To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques-Dominique Roberdeau, 15 February 1778
From Jacques-Dominique Roberdeau4
LS:5 American Philosophical Society
Haguenau in alsace. the 15th february 1778
Sir
I duly received the favour you have honoured me with and the inclosed Letter from General Roberdeau of the first May past by way of a proof of his real existence.6
I have discovered in our Family papers, that one James Roberdeau has left his Country in the last century, and I am quite persuaded that this very same is related to me; I write to him the inclosed in order to have more material information about him; I pray for the favour to direct it to him by the surest way, and if something is left out in the Direction, to mend it. You’ll oblige me very much, my most ardent desires are for your conservation, and the prosperity of your good American people. I am with all respect Sir Your very humble and obediant servant
Jacques Roberdeau
colonel of Cavalry in the french Kings
Notation: Jacs Roberdeau
4. Born in Haguenau in 1717; retired from the French service in 1760 as a major in the Nassau regiment of infantry: Bodinier. How he then became a colonel of cavalry we have no idea.
5. The letter may have been translated for him; the hand seems to be different from the signature.
6. BF’s letter seems to have been lost, and this is the only record we have that he helped the Colonel’s genealogical inquiry. His reply to the present letter on Feb. 21 is also missing, but Roberdeau acknowledged it in his below of April 8. For Daniel Roberdeau, brigadier general of associators, see above, XXII, 378 n.