John Patten (ca. 1725 - 1754, also known as John Pattin), was a fur trader, explorer and map maker known initially for his travels in the Ohio Country, and later for his Arctic exploration. He produced two important maps of Ohio and western Pennsylvania, as well as one of the east coast of Labrador. He was held captive for two years by the French and released through the intervention of the British ambassador to France. He died on an exploratory journey to eastern Canada in 1754, at the age of 29.Edwin Swift Balch, "Arctic Expeditions Sent from the American Colonies," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 31, No. 4, 1907, pp. 419-428
Birth and early life Patten was born in Wilmington in what is now Delaware but at the time was part of Pennsylvania, in about 1725.Maud M. Hutcheson, "PATTIN, JOHN," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 13, 2025 His education is unknown, but the two maps attributed to him suggest some training in surveying and cartography. He was employed as "draftsman and mineralist" on his arctic voyages, indicating some training in geology.Eavenson, Howard Nicholas. Map Maker & Indian Traders: An Account of John Patten, Trader, Arctic Explorer, and Map Maker; Charles Swaine, Author, Trader, Public Official, and Arctic Explorer; Theodorus Swaine Drage, Clerk, Trader, and Anglican Priest. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1949. In June 1750, he went on horseback to western Pennsylvania, stopping to buy £91 worth of supplies at John Harris' trading post in Harris Ferry in July. He then returned to Wilmington. In a deposition he made while imprisoned by the French, Patten stated that he obtained a trading license from the governor of Pennsylvania, then left his Wilmington home on August 24, 1750, and traveled to the Ohio Country to trade for furs with Native Americans there.
Arrest and imprisonment, 1750
In November 1750 Patten stopped at Pickawillany on his way to trade with Native communities on the St. Marys River. On November 20, after trading with the Indians, Patten went to Fort St. Philippe to purchase supplies (in another statement, Patten reported that the Indians told him that the French invited him to the fort), where the commandant, Louis Coulon de Villiers, ordered him to be arrested and his goods confiscated. Patten was then taken to Detroit, where he was examined by Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville and charged with encroachment on French territory and "endeavoring to debauch our Indians," and was imprisoned briefly at Fort Niagara. During the next nine months he was transferred to prisons in Toronto, Fort Frontenac, Quebec City, and Montreal, where on 19 June 1751, he was examined by Governor La Jonquiere and his council at Château Vaudreuil. Patten kept a journal of his experiences while imprisoned.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
In response to a letter from New York Governor George Clinton, Governor La Jonquiere stated in August 1751 that "John Pathin might have enjoyed...liberty, but he is so mutinous, and made such menaces, that I was obliged to send him to prison in Quebec." In November 1751, Patten and two other traders arrested in Ohio (Luke Erwin and Thomas Bourke, employees of George Croghan) were sent to a prison in La Rochelle, France. In February 1752, they were all released through the help of Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, the British Ambassador in Paris. The ambassador demanded "the restitution of their effects that had been unjustly taken from them,""Extract of a letter from the earl of Albemarle to the earl of Holderness, dated at Paris February 19 (March 1) 1752," in Tindal, Nicolas. The Continuation of Mr. Rapin's History of England: From the Revolution to the Present Times, vol XXI, IXth of the continuation. T. Osborne, 1759 paid for Patten's passage to Paris, and from there to London, where on March 8, 1752, he reported on his captivity to Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, Secretary of State for the Southern Department."Papers Dealing with French Encroachment in America: 1748/49 - 1755," The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick, 2025 While in London he met with Thomas Penn, who was at that time the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he made a deposition describing his experiences to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly on October 17, 1752. Patten reported that the trade goods, furs and skins, a dozen horses, and other items taken from him were worth £950, and the Assembly voted to give him £30 as "relief".
Patten later sent copies of his report to William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, probably after meeting him in 1753, and to Dr. William Clarke, a Boston physician, who wrote about the report to Benjamin Franklin."To Benjamin Franklin from William Clarke, 18 March 1754," Founders Online, National Archives, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 5, July 1, 1753, through March 31, 1755, ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962, pp. 250–252.
Map of the Ohio Country
Records of a meeting of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly on January 15, 1753, show that they received "the account John Pattin gave of the several places in Canada through which he passed, when taken by the French, together with a map of that country, drawn by the said Pattin." Historian Howard Eavenson proposed in 1941 that the "Trader's Map of the Ohio Country before 1753" may in fact be the map submitted to the assembly. Patten's map was also probably the earliest one to identify coal deposits in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Richard Peters wrote to Thomas Penn that: "Having traded from Potomac several years, and being intimately acquainted with all the Waters, Passages and mountains between that River and the Lakes, [Patten] was persuaded to venture at a Plan of the Country, and when he brought it to me...I could not but approve it, and encouraged him to make three or four copies, which he did, leaving one for you, and one for the assembly and giving me one for my own private use...I recommend it to you as the most perfect Draught by far of your Western Bounds...Patten has learned to make an intelligent and tolerably neat Draught."
