Scope and Contents
Reports concern expeditions led by Jean d'Estrées and other French naval officers during the Dutch War and War of the Grand Alliance, voyages of French ships to Africa and the West Indies, and commercial and military activities of other colonial powers, particularly Spain. The collection contains intelligence profiles on Spanish mining and trade of silver and salt, as well as the movements, structure, and economics of the Spanish fleet. Several reports are addressed to French Navy Secretary Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, and some were compiled for Bégon in his capacity as intendant of Saint-Domingue, and later La Rochelle. Other topics of reports include French relations with the Vatican and political developments in the Ottoman Empire. Also present are decrees, publications, correspondence, and writings related to horse breeding in France, and trade of tobacco, sugar, and chocolate.
The collection additionally contains journals, correspondence, and reports of Jean de la Mousse, a Jesuit missionary living among the Kalina people in French Guiana; an account of Spanish food offered to d'Estrées in Cadiz; and a journal detailing the voyage of a French ship to the West Indies, which contains references to slavery and the slave trade.
Dates
- circa 1651-1718
Creator
Language of Materials
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Arrangement
Extent
3.72 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
Michel Bégon (1638-1710)
Processing Information
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list were transcribed as found, retaining variant spellings. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Folder titles in brackets were supplied by staff during processing.
Some materials in the collection are enclosed with typed transcriptions, translations, or description created by a previous custodian; the information provided in those documents has not been verified.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
Former call numbers: Uncat MSS 108; Uncat MSS 211; Uncat MSS 138; Uncat MSS 123.
- Begon, Michel, 1638-1710
- Botany -- West Indies
- Carib Indians
- Catholic Church (Foreign relations)
- Colonial administrators
- Colonial administrators -- West Indies, French -- 17th century
- Dutch War, 1672-1678
- Estrées, Jean, duc d', 1624-1707
- France -- Colonies -- Administration
- France -- Colonies -- Africa
- France -- Colonies -- West Indies
- France -- Commerce -- 17th century
- France -- Commerce -- 18th century
- France -- Foreign relations -- Netherlands
- France. Marine
- Grand Alliance, War of the, 1689-1697
- Horses--Breeding--France--History--17th century
- Indians of South America -- Missions
- La Mousse, Jean de, 1650-1699
- Netherlands -- Foreign relations -- France
- Salt industry and trade -- Spain
- Seignelay, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de, 1651-1690
- Silver mines and mining -- Mexico
- Silver mines and mining -- Spain
- Slave trade
- Slavery -- West Indies, French.
- Spain -- Commerce -- 17th century
- Spain. Armada
- Turkey--History--Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918
- West Indies, French -- Commerce -- Early works to 1800
- Title
- Guide to the Michel Bégon Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Brooke McManus
- Date
- September 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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