To George Washington from Anna La Caux, 29 July 1795
From Anna La Caux
Carlow Ireland July 29th—95
Your Excellency will doubtless be surpris’d at being address’d by a Stranger, & particularly from so distant a part of Europe as Ireland, but distant as it is, the Universal Benevolence of General Washinton’s Character is well known, & his firm attachment to the welfare of mankind, & even to individual right & happiness, has embolden’d me to lay before Your Excellency the Cause of two Orphans, having no other method of conveying a Letter to Citizen Barthelemy, the French Ambassador at Basle in Swisserland.1 I am therefore Oblig’d, I fear very improperly, to have recourse to Your Excellency’s kind assistance, to order one of Your Secretaries, to forward the inclos’d,2 as by a direct transmission, it would most Certainly be intercepted, which to me & my Sister would be the perpetual loss of a Considerable Estate, forfeited by our Grandfather, at between 15 & 16 Years Old, for no Crime! but that of being a protestant in the Reign of that Excreable Tyrant! Louis the 14th.3
A Decree has pass’d the National Assembly for restoring to the decendants of French protestant Refugees, the properties of their ancestors, but they were limitted to lay in their Claims within 5 Years of the Date of the Decree;4 which limit expires January—96—Sir that Decree was never repeal’d. I beg leave to send the inclos’d unseal’d, for the Honor of Your Excellcy’s perusal; & most humbly intreat Your pardon, for my presumption in troubling you with this Letter. I shall feel every Anxiety least this should not reach Your Excellency’s hand, as my fate almost depends on it. I have the Honor to be Sir with the highest Respect Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Huble Servt
Anna La Caux
ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers. The letter was addressed to “His Excellency, General George Washinton & President of the 13 United Colonies Philadelphia America.”
1. François, Marquis de Barthélemy (c.1747–1830), received an education designed for a diplomatic career under the direction of his uncle Abbé Jean-Jacques Barthélemy. He first served as secretary of the French legations in Sweden, Great Britain, and Switzerland. In 1795 he became minister plenipotentiary in Switzerland and negotiated the Peace of Basel, first with Prussia, then with Spain. Two years later he was elected to the French Directory, but he soon faced arrest in the 18 Fructidor (17 Sept. 1797) coup d’état and was deported to French Guiana. He escaped and made his way to Great Britain by way of Surinam and the United States. Barthélemy served in the French Senate under Napoleon Bonaparte. By 1814 he supported the restoration of Louis XVIII, and he obtained the title of marquis in 1819.
2. La Caux enclosed a letter of the same date to Barthélemy that summarized her family history and the persecution of her grandfather, John La Caux, born at Guienne, France, the son of John and Martha La Caux. Her grandfather escaped to Ireland when threatened with death in December 1689 if he did not relinquish his Protestant beliefs. There he lived, married, and received a dividend from his father-in-law, a Mr. Osborne. But at a later time, her grandfather and his son Edward used the money as a “joint security … for a Stranger; who basely deceived them, & by that misfortune” Anna and her sister relied upon relatives for financial support.
Her grandfather was the only legal heir to the La Caux estate, which lay in the South of France near Montauban, when his elder brother Jeremiah died without issue. But because of his earlier flight to Ireland, her grandfather had forfeited his claim. Anna and her sister were the “only Surviving lawful Heirs, of our Grandfather, or his Brother Jeremiah.” She submitted her claim “to the Wisdom, Justice, & Benevolence, of the National Convention” and prayed for Barthélemy’s interposition with the French government (ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers).
3. La Caux referred to effects of the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the more tolerant Edict of Nantes of 1598.
4. For this decree, which was adopted by the Assembly on 9 Dec. 1790, see Gazette Nationale ou Le Moniteur Universel, 11 Dec. 1790.