French letters confiscated by Britain’s Royal Navy are opened 265 years on

Letters confiscated by Britain’s Royal Navy before they reached French sailors during the Seven Years’ War have been opened for the first time.

The notes, written in 1757-8, were intended for the crew of French warship the Galatee and sent by wives, fiances, parents and siblings.

While the French postal administration took them to multiple ports in France to attempt delivery, they always arrived too late.

When they learned the ship had been captured by the British, they forwarded the letters to England, where they were handed to the admiralty in London and ended up in storage.

A Cambridge University academic, who unearthed the collection of 104 letters from the National Archives in Kew, said it was “agonising how close they got” to reaching their intended recipients.

Professor Renaud Morieux, of the History Faculty and Pembroke College, believes officials opened and read two letters to see if they had any military value but decided they only contained “family stuff” and gave up and put them in storage.

He said he only asked to look at the box in the archives “out of curiosity” before making his discovery.

“There were three piles of letters held together by ribbon,” he said.

“The letters were very small and were sealed so I asked the archivist if they could be opened and he did.

“I realised I was the first person to read these very personal messages since they were written.

“Their intended recipients didn’t get that chance.

“It was very emotional.”

Today we have Zoom and WhatsApp. In the 18th century, people only had letters but what they wrote about feels very familiar

One of the letters, sent to the ship’s first lieutenant Louis Chambrelan, was from his wife Marie Dubosc.

She wrote: “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.”

Researchers say she did not know where her husband was or that his ship had been captured by the British.

He did not get her letter and they did not meet again, with Dubosc dying the next year in Le Havre.

In 1761, Chambrelan, safely back in France, remarried.

In another letter, Anne Le Cerf told her husband Jean Topsent, a non-commissioned officer: “I cannot wait to possess you.”

Prof Morieux said: “These letters are about universal human experiences, they’re not unique to France or the 18th century.

When we are separated from loved ones by events beyond our control, like the pandemic or wars, we have to work out how to stay in touch, how to reassure, care for people and keep the passion alive

“They reveal how we all cope with major life challenges.

“When we are separated from loved ones by events beyond our control, like the pandemic or wars, we have to work out how to stay in touch, how to reassure, care for people and keep the passion alive.

“Today we have Zoom and WhatsApp.

“In the 18th century, people only had letters but what they wrote about feels very familiar.”

Prof Morieux spent months decoding the letters, written with wild spelling, no punctuation or capitalisation, and identified every member of the Galatee’s 181-strong crew, from simple sailors to carpenters to superior officers.

The letters were addressed to a quarter of them and he carried out genealogical research into these men and their correspondents to learn more about their lives than the messages alone revealed.

His research is published in the journal Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales.