To Benjamin Franklin from Louise-Geneviève Du Ponceau, with Franklin’s Note for a Reply, 15 February 1782
From Louise-Geneviève Du Ponceau,9 with Franklin’s Note for a Reply
ALS: American Philosophical Society
a st. martin ile de réz ce 15 février 1782
Monsieur
La bontez de votre coeur pour les mallereux mes [m’est] si fort connuë que jose prendre la libertez de vous en Gager a vouloir bien à Voir la bontez de me fasilitez une correspondanse avec un frere que jes a philadelphie qui est premier sécretaire du ministre des afaire étrangère:1 élas je resoi si rarement des nouvelle de se tendre frere que Si vous vouliez avoir la bontez mon cher monsieur de me donner une permision formelle de vous adresser les létre que je lui écrires et luy séle [celles] quil mé criret [m’écrirait] nous pourion pour lor vous regarder comme un comun père oui jose le dire monsieur vous ne pouriez faire une plus belle oeuvre car je ne vous cacherez poin que je suie dans la misère et nes [n’ai] pour tout bien que 200 l.t. que sa magesté a bien voulus macorder pour vivre2 et les por [ports] de ses lètre sont si cher que je suie peu amesme dan resevoir malgrez que je nes poin dautre enbision ainsi monsieur si vous avez jamais santie se que ses que lamitiez fraternelle laisez vous rendre au pressante solisitasion dune persone dons la multitude des malleur son audesus de lexpresion et le detail en seret si long quil vous sufieras de savoir qua 22 an je nes ni pére ni mére que je nes plus que mes 2 frere et quil son outremer3 vous voyez monsieur quelle devra estre ma reconoisance si vous daignez me fasiliter le bonneur de resevoir de leur cherre nouvelle.
Jes lonneur destre Monsieur Votre obeisante Servante
Louise-Génevieve DUPONCEAU
Addressed: Monsieur le duc de franclin
Endorsed: That I shall take care to send her all Letters which may come to my Hands from her Brother. And that when she has not an Opportunity of writing to her Brother from the Ports near the Isle of Ré, she may send her Letters to me and I will forward them.
Notation: Mde. Duponceau 5. Fevr. 1782.
9. Mlle Du Ponceau (c. 1759–1839), described by her brother as “tall, fair and rather handsome,” was (as she says in this letter) without remaining family in France. Her father died in 1774, and her mother in 1780. At the age of 17 or 18 she was engaged to a young military officer who was killed in a duel. Thereafter, she swore never to marry, and despite her strong faith she resisted pressure to enter a nunnery. Her brother, the subject of this letter, later claimed to have kept a “regular correspondence” with her for the sixty-five years they were separated: James L. Whitehead, ed., “The Autobiography of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau,” PMHB, LXIV (1940), 243–4.
1. Pierre-Etienne Du Ponceau was named Livingston’s under-secretary for foreign affairs in October, 1781. He had gone to America as von Steuben’s secretary in 1777, where he was appointed captain in the Continental Army and von Steuben’s aide-de-camp. Illness forced him to retire to Philadelphia in 1779, where he became a citizen in July, 1781. Du Ponceau had a distinguished career as a lawyer and scholar, notably in the field of philology. He was a member of over forty learned societies and president of both the Hist. Soc. of Pa. and the APS. His autobiography, undertaken in a series of letters, extends through 1783: Whitehead, ed., “Autobiography of Du Ponceau,” PMHB, LXIII (1939), 189–227; LXIV (1940), 97–120, 243–69; DAB; Ruth S. Hudson, The Minister from France: Conrad-Alexandre Gerard, 1729–1790 (Euclid, Ohio, 1994), p. 129; Rice and Brown, eds., Rochambeau’s Army, I, 166n, 338.
2. Part of the widow’s pension obtained by her mother devolved to her: Whitehead, “Autobiography,” PMHB, LXIV (1940), 117.
3. Her second brother, Jean-Michel Du Ponceau (1762–1835), a cadet in the Saintonge regiment in October, 1781, joined Rochambeau in America. He was promoted to sous-lieutenant in November, 1782: Bodinier, Dictionnaire, p. 170.