Turcotte Family Celebration

About ...

Jean Turcot

By Gentil Turcot O.F.M.

Jean Turcot, Ancestor

John I, who married Frances Cappelle, is the least known! Even Father Archangel Godbout had only a few meager notes that ancêtre.27. He deserves it but the sort of shadow. In making my descent, it is to him that I led, but not without difficulties, as Bishop Nicholas had put on the wrong track because of an error. My tenacity to strip the old records and transplants Courthouse of Trois-Rivieres, largely rewarded me! And I was pleased that my ancestor was John Turcot since Mr. Pierre Boucher, a former adviser to the Historical Society of Montreal, wrote the following in a letter: "If we could choose his own ancestors and if it was Turcotte, prefer to attach themselves to the Vendee and Jean Cappel of Hermanville-sur-Mer, rather than the second Abel and Girouse La Tremblade. But (he said) he must recognize their ancestors as they were, and certainly the three Turcot Poitou is worth, although Abel and Jean Cadet have fared better than John first difficulties they had to meet. But how can you claim that the pioneer trifluvian Jean Turcot was also Vendeen because Tanguay is not traced to its origins, and no contract has been found of his marriage to Frances Cappelle? No one knows the name of Jean Turcot only because his widow, Frances Cappelle, married in 1653 and Jacques Lucas said she is widow of John Turcot.

The Marriage of Jean Turcot, in 1651

Now that we have the history of Champlain Mother Margaret Marie28. It is easy to give an answer to the problem. The author gives us a quote taken from fragmentary marriage contract made under private signature, Jean Turcot with Francoise Cappelle, which contract is supposed to be kept in the family Dealer Champlain28.. The authentic text that the author was certainly under the eyes is now found and has been filed in any archives. It's too bad, we learn so much.

This private agreement passed Leneuf tells us that Jean Turcot, is the son of Francois Turcot and Josette Puinandeau and he married Françoise Cappelle, daughter of Julian and Laurence Cappel Lecompte, Trois-Rivieres, October 25 1651. Also in this document, we learn that Jean Turcot was born in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendee, Bas-Poitou. Unfortunately, he says nothing of his profession.

His Arrival in Canada

The question may arise now: Jean Turcot Was New France has long when he was married in 1651? Apparently, according to documents he had come to Three Rivers in 1650. Here you can stop and admire the bravery and adventurous spirit of this valiant pioneer who settled in Trois-Rivieres, because we know how this outpost at the beginning of the colony, was dangerous, he exposed was the incessant attacks of the dreaded Iroquois. That he deliberately chose Three Rivers and he left Quebec, significant agglomeration, although fortified hub of commerce and business in the mid-seventeenth century.

Indeed, Jean Turcot was certainly in Quebec, August 11, 1647, as evidenced by a notarial act Bermen an obligation of Isaac Blineau Vincent Breault, mason, for a suit; obligation Lande and Jean Pierre Turcot have been asked to sign as witnesses. Jean Pierre as their signature with a sure hand with calligraphy and beautiful and very readable. John was so pretty instruit.29.

Was There an "Engagement", with Pierre Lande?

If we take the sequence of dates: Jean Turcot in 1647 in Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres probably in 1650, it gives three years, is it not time that a signed undertaking to be of service. But we found nothing definite on this point. Still, it is not rash to compare his case to that of his friend Peter Heath, who had engagné Noel Juchereau March 19, 1647 to serve in New France. What to believe that John Turcot could be arrived at Quebec at the same time that Peter Heath and under the same conditions, that is to say, as committed. After three years of service, he moved to Trois-Rivieres. What did he do in this house? Benjamin Sulte Montarville and Boucher de la Bruere who reconstructed the Three Rivers from 1650 say nothing of John Turcot. No portion of land seems to have been assigned and no concession seems to have been made? We would be wholly uncertain whether we had a paper in the Schedule of Hearings held in the Archives of Trois-Rivieres for the year 1654 where as of May 8, we learn that Françoise Cappelle had a house with fireplace, surrounded by piles and located outside the precincts of the town at the place called "home clothes".

This house, no doubt it was John who had built. Why then, John was not he a carpenter? Having this much we can conclude that John lived his carpenter or joiner. In this house, John had his home, he lived courageously with his young wife Frances Cappelle he loved and with whom he was happy until the birth of her first child and every day braving the dangers of the treacherous Iroquois. Let us not forget that he lived outside the stockade. They came often, the Iroquois, by disasters, spread terror, destroying crops, removing animals and drawing the inhabitants themselves.

His Untimely Death

Unfortunately, Jean Turcot would fall victim to his bravery, who wanted to save the little colony trifluvienne the criminal hand of the Iroquois. Less than a year after her marriage, Jean Turcot died in the unfortunate incident of August 19, 1652, well known to historians.

