Jacob Van Braam

Jacob Van Braam was a soldier in the Dutch and British armies and a translator on George Washington’s expeditions into the Ohio Country between 1752 and 1754. Van Braam’s mistranslation of the British surrender documents at Fort Necessity in 1754, and the events that transpired as a result, contributed to the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in North America.

Born in the Netherlands in the municipality of Bergen Op Zoom on April 1, 1729, Van Braam served in various militaries until joining the Carthagena Expedition in 1741 with Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s older half-brother.¹ In 1752, Van Braam traveled to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he attended the same Masonic lodge as George Washington.²

Some writers have long misattributed events as involving Van Braam during his early time in America. Most significantly, in his 1855 biography of George Washington, Washington Irving claimed that Van Braam instructed the young Washington in both swordplay and European military tactics. There is no evidence suggesting that Van Braam taught Washington either of these things.³

In the fall of 1753, Washington asked Van Braam to act as a translator for a mission that Washington would lead into the Ohio Country in order to give the French forces occupying the area a letter from Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie. Though only a lieutenant, Van Braam was known to behave and be treated as a captain by other members of the expedition. Van Braam, Washington, and others traveled to survey French forts being built in the area, specifically Fort LaBoeuf (present-day Waterford, Pennsylvania). After delivering Governor Dinwiddie’s letter, the group went back to Virginia.

In May of 1754, Van Braam again joined Washington and a small military force sent to the Ohio Country by Governor Dinwiddie to mediate Anglo-French land disputes. On May 28, Washington, Van Braam, and the other members of the group engaged in combat against a small French force. Among those killed was a French officer, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, whose mission was to deliver a letter to Washington to tell the British to vacate the Ohio Country, the same type of letter that Washington was to deliver to the French.

After the skirmish and the killing of Jumonville, the British military force rested at the Great Meadows and proceeded to construct Fort Necessity. On July 3, 1754, a skirmish broke out, and the French, led by Louis Colon de Villiers, overpowered Washington’s men. Washington eventually agreed to negotiate. On July 4, he sent Van Braam and another translator, William La Peyrony, to mediate the terms. During the negotiations, La Peyrony succumbed to injuries that he received in the earlier battle and died. 

De Villiers wrote his terms on both sides of a thin piece of paper, which, in combination with the heavy rainfall that started during the battle, resulted in the ink bleeding through the paper and smudging. Van Braam returned from the negotiations with the damaged French reply to Washington. Van Braam began translating messages back and forth between the two men on the basis of the terms established on the water strained note until they reached a British surrender. 

It was at this time that Van Braam mistranslated and confused the words “l’assassin,” meaning “the murder” with “l’assassinat,” meaning “the killing” of Jumonville in May 1754.⁴ This meant that with his signature, Washington unwittingly and incorrectly confessed to the killing of Jumonville. The surrender also correctly asserted the fact that Washington was acting under the authority of the British crown, making any actions, specifically the assassination of a foreign diplomat, such as Jumonville, an act of war. As per the terms of the surrender, the French took two of Washington’s men, Van Braam and another officer, Captain Robert Stobo, as prisoners of war. Once back in Virginia and after learning of the mistranslation and its implications, Washington stated, “That we were wilfully, or ignorantly, deceived by our interpreter [Van Braam] in regard to the word assassination I do aver, and will to my dying moment so . . .”⁵

As a prisoner of war, Van Braam was taken to Montreal and unlike Stobo, who escaped from prison there, would remain a prisoner until Britain captured the city in September 1760. He returned to Virginia, and was tried for treason due to the implications of his mistranslation. He was found innocent of treason due to the condition of the paper obscuring the words, as well as his poor English-speaking skills. As recognition of his service and as an apology for the original charges, he was granted a large reward, roughly £500 and 9000 acres of land in Virginia, as well as a recommendation for promotion to major in the 30^th Battalion of the 60^th foot Royal Americans.⁶

Afterwards, Van Braam moved to Britain, where he lived in London for three years. However, in 1775, he was called to fight in the American Revolutionary War on behalf of Britain, serving on the 60th Regiment of Foot. In early 1776, he sailed to St. Augustine, Florida, before eventually being stationed in the West Indies. Van Braam tried to sell his military commission in order to quit his service in America. Unable to do so, he participated in the 1778 Southern campaign, serving in Georgia. Van Braam retired with the rank of major in 1779.⁷

In December 1783, he wrote to George Washington to offer congratulations on the American victory in the Revolutionary War as well as to express regret for having fought against Washington. Van Braam closed his letter by wishing Washington “a long life to enjoy the blessing of a great people whom You have been the Chief instrument of freeing from bondage.”⁸  The former translator retired and lived in Wales until immigrating to Charleville-Mézières in France, where he lived until his death on August 7, 1792.⁹

Jonathan Marine

George Washington University

Notes: 

1. Will of Jacob Van Braam, Wills and Letters of Administration, PROB 11/1225/15, National Archives of the United Kingdom, London.

2. George Washington, Journal of Colonel George Washington, ed. Randolph Greenfield Adams (New York: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1940), 22.

3. The only existing evidence that Washington ever took lessons in swordplay can be found in Washington's financial papers, and does not mention Jacob Van Braam. On August 7, 1756, Washington paid £1 1s 6d to "Sergeant Wood Fencing Master." See Ledger A, 1750-1772, page 30, The George Washington Financial Papers Project, Center for Digital Editing, University of Virginia. For Washington Irving's story about Van Braam's role, see Irving, George Washington: A Biography, edited by Charles Neider (1855; reprint, New York: Doubleday, 1976), 21. 

4. Washington, Journal of Colonel George Washington, 22.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., 23-24.

7. "Jacob Van Braam to George Washington," December 20, 1783, Founders Online, National Archives.

8. Ibid.

9. Cornelis Arnoldus Duker, notarial deed discussing bequests of Jacob Van Braam, May 4, 1794, record 229, Archives of Utrecht. 

Bibliography:

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. 

Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948.

Irving, Washington. George Washington: A Biography. Edited by Charles Neider. 1855. Reprint, New York: Doubleday, 1976.