Certification for Jacques Le Maire de Gimel, 30 March 1784
Certification for Jacques Le Maire de Gimel8
ADS: University of Pennsylvania Library
Passy, March 30. 1784—
I do hereby certify whom it may concern, that Col. Lemaire came from Virginia to France in the Year 1778, with Letters of Recommendation to me from Patrick Henry Esquire then Governor of that State, by whom he was employed to procure Arms and military Stores here for the Use of their Army; which Commission, as far as I have ever heard, he executed with Fidelity & Ability, to the Satisfaction of the Government there.
B Franklin
8. A French military man whom BF had evidently recommended to GW at the beginning of the war and assisted when Le Maire came back to France on a mission for the state of Virginia: XXVI, 34–6; XXVIII, 611–12. Le Maire sailed to America again in early 1779 and stayed until 1782. On his attempted return to France, he was captured at sea and lost all his property. It is not known when he finally reached Paris. On March 30, 1784, he wrote a three-page petition to the French government recounting his military service and his captures, and asking for a post in St.-Domingue. He then asked BF to append a note of verification. BF’s note, published here, was written on the final page of Le Maire’s petition. This petition, however, was not submitted. Three months later, Le Maire asked BF to copy his certification onto a revised petition: Le Maire to BF, [June 28], below.