Collection search - Thomas Mante fonds [textual record]
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Thomas Mante fonds [textual record]
Hierarchical level:FondsContext of this record: -
Finding aid Textual records: (Paper) The finding aid provides a descriptive list of the papers in chronological order. MSS1750Textual records: (Electronic) Finding aid. MSS1750
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000350.pdf -
Record information Thomas Mante fonds [textual record]
Date:1774-1781.Reference:R4133-0-6-E, MG23-K8Type of material:Textual materialFound in:Archives / Collections and FondsItem ID number:102132Date(s):1774-1781.Place of creation:No place, unknown, or undeterminedExtent:3.4 cm of textual records (163 p.).Language of material:EnglishAdded language of material:English, FrenchScope and content:Fonds consists of correspondences, notes, accounts, etc., n.d., 1774-1781, some of which are in French. Many of the papers are drafts and rough notes, often without dates or the names and addresses of the correspondents. Even the original incoming letters are also not infrequently unsigned. The papers include Mante's draft of a lengthy defence of his service to the French government, 1774, which includes extracts of letters and information on money received and disbursed; promissory notes, receipts, bills and other financial papers; notes on Mante's imprisonment in France; pleas to Lord North and his undersecretary John Robinson for compensation for Mante's military and secret agent services, which he often rehearsed in detail; begging letters; an advertisement and subscription list, in French, for A Collection of Interesting Events, a two volume work by Mante (ca. 1779); correspondence with Thomas Hookham, 1781, apparently about writing done for him; social correspondence with ladies; and other miscellanea such as an undated advertisement for a quack doctor, who had learned much from his "long and painful residence amongst the savages of North-America".Provenance:Biography/Administrative history:Mante, Thomas, fl. 1760-1785 : Very little is known about Thomas Mante (fl. 1760-1785). He apparently served in the British forces in various capacities during the Seven Years War. He claims to have served the whole war "with reputation" and to have been an assistant engineer at the siege of Havana in 1762. He was certainly commissioned as a lieutenant in 1762 and served in America with the 77th Regiment until its reduction in 1763. During the 1764 expedition against the western Indians, he served as a major of brigade under Colonel John Bradstreet (1711-1774), but was not remunerated for that service and had to pay his own passage back to England.
After returning to Britain Mante published a Treatise on the Use of Defensive Arms, translated from the French of Joly de Maizeray, with Remarks (London, 1771) and a History of the late War in North-America, and the islands of the West-Indies, including the campaigns of MDCCLXIII and MDCCLXIV against His Majesty's Indian enemies (London, 1772), which latter is available in the Archives Library (R+E 199 M29).
In 1773, Mante took service with the French government and, with one brief interval, continued in that service in various capacities for about eight years. During that period he also acted as a secret agent for the British government. In 1779, he was imprisoned for four months on charges of conducting an illicit correspondence with the British government and remitting money to Holland with the intention of following it. As a result of that experience and a deterioration of health in consequence of having been cut for the stone twice in five months, he returned to England in the early part of 1781.
For some time after his return, Mante endeavoured fruitlessly to obtain compensation for his services from the British government and lived on the somewhat grudging charity of a brother and the benevolence of such senior military officers as the Duke of Richmond and Sir Guy Carleton, to which later, in 1781, he dedicated his System of Tactics, the second of his translations from the French of Joly de Maizeray. His papers suggest that he was also augmenting his income by writing romantic novels and perhaps other popular works for Thomas Hookham's Circulating Library. The last two volumes of his Naval and Military History of the Wars of England, including those of Scotland and Ireland (London, 1795?-1807) are described as "completed by an impartial hand", which presumably indicates that he died before its completion.Additional information:General note:Received in 1957.Related material:Material relating to Lieutenant Thomas Mant (sic), 1764-1772, is available in the papers of Colonel Bradstreet (MG 40, K 2).Subject heading:- Authors, English, [17-] Thomas Hookham, 1781
- Thomas Mante - Correspondence, n.d., 1774-1781 John Robinson, [17-]
- Thomas Mante - Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc., n.d. 1774-1781 Frederick North, Earl of Guilford, [17-]
- France - Officials and employees, 1774
- Prisoners - France, 1774
- Great Britain - Armed Forces - Officers, [17-]
- Secret service - Great Britain, [17-]
- Advertising - Medicine, [17-]
- Quacks and quackery, [17-]
Source:PrivateFormer archival reference no.:MG23-K8 -
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