To Benjamin Franklin from Angélique-Michèle-Rosalie Jogues de Martinville Lafreté, 17 September 1781
From Angélique-Michèle-Rosalie Jogues de Martinville Lafreté
AL: American Philosophical Society
Paris ce lundi 17. 7bre. 1781.
Madme. Lafreté a l’honneur de faire mille Complimens à Monsieur francklin et de le prévenir, que la personne de Bayonne dont elle lui a parlé pour le consulat des Etats unis de l’amérique se nomme Mr. Galart desgraux;8 elle le recommande à sa Protection.
Madme. Lafreté va faire un petit voyage en normandie; elle espere avoir a son retour le plaisir de voir son bon ami Monsieur francklin a qui Mr. Lafreté a l’honneur de présenter ses devoirs.
8. On June 24 Joseph-David-Dominique Behic, an important merchant from Rouen whose family originated in Bayonne, wrote his friend John Holker to ask BF about the suitability of naming a consul at Bayonne and to recommend for the post his relative Galart des Graux, a respected merchant of that city. On July 5 Behic thanked Holker for his efforts on behalf of his relative. Evidently BF had replied that any appointments would have to await the arrival of the American Consul General, William Palfrey. APS. For Behic see Christine Favre-Lejeune, Les Secrétaires du Roi de la grande chancellerie de France … (2 vols., Paris, 1986), I, 184–5.
M. Lafreté, who had invested in a venture of the Bayonne house of Veuve Lalanne & fils (XXVII, 52–3), recommended Galart in 1783 when he wrote to introduce Galart’s brother, sent to Paris to press for a free port at Bayonne (March 1, 1783, APS).