Francois Seguin-Laderoute

The Family of Francois Seguin and Jeanne Petit

Francois Seguin (4 Jul 1644, St Aubin-en-Bray, France - c. 1701, Quebec) married Jeanne Petit (1656, LaRochelle, France - 29 Mar 1733, Longueuil, Quebec) on Monday, 31 Oct 1672, at the Church of Ste Famille, Boucherville, Quebec.

The following is an extract from the register of baptisms, marriages, and burials of the parish of St Aubin-en-Bray, at St Aubin-en-Bray, France, and gives the date of Francois' baptism and the names of his parents and godfather and godmother:

Francois Seguin fils de Laurent Seguin et de Marie Massieu a este [le] 4e jour de juillet 1644 et a pour son parrein Francois Oudin et pour sa marreine Jehanne Dufour.

An account of Francois Seguin's life continues with the excerpt previously mentioned as being authored by Robert-Lionel Seguin.
Francois Seguin, who is six years of age at the time of his mother's death, will be taken in by his maternal grandparents with whom he lives until old enough to choose a trade. At that time [Dec 1644], troops are being levied by [the] regiment de Carignan for service in Nouvelle France [New France] to wage war against the Iroquois [Indian Nation composed of Mohawks, Oneidas, Sencecas, Onandagas, and Cayugas]. Francois, who is 20 years of age, joins the company of Monsieur [Captain Pierre] de St Ours [1640-1724] and embarks aboard the St Sebastien [ship] [on 13 May 1665 at LaRochelle], landing at Quebec, on 12 Sep 1665. The soldiers of that company will spend the following winter at the fort of Saurel (Sorel), at the mouth of the Richelieu River.

After three years of war, the company is finally discharged. As a reward, the officers are granted land with the title of seigneurs. Monsieur de St Ours [Sieur de L'Echaillon] was allocated a seigneurie on the Richelieu River and Francois Seguin obtains a fief on his officer's land. Later, Monsieur de St Ours, who finds he has financial trouble in his seigneurie, is designated by the governor to levy troops for the defense of Montreal [known at that time as Ville Marie] and he reorganizes his company. Many of his former soldiers join him, including Francois, who is still unmarried. He remains in garrison with his company for a few months but then returns to his farm at St Ours. [On 14 Sep 1671, at Boucherville, Francois leases for two years, a piece of land 50 arpents in area, belonging to Robert Henry. He also acquires a house to live in on the condition that he cut and clear two arpents of the land per year.] By trade, Francois was a weaver as were most of the residents of Beauvais, his native province. Therefore, whenever his farm work allows him free time and whenever there is a demand by the local peasants for his trade, he works as a weaver.

He must have dreamed of settling along the St Lawrence River because on 22 Sep 1672, he exchanges his farm at St Ours for that of Pierre Chaperon in Boucherville. [The new farm consists of two arpents in frontage by 25 arpents deep, and four square arpents have already been cleared. Is is bordered on either side by the lots of Gilbert Guilleman dit Duvaillars, former surgeon of the Carignan Regment, and Pierre Bourgery. On this same occasion, for the price of 85 livres, he also purchases a lot of one square half-arpent on which is situated a "barn which is found built there."] The deed is signed before the notary Thomas Frerot and it is followed by the sale of two or three lots from that same farm. His business transactions still leave him some time to do some socializing.

In fact, visiting a fille du roi, living with the Sisters of the Congregation, takes some of his time. Her name is Jeanne Petit, daughter of Jean Petit and of Jeanne Godreau, native of the parish St Marguerite in the [western port] city of La Rochelle [France].

On 10 Feb, 1671, several months before the arrival of a new ship carrying eligible young women, Colbert writes to Talon, informing him:

I have also ordered that you be sent certification of the places where the girls are from, which will clearly make known that they are free and of marriageable state.

Jeanne Petit, the daughter of Jean Petit and Jeanne Gaudreau, in our family genealogy, was one of these "Daughters of the King". Born in1656, she was from the parish of Ste Marguerite in the town of LaRochelle, in the historic province of Aunis on the west coast of France. Possibly she was from a poor family but both she and her parents saw an opportunity for her to better herself through the king's dowry, or perhaps she was an orphan as some of the young women were. During the year 1671, Jeanne was one of 125 women to make the voyage across the Atlantic, and was among the 19 who went to the Montreal region. After her arrival in Quebec on the ship L'Esperance, Jeanne likely was taken in under the protectorship of the Montreal-based Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame (who had arrived in 1653 under Soeur Marguerite Bourgeoys), until a prospective husband might propose to her. It is unlikely that the Ursuline Nuns (who had arrived in 1636 and were under the direction of Soeur Marie Guyard de Incarnation) cared for her since they were based in Quebec City.

Francois must have met Jeanne during this period and developed a love interest in her because on Wednesday, 21 Sep 1692, a marriage contract was drawn up between the two of them by the notary, Thomas Frerot. This was done the day before he exchanged his farm at St Ours for the one in Boucherville. It becomes apparent that Francois met and courted Jeanne, proposed marriage to her, had the contract drawn up, and then made the exchange of farms with the intent of settling in Boucherville with his future bride. The unusual aspect of their engagement is that when the filles du roi arrived in Quebec and were allowed to disembark in groups at Quebec City, Trois Rivieres, and Montreal, they were normally married within two weeks. This quick matrimonial process occurred because the women would be taken during that period to a hall where they could be observed and addressed by the soldiers or habitants. The filles du roi however, would question the men as to whether they had land, if any of it had been cleared, and if they owned livestock. The women held the upper hand and made the final decision as to whether they would consent to marriage. Since Jeanne was born in 1656 and arrived in 1671, but did not become engaged until Sep 1672, one might speculate that she was sheltered by the nuns for at least a nine month period until she turned 16.

