Now Reb, don't get upset with me. There is a good reason why I'm approaching the subject in the manner I am. In the past, whenever I attempted to approach the subject it was always very quickly, and very defensively, shot down by those of the local legend league. So by asking the questions instead of simply posting the info, it forces them to look for that information themselves if they really want to know. So here you go, the point I've been driving at:
"What would you say if it was discovered that the Thomas Beale involved in the duel with Risque was a lawyer?" A lawyer who knew Laffite personally, the same lawyer whose name appears on legal documents in New Orleans as a Register of Wills, which is basically what the Beale Papers are, the final will of thirty men. And what would you say if that lawyer had a son named Thomas Beale, who can be placed in Richmond VA during the same one year period when Jean & Pierre were living in that very city taking care of important business? And what would you say if both of these Thomas Beale's appear on the Virgina Bench & Bar list? And, what would you say if John Beale's business enterprises could be directly connected to the Laffite's shipping & smuggling empire? The information I have been trying to access might very well prove all this, and if so, how would this new information change the face of everything we thought we knew about Thomas Beale and the Beale Papers. If I am correct, and I am 99% certain I am, then that duel was indeed over honor, it just wasn't over the honor of a woman in the capacity some think it was, but rather she was probably just the final fuse in an already very stressed relationship. Nowhere, in any records I have found or seen has there ever been any indication that the Thomas Beale father & son from the Bedford region were ever lawyers....and yet....there are two listed on that VA bench & bar list. This is the area of confusion that I am trying to clear up with "undeniable proof". In the big picture, this is where all of this heading; Ward, Sherman, and Beale Jr. all knew each other. Sherman had ancestry who was in Galveston with Laffite, Beale Sr. was in New Orleans with Laffite and knew the Laffite's well, as did Jr. T. Beale also marries into a prominent French family (GrandPierre) who also knew Laffite, and it is suspected that they even had business with the Laffites. The noose is slowly getting tighter and tighter.......and I believe "Tat" is slowly constructing the final, and very sprawling gallows.