It was on this day – 2 November – in 1668 that Antoine Gaboury was found guilty of attempted rape.
Antoine, my maternal 7x great-grandfather, was born about 1640 (he was 20 years old in 1660) or about 1642 (he was 25 years old on the 1667 colonial census) in La Rochelle, France. [1]
He immigrated to Quebec in the 1650s, where his presence is noted there on 24 February 1660 when he received the sacrament of Confirmation. [2]
By August 1665, though, he was heavily in debt to his creditor Aubin Lambert. [3]
Three years later, an order was issued for Antoine’s arrest in L’Ange-Gardien in the Beaupré seigneurie, east of Quebec, on 23 October 1668. [4] It wasn’t due to his debts, however. His neighbor François Hébert and his daughter Jeanne, who was about 10 years old, brought an accusation of rape against him. [5]
Testimony was heard from various witnesses in Quebec. Justice was swift. Two weeks later, the Conseil souverain declared Antoine guilty of having attempted to rape Jeanne ‘with all his might’. [6]
The sentence: Antoine would be shaved, publicly beaten and sent to the galleys for nine years. [7] Additionally, he was fined “cinq cents livres”, half of which would pay his victim’s expenses for boarding school run by the Ursuline nuns in Quebec. The remainder would go to the poor of the local hospital. [8] His belongings were seized and sold at auction. [9] Finally, Antoine was placed on the first ship leaving for France and handed over to the galley guards to begin serving his sentence. [10]
After his exile, Antoine returned to Nouvelle-France, married Jeanne Migneault, by whom he had two sons and six daughters. [11] He died at an unknown date, but it was before 12 October 1708, because he is described as “deffunt [sic] Antoine Gaboury” in his daughter’s burial record. [12]
For her part, young Jeanne married French immigrant François Labadie in April 1671 and was the mother of eleven children. She outlived her assailant and died in 1727. [13]
Sources:
1. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 446.
2. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 446.
3. Réal Aubin, “Aubin Lambert, un prétendu soldat du regiment de Carignan”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 131 (jan-févr-mars 1977): 25-31, particularly p. 29; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).
4. Robert-Lionel Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France (Ottawa: Leméac, 1972), I: 303.
5. Joachim Hébert, “Une famille-souche – 1ère generation François Hebert dit Le Comte de Roussy et Anne Fauconnier”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 173 (automne 1987): 175-212, particularly p. 185.
6. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 497.
7. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 508. A similar sentence (shaved, beaten, exiled for nine years in the galleys) was recently given to Pierre Pinel on 1 October 1668 for having raped two young girls of about 10 and 11 years old. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 303.
8. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304.
9. Joachim Hébert, “Une famille-souche”, p. 185.
10. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 508.
11. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 446.
12. St-Augustin (St-Augustin, Quebec), parish register, 1693-1780, no p. no., no entry no. (1708), Marie Jeanne Gaboury burial, 14 October 1708; St-Augustin parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 1 November 2014).
13. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 618.
Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.
What would you say if I told you that Séraphin Poudrier – the fictional character from French-Canadian literature – wasn’t so fictional after all?
Until I started researching a certain branch of my paternal relatives a few years ago, I didn’t know that Séraphin was based on someone who actually lived. I was surprised to find that the real Séraphin was related to me; in fact, he was a second cousin of my grandfather Fred Belair.1
The Novel
L’avare Séraphin (Seraphin the miser) made his first appearance in Un homme et son péché [A man and his sin], by Claude-Henri Grignon. This famous novel, published in 1933, later inspired a radio series, motion picture films, and the very popular Quebecois television series Les Belles Histoires des Pays d’en Haut, with its haunting intro melody.2
In Ste-Adèle of the 1880s-1890s, lived a man named Séraphin Poudrier. A pitiless miser, he lends money to those in need, but charges exorbitant interest rates. He makes the acquaintance of young Donalda, a devout Catholic girl from the village. They marry. Séraphin keeps tight control of the couple’s expenses, even to the point of not having children, because it would cost him money. When Donalda becomes ill, Séraphin delays in calling the doctor. At her death, Séraphin finds yet another way to save money: he chooses a too-small coffin for his late wife. Later, while attempting to save a wandering cow in the nearby river, Séraphin sees his house in flames. He rushes to the building, but cannot rescue the sacks of oats that he keeps hidden there. When his body is pulled from the smoldering ruins, the villagers see that the miser clutches a few gold coins in his fist.
The Author
Claude-Henri Grignon was born and raised in Ste-Adèle, a village situated about 70 km (43 miles) northwest of Montreal. Grignon’s father Doctor Wilfrid Grignon settled here after curé Antoine Labelle, a Roman Catholic priest known as the ‘King of the North’, helped colonise this region.
