LeRay, Jefferson, NY

De Chaumont Biography, #2

JAMES DONATIEN LE RAY DE CHAUMONT

James Donatien Le Ray De Chaumont was born November 13, 1760 at Chaumont, on the Loire, between Blois and Tours. He was educated partly in his family by the preceptress, and partly at th4 celebrated college of Juilly, near Paris. When he left this, he found himself in the circles of Paris, and of the court, which the birth and official places of his father gave him a right to enter. He was seduced by neither; and his views were early bent towards serious subjects by the course which his father pursued with regard to American affairs. The commissioners sent by the united colonies could not be received openly by the French court. M. de Chaumont, Sr., espousing warmly the cause of American Independence, determined to abandon public life (although at that moment his friend and neighbor in the country, the Duc de Choisseul, offered him a seat in the ministry which he was about forming); in order, as a private individual, to serve as intermediary between the government and the commissioners. He lent to them a house situated in his park at Passy, and Franklin particularly occupied it several years. From that house were written all his letters dated Passy. This created a great and agreeable intimacy between the American philosopher and M. de Chaumont’s family. Young D. de Chaumont improved this to lean English and acquaint himself with American affairs. His father gave more substantial aid to the Americans. He sent a cargo of powder to Boston to the are of the French consul-general Mr. Holker, to whom he wrote to claim nothing, if the Americans were not successful. He afterwards sent large equipments to La Fayette’s Army, and in various way consecrated a great part if his large fortune to the American cause. He equipped ships to join Paul Jones’ squadron, and was appointed by the French and American governments to superintend the equipment and management of the combined fleet. His son went with him to L’Orient on that business, and seconded him throughout the expedition.

But these high advances required the settlement of accounts, which the different currencies of the States, the depreciation of the paper money, etc., rendered difficult and complicated. M de Chaumont, the (1785) only 25 years of age, saw that this business required personal attention. He obtained, with great difficulty from his father, leave to go to America. He tore himself from the seductions of the most elegant court of Europe, and even from the prospect of a brilliant marriage, and sailed for America. Franklin, whose friendship and esteem he had gained in a high degree, gave him warm letters. All his energy and early-displayed talents, however, could not master so many impediments. Year after year he was detained by new difficulties. Franklin helped him with all his power. It was not, however, until 1790 that he could obtain a settlement, and he arrived in France just in time to save his father from the most painful consequences of these long delays.

During this stay in America, M de Chaumont became acquainted with the first men there, and particularly with two, who had a great influence upon his subsequent course. One was Count de la Forest, consul-general of France; the other, Gouvernear Morris. They both spoke to him with great warmth of the great speculations which might be made in wild lands in the State of New York. He bought, with the former, a small tract of Otsego county, where he built the fist saw-mill, and where he sent, as his agent, the celebrated Judge Cooper, father of the great writer. With Gouvernear Morris, he made large purchases in the State of New York. In 1790, having lately married a daughter of Charles Cox, Esq., of New Jersey, he returned to France with his wife. He had previously been naturalized. After having been most painfully engaged in endeavoring to arrange the difficulties in which his father had been drawn, he was appointed to go to Algiers, to negotiate a treaty of peace and commerce with the dey; but having learned in Switzerland that the life of his father was threatened, he returned post haste, to Paris. He proceeded without stopping to the sitting of the committee, and there by his firmness, and even by a bold threat to the president, he obtained on the instant the liberty of his father, whom they had put in jail as an émigré, although he had never quitted his chateau. In1799, M. de Chaumont accompanied his wife to Hamburgh, who returned to American, on account of her health, with her two youngest children, in company of Gouvernear Morris, late ambassador. The cure of Chaumont was of the party; he had refused the oath prescribed by the revolutionists, and M. de Chaumont, in order to save him, and to provide for his support, had appointed him to an agency in America. He remained there several years, and became the objects of the veneration and love of the numerous persons with whom he had relations.

In 1802, M. de Chaumont sailed from Havre for America, in company with William Scott, late minister to France. He went upon his lands in Jefferson County, where settlements were begun by the agency of Jacob Brown, who so highly distinguished himself afterwards. He returned in 1804, and left France again in May, 1807, with his oldest son, who, from that time, assisted him in the management of his business. He had, the year before, send a French doctor of considerable ability and experience, whom he had engaged for several years to reside with him on his lands, and had confided to him the choice of the particular spot. This was very difficult and delicate, from the large range open to him, and from the conflicting interests and interferences of the different persons residing on various parts of the tract. He acquainted himself, however, of this trust with wonderful foresight and skill, and chose a retired spot in the town of Le Ray.

