Lewis Littlepage: Fighting From Revolution to Revolution

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ a Virginia ‘prodigy of genius’ combines a proficiency for arms and diplomacy in an age of revolution.

A portrait of Polish King Stanislaw. Lewis Littlepage is most famous for this allegiance to the Polish king. Public Domain

“The vicissitudes of fortune which I have experienced, and continual uncertainty of my place of residence, have prevented for several years past my writing to you, or any of my friends in America,” wrote Lewis Littlepage on Jan. 17, 1801.

The letter was to president-elect Thomas Jefferson. Littlepage had written to him from Altona (now a borough of Hamburg, Germany). He had chosen Altona because it appeared, at least until he returned to America, as the safest place for him to reside. He had dodged several attempts on his life, had narrowly foiled a blackmail campaign, and was now imploring Jefferson to insert an advertisement in the Richmond Gazette. He wrote, “You [Jefferson] know me to be alive in the town of Altona in Holstein, and only waiting the approach of Spring to return to my native Country.”

The purpose was to thwart “a scandalous litigious dispute … respecting my small property in Virginia.” Indeed, the vicissitudes of fortune for Littlepage were many; but for this restless man of adventure, it appears he would not have had it any other way.

An Interesting Start

Lewis Littlepage (1762–1802) was born to James and Elizabeth Littlepage in Hanover County, Virginia. The Littlepages were a respected, though greatly indebted Virginia family. Upon the death of James, which happened about two months before Lewis’s 4th birthday, the Littlepage plantation estate, known as South Wales, was auctioned, and included 50 cows, 13 steers, 85 horses, hogs, sheep, 800 acres in Louisa County, 3,000 acres in Orange County, and the 4,000-acre plantation itself. Eight years later in 1774, Elizabeth married Lewis Holladay, who was 18 years her junior. Within the year, 12-year-old Littlepage moved to live with his uncle and aunt.

He was then sent to live with Rev. Hall, of Trinity Parish, for his education. Littlepage proved a fast-learning and gifted student, while at the same time a boy who didn’t suffer stringent authority. He soon ran away from Hall’s overbearing tutoring. Littlepage’s guardians decided to send him to the College of William and Mary in the spring of 1778.

William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va., circa 1902. Library of Congress. Public Domain

By the time Littlepage arrived at the college, the Revolutionary War had been ongoing for three years. The war had primarily been fought in the north, but a year after arriving at the school, Littlepage, as a militia volunteer, would witness the war firsthand. In May 1779, the British raided along the Chesapeake Bay, burning military stores. The attack brought Littlepage close to danger. So close that he was captured by the British, but shortly released.

The 16-year-old Littlepage had had his first taste of military adventure. From that point on he salivated for more.

Arriving in Europe

A friend, Thomas Adams, recommended him to John Jay, who had recently been appointed as minister plenipotentiary to Spain. Jay accepted the recommendation, informing Littlepage that he could join him in Madrid where his room and board would be provided, if he could reach Europe on his own dime. Benjamin Lewis, Littlepage’s uncle and guardian, agreed to send him.

Littlepage boarded a ship to Spain in 1780. Blown off course, he arrived in Nantes, France, rather than Madrid. The teenager coordinated travel plans to reach Spain, while also struggling to fend off his bout with malaria. During this time, he taught himself French and learned the country’s history.

By October 1780, the short, slender, handsome and charming Littlepage arrived in Madrid.

A portrait of John Jay, 1818, by Gilbert Stuart. National Portrait Gallery. Public Domain

After several months, Jay wrote to Benjamin Lewis, “I am much pleased with your nephew, Lewis Littlepage, whom I regard as a man of undoubted genius, and a person of unusual culture.” Even Elkanah Watson, a Massachusetts businessman and chronicler of the revolution, whom he met in Nantes, noted, “I believe [Littlepage] to be the most remarkable character of the age. I esteem him a prodigy of genius.”

Conflicting Careers

Littlepage’s relationship with Jay, however, proved publicly combative. They had differing views on why Littlepage was in Madrid. Jay had anticipated Littlepage pursuing a career in civil service, but Littlepage could not resist the lure of military action. When he requested permission to join the Franco-Spanish military expedition against British-held Menorca (a small island off the east coast of Spain), Jay was furious and understandably confused by the request. He nonetheless acquiesced, providing for him financially (Jay kept tabs on the debt to be recouped from Littlepage’s uncle).

Littlepage had petitioned to be an aide-de-camp to French commander, Louis des Balbes de Berton, Duke de Crillon, who would lead the expedition’s ground forces. On June 19, 1781, he was granted permission by Spanish monarch, King Charles III. About two months later, the expedition, comprised of 58 ships of the line and 75 transport ships carrying approximately 8,000 soldiers, arrived along the shores of Mahón (today’s Mao), the capital of Menorca. An additional 6,000 troops arrived in the following weeks. The Franco-Spanish force bombarded the British citadel of Fort San Felipe. By February 1782, the British were forced to surrender.

A 1782 Spanish print commemorating Crillon's victory on Minorca. Public Domain

Word had spread that with the fall of Menorca, the focus would turn to the long-under-siege Gibraltar. The French and Spanish had begun their combined siege in 1779 with little success, as the British Navy was able to break the naval blockade several times and resupply the garrison. In March 1782, Littlepage wrote to Jay, “I must own my military Quixotism is not yet abated, and I could wish to assist at the Gibraltar business.”

