A wonderful relic of the seventeenth-century fur trade. This contract is signed by a clutch of notable men of the era: Henri de Tonty (fur trader and “Commander for the King in the country of Louisiana”), François Dauphin de La Forest (fur trader), Charles Juchereau de Saint-Denys (receiver of beaver for the Compagnie de la Colonie and financier), G. Pruneau (witness), J. Quesneville (witness), and Antoine Adhémar de Saint-Martin (royal notary).
Henri de Tonty (1650-1704) and François Dauphin de La Forest (c1649-1714) came to Canada in the 1678 in the company of René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle. Tonty served as La Salle’s lieutenant and La Forest one of his clerks (and soon to become captain and commander at Cataracoui, or Fort Frontenac). Tonty, a former French marine, had his right hand blown off by a grenade, and wore a prosthetic hook covered by a glove, earning him the nickname bras de fer, or Iron Hand.
When La Salle died in 1687, Tonty and La Forest combined their efforts and began to work together in the fur trade. In 1689, they secured the concession of Fort Saint Louis in the Illinois country, but the enterprise proved to be very expensive: in exchange for the exclusive privileges of trading in the territory, the authorities demanded a significant participation of manpower in the war against the Iroquois, which was a heavy financial burden for partners to absorb. Accordingly, they looked for additional opportunities.
The summer of 1693 was a very busy time for Tonty and La Forest. The two traders had just returned from the Ottawa country with fur-laden canoes, and were settling accounts and preparing for their next expedition. It seemed that they were unable to cover all of their debts, and turned to their silent partner (and brother-in-law of La Forest) Charles Juchereau de Saint-Denys (1655-1703) for help. Saint-Denys was the Receiver of Beaver at the Bureau du Castor for the Compagnie de la Colonie, and was part of the committee that set the price of beaver pelts in Quebec and regulated the export of furs to France. Together with his wife and sister, Saint-Denys had made frequent loans to fur traders, and in 1693 they lent almost 7,000 livres to the Tonty-La Forest partnership. The partnership flourished and they “had practically a monopoly of the fur trade in the Chicago area around 1700” (Fortier & Chaput).
The agreement, dated 13 September 1693, was composed and written by Antoine Adhémar de Saint-Martin (1639- 1714), a prolific Montreal notary used by most of the outfitters and fur traders. In it, Saint-Denys agreed to pay Étienne de Villedonné (1666-1726) the amount of 314 livres 2 sols 8 deniers which was owed to him by Tonty. In return, Tonty agreed to repay Saint-Denys for the amount borrowed “in Good Beaver at the Price and Weight of the Bureau” during the month of August 1694, or earlier, “under penalty of all expenses, damages, and interests” and “rigours of justice.” By specifying payment in “castor au prix et poids du Bureau” Saint-Denys was guaranteed that the repayment of his loan would be calculated according to the current price set by the Bureau du Castor for good beaver.
An English translation is provided.
Provenance: Lawrence M. Lande manuscript collection (FMS 117).
Howgego I, T50; Fortier, J. & Chaput, D., “A Historical Reexamination of Juchereau’s Illinois Tannery” in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter, 1969) p.386.
