Editing Joséphine de Beauharnais (section)

==Family background==
[[File:Blason_Famille_fr_Tascher_de_La_Pagerie.svg|thumb|left|200px|Coat of arms of Tascher de La Pagerie family, a minor noble family originated in [[Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais]], [[Perche]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]]]
The [[Duc de Dalberg#Tascher de La Pagerie|Taschers]] were an ancient [[French nobility|French noble family]] of [[gentry|landed gentry]], and Joséphine's grandfather, Gaspard-Joseph Tascher de La Pagerie (1705-1767) was the first to settle in [[Le Carbet]] on [[Martinique]] in 1726.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Knapton |first=Ernest John |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Josephine/KNAEJO/home.html |title=Empress Josephine |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=1963 |isbn=978-0674252011 |location=New York |pages=15-16, 18, 20, 22-23 |language=en-US |chapter=Chapter 2: Bird of the Islands |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674188761 |oclc=1740591 |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Josephine/KNAEJO/2*.html}}</ref> He seems to have lived in poverty there, but secured a position for his son, Joseph-Gaspard Tascher de La Pagerie (5 July 1735 – 7 November 1790) as a [[Page (servant)|page]] in the household of the [[Dauphine of France|''Dauphine'' of France]], [[Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France|Maria Josepha of Saxony]].<ref name=":3" />

After spending three years from 1752 in France, Joseph-Gaspard returned to Martinique and married on 9 November 1761 Marie Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sannois (27 August 1736 – 1 June 1807), whose maternal grandfather, Anthony Brown, may have been Irish.<ref name=":1" />  Rose-Claire was from one of the oldest European families on the island, and the Tascher family home near [[Les Trois-Îlets]], a [[Sugar plantations in the Caribbean|sugar plantation]], which is now a museum,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/martinique/trois-ilets-1317142/attractions|title=Sights in Trois-Îlets|website=Lonely Planet}}</ref> was part of her [[dowry]].

On Martinique, Joseph-Gaspard earned his living as a plantation owner and a lieutenant of the ''[[Troupes de marine]]'', apart from a small pension for his previous work in the royal household. He was almost always close to [[bankruptcy]] and suffered from ill health.<ref name=":3" />