Soldier – Farmer – Bourgeois

Samuel de Champlain was a man with a plan; actually, many plans. His explorations of New France began in the early 1600s. Along the way he set his sites on Trois Rivieres, given its strategic location at the mouth of the St. Maurice River where it flows into the St. Lawrence River.¹.

Trois Rivières derived its name from the delta at the mouth of the river where there are two islands that separate the river into three branches as it flows into the St. Lawrence. “… the Three Rivers name is used for the first time in 1599 by Sieur François Gravé Du Pont, a geographer under Champlain, whose records confirmed the name in 1603”.  2.

The area was settled by a small group of colonists on July 4^th, 1634. At the time it was the second largest New France settlement, the first being Quebec City in 1608. Montreal would follow about 8 years after Trois Rivières in 1642. ^3.

The young colony of Trois Rivières was constantly under attack by the Iroquois.^4.

“Under the orders of Champlain, LaViolette, (a commander) travels to the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River to found a fur trading post and build a fort on ‘le Platon’, a plateau situated on a hillock of land along the St. Lawrence River.  The fort would enclose a few homes and shops, and the settlement would become known as Trois-Rivières. For a long time, this site will be one of the most advantageous for the activities of fur traders.” ^5.

In 1656, Claude Jutras dit Lavallée, a young 29-year-old soldier arrived in Trois Rivières and was stationed at the garrison. One of his first transactions was to purchase land. This was the first of many transactions he would be involved in over the years.

What is a ‘dit/dite’ name?  When the first settlers came to Québec from France it was a custom to add a ‘dit’ nickname to the surname. The English translation of ‘dit’ is ‘said’. The Colonists of Nouvelle France added ‘dit’ names as distinguishers. A settler might have wanted to differentiate their family from their siblings by taking a ‘dit’ name that described the locale to which they had relocated. The Colonists of Nouvelle France added ‘dit’ names as distinguishers. ^6.

Within a year of his arrival Claude married Elisabeth Radisson, my 7^th great-grandmother, the sister of Pierre Esprit Radisson, the famous explorer and coureur de bois. (see previous blogs:   A Very Marriageable Young Girl and Allegiances)

https://genealogyensemble.com/2021/10/06/a-very-young-marriageable-girl/ ^7.

 https://genealogyensemble.com/2020/03/11/allegiances ^8.

Claude was born in  the parish of Saint Severin, Paris, Ile de France, France in about 1627. He was the son of Pierre Jutras dit Lavallee Desrosiers and Marie Claude Boucher d’Avancon. They were married in Paris and there are questions about the date of the marriage. Little is known or written about the family or about Claude’s early years.

We do know that  Claude Jutras dit LaVallée owns five cattle and sixteen arpents of land in value in 1667. ^10. Élisabeth Radisson and Claude Jutras dit LaVallée residing in Trois-Rivières in 1681 ³ . Claude Jutras dit LaVallée owns a gun, four horned animals and thirty arpents of land in value in 1681. ^10. 

Claude Jutras dit LaVallée is a bourgeois in 1699. This fact is noted frequently in the many BanQ NUmerique records shown in the documents below.^11.

Eventually, the King of France realized that the young colony needed better protection if they truly wanted to establish a permanent settlement. The Carignan-Salieres Regiment consisting of 1,500 regular soldiers arrived in New France in 1663. ^12.

Claude did not remain in the garrison for very long. The Talon census of 1666 indicated that he was living in Trois Rivières and had become a settler, a habitant, with a growing family.^13.

After serving time as a soldier, he became a farmer. The family settled in the community and prospered and was recognized in 1679 as a member of the ‘bourgeoisie’. This is also noted in many of the court records and that both Claude and Elisabeth could sign their names.

Claude died on the 28^th of November 1710 and was laid to rest in the cemetery in Trois Rivières. Elisabeth lived another twelve years surrounded by her extended family

While researching records at BanQ Numerique for information on Claude Jutras, it was interesting to note that Claude and Elisabeth had many irons in the fire. He had a variety of requests both as a plaintiff and a defendant.

One can glean glimpses into the insights of these settlers, how they lived, and the issues that were important to them:  land purchases, settling of accounts, being dismissed from duties, gambling issues, and damages to property. Example: one’s ox, just to name a few. In the case of the Jutras family there are 195 records during a period of nearly fifty years.^14.

Below are three records of transactions by Claude Jutras dit Lavallée.

Results of the research

1. results   Keyword : Claude Jutras dit Lavallée  – Quebec heritage– Judgment referring Claude Jutras dit Lavallée, elected tutor of the minor children of Marguerite Hayot, widow of sieur Grandmesnil, now wife of Medard Chouart DesGroseilliers before the judge of Trois-Rivières, to be discharged from the guardianship. Quebec heritage. New France. Sovereign Council. September 3, 1664

Transcription of the text with modernized spelling: “On what was represented by the Attorney General of the King. Translated by DeepL

• Marguerite Hayet Des Groseilliers was the half-sister of Elisabeth Radisson.

2.      Request from Claude Jutras (Jutrat) dit Lavallée (La Vallée), plaintiff, to be compensated by master Guillaume Pépin for an ox which was mistreated by his people who would have inflicted a wound on his hip by blows. Said Pépin is ordered to dress and medicate the beef in order to cure it. Quebec heritage -New France. Royal jurisdiction of Trois-Rivières. August 31, 1669 . Translated by DeepL

3.

Translated by Google

Footnotes:

1.https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-de-Champlain

2.https://www.ancestry.ca/mediaui-viewer/tree/39302317/person/272193920234/media/5d3178d4-2044-4abf-b8c0-2e4de406efbf?_phsrc=SzZ578&_phstart=successSource

3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trois-Rivi%C3%A8res#History

4.lhttp://www.apointinhistory.net/trois-rivieres.php

5.http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/laviolette_1E.html

6.http://www.afgs.org/ditnames/index1.html

7.https://genealogyensemble.com/2021/10/06/a-very-young-marriageable-girl/

8.https://genealogyensemble.com/2020/03/11/allegiances  

9.https://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/GenealogieQuebec.aspx?genealogy=Jutras_Claude&pid =24684&lng=en

10.https://genealogie.quebec/stemma4web/info/14372

11.http://www.apointinhistory.net/jutras.php

12.https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history- heritage/popular-books/aboriginal-people-canadian-military/arrival-europeans-17th-century-wars.html

13.http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/Membership/en/PRDH/famille/85718  16 Jul  2015

14.https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/resultats

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https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/history.html

Canada: A History of Refuge

What Does “Refugee” Mean?

It is not as easy to define “refugee” as one might expect. In its simplest meaning, a refugee is a person who flees his or her home country because of fears of persecution or abuse, particularly by their own government. However, the meaning is affected by political change, public perception and history. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country and who are afraid to return because of war, violence or persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Navigate through the exposition to learn more about refugees in Canada.

This above database prepared by Jacques Gagné consists of books, articles and theses written by numerous authors on the subject of refugees that have come to Quebec and their contributions.

Open the link in a new window.

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Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris, France

Over the years many authors have written about ‘les filles du roi, otherwise known as the King’s (Louis XIV’s) daughter’s. Eight hundred young women were part of a settlement scheme from 1663 -1674 in New France, now Quebec, Canada.

Much less was written and noted about a group of women who ventured into the new world. Prior to the King’s daughter’s arrival, the Company of One Hundred Associates between the years 1634 and 1662 recruited tradesmen, labourers and 262 young women. The purpose was to create a French settlement.

Elisabeth Radisson, my seventh great grandmother, along with her sister, Francoise and her half-sister Marguerite all signed contracts. What prompted them to sign these contracts, particularly when they were so young?
Elisabeth Radisson was born in about 1637 in St. Sulpice, Paris, Ile de France, France.

Pierre Esprit Radisson Sr, their father was a well-to do bourgeois. He owned a clothing store in Paris. He married Madeleine Henault, the widow of Sebastien Hayet, who died leaving his young wife with a year-old daughter, Marguerite, born in 1632. Several documents have indicated that the marriage of Pierre and Madeleine took place in 1635. Together the couple had 3 children, Francoise about (1636) and Elisabeth about (1637) and Pierre, the famous explorer. The dates of his birth vary. There are discrepancies indicating that it was sometime between (1636 -1640)

There are several dates given for the passing of Pierre Senior. There is a document explaining an inventory upon his death dated 1641.3. The year of his demise seems most likely to be is 1646. Most documents give his date of birth as 1590 and it appears he died at the age of fifty-six, on November 25, 1646, in Paris leaving Madeleine to care for four young people between the ages of 15 and 9. 4.

