Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762–1824). Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth. 1905.
Historical and Biographical IntroductionV. Montraville
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Colonel James G. Montrésor, his father, was resident for many years at Gibraltar as an engineer, and was present at the capture in 1727. In 1747 he was made chief engineer, the defenses of the fortress being greatly improved by him between that year and 1754, when he returned to England, and was appointed chief engineer of the expedition to America under General Braddock. Having arrived with the expedition at Alexandria, Virginia, he set out in June, 1754, in command of a force which prepared the roads for Braddock’s advance westward over the Allegheny Mountains, through a country largely unexplored, and leading to what is now Pittsburg. He was present at the overwhelming defeat of Braddock, where he was wounded. He made his way back with the retreating army under Washington, and was ordered to Albany, where he remained seven months, preparing plans for a new campaign in the North. He made a survey of the military positions about Lake Champlain, reconstructing a fort on Lake George, and, in 1760, erected on Fort George a new fort with accommodations for six hundred men, to which the name of Fort George was given.
Colonel John Montrésor was born in 1736, while his father was stationed at Gibraltar. He came to America with his father, and went with him on the expedition to Fort Duquesne, being wounded in the disastrous battle. For some time he continued to serve in the Colonies as an engineer, and then went to Nova Scotia, where he was active during the long siege of Louisbourg. In 1759 he took part in the siege of Quebec, carrying despatches to General Amherst, showing much personal bravery in doing so, and was present at the capitulation. His abilities as an artist enabled him to make an excellent likeness, in profile, of General Wolfe “in his camp at Montmorenci, near Quebec, September 1, 1759,” or eleven days before the successful assault on the fortress. This portrait was afterward reproduced in mezzotint and published in London. He was employed, during the troubles growing out of Pontiac’s conspiracy, in constructing a line of redoubts at Niagara seven miles long, and in completing a fort on the shore of Lake Erie. In doing this work he made a forced march to Niagara with a regiment of Canadians.
Colonel Montrésor was married on March 1, 1764, to Frances Tucker, whose portrait, painted by Copley, still exists in England. She was the only child of Thomas Tucker, of Bermuda, and by her he had ten children, of whom eight were born in New York. He purchased, in 1770, an island in the East River, which received his name and bore it for some years afterward. It is now known as Randall’s Island. Here he made his home during the British ascendency, until January 1, 1777, when his house and other buildings on the island were destroyed by fire.
Mrs. Rowson departs from this marriage as a fact in Montrésor’s history in that she attributes his desertion of Charlotte in part to his having met and become enamored of one Julia Franklin, a rich New York woman, whom he married shortly before Charlotte died, Charlotte having been portionless. Mrs. Rowson, from her relation to Montrésor as an own cousin, is known to have depicted his conduct with whatever extenuating circumstances she could employ, including the discovery of Belcour asleep in Charlotte’s room—a circumstance in which Charlotte, as the reader can see, was innocent of any disloyalty to Montraville. To have represented Montraville as already married would have made the case against him darker still, and hence, at this point, it may be argued that she introduced the Julia Franklin incident in order to spare his name from unnecessary odium, her main purpose being to point a moral. Moreover, to have presented Montraville as already married would have been bad art.
During the occupation of Boston and New York by British troops Montrésor was the principal engineer in charge, and in December, 1775, received the appointment of chief engineer in America. During the twenty-four years he spent in this country he says he took part in eighteen actions, made thirty-two voyages, and served under fourteen commanders-in-chief, among them Braddock, Shirley, Loudon, Abercrombie, Amherst, Wolfe, Gage, Haldimand, Howe, and Clinton. To these names might be added that of Washington, since it was Washington who led the army back from Fort Duquesne after the defeat and death of Braddock.
Socially Montrésor was prominent in the best circles. While stationed with the Army in Philadelphia, in 1777, he became one of the managers of the Mischianza, the famous farewell entertainment given to General Howe just before his departure for England, another of the managers being John André.
Among the engineers’ maps and plans drawn up by Montrésor in America were the following: “A Drawn Elevation of Part of the North Front of Albany”; “A Drawn Plan of Port Erie, 1764”; “A Drawn Plan of Fort Niagara, with a Design for Constructing the Same, 1768”; “Plan of Boston, its Environs and Harbours, with the Rebel Works Raised Against the Town in 1775”; “Plan of the Action of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, from an Actual Survey”; “Plan of the City of New York and its Environs to Greenwich on the North, or Hudson’s River, and to Crown Point on the Sound, or East River, Surveyed in the Winter of 1775”; “A Map of the Province of New York, with Part of Pennsylvania and New England, from an Actual Survey, 1775”; “A Drawn Survey of the City of Philadelphia and its Environs, 1777.”
In 1778 Montrésor retired from service in America, and in the autumn of that year, with the British fleet of one hundred and twenty-two ships, sailed for England, whence he never returned. He speaks in his journal of his health as extremely bad. “Very ill,” says he, “and a fistula coming on peu-á-peu.” Again he writes: “My wounds breaking out, and the old ball lodged in me ready to start; besides, a dreadful hydrocele—-in short, my existence rather doubtful should my complaints increase for want of proper assistance.” The following passages from the journal as relating to his services in America are of particular interest. They were written on shipboard during the voyage home:
Colonel Montrésor remarks that “should the Colonies (after all) be lost to Great Britain, it may be attributed to a variety of unfortunate circumstances and blunders, etc.,” among which he names these: