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Lesage family of L'Assomption, Quebec This is the story of many people who lived with
the Lesage family in L’Assomption, Quebec
in the late 17th and 18th Century.
One must remember that in 1759 New-France
was taken by England and thus “changed hands” as it may.
In the small town of L’Assomption, for the Lesage, Sylvestre, Nepveu, Lemire families the change was even greater due to the death of two of it’s prominent citizens:
Monsieur Louis Normant, Superior of the Ville-Mary Seminairy died in June 1759;
Mgr Henri-Marie de Pontbriant died on June 8 1760.
The main families in L’Assomption in 1742 were:
Archambault, Baudoin, Baudry, Bissot, Boucher, Chagnon, Chaput, Christin, Cloutier, Dalpee, Desmarais, Emery-Coderre, Galarneau, de Gannes-Falaise, Gareau, Goulet, Guyon, Harel, Hetu, Homier, Lemire-Marsolet, Lemoine, Leroux, Lesage, de Martigny, Maheu, Martel, Mersille, Moreau, Mornay, Mousseau, Nepveu, de la Palliere, Panneton, Pariseau, Peltier, Pichon-Toulouse, de Repentigny, Rolland, Roussin, Roy, St-Onge, Senez, Tessier, Thoin, Vaillant,
Margane de la Valtrie, de Vincennes.
One of the Lesage family, Jean-Baptiste Lesage
(b.1702), was one of the early settlers of the town of L'Assomption, Quebec, located on the river of the same name. He moved there with his wife, Madeleine Alard which he had married in 1726 (attention: some document show a Jean-Baptiste Lesage marrying a Marie–Barbe Sevestre ; it may be some confusion created by the fact that his Mother was a Barbe Sylvestre but more likely was it a mix-up with the Philippe Nepveu line: Two Nepveu came to live in Quebec in 1653: one, Jean Nepveu, came from Montaign in Poitou, France, and the other, Philippe Nepveu, was from Chartres, France. This last one, Philippe, married Denise Sevestre (ou Sylvestre) and they named their eldest daughter Barbe. Barbe Sevestre Nepveu she married a Nicolas Sylvestre. Barbe Neveu’s Mother, Denise Sevestre (a.k.a. Sylvestre)was the daughter of Charles Sylvestre and had been the widow of Antoine Martin. To add to the confusion, Denise and Philipe Nepveu had another child, Jean-Baptiste Nepveu, who married Ms Johnston, became a teacher in 1757 at l’Assomption and a few years later he bought a piece of land from the Seminary of St-Sulpice, near the Fabric, which boundaries were set by M. Joseph Raymond, and that land later belonged to Jean-Baptiste Senez, then to Docteur Jean le Roulier(1797), Laurent Dorval (1801), Timothee Dorval, Brother of Laurent(1808)... so where did the incorrect information on Barbe Sevestre spring from ???) Nevertheless, a son was born in 1732 to Jean-Bte Lesage and Madeleine Alard and they called him after his father, Jean-Baptiste Lesage.
We can see the name of the first Jean-Baptiste
inscribed on the first stone laid at the beginning
of the construction of the Catholic church
at Coteau-le-Portage, in l’Assomption, Quebec: this first stone was installed
on June 23rd, 1750.
Eleven settlers of the “seigneurie de Bailleul & de Repentigny” had requested the building of that church and were given the permission to build it and to do so thru the Parish of St-Pierre, on the Assomption river.
The Church building was approved
(letter is in French)
by Henri-Marie Dubreil de Pontbriant, archbishop
and this is the inscription, still there on the church:
D.O.M.
Annee 1750, 23 juin
BENOIT XIV, Pape
LOUIS XV, Roi
Henri-Marie Dubreil de Pontbriant, eveque
Marquis de la Jonquiere, Gouverneur
Francois Bigot, Intendant
Charles de Longueil, Admistrateur
Jacques Degeay, P.S.S., Cure
Louis Normant, Superieur du Sem.S.S et Grand-Vicaire
Jean-Baptiste Lesage, ancien Marguiller
Joseph Marsolet, nouveau Marguiller
The church was blessed on November 28 1752 by Mr Normant, Superior of the Montreal Seminary
Now, this first Jean Baptiste Lesage and
Jean-Baptiste Nepveu were given recognition by the citizens
of the village for their merit at a special
meeting on January 18 1767.
Jean Baptiste Lesage had served the parish steadfastly for 30 years and Jean Baptiste Nepveu had not once missed any office in 10 years.
In an assembly presided by Messire Etienne
Montgolfier, Superior of the Ville-Marie
and “Grand-Vicaire de Mgr de Quebec”
they were given special thanks, including the fact that there would be special arrangements for their burial,(including 6 large luminaries) when the time came and that it would be arranged and paid by the Fabric.