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In 1646 these three young girls, Elisabeth, age 9, Francoise about 10 years old and Marguerite at 15 each signed a contract as ‘filles à marier’. They set sail for New France. 5. After a lengthy crossing they arrived and settled in Trois- Rivières. Pierre may have come with them although a document indicates “he immigrated from France to Canada on the 24th of May, in 1651”.6.

After her arrival little is written about Elisabeth settling in her new home. We do know Elisabeth was able to sign her name. During a ten-year period in Trois-Rivières very little is known about where she lived as a young girl. One might presume that she was with her siblings. The first record other than her arrival in Canada is 8-7-1657 in Trois Rivières when she was the godmother of Marie-Anne Chouard or Chouart. This child might have been the daughter of Elisabeth Radisson’s half-sister. Marguerite.

Later that year there was a notarial contract signing on October 8, 1657, before her marriage to Claude Jutras. At that point she would have been 19 years old.7.

Her husband to be, Claude Jutras dit Lavallée was also born in Paris about 1627 and he arrived in Trois-Rivières 1656 as a soldier. He was stationed at the garrison in Trois Rivières. 8.

Elisabeth Radisson and Claude Jutras dit Lavallée were married on November 05, 1657, 9. at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Trois-Rivières.10.

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Within the first year of their marriage Elisabeth gave birth to a daughter, Madeleine. Over a period of twenty years, the couple had nine children, 6 girls and 3 boys. Most of the children lived to adulthood. Sadly, Marguerite died at the age of nineteen giving birth to twin boys. Young Claude was sixteen at the time of his death.11.

Five of the daughters married and Marie Joseph chose to enter the Ursuline convent. Pierre became a voyageur and acquired a seigneury.

The census of 1671 noted that Claude Jutras was no longer a soldier, but rather had become a habitant or settler. Life appears to have been kind to the family. By the year 1679 after a number of land transactions the Jutras had acquired wealth and were now considered members of the bourgeoisie, among the well to do families.12.

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The above document is only one indication of the many financial contributions Elisabeth’s made to the Jutras family wealth.13.

Claude Jutras dit Lavallée died the 28th of November 1710 and was buried that same day in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada.14.

Elisabeth Radisson lived for nearly twelve years after Claude’s passing. She died on the 11th of May 1722 and is also buried in Trois-Rivières.15.

Below is the church record of Elisabeth’s burial.

• Sources:

1.https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Filles_%C3%A0_marier# Bilingual_Biographies

2.https://www.worldcat.org/title/before-the-kings-daughters-the-filles-a-marier-1634- 1662/oclc/50411950?referer=di&ht=editionGAGNE, PETER J. Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles a Marier, 1634-1662. Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2002. Pages 303-316. 

MSS-069-Filles à Marier

3.https://www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/BD_web_libre/Actes_notaries_des_pionniers_de_Paris.pdf  page  169

4.https://www.geni.com/projects/Marriageable-Girls/14207

5.https://www.amazon.ca/Histoire-Nouvelle-France-3-Marc-Lescarbot/dp/114403213X

6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Esprit_Radisson#Birth_and_emigration_to_New_France

7.https://www.geni.com/projects/Marriageable-Girls/14207

  https://genealogie.quebec/stemma4web/info/index.php?no=37300

8.http://www.apointinhistory.net/jutras.php

   9.http://www.migrations.fr/FILLE_A_MARIER/fm_mariage_R.htm

10.https://huntingtonfamily.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I3940&tree=johnandtuly

11.http://www.migrations.fr/FILLE_A_MARIER/fm_mariage_R.htmIbid

https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3313859?docsearchtext=ELisabeth%20Radisson

12.http://www.apointinhistory.net/jutras.php

13.https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3313859?docsearchtext=ELisabeth%20Radisson

14.https://greenerpasture.com/Ancestors/Details/31555  & https://www.myheritage.com/names/claude_jutras

15.http://www.migrations.fr/ACTES_SEPULTURES_FM/sepultures_filleamarier.htm#R

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The European presence in Newfoundland goes back to the early 16th century. In their autobiographies, John Cabot and Jacques Cartier, explorers, both indicated the presence of Basque fishermen along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Strait of Labrador, the southern and northern regions of the Island of Newfoundland.

The extraction of oïl from whales caught off the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the cod fish industry along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador were major industries with market places in Continental Europe, the British Isles.

This database contains a selection of authors who have written books, articles, and dissertations about the great fishing era off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

Plaisance
(Placentia)
1655-1713
&
Le French Shore
1713-1783