The original marriage contract is on file in the Judicial Archives of Montreal and reads in French (complete with spelling errors):

[Signatures or the marks of the persons in attendance who are named above appear at the bottom of the document. Francois initially signs his name simply as "Laderoute" but draws a line through it and then writes
"Francois Seguin."]

One month and ten days following the notarization of the marriage contract (similar to a marriage license application and a promise to marry), the wedding day arrives. Seven years have passed since Francois first landed in Nouvelle France as a soldier with the Carignan Regiment. On 31 Oct 1672, Francois Seguin dit Laderoute, the son of Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu, marries Jeanne Petit, daughter of Jean Petit and Jeanne Gaudreau. The ceremony is performed by a
missionary priest, Fr Pierre de Caumont, at Ste Famille (Holy Family) parish in Boucherville, Quebec. According to Laforest, typically when a filles du roi would marry, "...the newly married couple was given 50 livres to buy provisions, plus an ox and a cow, two pigs, a pair of chickens, two barrels of salt meat, and 11 crowns of money. This was supposed to give the newlyweds a start. Together this couple of Francois and Jeanne forms Generation II of the Seguin family line.

The parish register of Ste Famille carries the marriage entry:

In the year of Our Lord, 1672, the 3lst of the month of October, after the proclamation of banns during three feast days at the celebration of the parish mass, having met no impediments, Pierre de Caumont, a missionary priest doing curial functions at Boucherville, after having done the necessary requests and interrogations to Francois Seguin, inhabitant of Boucherville, son of Laurent Seguin and of Marie Massieu, parish of Dombre in Picardie, diocese of Beauvais, and to Jeanne Petit, daughter of Jean Petit and of Jeanne Gaudreau, Ste Marguerite parish, town and diocese of LaRochelle, after having received their mutual consent, I, Pierre de Caumont, a missionary priest, married them in
presence of known witnesses.
/s/ Boucher, Remy, Jean la Fond

[The signatures of three witnesses who are present - Boucher, Remy, and Jean la Fond - appear at the bottom of the document. Seigneur Pierre Boucher for whom Boucherville is named and his wife, Jeanne Crevier, are notable witnesses to the ceremony, and shows the onsideration he had for Francois.]

On 25 Jan 1673, Francois sold the land he had acquired from Pierre Chaperon to Francois Senecal, a servant of seigneur Boucher. On this farm was "a house not completed." On 4 Apr 1673, Seigneur Boucher listed the 38 land grantees and Francois figured among them. He lived on a piece of land of 50 arpents (2 x 25 mentioned earlier), flanked by the lands of Jacques Menard and Pierre Martin. On 2 Jun 1675, Francois leased from Francois Pillet "a four year old brown cow valued at 60 lvres, which required Francois to feed the cow and any offspring and to pay Mr Pillet 12 livres per year. In the census of 1681, Francois declares his occupation to be a weaver, and with his wife, gives the names and ages of their first four children. On 10 Oct 1683, he leased a cow belonging to Denis Veronneau. On 24 Nov 1698, Francois sold his concession of 50 arpents [with a poor building upon it] to Jean Baptiste Lamoureux for 850 livres. Apparently immediate payment was made in 400 livres in playing card money, 200 in assorted merchandise, and 60 by the value of 20 minots of wheat. The remainder was due on the next feast of St Jean Baptiste, 24 Jun 1699. (The feast of St Jean Baptiste must have been a major holiday then even as it is today in Quebec.) On 15 Apr 1700, Francois and Jeanne are granted by Madame de la Valtrie the privilege of living on a strip of wooded land on the Ile Grosbois, along the channel. It is two arpents wide and deep [as far as the tip of the island, across from l'ile aux Raisins.] Francois, in addition to giving two work days each autumn, was required to take care of the donor's two cows. He and Jeanne lived together on this land until death. Francois originally was thought to have died 9 May 1704 in Montreal and buried on 10 May 1704 under the name of Pierre Seguin. Later research however, disclosed that marriage contracts of his daughter, Marie Madeleine, to Antoine Marie dit Ste Marie on 20 Nov 1700 (when Francois is shown as absent due to health reasons), and daughter, Marie Jeanne, to Joseph Robidou on 10 Oct 1701 (when Jeanne Petit is listed as a widow) prove that he did not die in 1704, but rather in the period of 20 Nov 1700 - 10 Oct 1701. His place of burial is unknown.

On 19 Mar 1713, Jeanne gave the concession of the Ile Grosbois, which she and Francois had originally received in Apr 1700, to Marie Anne Margane, the widow of Ignace Boucher. Jeanne then moved to Lachenaie to live with the third oldest of her children, Francois, who was 35 years old and married to Marie Louise Feuillon. Jeanne died on Sunday, 29 Mar 1733, and was buried in Longueuil, a community on the east side of Montreal.

On an interesting note, the author, Thomas J. Laforest, states in his book, Our French-Canadian Ancestors (Volume XXV):

When Pierre de Saint-Ours, former officer of the Carignan Regiment, drew up his will in 1704, he bequeathed "in case of death" 400 livres to the soldiers whom he had previously commanded. The name of Francois was mentioned in the list of beneficiaries. The seigneur died in 1724. [It is apparent that Saint-Ours was unaware of Francois' death which had already occurred around 1701.]



Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Habitant, 1672.