The one surviving copy of this map, now at the Library of Congress, is believed to be the one Patten kept for himself. Although the map was never formally printed or published, it is likely that Lewis Evans used it as a source for his 1755 "General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America," which shows the same coal deposits identified on Patten's map, which appear on no other maps of this period.
First Arctic voyage, 1753
In March 1753 Patten joined the crew of the Argo, where he served as a "draftsman and mineralist". The ship was a commercial vessel authorized to explore the coast of Labrador in search of the Northwest Passage, and had received funding from Benjamin Franklin."From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 28 February 1753," Founders Online, National Archives, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 4, July 1, 1750, through June 30, 1753, ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961, pp. 446–449. Captain Charles Swaine hoped to win the £20,000 reward offered for the successful discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Patten's experience as a fur trader was also relevant, as Swaine hoped to establish trade relations with indigenous communities in order to obtain furs.
Finding their route blocked by ice at Resolution Island, they mapped the Labrador coastline, uncovering fishing spots and copper deposits before returning to Philadelphia in November. The Pennsylvania Gazette reported that "we hear they have made a very good Chart, and have a better Account of the Country, its Soil, Produce, &c, than has hitherto been published."The Pennsylvania Gazette, November 15, 1753, Number 1299Joseph Everett Nourse, ed. Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition Made by Charles F. Hall: His Voyage to Repulse Bay, Sledge Journeys to the Straits of Fury and Hecla and to King William's Land, and Residence Among the Eskimos During the Years 1864-'69. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1879.Solis-Cohen, B. "Philadelphia's Expeditions to Labrador," Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 19(2), 1952; pp 148–162 Patten sent his map to Benjamin Franklin, after which it was lost.
Visit to Logstown, 1754
In December 1753 Patten met with Governor James Hamilton, who asked him to accompany two Shawnee warriors, who had been released from captivity among the Catawba, to their home in the Ohio Country. This was a cover for a clandestine mission to the Ohio country for the purpose of investigating French military preparations and mapping the area. Hamilton's instructions include: "You are likewise to take a particular Account of the Road from Carlisle, so as to know how far Westward Shanoppin is from thence...and how far the French Forts are from Lake Erie or from the Straits of Niagara."James P. Myers, "Mapping Pennsylvania's Western Frontier in 1756," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 123, No. 1/2 January - April, 1999, pp. 3-29, University of Pennsylvania Press Patten was to make the journey in the company of George Croghan and Andrew Montour, who were more experienced and spoke several Native American languages.
Hamilton also ordered Patten to take a message to the Native American leaders at Logstown, however when they arrived on January 14, 1754, they found most of the adults drunk on brandy sent to them by the French. Patten was disliked by Croghan and Montour, but they succeeded in mapping the Ohio Country and observing the movement of French troops. Croghan wrote to Richard Peters that "Mr. Patten, to my opinion, is very much Bigotted of himself; he and Androw Montour dose nott agree well."Samuel Hazard, ed. Pennsylvania Archives, vol. II: 1748. Philadelphia: J. Severns & Company, 1853 Patten reported that "Croghan had at all times persuaded the Indians to destroy the French," and that "self-interest was his sole motive in every thing he did...[as he tried] to engross the whole trade."William J. Campbell, "An Adverse Patron: Land, Trade and George Croghan," Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies,, Vol. 76, No. 2, 2009
On January 15, 1754, the Oneida leader Tanacharison returned to Logstown from a journey with George Washington to Fort LeBoeuf,William A. Hunter, "Tanaghrisson," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 15, 2021 escorted by a French detachment under Ensign Michel Maray de La ChauvigneriePapiers Contrecoeur: Le Conflit Anglo - Français Sur L'Ohio de 1745 à 1756. English translation of documents in the Quebec Seminary by Donald Kent, 1952 which set up a temporary post nearby. Patten and Croghan had arrived in Logstown the day before, and observed the arrival of the French troops, "an Ensign, a Sergeant, and Fifteen Soldiers." On January 16, as Patten was walking around the town, the French commandant ordered him to be arrested. Tanacharison, Montour, and Croghan protested vigorously, and during the dispute, Tanacharison knocked the French commandant down, telling Patten: "You are a free man, I discharge you, go about your business." Patten was released. Seeing that the Native residents of Logstown, most of whom were intoxicated, were angry, the French detachment left the town and camped elsewhere.Croghan, George, A selection of George Croghan's letters and journals relating to tours into the western country--November 16, 1750-November, 1765. Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904