Jean Law de Lauriston

Jean Law de Lauriston, then Governor General set to rebuild the town on the old foundations and after five months 200 European and 2000 Tamil houses had been erected.

A document dated 15 May 1765 showed that the villages of Yanam and Kapulapalem, with certain other lands, had been ceded by John White Hill and George Dolben.

They had negotiated a deal (for taking over the villages) with Jean-Jacques Panon, the French Commissioner, who was Jean Law de Lauriston's deputy when he was Governor General of Pondicherry.

It is possible to have a commerce here worth more than a million livres per year under circumstances more favorable than those in which we are placed now, but always by giving advances much earlier, which we have never been in a position to do.

Although the English gained an effective control over the Circars, Yanam enabled the French to enter into secret relations with the local chieftains.

Jean Law's Memoire: Mémoires sur quelques affaires de l’Empire Mogol 1756-1761 contains detailed information about the campaign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and his French allies against the British East India Company . [ citation needed ]