James Le Tort (often spelled James Letort, c. 1675 – c. 1742) was a Pennsylvania fur trader and a coureur des bois active in the early 18th century. He established trading posts at several remote Native American communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio and became fluent in the Delaware and Shawnee languages. During the 1720s he frequently served as an interpreter at councils and conferences between Native American leaders and the government of the Province of Pennsylvania.
Early life He was the son of Jacques Le Tort and his wife Anne, and was born in France, probably in Bonnétable (dept. of Sarthe). Le Tort arrived in Quebec with his parents, who were Huguenot refugees, in 1686, and settled in eastern Pennsylvania. His younger brother Francis and his younger sister Ann Margaret were born after their parents' arrival.Evelyn A Benson, "The Huguenot LeTorts: first Christian family on the Conestoga," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, 1961, v. 65, no. 2, pages 92-105. His father was hired to establish a colony of French Huguenots in East and West Vincent Township, Pennsylvania, but the colony failed and Jacques Le Tort eventually became a fur trader in partnership with Martin Chartier and Peter Bisaillon. His first trading post was on the Schuylkill River. Around 1700 they moved and established a new trading post on the Susquehanna River.
On 28 May 1692, at about age 17, James Le Tort bound himself to a five years' term of service to John King, a Canadian sea-captain. He spent the years 1692 to 1697 in service and returned to Pennsylvania to take part in his father's fur trading business at the family trading post in Northumberland, Pennsylvania.Bell, Herbert Charles, John, J. J. History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Brown, Runk & Company, 1891. His father accompanied a shipment of skins and furs to London and on his return voyage in June 1702, was lost at sea. James then went to work for his father's partner, Peter Bisaillon. They traveled together to Canada from 1701 until 1703.Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
Arrests and imprisonment
Pennsylvania authorities including William Penn suspected that Le Tort and other coureurs des bois such as Peter Bisaillon were spying for the French, that they were "very dangerous persons" who "kept private correspondence with the Canida Indians and the French," who "entertained strange Indians in remote and obscure places," and who "uttered suspicious words."James Hart Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. They were harassed, arrested and imprisoned, often on false or minor charges.George O. Seilhamer, "Old Mother Cumberland," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1900), pp. 17-47 In June 1703, records show that "James Le Tort, who about two years ago went out of this Province to Canada, and returned last spring, having been upon his return examined before several of ye Council and magistrates, and no great occasion found to suspect him of any evil designs against the Government, he having been bred in it from his infancy, had hitherto behaved himself inoffensively, and was seduced to depart in time of peace by the instigation of some others, without any evil intentions that could be made appear in himself; and being now in town, together with Peter Bezalion, another Frenchman and Indian Trader, it was judged necessary to call them both before Council, and for further satisfaction, to take security of them for their behavior towards the Government. Accordingly, they were sent for, and obliged each to give security in five hundred pounds sterling."
A short time after these bonds were executed in October 1704, Le Tort was locked up as a prisoner in the Philadelphia common jail.Francis Jennings, "Bisaillon, Peter," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed July 2, 2021 He submitted a petition to the Provincial Council, stating that "he had alwayes been faithful & bore true allegiance to ye Crown of England & was ready to give such further Security as should be thought reasonable, Yet was abriged of his Liberty and detained a prisoner, and praying for relief therein." After paying an additional security of a thousand pounds, he was released and continued trading with the Indians, his mother assisting him. He was again imprisoned in August 1711, because of his French descent, and required to pay another security.
Death of Francis Le Tort, 1711 Le Tort's younger brother Francis Le Tort (often erroneously referred to as "Francis de la Tore") was apprenticed or indentured to the Swedish-American trader, John Hansson Steelman (1655–1749) (also referred to as Stelman or Tillmann). In 1711 he stole or tried to free several slaves (probably other white bond-servants) and fled into the forest. Steelman offered bounty to some Shawnee warriors to bring him back dead or alive, and Francis was killed.
Career as a fur trader In February 1707, Le Tort, along with Martin Chartier, Peter Bisaillon, and two other Frenchmen accompanied the Swiss explorer Franz Ludwig Michel to the upper branches of the Potomac at Antietam and Conococheague creeks, in what is now Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where Michel believed they would find silver ore. Intending to set up a mine, they built several cabins and asked the Conestoga Indians living nearby for assistance, promising that the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania would pay them for their service. The Indians were suspicious, and sent a messenger to Philadelphia to find out if in fact this was true. The Provincial government ordered the Frenchmen to appear in Philadelphia to explain their actions. Franz Ludwig Michel disappeared without offering an explanation, and no silver ore was ever found.Samuel Hazard, Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vol. 2, 1700-1717. Harrisburg: Theophilus Fenn, 1838
Governor John Evans found Le Tort trading with the Shawnees when he visited Paxtang, Pennsylvania on 1 July 1707. At that time, many white fur traders and other merchants were trying to influence Native American communities to side with either the French or the British, one of them being the trader Nicole Godin, an Englishman born of a French father in London. After 1701 Godin operated a trading post near Paxtang and became well known for "using endeavors to incense these people [the local Shawnees], to stir them up to enmity against the subjects of the Crown; and to join with our public enemy, the French, to our destruction." Governor Evans persuaded Martin Chartier and James Le Tort to lure Godin into a trap, and Godin was arrested.William Henry Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical, Relating to Interior Pennsylvania, Volumes 1-2. L. S. Hart, printer., 1883; p. 251. Godin was tried for treason in Philadelphia in 1708, but the results of the trial are unknown.Keith, Charles Penrose. Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English Revolution to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Patterson & White Company, 1917.Cecil County, Md., Judgments, Book E: 204.Corinne Hanna, "Early Traders on the Upper Potomac," November 2019
Le Tort was formally licensed to trade with the Indians in January, 1713 and his name is listed on the first tax-list of Conestoga Township after it was founded in 1718.H. Frank Eshleman, "Assessment Lists and Other Documents of Lancaster County prior to the Year 1729," Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, v. 20, no. 7, Lancaster: Lancaster County Historical Society, 1916 By 1720, after the death of his mother, Le Tort established a trading post at Le Tort's Spring,Letort Spring Run: James Le Tort near what later became the site of Carlisle, Pennsylvania."Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States," Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed 1/10/2021 He built another trading post on the Allegheny River.Carlisle Borough, Cumberland County, PennsylvaniaGodcharles, Frederic Antes, Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania. Lewis historical publishing Company, Incorporated, 1944.
In his petition in 1722 to the Chester County Court, he asked for the renewal of his trading license on the grounds that he had then been "a Trader amongst the Indians for the past twenty-five years." In a letter dated 23 February 1724 James Logan mentions that "James Letort...has been in the branches of the Mississippi for these two winters past and trading far up Susquehanna."David M. Landis, "The Awakening and the Early Progress of the Pequea, Conestoga, and Other Susquehanna Valley Settlements, as Shown by Official Letters, etc., of the Time." Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society, vol. 25, no. 1. Lancaster County Historical Society, 1921. Between 1725 and 1727 Le Tort had a store at the forks of the Susquehanna, on the north side, where he carried on a trade with the Shawnees of Chillisquaque Creek, as well as with the Mingoes and Delawares living at Shamokin; with the Munsees under Manawkyhickon at Muncy Creek; and with the Shawnee on the West Branch of the Susquehanna and on Great Island. John Taylor's 1727 map of the forks of the Susquehanna River shows James Le Tort's store to the east of Shamokin.Egle, William Henry. History of the Counties of Dauphin and Lebanon: In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Biographical and Genealogical. Everts & Peck, 1883.
After 1727, Le Tort operated a trading post at Le Tort's Spring, together with the other "Shamokin Traders," John Petty, Henry Smith,John W. Jordan, ed. A History of the Juniata Valley and Its People. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913. Samuel Cozzens,Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911 John Hart, John Fisher, Timothy Higgins, Jonah Davenport, John Scull and his brother Nicholas Scull II, and Anthony Sadowski. He was one of the earliest, if not the first of the Shamokin Traders to follow the Delawares westward of the Alleghanies. A community near Shelocta was known as of 1769 as "James Letort's Town." This was probably the site of his trading post "at Allegheny" after 1729. Le Tort's Town, Le Tort's Falls and Le Tort's Island in the Ohio River along the southern border of Meigs County, Ohio (all now corrupted to "Letart's"), date from the period when he traded with the Shawnees and Delawares there. He may have settled in the Ohio country for several years, but more probably continued making trips between Philadelphia and Allegheny up to an advanced age.
On 1 May 1734, five Shawnee chiefs dictated a letter to the Governor and Council of Pennsylvania, regarding the various traders who came among the Indians at Allegheny, listing those who were operating in Shawnee communities without a license, and naming others who had engaged in assault and "raising false reports," asking that these traders "may be kept particularly from us." Le Tort and several other traders, including Peter Chartier, were permitted to "have license to come and trade with us." Limits were placed on the amount of rum each trader could sell, and a demand was made that all traders bring "good powder." The letter was signed by Neucheconeh and four other Shawnee leaders and witnessed by Le Tort, Chartier, Larey Lowrey and Jonas Davenport.
Le Tort's name appears as a witness to a deed of release signed by the Delaware chiefs at Philadelphia, 25 August 1737.
Land gift from James Logan, 1719