Jacques Le Tort
He collaborated with other French-Canadians living there at the time, including Peter Bisaillon and Martin Chartier, as well as the future mayor of Philadelphia, James Logan.
By the late 1690s he had become wealthy and somewhat notorious; the Provincial authorities had his wife arrested on suspicion of conspiring with the French to take control of Pennsylvania territory, although no charges were ever proven.
Coxe founded the New Mediterranean Sea Company in hopes of expanding his business,[4] but could not secure authorization from William Penn, as the British were concerned that competition would reduce fur prices and affect their profits.
[5]Anxious to establish relations with Native American tribes further west, Coxe encouraged Le Tort and his neighbors to make contact with communities in the Ohio Valley and along the upper Mississippi.
[3] Little is known of the journey as the venture was kept secret to prevent interference by the government of New France or by rival businesses, and Le Tort's journal and map were eventually lost.
One of Le Tort's two companions on this journey may have been his fellow countryman Peter Bisaillon, who had traveled down the Mississippi in 1686 with Henri de Tonti.
[3] King William's War erupted in 1688 over competition between England and France for trade routes and territory, which affected Le Tort's business by interfering with travel and reducing access to Native American hunters who supplied fur.
In 1690, Le Tort decided to make a dangerous journey to England to meet with Coxe to discuss opening new areas of business.
[3] Le Tort was able to negotiate a contract with the West Jersey Society of London, and returned to Pennsylvania, probably in early 1694, with new business opportunities.
[10] During Le Tort's absence, his wife was summoned to Philadelphia (together with Peter Bisaillon, and another Huguenot named Captain John Dubrois) and accused on 19 December 1693 before the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania of having carried on a secret correspondence in the year before with "the strange Indians called the Shall-Narooners (Shawnees) and the French of Canada.
The accusation, by Thomas Jenner and Polycarpus Rose, stated that Anne Le Tort had predicted that the French would come "to take away land from the English," that she had frequent visits from "strange Indians whose language they could not understand," and that she had left a mysterious packet wrapped up in a blue linen cloth, which was then picked up by "James the Frenchman."
For a few years Bisaillon, Chartier and Le Tort ran a smuggling operation, bringing furs from Detroit to Albany and Pennsylvania, where the English paid a higher price for them.
[14]: 31 Using their connections with Native American communities, Le Tort, Bisaillon and Chartier posed a threat to other local fur traders, and soon there were complaints.
"[2] This indicates that Bisaillon decided to move out of the backcountry, closer to a town such as Downingtown, while his colleague Jacques Le Tort took over the direct trade with the Native Americans who supplied most of their furs.
[15]: 290 Jacques Le Tort is known to have testified at a hearing, on behalf of William Penn, in London on 9 June 1702, in regard to accusations that Peter Bisaillon was a French spy.
