52 Ancestors 2015: #1 Marguerite Lamirault

Last year, Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small had a successful year-long blogging challenge called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”. For 2015, she’s re-issued that challenge, but added optional weekly themes. The challenge is the same as it was in 2014 – write a blog post a week about a specific ancestor, but with optional weekly themes to follow or interpret as we wish. For more information, see Announcing 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition.

For the 1st week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (“Fresh start”) and chose Marguerite Lamirault (ca 1644/1645-1706).

My ancestor Marguerite is a good choice for this week’s theme, because she was one of the 750 or so filles du Roi who made a fresh start when she left “the comforts of home for life in the unknown wilderness of New France”. [1] The King’s Daughters’ purpose was to help populate the colony of Nouvelle-France by marrying and having children. [2]

"L'Arrivée des Filles du Roi"

Marguerite was born about 1644 (age at death) or about 1645 (age on 1681 census) in rue des Poulies in the parish of St-Germain-l’Auxerrois in Paris, France. [3] She was the daughter of François Lamirault, a coach driver for the Queen, by his wife Jeanne Clos. [4]

"Church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris first district, France"

Marguerite arrived in the summer of 1668. [5] She brought with her a dowry of goods estimated at 300 livres. [6] She did not stay long on the ‘marriage market’, because soon after her arrival in Quebec, she met Honoré Martel dit Lamontagne, a bachelor, who was about 36 years old. Despite the little time, if any, spent in courting, they agreed to marry. [7]

Marguerite and Honoré followed the custom of the day and made a public promise of marriage (known as fiançailles) that was recorded by Notre-Dame’s parish priest. [8] On the morning of 17 November 1668, Marguerite, Honoré and several of their friends gathered at the home of Sieur Soullard in Quebec. [9] There, Honoré signed his name on the marriage contract, but Marguerite could not sign hers. [10] Banns were then read at Mass on two consecutive Sundays, with a dispensation granted for the third bann. [11] Finally, Marguerite and Honoré were wed on 26 November 1668 at Notre-Dame church of Quebec. [12] It was the first of four marriages that Father Henri de Bernières celebrated that day. [13]

Martel - Lamirault church marriage record [14]

Honoré, born about 1632, was also from Paris, but from the parish of St-Eustache. He arrived in Canada as a soldier, probably in 1665. Three years later, he became a colonist and also worked as a sawyer. [15]

The couple had fourteen children, eight sons and six daughters, born between October 1669 and September 1691. Three of the children died young – eldest child Charles and younger children Honoré and Isabelle. [16]

Marguerite died on 17 October 1706 at Hôtel-Dieu (hospital) in Quebec. [17] Her death record indicates her name (“Marguerite lamiro”), her spouse (“de la montagne”), her age (“62 ans”), her place of origin (“de paris de la [paroisse] de St germain de loxerois de larchevesché de paris”), and her date of death (17 octobre 1706). [18] There doesn’t appear to be a burial record for Marguerite, though. As a general rule, those who died at Hôtel-Dieu were interred in the paupers’ cemetery attached to this hospital and not at Notre-Dame’s church cemetery. [19]

Sources:

Filles du roi image credit: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Acc. no. 1996-371-1.

St-Germain l'Auxerrois photo credit: Wikipedia contributors, "Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASaint-Germain_l'Auxerrois_edit.jpg : accessed 31 December 2014). By Saint-Germain_l'Auxerrois.jpg: Pline derivative work: Maedin\talk (Saint-Germain_l'Auxerrois.jpg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.

1. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, 2 vols. (Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Quintin Publications, 2001), 1: 22.

2. Yves Landry, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle: Orphelines en France, pionnières au Canada; suivi d’un Répertoire biographique des Filles du Roi (Ottawa: Leméac, 1992), 13.

3. Landry, Les Filles du roi, 331 and René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 776.

4. Landry, Les Filles du roi, 331. The author doesn’t specify which queen consort of France, but it would likely be either Anne of Austria (1601-1666), wife of King Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643) or Maria Theresa of Spain (1638-1683), wife of King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715).

5. Landry, Les Filles du roi, 127. Table 27 shows estimated dates of arrival for each year (1663-1673) of the Filles du roi program. The estimated date of arrival for 1668 is 3 July. Marguerite was one of about 80 filles who arrived that year. (Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 586-590)

6. Landry, Les Filles du roi, 331.

7. A Fille du roi was free to ask questions about a potential husband’s “home, finances, land and profession”. She was also not obliged to agree to marry a candidate if he did not suit her. (Gagné, King’s Daughters, 1: 36)

8. Notre-Dame (Quebec, Quebec), parish register, 1667-1679, p. 336 (stamped), no entry no. (1668), Honoré Martel – Marguerite L’Amiraut” [sic] marriage, 26 November 1668; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 30 December 2014).

9. Florence Fernet-Martel, “Honoré Martel”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadiennes-française 10 (janvier et avril 1959): 70-76, particularly p. 71; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

10. Landry, Les Filles du roi, 331.

11. Notre-Dame, parish register, 1667-1679, p. 336, Honoré Martel – Marguerite L’Amiraut” [sic] marriage.

12. Notre-Dame, parish register, 1667-1679, p. 336, Honoré Martel – Marguerite L’Amiraut” [sic] marriage.

13. Notre-Dame, parish register, 1667-1679, p. 336, Honoré Martel – Marguerite L’Amiraut” [sic] marriage.

14. Notre-Dame, parish register, 1667-1679, p. 336, Honoré Martel – Marguerite L’Amiraut” [sic] marriage.

15. Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 341.

16. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 776.

17. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 776.

