biography
| name: |
Du Ponceau, Peter Stephen
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originally Pierre Etienne Du Ponceau
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pronunciation:
[dü põsoh, doo pon
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1760–1844)
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| biography:
| Lawyer, philologist, and writer, born in Saint Martin, Ile de Ré, France. Educated for the French priesthood, he decided it was not his vocation. His knowledge of English gained him the post of secretary to Baron von Steuben, whom he accompanied to America in 1771. With von Steuben's appointment as major general, Du Ponceau was made a captain and aide-de-camp to Steuben (1778–9). His health forced him to leave the army, but he became under-secretary of foreign affairs (1781–3). After studying law (1783–5), he practised international law in Philadelphia; his command of European languages plus his cosmopolitan background soon made him much in demand in this field. In his later years he published works on a variety of legal, historical, and linguistic subjects, and became particularly known for his studies of the languages of Native Americans. |
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