Record revealed

Adrienne de Lafayette’s letter to her husband, Marquis de Lafayette

This previously unknown letter from Adrienne de Lafayette to her husband, the famed General Marquis de Lafayette, reveals her unfailing love for him and support for his cause.

A handwritten letter that covers an entire page. Besides the letter is the envelope it came in. — Adrienne de Lafayette's letter.

Transcript

A Bordeaux ce 5 7bre 1778

Je quitte demain Bordeaux, mon cher coeur, et je vais retrouver notre pauvre petite anastasie et la retrouver bien portante; me reunir a notre chere enfans le seul gage qui me reste de notre tendresse et a maman qui m’est (comme je vous l’ai dis tans de fois) tous les jours plus chere parceque tous les jours il semble quelle vous aime dadvantage.

Croiriés vous, mon coeur, qu’avec de tels sujets de joye (ou pour mieux dire de consolation) et que je sens mieux que personne, j’eprouve quelque regres en quittans cette ville parcequ’on y parle sans cesse de vous, que ma chere amerique est le sujet de toutes les conversations et que surtous j’y ai recu de vos nouvelles qui me remplissens d’esperance, et enfin j’apprends aujourdhuy que M Destaing est arrive en amerique j’espere donc de vous revoir cette année mais de grace prenés pour votre retour toutes les precautions possibles songés que je vous aime que vous mavés jusqu’a presens rendu assés malheureuse par votre absence, et les dangers que vous avés couru, et ne vous exposés pas dans le moment que vous commenceres de travailler a mon bonheur.

Adieu je taime plus mon coeur que le monde entier ne pourrais te cherir. Tous ce que vous aimé ce porte bien je vous ai ecris 6 ou 7 lettres a la fois. Pour aujourdhuy je suis si pressée que je ne vous en dirai pas advantage.

Translation

Bordeaux, 5 September 1778

I leave Bordeaux tomorrow, my dear heart, to meet again with our poor little Anastasie and to find her well; to reunite with our dear child, the only token I have left of our tenderness, and my mother who is (as I told you many times) dearer to me every day as every day it seems that she loves you more.

Would you believe, my heart, that with such causes for joy (or better said, for consolation) and that I feel better than anyone, I have some regrets in leaving this town because here they speak of you constantly, my dear America is the subject of all conversations and, above all, here I have received news from you which fill me with hope, and finally I have learned today that M. D’Estaing has arrived in America. I therefore hope to see you again this year, but please take all possible precautions for your return. Think about how I love you and how you have made me quite unhappy until now with your absence and the dangers you run into, and do not expose yourself at the moment you start working towards my happiness.

Adieu I love you more, my heart, than the whole world ever could. All that you love is well. I wrote you six or seven letters. For today, I am in such a rush that I will say no more.

The envelope to a letter addressed to Marquis de Lafayette. — The letter's envelope.

Transcript

A Monsieur Le Marquis de la Fayette
General Major au service des Etas Unis de l’Amerique
A l’armée

Translation

To Mr Marquis de la Fayette
General Major in the service of the United States of America
With the army

Why this record matters

Date: 9 September 1778
Catalogue reference: HCA 32/389/14

On 9 September 1778, Adrienne de Lafayette was preparing to return to Paris after a few months’ stay in Bordeaux. Amid the preparations, she hastily penned a short but affectionate letter to her husband, General Marquis de Lafayette. He was an ocean away fighting with the Continental Army against the British during the American Revolutionary War.

Her letter, however, never reached her husband. The ship carrying Adrienne’s letter was captured by a British privateer (a private vessel commissioned by a government to attack enemy ships) off the coast of Virginia and brought into the Britain's vice-Admiralty Court in New York to be claimed as a prize.

Prize-taking (the capture of enemies’ ships) was a normal practice of warfare at the time, but to ensure that a capture was legal, the captors had to bring their prizes before a court. Part of the legal process involved confiscating all documents on board. Due to this, Adrienne’s letter found its way into the High Court of Admiralty records now held at The National Archives, where it was recently discovered as part of the Prize Papers Project.

The letter dates from the early years of Adrienne and Gilbert de Lafayette’s marriage in 1774. This was a time marked by lengthy periods of separation as the latter enthusiastically embraced the cause of American independence.

Lafayette first sailed for America on the ship Victoire in April 1777, leaving behind his wife, then pregnant with their second child. Upon his arrival, he became a protégé of George Washington, who was general of the Continental Army and later the first president of the United States. Lafayette first saw action at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777 and would play a prominent role throughout the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette’s military feats made him the main figure of France’s support for the American cause.

Adrienne supported her husband’s endeavour, led by her devotion to him and her own ideals of liberty. In her letter, she writes of her sadness at leaving Bordeaux, where her husband and her ‘dear America’ were the main topics of conversation. As host to the first consulate of the United States, Bordeaux was a hub of supporters of the American cause.

She clearly longed to see her husband again after more than a year of separation marked by personal tragedy. Their first child, Henriette, had died in the spring of 1778. Her death is evoked in the opening of the letter as Adrienne expresses her joy at soon reuniting with their daughter Anastasie, the ‘only token I have left of our tenderness’. Anastasie had stayed in Paris with her grandparents.

Hoping to see him again in the new year, she urged him to take all necessary precautions for his safety: ‘Think about how I love you and how you have made me quite unhappy until now with your absence and the dangers you run into’.

Adrienne would not have to wait long. He returned home in February 1779, acclaimed as a hero by the French public. Their son was born nine months later and named George Washington, a symbol of the couple’s connection with America that would last a lifetime.

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