FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

Letter 3.
[Letter translated, not original, in English, typed, in the Edward Ladd collection, Mobile,
AL]
[This letter is signed “Duault.” This is likely François Marie Guillaume Duault (1757-
1833), husband of Eugenie Marie Florian Jolly de Pontcadeuc, and the brother-in-law of
Jean-Baptiste Florian Jolly de Pontcadeuc. Duault is apparently bemoaning the death and
disarrangement of the affairs of the father of Jean-Baptiste, namely Joseph Marie Florian
Jolly de Pontcadeuc, born 1731 and died 25 April 1803, especially the monies that came
to Joseph through his wife, Francoise Anne Felecite le Bonhomme de Fontaine, 1746-
1778.]
Paris, June 8, 1803
To M. Florian
Care M.M. Lavillegille, Carson & Company
Mincing Lane, London
<strong>The</strong> embarrassment into which we are thrown, my dear Florian, by the inaccuracy of the
accounts which were left by Monsieur Jolly, and the ignorance of the daughters of their
own personal affairs, obliges us to have recourse to you to request some information.
First, the oldest son, did he not receive the 10000 pounds mentioned in his marriage
contract? Was not that sum given him as a dot [inheritance, dowry or gift in lieu of
money left in a will] by his father? Must it be counted in the succession? Is it as a whole
or in part to be deducted from those who follow in succession, La Fontaine and Le
Gentil?
Second, At the time it was talked of auctioning off Le Marais [Ed. :the principal family
chateau] for the portion of the eldest son, Madame Duchatelier gave her brother a note for
15,000 [pounds?] which she had lent him. Was that sum part of her dot? Madame
Duchartelier has always told me that her dot had been taken back by her father after the
death of her husband. In that case, whence comes this 15,000? She desires, my friend,
that you enter into the above matters in detail so as to enable her to rectify her ideas. For
having signed always whatever her father presented without knowing why, she may be in
error.
Third, a sum of 80,000 [pounds?]of which 60,000 apportioned to the three children had
been placed with Bonaban the 16 th of September 1791 and the reimbursement was made
in April 1791 with the interest. We see by the account that Madame Vie. Duchartelier
was to have received 8106 [pounds] 19 s[hillings] as well as that which she had returned
to her in the succession of La Fontaine and Le Gentil, and that by paying the Soldier’s
Pension of her father’s he accounted to her for 106 [pounds] 19 s[hillings], and gave her
8000 to for her interest of the 12,000 placed with Bonaban. In short, that she has not had
the interest on more than 4000. But Madame Duchartelier, whether having forgotten or
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