anglais1

The following is a translation of an article is in "Je me souviens", a Franco-American history publication.

In response to a question from Gilles Laplante regarding the origins of the Sauvé dit Laplante family. Firstly it should be stated that the Carignan Regiment stayed only three years in New France, that being 1665 to 1668. Nothing permits me to believe that Jacques Dumesny, sieur de Noray, and Pierre Sauvé dit Laplante were among the 400 demobilized soldiers who chose to stay in Canada.

The troops of the Compagnies Franche de la Marine were sent from France starting in 1680, the time of intensification of colonial rivalries and of the Iroquois threat. They established garrisons of soldiers in fortified posts surrounding Montréal Island, notably Fort Rémy (a.k.a. Fort Lachine) and Fort Rolland situated on the Lachine shores. A number of soldiers married young Canadian women and according to the custom of the time high ranking officers were asked to be godfathers and witnesses at thier marriages. The name Dumesny appears as such in the Lachine parish register for the first time on January 16th, 1686 on the occasion of the marriage of Corporal François Philippon to Gertrude André.

After Désiré Girouard, Dumesny took over command of Fort Rolland from 1690-91 until 1694 as well as between the years 1696-1698. He died in Montréal in 1714.

As for Pierre Sauvé we find him mentioned in the Lachine parish register for the first time on the occasion of his marriage to Marie Michaud on February 27th, 1696. The witnesses to this marriage were: Jean Paré (Commander of Fort Lachine), Pierre Jammes dit Carrière, Dumesny, Marie-Madeleine Michau (sister of the bride), Jeanne Gourdon et Marie-Anne Rapin (two cousins who lived in the area).

Pierre Sauvé dit Laplante was the son of François dit Laplante and Marie Malleret of Libourne, France. He was buried at Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue on May 4th, 1737. Marie Michau, sometimes called Marie-Renée, was the daughter of Jean and Marie Marchessault (the widow of Albert Boutin), married in Quebec on November 25, 1670. She was baptized in Montreal on June 18th, 1677 and confirmed at Lachine in 1688. She was buried at Ste.-Anne on November 17th, 1750.

After a few years at Fort Frontenac, or Cataracouy, with his family Jean Michel or Michau acquired lot 455 (3 arpents frontage and 20 arpents deep), a lot located approximately where 21st and 22nd Streets are today. During the summer of 1689, despite the state of war against the Iroquois, Governor Vaudreuil took advantage of a period of seeming calm to authorize the citizens of the coast who were working their fields to no longer seek refuge each night in the fortified positions in the area as they had done for the previous two years. Many officers were on leave in Montreal. This is the time chosen by the Iroquois to attack the citizens of Lachine, with the result which we know: 25 dead left there and about sixty prisoners lead into captivity. Jean Michau, his son Pierre aged 17, the same for Albert Boutin, the son of the first marriage of Marie Marchessault were all killed and were buried were they were found the day after the massacre. They were among the 25 victims whose corpses were retrieved five years later, and were officially buried in the Lachine church cemetery by the priest Pierre Rémy. Marie Marchessault was undoubtedly taken prisoner and died in captivity on an unknown date. Three children survived, Marie, who married Pierre Sauvé in1696, Madeleine married Jacques Leduc in 1701, and François who became an interpreter under the name of Michauville.

Pierre Sauvé is one of the numerous soldiers married at Lachine between 1686 and 1699. Hubert Ranger whose daughter Louise married Jacques Sauvé in 1726 is another. Around 1697-9, the priests of the Saint-Sulpice Seminary, seigneurs of Montreal, gave up a large number of new pieces of land along Lake St. Louis, towards Bout-de-l-I'le. Pierre Sauvé acquired at this point lot 154, close to the current church of Pointe-Claire. All of this territory then formed part of the Lachine parish, until the creation of the parishes of Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue (1703) and Point Claire (1711). This is the reason why we find the descendants of the Sauvé dit Laplante family in the registers of the different parishes.

Sources: Répertoire des actes de baptème, mariage, sépulture et des rcensements du Quebec ancien, Programme de recherche en démographie historique de l'Université de Montréal, sous la direction de H. Charbonneau et J.Légaré, Vol.6. Girouard, Désiré, Lake Saint-Louis Old and New, Poirier and Bessette & Co., Montreal, 1893

n.b. I am indebted to the author of the above article but I must wonder about some facts therein. Being in possession of the marriage record of Pierre and Michel I find no mention that Dumesny was actually there. Secondly the author indicates that Pierre was the "...fils de François dit Laplante....". There is no indication at the marriage record that François used the dit name.

Further, Jean Paré is identified as a "maistre charpentier" at the marriage record, perhaps he was also the "commandant du Fort du Lachine". Subsequently we received from Kathie Rouseau the following reference:

."I happened on a website that does refer to Jean Pare as the Commander there. The website [http://fortress.uccb.ns.ca/cnd/pare.htm] states:

Sister Catherine Paré was baptized in Lachine on August 25, 1698; her father was M. Jean Paré, Sergeant of the garrison, Commander of the fort of Lachine; her mother, dame Marguerite Picard, daughter of Hugues Picard and Antoinette Liercourt, was the sister of Jacques Picard whose widow, Marie-Anne Lefebvre, made profession in our Community [congregation of Notre Dame] under the name of Saint Michel."