To Thomas Jefferson from Françoise Langlois du Bouchet Conway, 1804
From Françoise Langlois du Bouchet Conway
Anvers 1804
Monsieur Le président,
c’est avec Confiance que je viens rèclamer auprés des ètats unis Le prix des services du général Conway mon mari; en 1776 il a été demandé par Le Congrés, et vous a servi en qualité de gènèral major, jusqu’a votre indépendance reconnûe: a cette èpoque Le Congrés distribüat des portions de terrain suivant Les grades; mon mari dont La place de gouverneur de pondicheri lui suffisoit, ne s’est pas présenté dans Le temps, mais Les malheurs de La rèvolution françoise qui m’ont privè absolument de tout ce que je possédois, et La perte que j’ai fait de mon mari, me forcent de recourir à La justice du Congrés pour obtenir pour ma fille la portion de terrain qui devoit être donnèe a son pere, je vous prie donc Monsieur Le prèsident de mettre sous Les yeux du Congrés ma pètition j’ose esperer qu’il aura ègard a ma demande.
j’ay L’honneur d’être avec La plus haute Consideration Monsieur Le président
Votre trés humble et trés obeissante Servante
F Conway
Editors’ Translation
Antwerp, 1804
Mister President,
I come with confidence to ask the United States for payment of services rendered by my husband, General Conway. At the request of Congress he served as major general from 1776 until your independence was recognized. Congress then distributed plots of land based on rank. Since my husband already had sufficient land as governor of Pondicherry, he did not come forward, but the tribulations of the French revolution have taken away absolutely everything I owned. The loss of my husband forces me to appeal to the justice of Congress to obtain the plot of land for my daughter that would have been given to her father. I beg you, Mister President, to bring my petition to Congress. I dare hope Congress will look favorably on my request.
With the highest consideration, Mister President, I have the honor of being your very humble and obedient servant.
F Conway
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 146:25374); partially dated; endorsed by TJ as received 5 Jan. 1805 and “refd. to Secy at War” and so recorded in SJL.
Françoise Antoinette Jeanne Florimonde Langlois du Bouchet Conway (1747-1828) was the wife of Thomas Conway, the Irish-born French officer in the Continental Army associated with the eponymous “Conway Cabal” in the winter of 1777-78. Through her marriage to him, she was the Comtesse de Conway. Her father was a conseiller of the king in council and lieutenant general of the seneschalsy of Clermond-Ferrand in central France. Her brother, like Conway, was an officer in the American War for Independence. During Benjamin Franklin’s mission to France, Françoise Conway frequently corresponded with the diplomat and likely visited him at Passy while her husband served in America. Her connection with Franklin was close enough that she soon referred to the American diplomat as “mon cher papa” and “my father d’Amérique.” During this time, Conway studied English in the hopes of permanently settling in the United States. However, Thomas Conway’s resignation from the Continental Army and near-fatal duel with John Cadwalader forced him to return to France. It is possible that Françoise Conway joined her husband when he sailed to India in 1781 to take command of the Pondicherry Regiment. Thomas Conway remained in India for the next decade and eventually became the governor of the colony. Recalled to France during the Revolution, he remained loyal to the king, and he and his family were forced to flee the country after they were proscribed by the Legislative Assembly in July 1792. He died around 1800 (, s.v. “Conway, Thomas”; Sylvie Nicolas, Les derniers maîtres des requêtes de l’Ancien Régime, 1771-1789 [Paris, 1998], 147; Gilbert Bodinier, Dictionnaire des officiers généraux de l’armée royale, 1763-1792, 2 vols. [Paris, 2009], 1:584-5; André Lasseray, Les Français sous les treize étoiles, 1775-1783, 2 vols. [Paris, 1935], 1:264-7; Charles Poplimont, Biographies nationales: La Noblesse belge [Brussels, 1850], 253; Leonard W. Labaree and others, eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 43 vols. [New Haven, 1959- ], 23:582; 24:486-7, 492; 25:379; 26:152-3; 27:78; 28:232; 29:188-9, 206-7, 221-2).
pour ma fille: Conway’s 29-year-old daughter, Pierrette Charlotte Gilberte Françoise Conway (Bodinier, , 1:584).