M de Chaumont went, in 1808, to make a final settlement in the house built by the doctor, and entered it before it was finished, and with the logs of the clearing yet burning at his door. There he spent the greater part of the time till the spring of 1810, when he left for France with his family, leaving on his oldest son to manage his affairs with an agent, Moss Kent, brother of the chancellor. In France he busied himself with the settle of his lands. He sent French gentlemen of talents to establish various factories. The events of 1815 caused him to sell a large tract of land to Joseph Bonaparte, with whom he had long been acquainted, and smaller ones to Count Real, the duc de Vincence, Marshall Grouchy, etc. During his stay in France, he had the misfortune of losing his wife, whose health had always been poor, and had been kept up only by the indefatigable care and attention of M. de Chaumont.

In 1812 the board of internal navigation—Gouvernear Morris and De Witt Clinton president and vice-president—appointed M. Le Ray de Chaumont to negotiate in Europe a loan of six millions of dollars for the contemplated Erie canal. Mr. Le Ray went to Switzerland, where the declaration of war by the United States against England deterred the capitalists. He then sent, to feel the Belgium bankers, his friend, Mr. J. B. de Launay, whom the commissioners had sent out to assist Mr. Le Ray, and also to procure in England the services of the eminent engineer Weston. The report having been favorable, Mr. Le Ray went to Belgium. The hopes of peace, however, were vanishing. The re-election of Mr. Madison made the continuance of the war certain, and the bankers gave a definite refusal.

In 1816, he married his daughter to a French gentlemen of great distinction, the Marquis de Gouvello, and they both came with him to America, where they spent a year, and returned to France, M De Chaumont now resided mostly on his lands, spending a part of the year in New York. He went on with increased force with the settlement of his lands and the improvement of the country, building saw-mills, making roads, carrying on his iron works, etc.

In 1832, M. de Chaumont returned to France, leaving to settle his business his son, who joined him the next year. He made a last voyage to America in 1836, spending the summer there, and returned to France, where he was called by his daughter settled there, and by two sisters who had no children. Surrounded and cherished by his family, he spent his time partly in Paris, partly in the country, or in traveling, his mind still bent towards America, and seizing every opportunity of being useful to his adopted country. At the age of 80, full of health and vigor, his mind unimpaired, he was suddenly taken with an inflammation of the chest, which caused his death in five days,--December 31, 1840.

M. Le Ray de Chaumont had a strong mind, a sound judgment, great penetration of men and things, a warm and affectionate heart, a noble soul. He was guided through life by those high and chivalrous feelings of integrity which were so shrewdly discovered in him by Robert Morris, when, at the age of twenty-five, he was chosen by him as umpire between himself and M. de Chaumont, Sr., in a contested business. He never meddled actively in politics, which, added to the other traits of his character, made him respected and beloved by men of all parties, both in France and in America. He received warm proofs of these feelings at various times, and particularly from the citizens of Jefferson County during the last years of his say among them. The counties of Jefferson and Lewis owe much of their prosperity to his liberal and enlightened management.

He greatly improved the breed of sheep by bringing Merinos from his flock in France, which was picked in the celebrated sheep-fold in Rambouillet, where the original Spanish breed had been greatly meliorated.

He also paid great attention to improving the breed of horses, and labored to diffuse a taste for the rearing of ornamental plants, to promote the culture of the vine in gardens, and of hemp and the mulberry. The are which he bestowed in the selection and adorning of his villa at Le Raysville, which for many years was the seat of a refined hospitality, bespeaking the affluent and accomplished French gentleman, prove him to have possessed on these matters a judicious and correct taste. His household, including agents, clerks, surveyors, and employees, formed of itself a small community.

He will long be gratefully remembered by the citizens of Jefferson County for his public-spirited improvements, his dignified and courteous manner, and the sympathy he never failed to express in whatever concerned the public welfare. (Jefferson County History, by L. H. Everts, 1878)

Transcribed by Holice B. Young

Html by Debbie

December 26, 1999

[Jefferson County ALHN][NY ALHN]