509-511 Decatur St.

No. 1. Conditions made by the Sr. Prevost for the rent of his house to serve as lodging for the Governor, as well for the lodgings to be built there to render it sufficiently livable.

To wit:

That the said Sr. Prevost shall renounce any gratuities that have been promised to him by the late Monsieur Michel, to indemnify him for the beggardlyness of the rents of the said house that he occupied up until the time of his death, at the rate of two thousand livres per year, besides which he will come into a sum of twenty thousand livres, to be taken above the price of the lease, as hereafter (stated) for all the large and small additions and repairs to the building already built as well as to those that shall be deemed suitable to build on the lot of the said house during the term of the lease, which will be for six years beginning the first of February of the present year 1753.

That the rents due him will be paid up to and including the end of last December 1752 on the basis...of his former contract.

That the rents of the present lease shall run beginning the first of February of the present year one thousand seven hundred fifty three, at the rate of seven thousand five hundred livres per year, which sum will be paid to him, to wit: that of four thousand livres which will be ordered on the treasury to him, and that of three thousand five hundred livres which he will have retained from him until the complete reimbursement of the sum of twenty thousand livres, for which sum he is taking on all the expenses to be made for all the additions, building repairs and maintenance &c., as is said here below, on the said lots during the said Lease.

As the Old Intendance will be let to him for lodging himself and his [s]ervant during the term of the said lease, and as the necessary repairs will be made there in order to keep it closed and covered at the King's expense ----

The present conditions, made on the first of March 1753.
At New Orleans the first of December 1757.

Prevost

Today, twentieth day of the month of July, one thousand seven hundred fifty eight, there appeared before the Recorder of the Superior Council of the Province of Louisiana, the Sieur Prevost, Agent of the Company, and Captain of the Coast Guard militia in this Colony, who has requested us to receive on Deposit, to be put in line in our minutes, two written papers numbered No. 1 and 2, signed by the said appearer, one which, under the No. 1 entitled Conditions made by the Sieur Prevost, as much for the rent of his House to serve as a lodging for the Governor as for the lodgings to be built there to render it sufficiently Livable, which paper is a duplicate of the one remitted by the said Sieur Prevost to the late Monsieur D'Auberville, then ordonnateur, the first of March one thousand seven hundred fifty three, copy of which was given at the same time to Mr. Deverges, Engineer in Chief in the Colony, dated the first of December one thousand seven hundred fifty seven, date on which the said Sr. Prevost remitted another copy of it to Mr. Descloseaux. The other under the No. 2 being an account of the rents relative to the aforesaid conditions the twelfth of this month, and sent by him to be attended to by M. de Rochemore when he will have arrived in this colony, conforming to the reply of my said Sr. Descloseaux dated the fifteenth of the same month, put at the foot of the said account. We have besides been told and declared to by the said Sr. Prevost that the House of the Old Intendance which was given back to him for his lodging which ought to have had the necessary repairs made in order to render the said house livable, closed and covered, is found for more than two years beyond condition of being lived in for lack of repairs that he has not been able to obtain until this day although he had urged them since the first of [February] one thousand seven hundred fifty three, the time that he entered it; that actually the said house is beyond condition of being repaired, and that it is no longer habitable without an evident risk on the part of those who might wish...to lodge there, that there is even danger of damage, by reason of which he has been indispensably obliged to have several props or timbers put up in order to have time to remove the papers of the Company of the Indies and shelves that are found in part of the said house, which obliges the said appearer to claim damages for the non-execution of the clauses of his contract, and notably for the rent of a house large enough to lodge himself up until the first of February next, one thousand seven hundred fifty nine, declaring besides that he wishes to occupy for himself at the time of the first of February one thousand seven hundred fifty nine, his house which is now serving and which is due to serve up until that said date for the Governor's lodging. For all of which he requests that acts be granted to him [at New Orleans] the above said day, month and year, and has signed.

[signed]
Prevost
Chantalou, Recorder

No. 2. Account of the rents of the house of the Sr. Prevost serving...as the Government House since the 1st of Feb. 1753 up to and including the last of January next, 1759, making the six years that it was due to be occupied at the terms of the conditions remitted by the said Sr. Prevost to the late Monsieur D'Auberville, then Commissaire Ordonnateur.

To wit:

6 years of rents at the rate of [$]7500 per year, thus --- $45,000 --- besides the lodging of the said proprietor in the old intendance, for the time ended by the request made to him for this lodging in order to put the Swiss Troop there on the 1st of August 1785.

Indemnity granted by Monsieur Descloseaux of a sum of one thousand livres for the time [?] remaining of the six year term --- $1,000. [First total of $46,000.]

On which sum of forty six thousand livres he has been issued five orders [?] on account of the rents for the years 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756 and 1757, including the month of January 1758, of $4,000 each --- thus, $20,000.

Besides the sum of twenty thousand lives in the old [account?] of the said proprietor for which part he was due to go into all the building additions, major or minor repairs that have been made during the time of his years by the retention of the $3,500 in excess of the $4,000 that he was due to receive per year, thus --- $20,000. [Second total of $40,000.]

For final settlement there is due up to the said January 1759, to wit:
For rents --- $5,000; Indemnity for 6 months lodging --- $1,000
[Total ---] $46,000

The said Sr. Prevost

Very humbly beseecheth Monsieur Descloseaux Commissaire Ordonnateur, to be good enough to give him an act of declaration that he has the honor of making to him, that the conditions of the rents of his said house serving as the Government House will be ten thousand livres per year without his being held for any of the expenses of additions, major and minor repairs which are to be at the expense of the King for the whole time that his said house will be occupied to serve as the Government House, to begin the 1st of February 1759, or which sum payment will be made to him every six months each year of five thousand livres.

At New Orleans the 12 July 1758
Prevost

Sent to the Sr. Prevost to be appealed before M. de Rochemore on his arrival in the Colony,
at New Orleans, the 15 July 1758.
Bobe Descloseaux

[N.B. Lower number (7252); upper number (54521...54526).]