I believe that the story of Dr. Francis LeBaron, as written by John A. Goodwin and published in 1876,
is the most accurate version available. It contains many details not published elsewhere, including:
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the name and history of the French doctor, Louis Pecton,
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the adoption of the son of the nobleman by Dr. and Madame Pecton,
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Francis’ inheritance,
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his investing in the privateer ship the
Aigle,
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his serving on the Aigle as ship’s doctor,
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the shipwreck,
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his harboring by Mary Wilder, and
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subsequent events in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Some of the details about Mary Wilder sheltering the shipwrecked French doctor do also occur in
A Nameless Nobleman. This novel, published in 1881, is very loosely based
on Dr. Francis LeBaron, and is authored by Goodwin’s sister, Jane G. Austin.
I think Goodwin’s story is likely to be the closest to the oral history passed down
from Dr. LeBaron to his wife, then to their sons, and then to further generations.
For several years I have been investigating in French archives, searching for documents
that confirm (or invalidate) the details of Goodwin’s story.
To date I have found no records of a French ex-army doctor named Pecton,
or a similar name. I have found no evidence for the adoption of Francis, nor for
his noble parents.
When I researched the ship the Aigle, I had much better success, and found numerous
documents in French archives that proved some of the details in Goodwin’s story.
The frigate the Aigle did exist. It was built for King Louis XIV,
and launched in 1692. Because of his very large Army expenses at that time, King Louis
could not afford to fit out and equip the ship and its sister-ship Favory.
Therefore the fitting-out was paid for in shares. Francis, the young surgeon,
could well have been one of the shareholders.
The Aigle and several other ships were leased to Basque mariners,
to serve as corsairs or privateers—ships licensed by the King under
a “letter of marque” to prey on the merchant vessels of France’s enemy countries.
In this role, the Aigle was at first very successful.
Under her Basque captain, Johannis de Suigaraychipy, the frigate captured numerous
Dutch and English vessels and claimed their cargos.
During a period when France was at war with England, the Aigle did sail
to North America. In May1694, a squadron of four ships, under Commodore Pierre Vidal,
the Sieur de Saint-Clair, was dispatched to Newfoundland to harass the English cod-fishing trade.
The Aigle was one of these ships, as was the sister-ship Favory.
However, Saint-Clair, in consultation with Governor Brouillan, the French King’s representative
in Plaisance (now Placentia, Newfoundland), chose to consider the vessels as warships.
Three of them were ordered to go on a mission to invade the English colony of Ferryland
(called Forillon in French). Their captains were under the command of Flag-Captain Duvignau,
a Navy officer, and the ships carried 60 Army musketmen from Plaisance.
This mission was a fiasco. The Aigle entered the bay at Ferryland on September 10th,
under the pilotage of a captured English captain, who may have deliberately misled the Aigle’s
steersman. In any case, the Aigle ran aground in the entrance to the bay.
The English had removed cannons from English ships and mounted them in shore fortifications
surrounding the bay. From these batteries, the English were able to attack, from all sides,
any ships entering the bay. In addition, musketmen were hiding in the woods on shore.
The stranded frigate Aigle was bombarded with both cannon and musket fire.
During the attack on the Aigle, the Basque captain Suhigaraychipy was injured by a cannonball.
The Basque-speaking crew then came under the direct command of the French-speaking Navy officer,
Duvignau.
During the confusion, the Basques (who may not have understood Duvignau’s orders) launched a longboat
to go the Favory for extra ropes and anchors, to try to pull the Aigle off.
They returned with equipment, and eventually, after eight hours of being under fire,
the Aigle was able to be floated off. It returned under tow to Plaisance, where Captain
Suhigaraychipy died.
Duvignau had a reputation for being a very harsh captain. He had, in fact, been sharply reprimanded by
the French Admiralty for his brutal treatment of his seamen, and had been warned that he might lose
his command if he continued in his mistreatment of his sailors. Upon the squadron’s return to Plaisance,
Duvignau was obliged to report to his superior, Saint-Clair.
