FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

I took [the girls?] to a grand ball given by the de Bardas [family?] in the Argyle Rooms. 53
<strong>The</strong>y were much admired, especially Azelie, who had a circle around her, like Laura used
to have formerly at the Sidney Garden.
I struck a good bargain with Mr. Ball. 54 He is giving me my choice of his six little
pianos, those with a key and a drawer for the music, which he is selling at 36 guineas, for
my little piano and 10 guineas in return. It will be the screw [?] type that we need in
America. I believe that Miss Ravencamp will have her own [piano?] at Tomisons, who
will give me six guineas to pick it out. He has advised me to keep my grand piano, to
which he will do everything necessary when we are at the point of departure.
We flatter ourselves that good relations will be established between our two countries;
then we will perhaps be able to go directly to where it is much more pleasant, since we
would have gone rather to you, and since we could take along many more things with us,
which we could not do if we made the same voyage as you did. 55
We received good news from Peter. He saw your two young sisters, who were deeply
touched by the misfortune we have experienced. 56 <strong>The</strong>y have promised to return us the
money we deposited. He also saw Desportes, who returned books and porcelain he had
from us. We have some hope of getting some things from Onsink [?]. He [Peter] then
saw my aunts and my uncle B. 57 He was received as if he had been their son. He assures
me that they hold for me the most tender friendship, and are very desirous of our return.
From there, Peter [went?] to Eugenie and her husband 58 , who are all ready to do what
they can for us. <strong>The</strong>y handed over 1800 pounds to send to us. 59 That is again something,
53 This likely refers to the old Argyle Rooms at Argyle and Regent Streets, London, a location for
entertainments, balls, magic shows, concerts and masquerades.
54 One translation gives this as “at the Ball” instead of “with M. Ball”
55 It appears from this rather convoluted paragraph that Marguerite is explaining why she is probably going
to go directly to New Orleans by ship, rather than take the complex New York-Pittsburgh-Ohio River-
Mississippi route used by her husband. Jean-Baptiste had urged her in his early letters to take that latter
route.
56 This is one of the first mentions in the letters about the siblings of Jean-Baptiste, as opposed to the oftmentioned
siblings of Marguerite. Genealogical sources that we have list four sisters and no brothers for
Jean-Baptiste; all the sisters were younger than their brother, and all survived him by many years.
Unfortunately, this letter does not make entirely clear which sisters are referred to, although the two
youngest ones were Eugenie and Magdeleine.
57 This is very likely Marguerite’s uncle on her mother’s side, Nicolas-Joseph Beaugeard (1755-1818), and
she is using his last name for the initial “B.” Nicolas had a sister Jeanne Melanie Beaugeard, but she died
in 1784. Marguerite had five “aunts” on her mother’s side, one of whom was certainly dead by this time.
She had no aunts on her father’s side. All of the people mentioned in connection with the trip of Peter to
France are almost certainly living in France, probably at their ancestral homes in Brittany near St. Malo.
Peter is clearly trying to recover property and money belonging to Jean-Baptiste and Marguerite (and
himself?) which was lost in the turmoil of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
58 This is almost certainly Eugenie Florian Jolly (or Joli) de Pontcadeuc (1768—aft. 1843), the sister of
Jean-Baptiste Florian. She married Francois Marie Guillaume Duault (1757-1833). She apparently
remained in France and survived the Terror.
59 This was a very large sum of money, enough to pay for the building of 80-foot barges on the Ohio, which
J-B floated down on, or enough to educate 27 young women for a year at a good finishing school in
Louisiana, to use items that J-B mentioned earlier. Thus this might be roughly the equivalent of $270,000
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