Achard de Bonvouloir et Loyauté, Julien Alexandre

ACHARD DE BONVOULOIR ET LOYAUTÉ, JULIEN ALEXANDRE. (1749–1783). French secret agent. Bonvouloir, a cadet of a noble Norman family, had settled in Saint Domingue in the early 1770s. Traveling in North America for the climate, he toured the colonies before the outbreak of war and met in Philadelphia with members of the first Continental Congress. Claiming to have gained valuable information about the Americans while there, he went to London and met French ambassador comte de Guines. On 8 September 1775 he returned to America with instructions from Guines to observe and to inform the Americans that the French had no intentions on Canada, wished them well, and would be glad if circumstances permitted their ships in French ports.

Masquerading as a merchant of Antwerp and instructed by Guines never to say the word "French," he had three meetings with Benjamin Franklin and other members of the Congress's Committee of Secret Correspondence. Although he denied any official connections and claimed that he was there only to explore the possibilities of making private deals to supply the Americans with munitions, the committee members sensed his real mission. This is apparent from the questions they submitted to him in writing: Could the gentleman inform them of the official French attitude toward the colonists, and if they were favorable, how could this be authenticated? How could they go about getting two qualified engineers? Would it be possible to get arms and other war supplies directly from France, paid for in American products, and would French ports be open for such an exchange?

Bonvouloir reported to his superiors on 28 December 1775 that he had maintained his pose as a private citizen and promised only that he would present their requests where they might be satisfied. Yet his meeting with the committee was complicated by the arrival of two actual French merchants, Pierre Penet and Emmanuel de Pliarne. They also offered arms to the Americans and implied they were acting on behalf of the French government. Penet reached France about the same time as Bonvouloir's report. On 3 March 1776 Congress decided to act directly by naming Silas Deane its emissary to find out what he could do in France to obtain aid. This led to the establishment of Hortalez & Cie. The French feared that Bonvouloir was so transparent that he might embarrass the court officially. On 13 June 1776 Vergennes wrote to Guines: "I strongly hope M. de Bonvouloir has been sufficiently wise in undertaking his return voyage." Not pleased with Bonvouloir, Vergennes sent Guines the money the agent needed to get home, having exhausted his advance.

Bonvouloir returned to France in June 1777. Hoping to become an actual merchant, he returned to America, where the British captured him and imprisoned him at St. Augustine. He was released and returned to France in July 1778. There he received a commission as lieutenant de frégate on 10 July 1779, became a lieutenant d'artillerie, and on 30 September 1781 was made aide-major in the expeditionary corps in India. He died near Pondichéry.

SEE ALSO Hortalez & Cie.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Franklin, Benjamin. Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Leonard W. Labaree, et al. 37 vols. to date. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959–.

Hamon, Joseph. Le Chevalier de Bonvouloir: Premier émissaire secret de la France auprés du Congrés de Philadelphie. Paris: Jouve, 1953.

Jay, William. Life of John Jay. Vol. 1. New York: J. and J. Harper, 1833.

Lassery, André. Les Français sous les treize étoiles (1775–1783). 2 vols. Macon, France: Imprimerie Protat Frères, 1935.

Pacheco, Josephine Fennell. "French Secret Agents in America, 1763–1778." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1951.

                            revised by Robert Rhodes Crout