James Le Tort

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. 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. His father accompanied a shipment of skins and furs to London and on his return voyage in June 1702, was lost at sea.

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." They were harassed, arrested and imprisoned, often on false or minor charges. 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." 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."

Governor John Evans found Le Tort trading with the Shawnees when he visited Paxtang, Pennsylvania on 1 July 1707. Godin was tried for treason in Philadelphia in 1708, but the results of the trial are unknown.

Le Tort was formally licensed to trade with the Indians in January, 1713 By 1720, after the death of his mother, Le Tort established a trading post at Le Tort's Spring, near what later became the site of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He built another trading post on the Allegheny River.

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." 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, Samuel Cozzens, John Hart, John Fisher, Timothy Higgins, Jonah Davenport, John Scull and his brother Nicholas Scull II, and Anthony Sadowski. Logan's letter to Taylor says, in part:

"Loving ffriend...I am very desirous the old gentlewoman should have some land that she may be fixed, and leave something to her grandchildren. Pray see that it be laid out of a sufficient depth; I think a mile and a half or a quarter, at least, is little enough, but this is left to thee...J. Le Tort is to have 500 acres laid out in the same manner. Thy real friend, J. LOGAN.

In 1720, Le Tort established a trading post on what is now known as LeTort Spring Run, in the area of present-day Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Career as interpreter

Because of his fluency in Unami, the Delaware dialect, Le Tort was officially employed as interpreter at several conferences. He eventually learned some of the Algonquian languages such as Shawnee well enough to interpret them also. The first reference to his acting as interpreter appears in the Minutes of the General Assembly for 9 May 1704, in which he was asked to interpret for two Iroquois who had brought a message from the Five Nations.

He is listed as an official interpreter at the Conestoga Council of July 1721, and the Conestoga Council of June 1722, both attended by Governor William Keith.

On 30 April 1730, Le Tort acted as interpreter and scribe for a letter from Shannopin and five other Lenape leaders, "the chiefs of ye Delewares at Allegaeniny, on the main road," to Deputy Governor Patrick Gordon, protesting against the sale of rum in Lenape communities and asking the Governor to "prevent any further misfortunes for the future, we would request that the Governor would please regulate the Traders, and suppress such numbers of them from coming into the woods; and especially from bringing such large quantities of rum."

In June 1732, Le Tort's name appears as "interpreter" on a letter from several Shawnee leaders sent to Governor Gordon in explanation for the sudden move of Shawnees from Pechoquealin (now Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania) to Wyomink in August, 1728. The move was so sudden that the Shawnees did not take the time to harvest their cornfields. The letter states that the Five Nations proposed that the Shawnees join them in attacking English settlements, but the Shawnee refused, and the Five Nations advised them to relocate to Wyomink, adding that the Shawnee should "look back toward Ohio, the place from whence you came; and return thitherward."

Deposition of 1731

Le Tort and his colleague Jonas Davenport were called to testify before Governor Patrick Gordon on 29 October 1731.

Le Tort also speaks of visits made to Montreal by the Shawanese in the early part of the years 1730 and 1731.

At the time of their examination, Davenport and Le Tort provided an estimate of the populations of the Allegheny settlements, and the names of their chiefs, as follows:

Connumach: 20 families; 60 men; Delawares. Kythenning River, 50 miles distant: 50 families; 150 men; mostly Delawares. Chiefs: Capt. Hill, a Alymaepy; Kykenhammo, a Delaware; Sypous, a Mingoe. Senangelstown (sometimes identified as Shannopin's Town), 16 miles distant: 16 families; 50 men; Delawares. Chief: Senangel. Lequeepees, 60 miles distant: Mingoes, mostly, and some Delawares; 4 settled families, but a great resort of these people. On Connumach Creek, three Shawanese Towns; 45 families; 200 men. Chief: Okowela (suspected to be a favourer of the French interest). Asswikales: 50 families; lately from S. Carolina to Ptowmack, 100 men. Aqueloma, their chief, true to the English. Ohesson upon Choniata, distant from Susquehanna, 60 miles: Shawanese; 20 families; 60 men. Chief: Kissikahquelas. Assunepachla upon Choniata, distant, about 100 miles by water and 50 by land from Ohesson: Delawares; 12 families; 36 men.

A James Letort, possibly his son, is listed as serving under George Washington at the Battle of Great Meadows on 9 July 1754, He is listed as a member of Captain Peter Hog's company, and again under "Men Fit for Duty, Sick or Wounded," as "Lame on the road." He disappears from the records after this, and 1742 is usually listed as his date of death and burial.