64 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
ney'® executed at Henderson, Kentucky, on July 26, 
1817, in favor of his brother-in-law, Gabriel Loyen du 
Puigaudeau. This measure was taken more than a year 
after Audubon’s father had drawn up his last will, in 
which the son was referred to as “Jean Rabin,” and was 
evidently designed to facilitate any settlement of this 
will which events in France might render necessary. 
The naturalist was then engaged in his famous but dis- 
astrous financial enterprises on the Ohio River,’’ but 
whether any intimation had come to him of possible legal 
troubles, which later actually ensued in France, cannot 
be stated. 
* This unique document reads as follows: 
“To all to whom these presents may come: know ye that I, John 
Audubon, having special trust and confidence in my friend, G. Loyen Du 
Puigaudeau, of the Department of Loire and [sic] Inférieure, and Parish 
of Couéron, near Nantes, in the kingdom of France, [do constitute him] 
my true and lawful attorney, and the true and lawful attorney in fact of 
Jean Rabin, husband of Lucy Bakewell, of the County of Henderson 
and State of Kentucky, in the United States of America, for us [?], the 
said Jean Rabin, and in our name to our use and benefit, to ask, demand, 
sue for, recover, and receive all and every part of the Real and Personal 
Estate, that is to say Lands, Tenements, Grounds, Chattels, and credits, 
which I have, or either of us, in the Department of Loire and [sic] 
Inferieure in the kingdom of France, aforesaid, and to make sale of the 
same, either at auction, or by contract of the said Lands and Tenements, 
Goods, Chattells, and Credits, to receive the money arising from said 
sale, to give any Receipt, acquittance, or other discharge for the said 
money or any part thereof, if money or specie shall be received, or for 
any property he may receive in exchange or barter for said Real and 
personal Estate, and our said attorney, or the attorney of Jean Rabin 
aforesaid, is hereby authorized and empowered to make, give, execute, and 
deliver any Deed, Covenant, or transfer of said Real and Personal Estate 
to the purchaser of all or any part thereof for us, or for the said 
Jean Rabin, in as full and ample a manner as he, the said Jean, could 
do, was he personally present in said Department, in the Kingdom. In 
testimony whereof the said John Audubon has hereunto set his hand and 
affixed his seal the Twenty Sixth day of July, Anno Domini One thousand 
& Eight hundred and Seventeen. 
Joun J. Avpuzon [Seal within] 
On the back of the preceding is the notary’s certificate that Jean Audu- 
bon appeared before him; seal affixed, and dated July 26, 1817. 
Signed, “A[mproze] Barpanp, 
Notary of Henderson County, Kentucky.” 
See Chapter XVI. 
