Scope and Contents:
This collection, mainly photostats of the originals in the Huntington Library, contains the papers and correspondence of the Campbells, the Earls of Loudoun, especially of John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun. It is separated into two divisions: the French Colonial Manuscripts, the Vaudreuil Papers; and the English Colonial Manuscripts.
The French Colonial Manuscripts contain papers and correspondence of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Louisiana and New France; letters of Macarty-Mactique, commandant of the Illinois post after 1750; and letters of Francois Saucier, an engineer sent to build a new fort at Kaskaskia. The letters of these men give a detailed picture of affairs in Illinois during Vaudreuil's stay as governor. In addition, this division includes other letters, orders, census lists, troop dispositions and a general census for Illinois for 1752. Photostats of these materials form the bulk of the collection.
The English Colonial Manuscripts contain mainly the papers of Lord Loudoun, while commander in chief in North America. Among these papers is the report of Edmund Atkin to the Board of Trade, May 30, 1755. This section of the collection consists of a transcript and microfilm of a the aforementioned report.
Photostats of the Loudoun manuscripts, for which there is a card index, are filed in twenty-six oversize flat folders. As indicated in the attached inventory, a number of these photostats were published in Theodore Calvin Pease and Ernestine Jenison, ed. Illinois on the Eve of the Seven Years' War, 1747-1755, Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, 29 (Springfield, 1940). See also Bill Barron, The Vaudreuil Papers: A Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the French Province of Louisiana, 1743-1753 (New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1975).
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