and communication, this seemed natural enough. Little by little, Arnaud made himself known to the  Minister, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, and to Joseph Pellerin, a former Commissioner of the Marine and now Minister of State, who enjoyed Maurepas' entire confidence. With Pellerin's protection and influence, over the next five years Arnaud experienced a truly meteoric rise within the office, being promoted in 1736 to First Scrivener and then to Commissioner of the Marine year later."
  This was about as high as someone not born into a great noble house could hope rise, and his doing so within such a short span of time and at the young age of merely thirty years, (even considering the influence of his powerful patron,) is a testament to his extraordinary talent and drive. Patron and protégé became family on January 23, 1737 when in Versailles, at the age of twenty-one, Arnaud married Pellerin's daughter Marie-Anne.
caption: Portrait of Madame de La Porte by Jean-Marc Nattier
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