Reference H2
Coleman, Emna Lewis

Above transcribed freely:: [Page 97 & Page 98]
Claudius Petitpas, 1720.
His was an individual service for which Massachusetts offered her best reward. “In Consideration of the tender Regard the Petitioner hath shewn to sundry English Captives in the late Indian War, not only in relieving & succouring them when in great Want, but purchasing them from the Indian Enemy at his own Cost & Charge & setting them at Liberty; as is certified by divers Persons of good Repute” it was resolved that one hundred pounds be paid to him, and “That one of his Sons be fitted for & brought up at Harvard College for the Space of four Years at the Charge of the Governm^t, And that Mr President Leveret he desired to take the Charge of his Education.”⁵⁹ The man was an Acadian who had taken his oath of allegiance to Great Britain in 1695, Married to a Micmac squaw, he was a valuable friend and interpreter. It is interesting to note that no Petitpas was at Harvard, but a letter sent from Quebec to Versailles in 1722.⁶⁰ tells us that Barthelémy, son of Claudius, was in Boston three years, it being the intention of the government to make a clergyman of him that he might bring the Micmacs to the English allegiance and religion; but M. de Saint-Ovide.⁶¹ found a way to get the young man out of the hands of the English and entice him to Quebec, where they wanted to make him a priest, but he preferred to be a pilot and for safer keeping he was sent to France to learn his lesson of navigation.⁶² As a pilot he was again in Boston, but then he was in Boston prison. In 1747 Govenor Shirley justified this because his father “a faithfull subject . . . had received marks of favour . . . and consequently his son had no right to throw off his allegiance & go into the french King’s service, so that,” Shirley continues, “I had an undoubted right to detain him, however his death must end any dispute about him.”⁶³ Drake⁶⁴ calling him the Indian interpreter (he had been officially appointed by France in 1732), says that all ransoms for him were refused and they “finally put him to death,” but of this no proof has been found. From the Council Records we know that he was pilot of the Vigilant, which was captured in May, 1745, and was imprisoned as “a dangerous person.”
⁵⁹ Prov. Laws, IX, 676, dated 30 June.
⁶⁰ Vaudreuil and Bégon to Council of the Marine N. Y., Docs. IX, 912.
⁶¹ Gov. of Ile Royale.     ⁶² Can. Arch., 1904 34-      ⁶³ Que. Docs., III, 379·
⁶⁴ French and Indian Wars, p. 43.