This time, nothing could restrain Duplessis-Kerbodot, Governor, to avenge the deaths of four people killed by the arrows of the Iroquois. He appealed to the soldiers of the garrison, a few brave people and Indian friends. He raised a total of sixty men. They left the river to meet the enemy. Upon descent of the boats, they were killed and seven were taken prisoner whose never heard of: Marin, Terrier, Jean Poisson, Jean Turcot and Thomas Godfrey plus two wild. Marie de l'Incarnation wrote that they were well known residents.

Four days after the massacre, Father Lemercier and his companions went to visit the scene of the disaster, presumably to remove the dead. We found the following inscription on a shield Iroquois "Normandville, Francheville, Fish, Lapalme, Turcot Chailloux, St-Germain. I lost a fingernail. Normandville clever young man and brave words were written with charcoal, to make known that the seven people whose names we saw were taken by the Iroquois and that he had done more harm than to tear a fingernail.

Jean Turcot never returned. The details of his death we are never reached. However, we can, by the narratives that we encounter every page of our history, we have an idea of the torture he endured before he died. There is reason to believe that all these tortures, Jean Turcot has endured with great courage and admirable spirit of faith.

His wife was inconsolable, but she accepted his ordeal with the same courage that her husband had placed to defend and avenge his family. Fortunately Frances was pregnant and it was his consolation. Three weeks after this misfortune, she gave birth to her first and only child Turcot or September 4, 1652, he was baptized in the name of Jacques. He, posthumous son, who saved the name and perpetuated through the ages generations of descendants of the courageous John Turcot.

Françoise Capelle, Her Origins and Her Beginnings in Canada

Françoise Cappelle was a great woman! It was Norman. His contract of marriage with Jacques Lucas, married his second, we learn his country of origin, not easy to determine because different views have been made: Gaigniers-aux-Vignes, near Caen, in Vaillancourt, Hermand or town on Mer, near Dover near Caen, Calvados, according to Pierre Boucher. For my part, I read Channels-to-vines, in Normandy.

According to Father Godbout Archangel, is one of those "brides" arrived with Mademoiselle Mance, Quebec, September 8, 1650. Helpless, alone in this new country where she knew no one, she became an Ursuline converse, known as Sister St. Michael. His experience of religious life was not very happy. She soon emerged, May 3, 1651, according to the Journal of Jésuites30., To stay with Mrs Grand who lived in the house now on the Island of Orleans. This Madame de Grandmaison was a great friend and benefactor of the Ursulines. She was a widow with five or six children and had a lot of business to manage, since it was Lord Chavigny. History tells us that she often came to Three Rivers and it was great friends for the family members Bertrand Fafard. She put on the font Joseph, their son. But Bertrand Fafard was wealthy and enjoyed a great reputation. We may believe that Franchise Cappelle came with his benefactress, and she lived some time with this lady who had introduced the Ursulines.

It is noteworthy coincidence: the departure of Franchise cappella in Ursuline follows closely the fire of the monastery, Christmas in the year 1650. Mother Mary of the Incarnation in a letter "A converse novice nun who had charge of making bread, having the previous evening she had made the sourdough baker, lest they gelassent, put in places of burning charcoal. She forgot to remove it, the crib caught fire and the monastery. According to Dom Jamet, we did not mention novice converse, unless he says it is a lay sister who withdrew before the occupation. According the Journal of the Jesuits, Sister St. Michael was indeed a young converse which came May 3, 1651. No doubt, it is our Franchise Cappelle. Poor thing, you say! This does not prevent it from being a remarkable woman and married thrice.

Françoise Capelle Remarried

Indeed, after more than a year of widowhood following the death of Jean Turcot, the young French a document called "docking and comely" bride September 9, 1653 in Trois-Rivières31., Jacques Lucas said Lepine, a Norman, came to Port-en-Bessin, Bayeux region, Calvados. But on her marriage, she is careful to benefit his son Jacques Turcot, that her new husband will accept as his own child.

Immediately, she left her house, located outside the city walls, she yawns a named Michel de Derois said Boutentrain32.. Under the agreement he will pay ten pounds for the lease of six months. The new couple moved to Cap-de-la-Madeleine, a concession that Jacques Lucas had received from the Jesuits. From him, she has two children, a boy and a girl, not three as Tanguay wrote. The third, which he cites, is an unworthy scion adventurer was the wife of John Major. He was named Alexander Lucas said bayonet, and he has no relationship with Jacques Lucas said Lepine.

Third Marriage of Françoise

She became a widow again since it marries third wedding on 1 February 1660, with Jacques Le Marchand who descend every dealer Champlain and Batiscan. This Jacques was a wealthy merchant, helped no doubt by all the goods that his wife had made after his successive marriages. From him, Frances had three children.

