To Benjamin Franklin from the Vicomte de La Charce, [25 November? 1780]
From the Vicomte de La Charce7
AL: American Philosophical Society
a passy Ce Samedy Matin [November 25, 1780?]8
Mr. le Victe de Lacharce chargé par Mde. la Mise. [Marquise] de rochambeau la mere, qui est a vernon ches S. A. S. Mgr. le duc de pinthievre;9 de luy envoyer les nouveles qu’il pourait Sçavoir ayant rapport a mr de rochambeau fils, et a mr. de ternay; quoy que n’ayant pas Lhonneur destre Connu de monsieur le docteur frankelin, il espere qu’il voudera Bien luy mander ce qu’il aura Sçu par L’officier arivé hier a versalie de la part de Mr. de ternay.1
Notation: Vte. De Lacharle.
7. Jean-Frédéric de La Tour du Pin, vicomte de La Charce (b. 1734), was commanding colonel of the Beauce regiment and gentilhomme d’honneur of the comte d’Artois: Dictionnaire de la noblesse, XIX, 98; Almanach royal for 1780, p. 127; Etat militaire for 1780, p. 271.
8. The subject of this letter, the vicomte de Rochambeau (the general’s son), arrived at Lorient on Nov. 22. He appeared in Versailles to deliver dispatches on Nov. 26, a Sunday: Gaz. de Leyde of Dec. 5 and 8 and the Courier de l’Europe of Dec. 12. This letter may have been written on Saturday, Nov. 25, or possibly the following Saturday, Dec. 2. See also his letter [before Dec. 25], below.
9. The château de Bizy at Vernon, Normandy, belonged to the duc de Penthièvre. His daughter, the duchesse de Chartres, frequently visited him with her entourage, which included the marquise de Rochambeau (XXXIII, 451–2n) and her dames de compagnie, among them La Charce’s wife, Adélaïde-Marguerite Pajot de Juvisy, the daughter of a receveur général des finances: Baron André de Maricourt, Louise-Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon Penthièvre, duchesse d’Orléans … (2nd ed., Paris, 1913), pp. 173, 221–2.
1. Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse (1741–1788?), was entrusted with all Ternay’s dispatches; he commanded the Amazone, which had left Rhode Island on Oct. 28 with the vicomte de Rochambeau aboard: Larousse; Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, Mémoires militaires, historiques et politiques de Rochambeau … (2 vols., Paris, 1809), I, 256–7.