18. Roland-J. Auger, “Notules nécrologiques de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadiennes-française 4 (juin 1951): 226-231, particularly pages 227-228; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

19. Auger, “Notules nécrologiques de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec”, 226.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #40 Marthe Quitel, a Calvinist fille du roi

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

For the 40th week of this challenge, I chose Marthe Quitel (ca 1637-1722).

Marthe is my maternal 7x great-grandmother and is number 1831 in my ancestor list.

Daughter of Denis Quitel and his wife Louise Bénard, Marthe was born about 1637, 1638 or 1651, depending on her age on New France censuses. [1] She was from the parish of St-Maclou in Rouen, Normandy, France. [2]

As one of the 59 or so filles du roi (King’s daughters) destined for Quebec City, Marthe arrived in New France in the summer of 1665. [3] It is not known what prompted her to leave her home, but it was perhaps because one or both of her parents had passed away, as was sometimes the case with filles du roi. Also unknown is what kind of dowry and gifts she might have received. Author Silvio Dumas explains that filles du roi usually received at least “un modest trousseau” and that in some of their marriage contracts, there is mention of these items. [4] Marthe’s marriage contract, however, is silent on this point.

Marthe was not only a fille du roi, she was also a Calvinist. Almost immediately after her arrival at Quebec (other filles du roi went to Montreal and Trois-Rivières), Marthe renounced her Calvinist faith and converted to Roman Catholicism on 17 July 1665 at Notre-Dame church in Quebec. [5]

One month later, Marthe and a fellow immigrant, Barthélemi Verreau dit Le Bourguignon, entered into a marriage contract on 31 August 1665. [6] They both knew how to write, because they signed their names on the contrat in the presence of notary Pierre Duquet. [7] The couple married three weeks later on 22 September 1665 in Château-Richer. [8] Located east of present-day Quebec City, Château-Richer was at that time part of the seigneurie of Beaupré, but is now in Montmorency County, Quebec.

View at Chateau Richer (1804)*

* Image: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-270. Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana.

Barthélemi was about six years older than Marthe. Originally from Dijon, Burgundy, France, he arrived in Montreal in 1662. [9] Barthélemi worked as a blacksmith and later as an edge-tool maker. [10] Just before he married, he purchased some land in Château-Richer in June 1665, where he relocated. [11] I wonder if his being a skilled worker and having some land is what prompted Marthe to consider Barthélemi as a suitable spouse.

Over the next seventeen years, Marthe gave birth to nine children: five sons and four daughters, including my ancestress Marguerite (Verreau) Boutillet (1674-1749). [12] Barthélemi and Marthe were able to provide well for their children, because their eldest surviving son Barthélemi, a blacksmith like his father, became a clerk of the Beaupré seigneurial court and a notary. [13]

In December 1700, Barthélemi père died. He was buried in Château-Richer, where he and Marthe had lived all their married life. [14] A few years later, Marthe’s surviving children gave up their rights to the paternal home. [15] In a contract known as “donation entre vifs” drawn up on 5 November 1706 by Quebec notary Etienne Jacob, Marthe gave up her house and its land to her youngest son François in exchange for his lodging and caring for her until her death. [16]

Marthe survived her husband by twenty-two years. She died suddenly, according to her burial record, which added that she had “donnée durant sa vie des marques de Catholicité” (demonstrated her Catholicism during her life). [17] This detail tells me that Marthe took seriously her conversion to Catholicism. She was buried on 26 December 1722 in Château-Richer. [18]

Although I haven’t seen it, a book about the Verreau family has been recently published: Barthélemy Verreau, premier Verreau en Nouvelle-France, by Jean-Marie Verreault (Québec, Québec: Jean-Marie Verreault, 2013). I came across it yesterday in a June 2014 post at the Library and Archives Canada blog.

Sources:

1. Marthe was 28 years old on the 1666 census, 30 on the 1667 census, and 30 on the 1681 census. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 1121. All the sources I used for this article name Marthe’s father Denis. However, he is named Daniel Quitel (Guittel) in Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), I: 585.

2. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121.

3. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, 2 vols. (Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Quintin Publications, 2001), 2: 476. Also, Silvio Dumas, Les filles du Roi en Nouvelle-France: étude historique avec répertoire biographique (Québec, Québec: Société historique de Québec, 1972, 43); digital images; Our Roots / Nos Racines (http://www.ourroots.ca : accessed 2 October 2014).

4. Dumas, Les filles du Roi, 319.

5. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121, Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476, and Roland-J. Auger, “Registre des abjurations (1662-1757)”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française [Vol. V – No. 4] (juin 1953): 243-246, particularly p. 246; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

6. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

7. Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

8. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

9. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476. Another source gives a different place of origin for Barthélemi: the parish of St-Agnan in Ahuy, Bourgogne, France. (Fichier Origine, database (http://www.fichierorigine.com : accessed 2 October 2014), entry for Barthélemy Verreau / Bourguignon, no. 380065.) Ahuy is located 6 km north of Dijon. (Wikipedia contributors, "Ahuy", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahuy&oldid=620507581 : accessed October 3, 2014).)

10. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

11. Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

12. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121.

13. Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada (http://www.biographi.ca/en/index.php : accessed 2 October 2014), “Barthélemi Verreau”.

14. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

15. Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

16. Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

17. “Le LAFRANCE”, digital images, GénéalogieQuébec (www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 2 October 2014); entry for Marthe Quintel [sic] burial, 26 December 1722. Unfortunately, Marthe’s burial record does not state the date or place of her death, nor her age.

18. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1121 and Gagné, King’s Daughters, 2: 476.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.