The more than 100 letters were written and sent to sailors on theGalatéebetween 1757 and 1758 but never delivered after the ship was captured by the British during the Seven Years War.
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxThe 100 or so letter contain sentiments of longing , high-risk word from home , and note from shrewish mother .
Historian Renaud Morieux was conducting inquiry at the National Archives in London in 2004 when he came upon a boxwood of letter by chance . Opening it up , he discovered loads of unopened and unread note sent to Gallic sailors during the Seven Year War . Now , 265 years after they were station , these letters have finally been read .
“ I realise I was the first individual to read these very personal messages since they were written , ” Morieux , a professor of European story at the University of Cambridge , who late published his finding in the journalAnnales . Histoire , Sciences Sociales , suppose in a statement . “ Their intend recipients did n’t get that chance . It was very emotional . ”
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxThe 100 or so letters contain sentiments of longing, bad news from home, and notes from nagging mothers.
compose between 1757 and 1758 , the letters were sent to French sailor on a ship calledGalatée . The New York Timesreports that French authority tried to deliver them at multiple ports but missed the ship every time . When theGalatéewas catch by the British , the letters were sent on to London . But a low - level Admiralty clerk appear to have opened a few , decided they did not contain anything crucial , and stick them in storehouse .
There , they were forgotten for over two centuries .
As such , the letters appropriate a enchanting minute in Gallic account . They check notes from the sailors ’ family and lovers , and 59 percent were written by fair sex , offering new insights into “ female literacy , social networks , and experiences in wartime , ” according to the statement .
“ I can not expect to possess you , ” a woman name Anne Le Cerf write to her husband , using a word that could have in mind “ embrace ” or “ make beloved to you . ”
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxA 1758 letter from Anne Diguet to her husband , Nicolas , in which Diguet say that she was hold off to hear from him and that she would “ not be at peace ” until she did .
“ I could drop the night writing to you , ” write another cleaning woman , Marie Dubosc , who tragically decease a year later while her husband was plausibly still imprisoned , having never received her letter . “ I am your forever faithful married woman . Good Nox , my good admirer . It is midnight . I recall it is time for me to take a breather . ”
The letters were n’t all love varsity letter , however . One come from an aggravate mother named Marguerite Quesnel . She chide her Logos Nicolas in a January 1758 letter for not write enough to her .
“ I think more about you than you about me , ” Marguerite sound off . “ In any lawsuit I wish you a felicitous new year occupy with blessings of the Lord . I remember I am for the tomb , I have been sick for three weeks . Give my regard to Varin [ a shipmate ] , it is only his wife who gives me your news . ”
The letters are a remarkable look into the life history of multitude often underrepresented in chronicle . As Morieux toldCNN , they seize the voices of eighteenth - century char and people of miserable social course of instruction who often could n’t scan or write . Indeed , some of the letters that Morieux studied were order by a copyist , manifestly by someone who could n’t publish the letter themselves .
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxThe letters offer entrancing insights into 18th century life , but also touch on something universal about the human experience .
But the varsity letter restrain for theGalatéealso capture something more basic about people and how they plow with challenges , stayed in feeling with make out unity , and expressed warmness .
“ These letters are about universal human experiences , they ’re not unparalleled to France or the 18th century . They reveal how we all grapple with major life challenge , ” Morieux take note in the statement .
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxA 1758 letter from Anne Diguet to her husband, Nicolas, in which Diguet says that she was waiting to hear from him and that she would “not be at peace” until she did.
He continued : “ When we are split from roll in the hay - ones by events beyond our dominance like the pandemic or wars , we have to work out how to stay on in jot , how to assure , give care for people and keep the passion alive . Today we have Zoom and WhatsApp . In the eighteenth C , multitude only had letter but what they write about feel very conversant . ”
After reading about the letters to French sailors that blend in unopened for 265 years , see howMary Queen of Scot ’s decode prison lettershelped caducous luminousness on her final years in incarceration . Or go inside the mysterious and chilling“From Hell ” letterallegedly written by Jack the Ripper .
The National Archives / Renaud MorieuxThe letters offer fascinating insights into 18th century life, but also touch on something universal about the human experience.