Probably to save himself from blame for the failure of the mission, Duvignau accused the Basques of
“mutiny” and “desertion”. He named several officers: Detcheverry, Daspicouette, and Haramboure,
and claimed that they, along with some 50 of the best seamen, had “cowardly abandoned”
the Aigle in a stolen longboat. Duvignau ordered an inquiry, and obtained testimony
from a number of French officers and men. (He did not, however, obtain testimony from
the accused Basque officers or men.)
Saint-Clair charged Basque Captain Harismendy, of the Favory, with collusion with
the “mutineers”. His charge was that Harismendy had given refuge to the deserting men
aboard the Favory.
Duvignau, in furious indignation, stated that the “deserters” should be punished by “Talion law”.
Talion law is the old principle of “as you have done, so it shall be done unto you”,
as in “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. It seems that Duvignau was proposing that the men,
having abandoned their ship in a longboat, should themselves be abandoned in a longboat.
The four vessels of the squadron, as escorts of 34 merchant ships, left Plaisance
on October 13, 1694. Duvignau commanded the Aigle, and kept a logbook,
of which a copy exists. The logbook makes mention of scurvy, and many men being sick,
and includes such laconic comments as “ I threw overboard my first
sea-pilot.”
It does not, however, make any mention of abandoning any men in a longboat.
After 34 days, on November 16, 1694, the Aigle arrived back in Bayonne, France.
This is one important point in which Goodwin’s story is not correct.
The privateer Aigle did run aground, but in Newfoundland, not Massachusetts.
The ship did not sink in Buzzard’s Bay —it continued in the service of the King until 1712.
So what was the vessel which was shipwrecked in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts?
My hypothesis is that the accused men were put on board the Favory.
One of the Aigle’s longboats was left with the Favory.
In exchange for Saint-Clair dropping his charge of collusion, Captain Harismendy agreed to put
the “mutineers” aboard the longboat and abandon them at sea, as Talion punishment
for their “abandonment” of the Aigle during the battle.
During the passage from Newfoundland to France, severe weather was encountered,
and the squadron was separated. The Favory returned to France,
but arrived some three weeks later than the rest of the ships,
beginning of December 1694.
My hypothesis is that Captain Harismendy, sympathetic to his fellow Basques
from the Aigle, deliberately sailed the Favory south along the coast
of mainland North America. He only ordered the release of the longboat when
the Favory was very near to a settlement —Falmouth, in Buzzard’s Bay.
In this way, he could follow his orders, yet be reassured that the marooned men had
a good chance of rescue.
The inhabitants of the Falmouth area, finding a longboat washed ashore and
a crowd of foreign sailors, would assume that the men were the survivors of
a ship that had foundered and sunk offshore. The longboat would likely bear
the ship’s name Aigle. In this way, the error would occur in the story of the shipwreck.
The question remains: who was the surgeon who became known in Massachusetts as Francis LeBaron?
A surgeon, being an educated gentleman, would be considered one of the ships’ officers.
My theory is that one of the Basque officers named by Duvignau in his inquiry, or another,
unnamed, man was the one who took the name Francis LeBaron.
Clearly, Francis LeBaron was an accomplished doctor, as recorded in several documents
from Massachusetts. His will, and the inventory of his property after his death,
indicate that he had become fairly wealthy after only a few years in Plymouth Colony.
Perhaps, as the Goodwin story claims, he was able to recover some of his French wealth.
As my
health allows, I will continue to search in French archives. As of
October 2013, my best guess was that the person who was known as "Francis LeBaron"
was Joannis Detcheverry
from Bidart, Ensign of the Aigle.
In
early 2016, I located another possible candidate for “Francis
LeBaron”: Salvat de Larralde,
a young nobleman from Bayonne. His family descended from royalty,
and both his father and his uncle were closely involved with the
frigates
Aigle and
Favory.
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