For Jay, whose frustrations with Littlepage were combined with little diplomatic success in Spain, he was on the move, too. He had been summoned to Paris by Benjamin Franklin to assist in the “Propositions of Peace,” as the war against the British was reaching its conclusion.

‘Gallant Conduct’

Littlepage once again petitioned Duke de Crillon, and in June 1782, he found himself at the French commander’s side. With far more soldiers compared to the Menorca raid (nearly 35,000) now available, perhaps now the siege of Gibraltar would succeed. It would prove an emphatic failure.

In early October, a massive storm devastated the Franco-Spanish naval blockade, which was followed by the arrival of a British fleet under the command of Adm. Richard Howe, who was able to resupply the British again, before fleeing. Littlepage, who was aboard the 70-gun San Rafael, witnessed the chase of the British. The British fleet escaped, the siege of Gibraltar had failed, and Littlepage returned to Crillon at Cádiz.

His actions during the Menorca and Gibraltar campaigns, however, had gained him recognition among the Spanish, French, and his fellow Americans. “I cannot conclude,” wrote William Carmichael, who had taken Jay’s position in Spain, to then-secretary of foreign affairs, Robert Livingston, “without mentioning that a Mr. Littlepage, from Virginia, has acquired reputation by his gallant conduct in the expedition against Mahon, where he served as Aid-de-camp [sic] to the Duc de Crillon, and since at Gibraltar, where he acted in the same capacity.”

His exploits had come to the attention of the French American hero, Marquis de Lafayette, who requested Littlepage join him for an attack on Jamaica. This expedition did not take place, as peace between the Americans and British was reached. Littlepage nonetheless joined Lafayette to Paris, before leaving for Poland in the company of Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen, prince of Nassau. It was in Poland that Littlepage would arguably make his biggest mark on history.

Poland’s Man

A portrait of King Stanislaw, 1786, by Marcello Bacciarelli. Public Domain

King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland, invited Littlepage to become a member of the royal court. Considering his mounting debts, he readily agreed. He did briefly return to America in 1785 to settle his Virginia accounts, even spending an evening with America’s most famous citizen, George Washington, who noted Littlepage to be “an extraordinary character.”

Littlepage returned to the Polish royal court, and eventually became King Stanislaw’s “first Confidential Secretary, with the rank of Chamberlain.” The two formed a very close bond. For 15 years, Littlepage was in the employ of the Polish court. The king trusted Littlepage so much as to send him to Catherine the Great to negotiate a treaty. When he entered Catherine’s court in 1787, he became the first American received by a Russian sovereign in a diplomatic capacity.

For a brief spell in 1788, Catherine the Great hired him as a commander in her Russian navy in a fight against the Turks. Littlepage joined fellow American, John Paul Jones, whom Catherine had appointed as a rear admiral. Unfortunately, and primarily due to Jones, the two fell out of favor with Catherine.

Fighting for the King

Littlepage, who had fought with the well-established empires of France and Spain against Britain for a surging republic, now found himself fighting on behalf of a crumbling kingdom. In 1791, he was made knight in the Order of Saint Stanislaus (the patron saint of Poland).

Stanislaw sent Littlepage to England, France, and Spain hoping he could utilize his connections to bolster the Polish kingdom against the encroaching powers of Austro-Hungary and the Russians. Littlepage’s efforts proved futile, but this did not change the young American’s loyalty to the Polish monarch, and during a brief nationalistic surge in May of 1792, he fought alongside the Polish.

The Russians, however, arrived in overwhelming force. Stanislaw, fearing another Polish partition (the first had taken place in 1772, initiating the split between Poland and Lithuania), signed an armistice with Russia. Recalling Littlepage’s loyalty and bravery, Stanislaw wrote a letter of recommendation to President Washington.

Fighting again erupted in Poland in 1793 as Russia and Prussia looked to continue the partition of Poland and Lithuania. The fighting was bloody and brutal, but Littlepage remained with Stanislaw.

“Honor, gratitude and duty obligated me not to abandon the King, from whom I had accepted benefits and consequently to whom my life belonged,” Littlepage wrote. “By a shameful flight I should have placed myself in the same class with those vile Court insects who buzz about the throne as long as they see chances of prosperity shining there but who take wing at the approach of a storm.”

A Briefly Enjoyed Fortune

The third and final partition of Poland took place in 1795, and, by that time, both the nationalist Poles and the Russians were suspicious of Littlepage’s efforts, due to his relations with Stanislaw, viewed by those Poles as a Russian puppet, and, conversely, due to the fact that he had fought against the Russians. Considering the position he found himself in, Littlepage pondered, “In short, I had gone so far in the Revolution that I should have gone much farther.”

Littlepage’s political and financial position appeared shaky at best. Despite the Russians promising to pay off Stanislaw’s debts to him, he hardly believed it. His doubt was misplaced. King Paul I, Catherine the Great’s son, paid “the sum assigned me by the King of Poland, as a reward for my long and dangerous services.”

Littlepage, long-owed, finally secured what resulted in a fortune. Through battles, illnesses, long journeys throughout Europe, and coming under suspicion by powerful and dangerous people, it was understandable that people in Virginia believed him dead. His letter to Jefferson proved all the more necessary.

“Should any accident happen to me before I reach America, I have a will deposited in England, of which you are Executor in America and Lord Wycomb in England,” Littlepage added to Jefferson in a postscript. “The sum to be disposed of is between nine and ten thousand pounds sterling.”

Littlepage, however, made it home to Virginia in October 1801. His ill health, despite not yet being 40, led to his death on July 19, 1802. The bulk of his fortune went to his younger half-brother Waller Holladay.

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