River; but there was much outside diplomatic sparring over
the disputes between the Governor of Louisiana and the Georgians about
trespasses and conflicting rights. The last communication of the
commissioners was dated in 1794. The next year the negotiations were
transferred to Madrid and the treaty was signed there and Jaudenes
probably then returned to Spain. There seems to be no trace of him after
that.
The only other facts in regard to him are to be gathered from the two
pictures recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which are
the subject of this article. They are signed G. Stuart, R. A., New York,
September 8, 1794, and bear inscriptions in Spanish which, to complete
the record, are here given in full:
DON JOSEF DE JAUDENES Y NEBOT COMISARIO ORDENADOR DE LOS REALES
EXERCITOS Y MINISTRO EMBIADO DE SU MAGESTAD CATHOLICA CERCA DE LOS
ESTADOS UNIDOS DE AMERICA. NACIO EN LA CIUDAD DE VALENCIA REYNO DE
ESPANA EL 25 DE MARZO DE 1764.
DONA MATILDE STOUGHTON DE JAUDENES--ESPOSA DE DON JOSEF DE JAUDENES
Y NEBOT COMISARIO ORDENADOR DE LOS REALES EXERCITOS DE SU MAGESTAD
CATHOLICA Y SU MINISTRO EMBIADO CERCA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE
AMERICA. NACIO EN LA CIUDAD DE NUEVA-YORK EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EL
11 DE ENERO DE 1778.
We learn from these that Don Josef was thirty and his bride in her
seventeenth year, and that she was born in New York. Unfortunately this
is all that we know about her. Stoughton is a sufficiently familiar name
in the colonial records of the New England and Middle States, but the
lady of the portrait has not yet been identified nor has a search of the
newspapers of the day revealed any mention of her marriage. It may very
probably have taken place on September 8th, 1794, the date placed after
Stuart's name on both canvases; but the journalists of that time took
less note of such international alliances than those of the present.
Something more about the lady is, however, certain to be found by the
genealogists and delvers in old diaries and correspondence, for the
wedding of the young Spanish diplomat with the pretty American girl just
midway in her teens must have set tongues wagging and pens inditing. How
the match turned out we do not know, but some argument as to their
happiness may be based on the fact that Jaudenes' successor, the Marquis
d'Yrujo, followed his example and took an American bride in the person
of Miss Sally McKean, who was
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