Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 78

Price Realized: $ 8,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
JUMONVILLE, WASHINGTON'S VICTIM (CANADA.) Frontier outfitting agreement signed by Luc de la Corne and Joseph Coulon Villiers de Jumonville. Document Signed as "Lacorne St Luc," "Villiers Jumonville," and "P Rainbault St. Blaint." One page, 12 x 6 1/2; half-inch hole in text area, minor wear, mount remnants on verso. [Montreal], 11 June 1749
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Additional Details

An interesting early frontier agreement, rendered much more interesting by the men who signed it. In 1749, two junior French army officers were assigned to explore the Nipigon region in what is now western Ontario near Thunder Bay. Ensign Jumonville and Cadet Paul Francois Rainbault contracted with Montreal merchant Luc de la Corne to outfit their expedition. The present document is the agreement to pay de la Corne, signed by all three men.
Luc de la Corne (1711-1784) grew wealthy in the fur trade. He was a business partner of Vérendrye, the French commandant at Nipigon, and thus had a financial interest in the venture. He is mainly remembered from the French and Indian War as Montcalm's translator, and for his remarkable survival from a 1761 shipwreck off Cape Breton.
Joseph Coulon Villiers de Jumonville (1718-1754) was already a veteran of frontier skirmishes with Indians by 1749, but he would become famous only in death. In 1754, he was leading a small party into contested territory in what is now western Pennsylvania. They were ambushed by a similarly small British party under a young colonel named George Washington. Most of Jumonville's party was killed or captured. The exact details will likely never be known, but the French widely believed that Jumonville had been tomahawked in captivity with Washington's tacit approval. This incident was a major spark leading to the French and Indian War, and was the first time George Washington's name became known around the world. The unfortunate Jumonville's autograph is understandably scarce on the market, despite his historical significance. Only one other example has appeared at auction since at least 1916.