Pierre Gédéon de Nolivos  Pierre Gédéon, Comte de Nolivos (born 25 November 1715) was a French soldier who served as Governor of Guadeloupe from 1765–1768, then as Governor of Saint-Domingue from 1769–1772. Pierre Gédéon René de Nolivos was born on 25 November 1715 in Léogâne in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). He was baptized on 17 September 1716 in Léogâne. His father, also called Pierre Gédéon, was born in Sauveterre-de-Béarn, son of a judge in the Parliament of Navarre, and took part in a number of privateering expeditions before being sent to Saint-Domingue in 1707. His mother was Renée Giet (1683–1756). His father arrived in Saint Domingue in 1707 as captain of a free company. He was appointed major at Petit-Goâve on 4 December 1717, and knight of the Order of Saint Louis on 23 December 1721. He died in Léogane on 14 August 1732. Nolivos joined the navy as an ensign and was promoted to lieutenant and then ship's captain ("capitaine de vaisseaux"). In 1745 Pierre Gédéon de Nolivos was an officer in the squadron of the Marquis de Caylus, Governor general of the Windward Islands, who judged him "full of zeal, fire and ambition". He was appointed brigadier, then "aide général des logis" or assistant to the chief of staff of the Army of Bas-Rhin in 1761. In 1764 Nolivos was appointed Governor of Gaudeloupe, where he served from March 1765 to December 1768. One of his projects was to establish a free port. In April 1765 he entrusted two merchants of Basse-Terre with a reconnaissance mission in the northern islands. The concept was to establish an entrepot where goods could be stored for export against payment of a tax of 1% to 3%. The goods would be syrup and tafia (a type of rum) which were in demand in America but not in Europe. The entrepôt could also be used as an outlet for surplus products from France such as wine, liqueur, oil and soap.