Our great ancestor mother survived a few years to her husband, she died at her daughter, the widow Jacques Turcot and was buried at Champlain at the age of 73 years, April 20, 1699.

Jacques Turcot, Son of Jean I

As for Jacques Turcot, son of John, he followed his mother with each of its new stepfathers. He wanders the Cap-de-la-Madeleine in Trois-Rivieres, the Tree of the Cross, then to St. Eloy Batiscan33..

At barely nineteen, he tries to settle at Ste-Anne-de-la-Perade, a concession he buys Jean Pouzet34. But after five months, he changed his mind and return the land to the seller.

Marriage of Jacques Turcot

Three years later, when he was twenty-two, Jacques wants to make a project more seriously, he decided to marry. He fixed his choice on a young girl, aged only thirteen, Anne Desrosiers, daughter of Anthony and Anne Leneuf Duhérisson. He could covet most beautiful union since his mother, Anne was a descendant of Leneuf of the French nobility, while Antoine Desrosiers was a very experienced man who had long worked with the Jesuits. Larue is the notary who drew up the marriage contract, April 4, 1674 at Champlain35..

For Jacques, began the great adventure of life! And he succeeded. He became one of the most to Champlain soon warden then judge the lordship, thirty-nine only.

In him, we must recognize the father of this long line of Turcot. Few of his descendants will reach such a brilliant reputation, but they will as much passion and courage to build their share of the nation and the nation and to defend against any invader. Father model, industrious to a fault he gives to his race and God an honorable family of eleven children, to whom he bequeathed the examples of his virtues and property that has hard-earned.

Historian Raymond Douville and Jacques-Donat Casanova noted Jacques Turcot throughout history and in their book: Daily Life in New France, they could write this laudatory testimony: "A typical example is provided by Jacques Turcot settlers certainly most deserving of his time. Jacques begins early learning for life and died at forty-eight years spent in work and become lord judge Champlain. He owns four farms, one in Champlain, two Bastican, and one of two hundred acres in the lordship of Gentilly. It is, apart from the Lords, a landowner's most important to New France, on the farm where he resides with his family he was forty-six acres in cultivation, a comfortable house with two rooms to fire, two firms , kitchen, basement and attic, farm buildings, barn, table, barn, hanger, many animals including eight oxen and a horse. Jacques Turcot is a "comfortable living" 36..

The Start of the Colony

Yet he began humbly on a land not cleared he receives from his father-Desrosiers, land called "The Motheux. This is more than generous because in addition, it undertakes to build at its own cost and expense a house twenty-five feet long and eighteen feet wide and undertakes to keep the bride and groom the space of one year. When they enter their homes, Antoine Desrosiers care to give his daughter any clothing, "according to his condition," a cow with her calf, two young bullocks topped with a plow and a cart, while Jacques Le Marchand, his father by marriage also will give four hundred livres, lingerie necessary with a few dishes and a pig and half a dozen chickens. It really is a good start. Everything is relative!

Our colon Turcot knows brandishing his ax, he clears his land with astonishing speed. After a dozen years, he has deserted his thirty-acre square, twenty-four acres he has developed.

The years pass and the children are born at a steady pace, but the young woman of thirteen years had her first child six years after her marriage. She was nineteen years old when she was a mother for the first time.

Soon, Jacques enlarges its area, he bought land in the notary Cusson, not far from the sienne37.. It carries up shop there and built anew. He does everything with his hands and he is well equipped for the inventory of its biens38. us lists no fewer than seventy-two tools of a carpenter or carpenter. But our colon has big ambitions and there he is conceding three times in Gentilly land vis-à-vis Champlain, by the Lord Michel Pelletier Prade. August 22, 169739., Jacques Turcot had a field a quarter mile of frontage on the depth of the lordship, two leagues and a half. It was a land "planted trees" which had six acres of meadow land.

Were there more long colon? Should be analyzed in the inventory of his property enumerating his implements, his cattle, his household furniture to be convinced.

With this, one would have thought that Jacques had sufficient employment to clear and cultivate his land. One wonders how it happened that he had accepted his commission as judge Champlain which was issued June 12, 1691 and whose act is in Trois-Rivieres. He replaced William Larue who had returned to his tabellionnage.

The Letter

If he was appointed a judge, then he had some descent on him and he had the education required for this function. We do not know where he was educated, but he had, like many others of his time studying with the Jesuits. And it is not commonplace to note that Jacques had an excellent script, easy and clear, and he knew his French. The written page of her main40. which has been preserved is a proof.

