Saint-Domingue, je repars sans regret | Appraisal of a plantation, 1776

Manuscript. Appraisal of Maillard Plantation. Torbeck, Saint-Domingue: March 1776. Folio; one bifoliate leaf; iron gall ink; mostly clean; tear along top and tail of interior fold; soiled along top and right edges; all edges frayed and torn; top right of leaf has been torn off; rectos and interior verso. This document is the appraisal of an estate founded by Simon Pierre Maillart Berron (1690–1758), who served as Intendant of the Leeward Islands of Saint-Domingue from 1739–53. Born in the Côte d’Or department of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté where his father Pierre was Commissioner-controller in charge of the Marine Woods, Maillart held a succession of civil positions with the Navy, including an appointment in 1728 as first secretary to the infamous Jean Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas. He survived his patron’s downfall in 1749 and retired to his plantation in 1753 with a pension of 12,000 livres [$200,000 in 2024 USD] from the colony and the Invalides [veteran’s fund]. It is unclear