Antoine had become famous by providing the Prince of Wales, Charles Edward Stuart, in 1745 with two vessels at his own expense in a bid to restore the Jacobite line. One ship was the Du Teillay (Captain Durbe), a small frigate of 16 guns on which he escorted the Prince to Lochnanuagh, on the west coast of Scotland. The other ship, the Elizabeth, (Captain Douaud), was an old man-of-war of 66 guns captured by him from the British, but which was so disabled in a fight with the Lion, a British man-of-war, on 20th July 1745, that she was forced to return to Brest
Antoine was subsequently appointed by Louis XV to the command of an expedition force of eighteen battalions of infantry and two regiments of cavalry in support of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie). This expedition never sailed, being probably stopped by the news of the defeat of Culloden (16 April 1746).
For his service, as well as his pedigree and noble birth, Anthony earned the title of Earl Walsh conferred by Louis XV in November 1753. The decree was registered in the Parliament of Brittany on the 9th January 1754.
He later held the office of Secretaire du Roi for some time before buying plantations and settled at Cap Francais, on the island Saint-Domingue, West Indies. He entered the lucrative sugar plantations business. He died on Saint-Domingue on 2nd March 1763 but the family held property there for a number of generations.
| Person | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Walsh, Anthony Vincent (First Earl Walsh) | 1703 | Born in St. Malo, Brittany France |
| 22. Jan. 1703 | Baptised in the Cathedral Church at St. Malo | |
| c 1730 | By the early 1730s he had shifted from slave-ship captain to slave-merchant. | |
| 10. Jan. 1741 | He married Marie O'Sheill at Chapelle du Sanitat in Nantes. Marie was the daughter of another Irish emigre, Luke O'Sheill who was a merchant and slave trader. | |
| 2. Mar. 1763 | (this location is now known as Cap Haitie, Haiti. The Republic of Haiti declared independence from San Domingo in 1804 after the departure of the French a year earlier.) |