Jacques was educated, he had a library of several volumes, something not so common for the settlers of his time. Listed in the inventory of his property, and head: a Bible in eight volumes. No doubt it is a Bible in Latin, because he had not yet French Bible. Oh! French translation had been made but it was immediately condemned by Rome, then withdrawn from circulation. If he did not understand Latin, one wonders what he could do with a Bible in Latin eight toms! But cons, he had a New Testament in French. As a good Christian, Jacques had on its shelves, in addition to his Bible, four volumes of the lives of saints. And as he was a judge, he must know the law, so he had two volumes in The Custom of Paris and the Orders in a volume. Finally, for his personal culture, a dozen other volumes.

Judge Jacques Turcot not idle. "And the Normans of the 17th century to plead vied. At least, if they had reported the first decisions of this court, but no, they would appeal, Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City before the High Council.

The Avocate

Before being elected judge, Jacques Turcot had made a few appearances before the Court of Three Rivers, as a defendant today, it would be called: lawyer. In its first plea it was not very happy and he had to risk his future as "lawyer". He defended his father-Jacques Le Marchand, in a dispute with his neighbor, Antoine Trottier said streams for a case of boeufs41..

Jacques Le Marchand had two oxen villains, armed with large horns. One day, they beat and wounded the neighbor's oxen Trottier and her daughter Francoise Le Marchand had come to high words with the boy Trottier who had made the remark. She shouted vulgar words (sic): "Shut up, boy, you're a brat, I do not care what you and your father said." All that was filed before Judge Trois-Rivieres and Jacques Turcot defended his stepfather and his daughter. The poor believe in good deeds and denying while absolutely refusing to talk as long as proof of what an advance Trottier will not be more conclusive. The first session ends there. It takes a few months later, but this time, Jacques Le Marchand sends a defendant Louis Fafard Laframboise said, his son. His plea is that Turcot was misinformed and that it was true that the merchant had oxen malignant. Turcot, having dragged the case, was sentenced to court costs and Le Marchand paid the injured horse.

Turcot, lawyer, was not discouraged for so little. He came again to defend the company of Francis Lucas, her half-brother with Jacques Baillargeon and Foisy42.. He was happier since won his case pending before the Supreme Council. Minutes extremely complicated, not easy to disentangle.

The Judge

This was perhaps the last trial which he received his commission as a judge in 1691. Just months after his appointment, Turcot had to try a criminal case. Jean Joubert, miller Champlain was accused of having killed with a knife named Desmarais, Mr. soldier Vallerennes of the New Year's Day 1692. This unfortunate event was a painful sensation in the parish. The murderer, insufficient evidence, was acquitted by the judge Turcot. It is brought on appeal to the Court of Three Rivers, he is "condemned to be hanged and strangled until death ensues from a pendant that will be planted at Champlain, where the murder was committed. And his dead body will remain there 24 hours ... "Joubert appeals to the Supreme Council, it is granted. After informing the trial decision of the Supreme Council is as follows: The award of the Tribunal de Trois-Rivieres is declared null and "at the behest of the Attorney Roy said Joubert was returned shortly under good and safe custody by Devers Turcot J. de Champlain, for him to be his trial and is perfect for the continuation of the procurator fiscal said place, unless the appeal, given the criminal trial is extraordinarily educated and accordingly the said arrest by the judge says Champlain43.. It was confidence that the Supreme Council was the decision of Justice Turcot. Joubert was not convicted and even repair was made before the whole parish. Joubert was still expatriate and went grinding in Charlesbourg.

All that to say that a seigneurial judge was not just a little justice of the peace sitting for trifles or small quibbles Household and closing.

The Father of the Family

Despite his many occupations, Jacques did not neglect his family. It was well established in a large house very comfortable and equipped with the necessities of modern times - we're in the years 1690-1700. All we are well reported and described in the inventory of his property.

Its revenues substantial enough to allow him to educate his children. And he was anxious to give them a good education: two of his daughters were residents at the Ursulines of Quebec and the boys were studying at a strolling Champlain Professor: Francis Labernade, while helping their father in the work culture and clearing.

"The Turcot were rich, gays, hospital. When they were in a meeting, it was certain to be amused. They put the zest and pleasure wherever they were. Joseph, among others, drew wonderfully out of the game "44..

The Death of Jacques Turcot

This happiness did not last and Jacques Turcot was struck down by death in plain activity in the spring of April 1699. It was already burned by the work and worries of his responsibilities. It was only forty-seven. He left a young wife of thirty-eight years with ten children and eleventh (Joseph) who was born six months after the death of his father. Elder Alexis was seventeen years old, Madeleine 14, Marie-Madeleine 12, Anne-Celeste 9, Frances 8, Anthony 6 and Marie-Therese 4.

We will never know the cause which claimed Jacques Turcot. But as he signed official documents until the eve of his death, we can assume that his death was sudden. Besides, all his children die young.