In 1796 October Étienne Fouignet de Pellegrüe, His Majesty's physician in New Orleans, submitted a bill in the amount of 803 pesos 3 reales to the executors of the estate of the deceased Colonel Gilberto Antonio de St. Maxent for medical services provided during his final illness. St. Maxent's principal heirs, including his wife, Isabel Laroche, widow of de St. Maxent, gave written acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the debt. The proceedings that followed were protracted. In 1797 January the Royal Intendant Juan Ventura Morales ordered the administrators of the estate to pay the sum, but the matter remained unsettled for several years longer. In 1803 April, Santiago Felipe Guinault paid Fouignet de Pellegrüe the amount in question and received, in return, the doctor's authority to continue, on his own, efforts to collect the debt. Acting on the petition of Guinault, on 1803 June 23, Gilberto Leonard, Fiscal of the Royal Treasury in New Orleans, reiterated Morales' decision of 1797, and a week later both Morales and Lieutenant Governor Nicolás María Vidal also ordered that Guinault be paid.
Document signed. Signatures of principals. In Spanish. These original documents, which were bound together in a continuous chronological series, consist of petitions, supporting documents, acknowledgments of debt, official endorsements and authentications, an accounting of court costs, judgments of Spanish officials, and other related documents.