Below, the original letter praising them for their services, in French:
La fabrique desirant temoigner quelque reconnaissance a ces Messieurs, resolut de s'en rapporter a ce que Monsieur le Grand-Vicaire deciderait.En consequence, il fut regle et decide par Mr. Montgolfier que ces deux Messieurs, lorsqu'ils viendraient a deceder, seraient inhumes en cette eglise avec quatre cierges au corps, quatre a l'autel et deux aux acolytes; le tout aux depens de la fabrique, ainsi que le fossoyeur.
Now, going back to January 9 1686,in the town of Pointe-aux-Trembles, we see the wedding of Jean-Baptiste’s Father, Jean Bernardin LeSage, son of Jean Martin dit LeSage and of Catherine Bretel of Turin, in Piedmont, with Barbe Sylvestre daughter of Nicolas Sylvestre, from Champagne in France, and Barbe Neveu, daughte of Jean Nepveu, the owner of this part on the “Plains of Abraham”, in Quebec city, nown as “Butte a Nepveu”.
Indeed, talking of the “Plaines d’Abraham” & of Abraham Martin, their owner, we can see a Marguerite Lesage, in 1624, as GodMother to Marguerite Martin, daughter of Abraham Martin.
A few years later, at the time that the Brothers Kirke had taken Quebec, in 1629, and moved all but 13 settlers back to England, she had been allowed to stay in New-France with her husband Nicolas Pivert and we can see her, Marguerite Martin in 1633 as GodMother to Marie Couillard, daughter of Guillaume Couillard.
Yes, the old families of the Lesage, Sylvestre, Nepveu and Martin were often closely related.
CHILDREN of BERNARDIN LESAGE & BARBE SYLVESTRE :
1.Marie-Francoise (b.1690) who was married in 1712 to Jean-Paul Daveluy (Courtemanche)
2. Nicolas Lesage (b.1692) married in 1714 to Francoise Paris, Father to another Bernardin Lesage & Grand-Father to Marie-Therese Lesage, wife of Claude Chatelain
3.Marie-Louise (b 1694) married in 1716 to Jean Sugere
4. Jean Lesage(b.1698)
married 1* in 1721 to Marguerite Barette,
2* Madeleine Baugis, 3* Jeanne de la Motte
5. Jean-Baptiste, married to Madeleine Alard, residents of l'Assomption and parents of Jean-Baptiste Lesage, baptised August 3 1732.
L'ASSOMPTION 1640
Below, in French, is the official gift of Land, first to the "Associes de Notre-Dame de Montreal", then later on to the soldiers of the Regiments of Carignan, de Lignieres, St-Ours, Chambelle (Boisbriand), Martel, Repentigny, La Valtrie, La Chenaye) who had fought the Iroquois couragously with great losses of lives.
LAND GRANT in French
Concession des lieux fut faite a M.M les Associes de Notre-Dame de Montreal: le 17 decembre 1640, a la suite du contrat touchant la concession de l'Ile de Montreal, on fit cette addition: "Plus, une etendue de terre de deux lieues de large, le long du fleuve Saint-Laurent, sur six lieues de profondeur dans les dites terres, a prendre du cote nord, sur la meme cote ou se decharge la riviere de l'Assomption dans le dit fleuve Saint-Laurent, et a commencer a une borne qui sera mise sur cette meme cote, a la distance de deux lieues de l'embouchure de la dite riviere L'Assomption; le reste des dites deux lieues de face a prendre en descendant sur le dit fleuve St-Laurent. Tout ce qui est de la Riviere-des-Prairies jusqu'a la riviere l'Assomption, et depuis la dite riviere L'Assomption jusqu'a la borne ci-dessus, reservee a la Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, se proposant d'y faire quelques forts et habitations"
Les terrains reserves par la Compagnie des Associes en 1640 furent concedes plus tard, au nom du Roi, par l'Intendant Talon a des officiers des regiments de Carignan [ses descendants furent a travers sa fille, lire Chouteau] Lignieres, Chambelle, qui s'etaient distingues dans les guerres contre les Iroquois:
Aux Messieurs:
LeGardeur,
de Repentigny,
Louis de Saint-Ours,
Morgane de la Valtrie,
Aubert de la Chenaye,
Raymond Martel,
Pierrecot de Bailleul.
les de la Valtrie etaient originaires de Paris;
les LeGardeur de Thurie en Normandie;
les Deschaillons de Saint-Ours appartenaient a la haute noblesse du Dauphine;
les de la Chenaye venaient d'Amiens en Picardie;
M. Dugue de Boisbriant Capitaine du regiment de Chambelle etait de Nantes;
Raymond Martel etait de Bayonne,
(son epouse, Marie-Anne Trottier, epousa en secondes noces Louis Audet de Pierrecot, sieur de Bailleul.)
( Les Bailleul de Normandie avait eu souche commune avec les Bailleul ou Baliol, d'ou est sortie une dynastie de rois d'Ecosse.)
