CANADA. Autograph document signed by Joseph PERTHUIS (Quebec - Lot 244

Lot 244
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CANADA. Autograph document signed by Joseph PERTHUIS (Quebec - Lot 244
CANADA. Autograph document signed by Joseph PERTHUIS (Quebec 1714-1782), merchant, counselor to the Superior Council of Quebec and commissioner of the royal prisons; also signed by Pierre de Rigaud de VAUDREUIL (1698-1778), last governor of New France and François BIGOT (1703-1778), intendant of New France. 4 pp. in-folio. Quebec, September 30, 1755. Exceptional and extremely rare document relating to an important episode in the history of New France, the letter of Robert Stobo (1726-1770) of July 28, 1754 to Governor Dinwiddie inviting the Indians to take Fort Duquesne. A period duplicate letter certified by the principal leaders of New France, Vaudreuil, Bigot and Perthuis. In early April 1754, Governor Dinwiddie, faced with the advance of the French, dispatched Colonel George Washington to the Forks of the Ohio (now Pittsburgh) to guard it. Stobo, who had been promoted to captain on March 5, followed the small army about a month later, leading a company of Virginia troops. In mid-April a party of French, Canadians and Indian allies, under the command of Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecoeur, had canoed down the Alleghany River and, after dislodging a few dozen English from a fort they were erecting at the forks of the river, began the construction of Fort Duquesne. The regiment then advanced south, and surrounded Washington's army. Upon surrendering to the French, Washington handed over two of his captains as a guarantee that the 21 French prisoners he had taken several weeks earlier would be released. The two hostages were Jacob Van Braam, a Dutchman by birth, and Robert Stobo. Stobo found eight members of his regiment at Fort Duquesne whom the Indians had taken prisoner after the battle. He felt that this act violated the terms of the surrender and that he was thus relieved of his obligations as a hostage. He wrote a long letter to Dinwiddie on July 28, 1754, advising him not to return the French prisoners and even urging him to take the fort in question in the fall. It is this famous letter that is discussed here. This letter was given to General Braddock, but after his defeat at the Battle of Monongahela in July 1755, it fell into the hands of the French. Strobo was tried by a military court presided over by Governor General Vaudreuil, who sentenced him to be beheaded. However, the court of Versailles suspended the sentence. We thus have here a strictly contemporary duplicate of Strobo's famous letter - since it dates from the very moment of its discovery by the French, established by the French authorities and certified by Governor General Vaudreuil. Indeed, the following authentication mentions appear: "I, the undersigned counselor at the Superior Council of Quebec, certify that I have copied in English word for word the above letter, the original of which has been deposited at the secretariat of the Governor General of New France, made in Quebec on 30 September 1755. Perthuis". Then, underneath: "We, the Governor General and Intendant of New France, certify that Mr. Perthuis, advisor to the Superior Council of Quebec, has copied the above letter in English, and that we have heard from all the Englishmen who came to this city that the said Sr. Perthuis spoke English, and that he translated it perfectly. At Quebec City, 30 September 1755. Vaudreuil. Bigot". IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DOCUMENT ON THE HISTORY OF CANADA, which presents some variants (especially names) with the duplicate kept in the archives of the University of Pittsburgh. In his book, The Most Extraordinary Adventures of Major Robert Stobo (1965), Robert C. Albert lists five copies of this famous letter: two in the Darlington Library of the University of Pittsburgh, one in the State Archives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one in the library of Mr. George Spannuth in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and one in the old courthouse archives in Montreal. But according to studies made in the 1960s by the New York expert Emily Driscoll, the original has disappeared or is in the hands of a private owner, because the letter found at the death of General Braddock (Darlington collection), was a copy. So we have here a sixth copy, unknown until now. "Sir, The Indians are greatly allarmed at a report said to be brought up by an Indian named Tusquerora John. He reports that the Half-King, Manaquehicha and a Shanoes King &c., to the number of 37, were confined by the English and carried as prisoners. That John Mainos, alias Jack Cork Montiere's Company, told him so soon as they got them to the inhabitants, they would hang them all, & advised him to make his escape. This was industriously re
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