Letters from loved ones of captured ship’s crew during seven years’ war lay forgotten for centuries
Esther AddleyA forgotten bundle of love letters sent to French sailors more than 260 years ago – but never before opened or read – has been discovered among British naval archives, revealing intimate details of 18th-century marital and family life.
Marie Dubosc, another correspondent, wrote to her husband, Louis Chambrelan, the first lieutenant of the captured warship: “I could spend the night writing to you … I am your forever faithful wife. Good night, my dear friend. It is midnight. I think it is time for me to rest.” The couple would never meet again, as she died the following year in Le Havre, almost certainly before he was released.
Instead, after establishing the correspondence contained nothing of military value, the British authorities put the unopened letters in storage, where they would be forgotten for centuries until discovered by chance by Morieux. A letter from a woman to her son Nicolas Quesnel, dated 27 January 1758, complainining he does not write to her often.As well as billets-doux between lovers, the archive offers rare insights into sometimes strained family relationships at a time of war. The mother of one young sailor, Nicolas Quesnel, wrote to him complaining that he wrote to his fiance more than to her. “Give my compliments to Varin ,” she wrote. “It is only his wife who gives me your news.
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