The Inspiration
Ste-Adèle is also where a certain Moïse Belair married and raised a family, including a son named Israël, who was born in 1867. Apparently, Israël was the inspiration for literature’s well-known Séraphin, according to Grignon’s daughter Claire. In an interview in 2002, she stated that: “Séraphin était inspiré d'un avare de Sainte-Adèle, Israël Bélair, dont la femme, comme Donalda, n'a vécu qu'un an et un jour après son mariage”.3
In the past, whenever Grignon was asked to reveal the name of the real Séraphin, he would reply that three men from his childhood in Ste-Adèle were the models for Séraphin. Claire explained that her father deliberately said three men instead of the actual one because “des descendants d'Israël Bélair vivaient toujours”.4
The Miser
Just how far would the real Séraphin go to save to money? One anecdote reveals that Israël Belair “[…] pouvait marcher des kilomètres pour marchander le prix de la saucisse, par exemple, entre le boucher de Sainte-Adèle et celui de Mont-Rolland pour n'économiser qu'un misérable sou.”5
The Research
It was inevitable that, after reading these and other online articles, I’d want to know more about Israël. I wanted to know if we were related, and if there were similar events in his life and that of Grignon’s character.
Here is what I found:
• Israël Belair was born on 6 September 1867 in Ste-Adèle. He was the second son among sixteen children of Moïse Belair, a farmer, and his wife Martine Guestier.6
• Bernadette Desjardins was a younger daughter of Israël Desjardins, the village blacksmith, and his wife Philomène Lapointe. She was born on 31 October 1876 in Ste-Adèle and baptised that same day; her godmother was her eldest sister Donalda Desjardins.7
• Israël and Bernadette were married on 15 January 1895 in Ste-Adèle.8
• The following year, Bernadette gave birth to a son on 5 June 1896. This unnamed boy was baptised at home by Doctor Wilfrid Grignon, but died within a few hours.9 One week later, on 11 June 1896, Bernadette died; she was 19 years and 8 months old.10
So far during the course of my research, I’ve found a convicted murderer on my grandmother’s side of the family (Madness Monday: A Cold-Blooded Murder) and now there's an infamous miser on my grandfather’s side of the family.
What other surprises will I discover about my family tree?
Sources:
1. ‘Séraphin’ and Fred are related through their common ancestor François Janvry dit Belair:
François Janvry dit Belair (ca 1731-1817) : Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1772-1848) : François Belair (1802-1878) : Moïse Belair (1835-1919) : Israël Belair (1867-?)
François Janvry dit Belair (ca 1731-1817) : Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1772-1848) : Paul Belair (1822-1902) : Pierre Belair (1851-1941) : Fred Belair (1889-1991)
(Note: François (b. 1802) is Pierre’s son by his first wife Marguerite Quevillon, while Paul (b. 1822) is his son by his second wife Scholastique St-Michel.)
2. Claude-Henri wrote his story in the summer of 1933. It was available for purchase in bookstores that December. For a history of the author, his novel, and the subsequent films, radio and television series, see Un homme et son péché … l’oeuvre de Claude-Henri Grignon.
3. My translation of this quote: “Seraphin was inspired by a miser from Sainte-Adèle, Israël Bélair, whose wife, like Donalda, lived only one year and one day after her marriage.” Odile Tremblay, “Séraphin, un archetype qui ne veut pas mourir”, Le Devoir.com, 23 November 2002, Web edition (http://www.ledevoir.com/2002/11/23/13928.html : accessed 16 November 2005).
4. My translation of this quote: “descendants of Israël Bélair were [still] living [at this time]”. Tremblay, “Séraphin, un archetype qui ne veut pas mourir”, Le Devoir.com, 23 November 2002. Israël apparently left no descendants, but his surviving sister and brother did.
5. My translation of this quote: “[…] would walk kilometres in order to bargain the price of sausage, for example, between the butcher of Sainte-Adèle and the one in Mont-Rolland to save one miserable penny.” “Chroniques de Pierre Grignon et autres, année 2005”, Sainte-Adèle (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meilleuro/adele.htm : accessed 22 November 2012), “Sainte-Adèle en fête – 150 ans de belles histoires”.
6. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1867, p. 15 recto, entry no. B63, Israël Bélaire [sic] baptism, 7 October 1867; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).
7. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1876, p. 17 recto, entry no. B64, Marie Bernadette Desjardins baptism, 31 October 1876; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).
8. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1895, p. 2 recto, entry no. M2, Israël Janvry dit Belair – Bernadette Desjardins marriage, 15 January 1895; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).
9. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1896, p. 10 verso, entry no. B34, Anonyme de Israël Bélair baptism, 5 June 1896; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009). Also, Ste-Adèle, parish register, 1896, p. 10 verso, entry no. S20, Anonyme de Israël Bélair burial, 6 June 1896.
10. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1896, p. 11 recto, entry no. S22, Bernadette Desjardins burial, 15 June 1896; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).
Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.