L'ASSOMPTION 1717
The best families of New France established themselves here and attracted others in their stead:
Godefroy de Tonnancour, Boucher, Denis Lemoyne, Juchereau, Guyon, ac. Also the mission and College of M.M. de St-Sulpice was created here and attracted the young men who wanted a higher education.
GOULET LEROUX CLOUTIER GUYON ROUSSIN
The parish of L'Assomption was formed many years after the one of Saint-Sulpice; documents often refer to one or the other indiscriminatly but their official names were:
Saint-Sulpice-de-l'Assomption
L'Assomption-de-Saint-Sulpice
On the 11th of August 1717 Charles Goulet and his brother Thomas Goulet came to get some trees from the Riverside, on it's North Shore, where L'Assomption would soon get established.
These GOULET brothers were two of the seven sons of a Cote Beaupre resident. They had followed the regiments of Legardeur de Repentigny and Aubert de la Chenaye; their five brothers in Cote Beaupre would marry with the families Leroux, Cloutier, Guyon, Roussin.
In 1719, there were 24 people living in L'Assomption and they called that place:"Portage", because it was the "crossing" for the canoes at the narrowest of the "presqu'ile" which cut out over 2 miles of travelling. This place was called "Portage street".
In 1724, the priest assigned to this parish was
Monsieur Pierre Lesueur, born in
France in the diocese d'Amiens.
A wood chapel was built where later on M.M. Faribault lived, on the south-east corner of St. Etienne Street, between Ste-Anne and St-Joachim streets.
The cross of this chapel was saved and is kept in the College Museum.
The presbytery was a wooden house on the corner of St-Etienne Street at the south-west corner of St-Hubert Street.
Monsieur Pierre Lesueur was the one who
did the inauguration of it’s sanctuary on the day of it’s patron saint,
on June 29 1724.
Soon there were some stone houses near the presbytary and Church and they became the center ot town.
In 1742, after 18 years, the priest
Pierre Lesueur, was called back to the Seminary of VILLE-MARIE; he lived until 1752, and died at 68.
He was replaced by Monsieur Jacques Degeay,
P.S.S., who was born in 1717
at the diocese of Lyon in France,
and arrived to Canada July 21 1742.
FRENCH LETTER of MGR BRIAND to the CLERGY , October 15 1768, EXHORTING THE FRENCH TO OBEDIENCE TOWARDS THE NEW RULE as requested by Governor Carleton:
"Messieurs, le zele de Son Excellence Monsieur Carleton, notre illustre et digne gouverneur, pour le bonheur des peuples de cette colonie, le porte a me prier de vous recommander d'exhorter vos paroissiens a se bien accorder avec les anciens sujets de Sa Majeste ...d'etre fideles au gouvernement auquel la Providence les a assujettis, de ne point ajouter foi aux faux rapports, ni de nourrir de vaines et frivoles esperances qui ne pourraient que troubler leur repos, les detacher de leurs devoirs, et les porter a des demarches prejudiciables a leurs interets spirituels et temporels... Il desire que vous leur fassiez comprendre qu'il en est de leur devoir, s'il parvenait a leur connaissance qu'il se tramat quelque chose de contraire aux interets de Sa Majeste le Roi de la Grande-Bretagne, leur legitime Souverain, de donner avis sur le champ, soit au Gouverneur ou au Commandant en chef de sa paroisse, soit a l'eveque; et il espere particulierement de voir Messieurs, que vous serez exacts et prompts a executer cette commission, car il a une entiere confiance dans le clerge.
Rendons grace a Dieu de nous avoir donne un gouverneur si vigilant pour les interets de son prince, si zele pour la conservation de la paix, si bien prevenu en faveur des ecclesiastiques et si favorables a notre sainte religion. Nous devons certainement soutenir les verites de la foi meme au peril de notre vie, mais il ne convient ni a la gloire de Dieu, ni au bien de la religion de le faire avec aigreur et mepris. Vous eviterez donc soigneusement de vous servie de termes offensants et injurieux pour ceux des sujets du Roi qui sont d'une autre religion; ceux de protestant et de freres separes seront les seuls dont vous vous servirez lorsqu'il sera absolument necessaire de le faire pour expliquer notre creance. Un autre conduite ne ferait qu'aliener les coeurs et troubler la bonne harmonie qui doit regner entre les anciens et les nouveaux sujets; elle ne ferait point de proselytes et pourrait engager le gouvernement a retirer la protection et la liberte qu'il veut bien accorder a notre sainte religion.
Vous accorderez au premier baillif de votre paroisse le premier banc de l'eglise et vous lui ferez rendre les memes honneurs qu'on rendait ci-devant au Capitaine de Milice. Ce banc est le premier de la rangee du milieu, du cote de l'epitre"
Jean Olivier, Eveque de Quebec.
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