[m'lachlan] FLEURY MESPLET, FIRST PRINTER AT MONTREAL 2S1 



No. 30. 



Note.— "In the Warrant book is a record of a payment of 200 dollars 

 to the printer Mesplet for removing to Canada." 



[The phrase between parallels does not occur in the original manuscript 

 journal.] 



27 May, 1785. ^°' 



On a report from the board of treasury to whom was referred a 

 memorial of Fleury Mesplet, printer. 



Resolved that the sum of four hundred and twenty-six dollars and 

 forty-five ninetieths of a dollar be paid to Mr. Fleury de Mesplet on 

 account of expenses attending the transporting himself, family and printing 

 utensils from Philadelphia to Montreal. 



No. 32. 



Papers of Continental Congress No. 41, Vol. 6, p. 305. 



To the Honorable the President and Members of the Congress of the 

 United States. 



The Memorial of Fleury Mesplet of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec. 

 Shewet'n, 



That your Memorialist was a citizen of Philadelphia; and in the year 

 1776, was happily established in his business of a printer in that city: That 

 upon the conquest of a part of the Province of Quebec by the Arms of the 

 United States, it was thought expedient to establish a Press in the town 

 of Montreal; that your Memorialist on account of 'nis language and known 

 attachment to the interests of the United States, was selected by Congress 

 to direct such a Press, and did at the request of Congress, and in hopes 

 of the support and recompense of that body relinquish a comfortable situa- 

 tion and remove his Press at a very great expense, from Philadelphia to 

 Montreal, where he unceasingly laboured to promote the interest of the 

 States; until the evacuation of the province by t'neir army, when on 

 account of the impossibility of conveying his Press, he was constrained to 

 remain in the exercise of his business, until he was apprehended and con- 

 fined in the Military Prisons of Quebec as a State Prisoner, during the 

 space of three years and six months, in which time he constantly wanted 

 the conveniences frequently the necessaries of life: T'hat the cessation of 

 arms has restored him to personal liberty, but deprived of the means of 

 enjoyment, which can only be restored to him by the Justice and Bounty 

 of Congress, in taking into consideration the circumstances of his case, 

 and ordering such relief as it may seem to merit.^ 



Montreal, 1st Août 1783. FLEURY MESPLET. 



Endorsed — Read 30 September, 1783. 

 Referred to Mr. Holton, Mr. Lee, Mr. Clarke. Discharged Nov. 1783. 



No. 33. 

 Papers of Continental Congress, No. 41, Vol. 6, p. 303. 



Evénements pendant le voyage du Sieur Fleury Mesplet, imprimeur, 

 parti de Philadelphie, sous les ordres exprès du respectable congrès pour 

 aller, en qualité d'imprimeur, en Canada. 



J'ai parti de Philadelphia, le 16 Mars 1776. mon épouse, Mr. Pochard, 

 homme de lettre, deux ouvriers et un domestique. 



' This is a printed document signed. 



