Jacobus van Braam (b.

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the Brabantian dialect, local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the Province ...

, in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, 1 April 1729, d. 1 August 1792 Charleville,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was a sword master and mercenary who trained the 19-year-old

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

in 1751 or shortly thereafter. He was also retained by Washington as a translator.

Biography

Van Braam entered the British naval service and acted as lieutenant with Lawrence Washington, George Washington's elder half-brother. They served under Admiral Vernon in the 1741 expedition to Carthagena. Then Van Braam accompanied Lawrence Washington in 1742 to the house which would become

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

. After Robert Dinwiddie, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, appointed George Washington as a militia-leader for southern Virginia with the nominal rank of major in February 1753, Van Braam had the task of training him. Van Braam gave Washington much instruction as to fencing, flags, fortification and the armies of Europe. Lawrence Washington, who died in July 1752, also trained George, as did Lawrence's cronies, and an adjutant named "Muse" (no first-name given) who taught George the "evolution of arms" (drill manoeuvers). According to the 1855 biography of Washington by

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy ...

: Curiously other biographers (notably,

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American statesman, jurist, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remai ...

) mention Van Braam only as "an interpreter" brought along on the preliminary diplomatic expeditions leading up to the culmination of his earlier actions against the French, and not as a longtime associate and instructor who campaigned with his brother and schooled George Washington in the art of the sword and other military matters. At the Battle of Great Meadows in July 1754, On account of his alleged wrong rendering of one word, Van Braam received more blame than praise for his services, while others made it the occasion for criticism of Washington himself. The voluminous controversy, which arose in the Virginia colonial legislature over Van Braam's asserted mistranslation, could hardly have arisen in New York, where the Dutch language was generally spoken, and the Netherlanders' association of ideas with the use of the word "assassin," which was not then in the Dutch language, but common in French and English, was better understood. The ordinary meaning of this word "assassin," as used in military parlance at this time, was not that of a dastardly or prowling murderer, but rather that of a soldier who attacks suddenly without warning; and this seems to have been the method of the impetuous, young George Washington, in July 1754, when he rushed upon the French party, during which Jumonville was killed. Van Braam later joined the 60th Foot ''(The Royal American Regiment)'' and fought in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, serving on the British side. In a letter to Washington, he expressed personal regret at the change of relations and the fortune of war. He resigned his commission in 1779. He then settled in France. He died in Charleville, Champagne, France on 7 August 1792.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braam, Jacob van 1729 births 1792 deaths Dutch mercenaries Royal Netherlands Army personnel Van Braam, Jacob Van Braam, Jacob Van Braam, Jacob Van Braam, Jacob People from Bergen op Zoom