LETTRE DE CACHET, 1787
Lettre de Cachet (i.e. arrest warrant) signed "Louis" (secretarial signature for Louis XVI), to the Superior of the Brothers of Charity of Seulis [Picardy] ordering the detention of Lieut. Daillebous, who had been stationed in Cayenne [Guyana] at their house [i.e., monastery]. An annotation at the top states that this was instigated by a decree from the Navy at Rochefort.
Half page folio with integral blank leaf, Versailles, 22 April 1787.
The term lettre de cachet, literally a sealed letter, was originally used for any letter containing a direct order signed by or in the name of the King of France and countersigned by a minister. However it came to mean particularly a letter by which the Crown could command the arrest and imprisonment of a subject without trial and without any opportunity to submit a defence.
In this case, the unfortunate Daillebous had obviously been stationed in Guyana, where the military were overseeing the building of a canal by convict labour. His own misdemeanour - if, indeed, there was one - remains a mystery.
The document has four unobtrusive filing slits at either side, but is otherwise in very good condition.
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