Jeanne Baret ([ʒan baʁɛ]; 27 July 1740 – 5 August 1807) was a French explorer, naturalist, and botanist who is recognised as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe, which she did via boat. A key part of her journey was as a member of Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769. Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised as a man, calling herself Jean Baret. She enlisted as valet and assistant to the expedition's naturalist, Philibert Commerson, shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed from France. According to Bougainville's account, Baret was an expert botanist.
Early life Jeanne Baret was born on 27 July 1740, in the village of La Comelle in the Burgundy region of France, and baptized the next day. Her record of baptism survives and identifies her as the legitimate issue of Jean Baret and Jeanne Pochard. Her father is identified as a day laborer and is likely to have been illiterate. Her mother died in November 1741 (according to the parish records at the age of 45); her father then married Antoinette Mangematin, who died in 1745, and then Jeanne Teuvenot, who died in 1747 at the age of 40. Baret's father died in December 1755; the register of his death and burial mentions a son Pierre Baret (born 1734) as well as a son-in-law, indicating that Jeanne Baret had a brother and a sister. Overall, next to nothing is known of Baret's childhood or young adulthood, and she does not reappear in official records until 1764. Her biographer Danielle Clode speculates that she lived with her sister's family in Rosières, close to Toulon-sur-Arroux. How Baret obtained an education is unknown, but she had learned to write by 1764 as evidenced by her signature on an official document.
Relationship with Commerson Philibert Commerson was born in 1727 in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne as the son of a lawyer. He studied medicine at the University of Montpellier and qualified as a doctor in 1754, by which time he was a passionate botanist. On 17 October 1760, he married Antoinette Beau, the well-to do daughter of a lawyer. He then settled as the town doctor in Toulon-sur-Arroux, where his brother-in-law François Beau was the parish priest. Three days after giving birth to their son Anne-François Archambaud in April 1762, Commerson's wife died. At some point between 1760 and 1764, Baret became employed as housekeeper to Commerson. It seems most likely that Baret took over management of Commerson's household at the time of his wife's death, if not before. It is also evident that Baret and Commerson shared a more personal relationship, as Baret became pregnant in 1764. French law at that time required women who became pregnant out of wedlock to make a déclaration de grossesse ('declaration of pregnancy') in which they could name the father of their unborn child. Baret made this declaration quite late, when she was five months pregnant. Baret's certificate, from 22 August 1764, survives; it was filed in Digoin, a town 30 kilometres (19 mi) away and witnessed by two men of substance who likewise had travelled a considerable distance from their homes. She refused to name the father of her child, but historians do not doubt that it was Commerson and that it was Commerson who had also made the arrangements with the lawyer and witnesses on her behalf. In his will, Commerson later declared that Baret had entered his service on 6 September 1764, two weeks after she had declared her pregnancy.
Shortly after the declaration of pregnancy, Baret and Commerson moved together to Paris to escape the increasing rumours circulating in Toulon-sur-Arroux. Commerson rented a second floor apartment at no. 13, Rue des Boulangers. Possibly to disguise her identity, Baret used the name "Jeanne de Bonnefoy" during this period. Her child, born in December 1764, was given the name Jean-Pierre Barret. With assistance of the Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés, the Paris Foundlings Hospital, the child was given up in January 1765 and then placed with the Wet nurse Françoise Bernage. Jean-Pierre died close to Dreux a few months later, in March 1765. Commerson had left his legitimate son Archambault in the care of his brother-in-law François Beau in Toulon-sur-Arroux and never saw him again in his lifetime; Beau refused to send the boy to Paris. Baret had another son, Aimé Eugène Prosper Bonnefoy, who was born at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris on 15 May 1766. The fate of this child, most likely also with Commerson, is not known; it is possible he died before 1775. In their time in Paris, Commerson certainly instructed Baret in botany. At the nearby Jardin du Roi, where Commerson went every day, she had the opportunity to attend the public botany lectures of Bernard de Jussieu. Nina Gelbart speculates she and Commerson could have joined him on his regular plant collecting excursions. Baret must also have met Françoise Basseporte and could possibly have taken lessons on plant drawing from her. In 1765, Commerson was invited to join Bougainville's expedition. He hesitated in accepting because he was often in poor health; he required Baret's assistance as a nurse as well as in running his household and managing his collections and papers. His appointment allowed him a servant, paid as a royal expense, but women were completely prohibited on French navy ships at this time. At some point, the idea of Baret disguising herself as a man in order to accompany Commerson was conceived. To avoid scrutiny, she was to join the expedition immediately before the ship sailed, pretending to be a stranger to Commerson. Before leaving Paris, Commerson drew up a will in which he left to "Jeanne Baret, known as de Bonnefoi, my housekeeper", a lump sum of 600 livres along with back wages owed and the furnishings of their Paris apartment. Thus, while the story Baret concocted for Bougainville's benefit to explain her presence on board ship was carefully designed to shield Commerson from involvement, there is clear documentary evidence of their previous relationship, and it is highly improbable that Commerson was not complicit in the plan himself.
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