New evidence has emerged that partially identifies the second individual who signed his name “Mousnier de La Montagne” to this historic document, and that may point us to the French origins of Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne.

When considering what would induce the earliest European settlers to brave the pitfalls of the “New World” the Round-Robin Petition is an important founding document. That being said, I have spent much time over many years contemplating its history, its content, and on those who would come to sign their name, or lay their mark upon this marvelous expression of freedom.¹

The petitioners, composed of Walloons, French, English, and native Hollanders, who were seeking aid from King James I of England, and the Virginia Company of London, to settle in the vicinity of what is today New York City. The petition included seven articles that expressed the freedom, liberties and privileges that the “Walloons” had been seeking. These articles were drafted by the hand of Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne,² while the signatures and marks themselves were collected by Jesse de Forest.³

One of the several mysteries pertaining to this document that had continued to puzzle me were the two apparently different signatures of the exact same name,—”Mousnier de la Montagne”—both inscribed on this petition one signature atop the other. This same name twice signed represents a “nom de terre”⁴ together with a surname, leaving absent the given names of the two signers, thus providing us with the question, was this two distinct individuals, or one person being represented twice—and if two persons, who was this second person in relation to our known subject, Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne? Now I believe part of this riddle has been solved, and we can now at least partially identify the second individual.

ABOVE: From the first of the two signatures found on the Round-Robin Petition, the letter “J” can be seen, though the creasing damage to the document hampers this somewhat.

ABOVE: From the second of the two signatures found on the Round-Robin Petition, the letter “P” is believed to be the added initial. SEE examples of the letter “P” given below.

It was some years ago when I first recognized that each of two similarly signed names inscribed on the “round-robin” petition might contain an additional letter to the forefront of the surname “Mousnier” thereby representing the given name of each of these individuals. Yet it was not until recently while searching for clues to the family origins of LaMontagne, in the records of the Church of Saint-Andre in Angouleme, France , that I became convinced of this fact.

As can be seen in these same church records it was common practice for half a dozen or more witnesses to sign a single sacramental entry. Likewise, it was common practice, perhaps in an effort to save space, that most of the signers did not provide their complete name, but only gave their surname, with perhaps an added initial representing their given name. It was also not uncommon, much like the two signatures inscribed on the Round-Robin Petition, that some of these signers would conjoin the initial of their given name to the first letter of their surname, often incorporated it in such a way that to a modern researcher the added initial is hard to distinguish masking itself as what might be interpreted as the artistic flare of the signee.

Returning to the two signatures found on the Round-Robin Petition, the first of these appears to contain a “J” conjoined to the “M” in the surname Mousnier. This signature also matches quite well to the known handwriting samples we have for LaMontagne, including his signature affixed to a Leiden notary document. Much like the signatures found in the church records of Angouleme this signature of LaMontagne given on the notary document was likewise absent a given name and his nom de terre, which to some degree helps to support the primary conjecture here presented.

As to the second signature, which is presumed to contain the added initial “P”, we have no known samples to compare it to other than those of unrelated individuals who constructed their P’s in a similar manner. For comparison purposes provided below are some examples found in the records of the Church of Saint-Andre of Angouleme. But before we get to these let us attempt to more clearly illustrate this overall conjecture by digitally separating the two initials which help to comprise each of the two signatures in question found on the Round-Robin Petition, thereby making future comparisons much easier.

ABOVE: A clearer example of Jehan Mousnier’s signature with the initial “J” attached to his surname can be seen as he inscribed it on a Leiden Notary document.⁵

Here on the right, next to the original combination of letters, are separately and individually represented the “J” and “M” taken from the first signature, of which there is no doubt, was inscribed by Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne. In addition the bottom part of the “J” was digitally repaired, this in the attempt to replace the portion lost due to creasing damage. Below these examples are ones taken from the signature found on a Leiden notary document known to be in the hand of Jehan.

Signatures from the Register of Saint-Andre⁹

Compare the above images… On the left is the signature of “Jean Mousnyer” of Angouleme; the signature on the right is that of “Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne”. Both signees appear to employ the same supposed practice of joining the initial of his given name to his surname. Though no definitive relationship between these two individuals has yet been established the handwriting style and form are very similar between the two which may or may not suggest a family relationship of some sort. Below are signatures taken from the baptismal register of the church of Saint-Andre of Angouleme that provide examples of the letter “P”.¹⁰

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Appendices

The following, taken from the sacramental register of the Church of Saint-Andre, is an example of four variations of the surname “Mousnier” having been inscribed on a single entry. Of this practice, it seems plausible that it was the scribe who dictated how the surname was written, perhaps with the intent to aid him in identifying the people mentioned in the document at some later date. Note that in these same church records the more prominent family was most often recorded as “Lemusnier”. ¹³

1. The supposition that some of the individuals involved in the drafting of the Round-Robin Petition may have also had a hand in later drafting the Charter of Freedom and Exempions is extremely tentative, yet plausible. For the most part, this would center around the theory that Johannes de Laet as a leading figure in such enterprises, along with his part in the formation of the Dutch West India Company, helped to draft both the seven articles attached to the Round-Robin Petition, and several years later the Charter of Freedom and Exemptions. It should be noted that less than a month after this second
   document was published LaMontagne and his neighbors left for the “West Indies” seeking to take advantage of the new terms now available to investors and settlers. On a side note, it seems more than a small coincidence that the Charter of Massachusetts Bay issued by the English Crown, which applied to the same territory claimed by the Dutch Colony of New Netherland, seems to have been issued less that two weeks prior to the Charters of Freedom and Exemptions. And here I would not be surprised if the one document had not arisen, at least in part, as a result of the other. ↩︎
2. To date, we have only one example of LaMontagne writing his full name, and that comes from his journal of the Guyana expedition, wherein he gave his name as “Jehan Mousnier de La Montagne”. ↩︎
3. The names of those who could not sign their name, but left their mark, were written in the hand of Jesse de Forest. ↩︎
4. Nom de Terre literally means “Of the Land”. However, the title “de La Montagne”, or “of the Mountains” may perhaps be better categorized as a patronymic-de
   toponymic. This may be pertinent as the nom de terre connotes more the air of nobility, or an attachment to a landed estate, whereas the patronymic-de-toponymic in its
   attachments is less tentative in this regard ↩︎
5. Leiden notary document from 1629 with the archive identifier, “archiefnummer 0506, Archief van notaris Jan Angillis, inventarisnummer 298, blad 118”. This document is very interesting as it is a contract between LaMontagne and a young man servant. The document likewise mentions LaMontagne’s intended voyage to the West Indies with a departure date provided. A similar notary document from this same ledger also records others who were to depart on the same date, and undoubtedly on this same venture to the West Indies, thereby adding to what little knowledge we had of this colonization or commercial effort. ↩︎
6. A booke containing divers sortes of hands as well the English as French secretarie. by Jehan de Beau-Chesne. ↩︎
7. Exemplaires du Sieur Beaulieu: où sont monstrées fidellement toutes sortes de lettres et caracteres de finance, chancelleries, et autres de service : avec une methodique instruction d’icelles: livre premier / taillé par Mathieu Greuter Alleman. Montpellier (1599). ↩︎
8. Exercitatio alphabetica nova et utilissima, variis expressa lingvis et characteribvs : raris ornamentis, vmbris & recessibvs, picture̦, architecturaeque speciosa : nusquam ante hac edita, by Perret, Clément (1569). ↩ ↩︎
9. The baptismal records for the Church of Saint-Andre appear to be the only records remaining prior to 1634 for this church. ↩︎
10. Unfortunately, the city of Angouleme suffered a cyber attack in July of 2023 and for the time being, the archival records that had been available online are no longer accessible, at least for the present time being. ↩︎
11. Signature of (Jehan) “Penof”, from the baptismal records of the Church of Saint-Andre , Angouleme, 1604-1613, image 3 of 328. ↩︎
12. This name has been interpreted by a transcriber as “Montargis”, but I remain somewhat skeptical. ↩︎
13. In the records of Angouleme, both church and civil, it appears that it may have been common practice for the scribe to dictate how a person would sign their name.
    So in the case of the registers of the Church of Saint Andre, all on one record, we might find the surname “Mousnier” listed alongside the variants Lemusnier, Musnier, Mousnier, Mousnyer, etc. The spellings of the names as inscribed by the signers seemed to correspond to how the priest or scribe wrote the name in the preceding sacramental entry. The use of the variant “Lemusnier” seemed to favor the more prominent branch. This may have been a device employed by the scribe to aid him in the effort of being able to identify the persons whose names he recorded at some later date. This same practice may have also been employed in the local notary records. Notably, in this same period, the primary public notary for Angouleme, for whom we have available extracts, was also named Jean Mousnier. SEE the Appendices for an extreme example of this practice regarding the variants of the surname “Mousnier” attached to a single baptismal entry. ↩︎