François Bissot was named François Margane after his godfather and uncle. He was born in Montreal to  Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes and Marguerite Forestier on June 17, 1700. Born to  François  Bissot, Sieur de la Riviere, Notre-Dame des Pres, Normandy, and Mary Couillard, a Creole of Canada.  In 1717, he joined his father at  Kekionga, a village of the Miami Tribe in present day Fort Wayne. When Jean Baptiste died in 1719, François seemed to be the natural replacement for his father.

Military career

In May of 1722, Vincennes was commissioned an Ensign. He took control of the fort at Ouiatanon, a French trading post with the Wea, near present day Lafayette, Indiana, in the 1720s. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1730, and made commandant in what is now southern Indiana. He was commissioned to build a trading post on the Wabash River, and established a Fort Vincennes, which is modern Vincennes, Indiana.

Although the colonial government of Louisiana did not support him, Vincennes convinced local Piankeshaw to establish a village at the post. In 1733, he married the daughter of Philippe Longpré of Kaskaskia. They had two daughters, Marie Therese and Catherine- the first children of his new village.

Vincennes was captured and burnt at the stake by the Chickasaw Indians on 25 March 1736, near the present town of Fulton, Tennessee.