Report: "La Prairie en Nouvelle-France, 1647-1760, Étude d'histoire sociale"

There's a delightful book:

"La Prairie en Nouvelle-France, 1647-1760, Étude d'histoire sociale"

By Louis Lavallée

History: Canada: Quebec, History: Canada: Pre-confederation Canada, Quebec Studies

La Prairie, under the French régime, was one of the earliest and most populous seigneuries of the Montreal district. Written and published in French, Louis Lavallée's study of peasant society in La Prairie begins in 1647 when the seigneury was conceded to the Jesuits, the most important landowners in New France, and ends with the Conquest. Lavallée discusses La Prairie's status as a frontier and way-station, its remarkable demographic growth -- the population had reached nearly two thousand in 1760 -- and the importance of the seigneurial and parochial frameworks in its development. These last bounded people's lives, giving the inhabitants of La Prairie a sense of financial and domestic structure. The second part of the book covers sociability, inheritance practices, the fur trade, and the form of stratification which prevailed in this traditional society.

Parish registers, notarial acts, administrative and judicial archives were used extensively to provide a comprehensive view of the formation and evolution of this society in its seigneurial context. In La Prairie en Nouvelle-France the seigneury comes into its own as a vantage point from which to view Canadian society under the French régime. The comparative approach that informs the entire work permits parallels and contrasts between colonial and metropolitan societies.

The book isn't available in English but I was able to translate bits and pieces which yielded the following is a list of my family ancestors mentioned in the book, on pages 144-159.

BARETTE (Guillaume Barette 1633-1717, 8th great-grandfather)

BOURASSA (Francois Bourassa 1659-1708, 7th great-grandfather)

BOYER (Charles Boyer 1631-1698, 9th great-grandfather)

CARON (Claude I Caron 1641-1708, 8th great-granduncle)

CUSSON (Marie Jeanne Cusson 1663-1738, 8th great-grandaunt w/o Joachim Jacques Leber 1664-1695, 7th great-granduncle)

DENEAU (Jacques Deniau Dit Destaillis)

DESROCHERS (Jean Baptiste Desroche(r)s 1649-1743, 7th great-grandfather???)

DIEL (Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton 1652-1702, 8th great-grandfather)

DUPUIS (François Dupuis 1634-1681, 8th great-grandfather)

DUQUET (Etienne Duquet dit Desrochers 1695-1753, 6th great-grandfather)

GAGNE (Pierre Gagne (Gagnier) 1645-1726, 8th great-grandfather)

LEBER (Francois Leber (Le Bert, Lebert) 1626-1694, 8th great-grandfather)

LEMAISTRE (Denise Lemaistre 1636-1691, 9th great-grandmother)

LEMIEUX (Gabriel Lemieux 1663-1739, 8th great-grandfather)

MARIE, dit Sainte-Marie (Marie Elizabeth Marier dit Lemarier DNA match 1740-1831, 5th great-grandmother)

MOREAU (Gabrielle Louise Moreau 1694-1750, 7th great-grandmother)

PERRAS (Pierre Peras (Perras) dit La Fontaine 1616-1684, 9th great-grandfather)

PINSONNEAU (François Pinsonneau dit Lafleur 1646-1731, 7th great-grandfather)

POUPART (Pierre Poupart (Poupard) 1653-1699, 8th great-grandfather)

ROBIDOU (Andre Robidou dit L’Espagnol 1643-1678, 9th great-grandfather)

ROY (Madeleine Roy 1684-1726, wife of 8th great-granduncle (Jean Perras dit Lafontaine 1668-1736)

THE OLD CANOE — poem by George Marsh

 

THE OLD CANOE

My seams gape wide, so I'm tossed aside
To rot on a lonely shore
While the leaves and mould like a shroud enfold.
For the last of my trails are o'er;
But I float in dreams on Northland streams
That never again I'll see.
As I lie on the marge of the old portage
With grief for company.

When the sunset gilds the timbered hills
That guard Timagami,
And the moonbeams play on far James Bay
By the brink of the frozen sea.
In phantom guise my spirit flies
As the dream-blades dip and swing
Where the waters flow from the Long Ago
In the spell of the beck'ning spring.

Do the cow-moose call on the Montreal
When the first frost bites the air.
And the mists unfold from the red and gold
That the autumn ridges wear?
When the white falls roar as they did of yore
On the Lady Evelyn,
Do the square-tail leap from the black pools deep
Where the pictured rocks begin?

Oh! the fur-fleets sing on Timiskaming
As the ashen paddles bend.
And the crews carouse at Rupert House
At the sullen winter's end;
But my days are done where the lean wolves run
And I ripple no more the path
Where the gray geese race 'cross the red moon's face
From the white wind's Arctic wrath.

Tho' the death-fraught way from the Saguenay
To the storied Nipigon
Once knew me well, now a crumbling shell
I watch the years roll on.
While in memory's haze I live the days
That forever are gone from me.
As I rot on the marge of the old portage
With grief for company.

— George Marsh.

Published Scribners, October 1908

Laprairie voyageur canoes index Mar. 2020 — Feb. 2025

 

"On the Kaministiquoia River" - William Armstrong (1822-1914)

THE VOYAGEURS, poem by George T. Marsh

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-voyageurs-by-george-t-marsh.html

SEVEN GENERATIONS OF LA PRAIRIE (QUE) VOYAGEUR ANCESTORS

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2024/05/seven-generations-of-la-prairie-que.html

Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish fur trader and explorer, was my 7th cousin

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2021/03/sir-alexander-mackenzie-scottish-fur.html

Holy Smoke! Maybe Our Voyageur Ancestors Were Actually Vikings

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2021/03/holy-cow-maybe-our-voyageur-ancestors.html

The Lament of Jean Cadieux

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-lament-of-jean-cadieux.html

Uncle Antoine, voyageur for René-Robert Cavelier, Lord of La Salle

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/11/uncle-antoine-voyageur-for-rene-robert.html

A Glimpse in Time - Fort Frontenac, 7 September 1677

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/10/aglimpse-in-time-fort-frontenac-7.html

Living with a 'Fur Trade' Collection -- my artistic and emotional connection to the past

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/10/living-with-fur-trade-collection-my.html

Missouri means “canoe,” so named for the Indians who are called the “peoples of the canoes.”

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/09/missouri-means-canoe-so-named-for.html

Peter Pond, Connecticut Yankee, Nor'Wester Founder, and Cartographer

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/08/peter-pond-connecticut-yankee-norwester.html

Index of Fur Trade Related Tales from ‘A Drifting Cowboy Blog’

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/08/index-of-fur-trade-related-tales-from.html

ADVENTURERS IN THE NEW WORLD: THE SAGA OF THE COUREURS DES BOIS - REVIEW

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/08/adventurers-in-new-world-saga-of.html

My Newly Acquired Short Northwest Trade Gun (Canoe Gun)

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/07/i-just-acquired-interesting-canoe-gun.html

Robidoux Family - Beaver Pelts to Buffalo Robes and Beyond

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/07/robidoux-family-beaver-pelts-to-buffalo.html

Forerunners of the Coureur Des Bois — Indian Interpreters in New France and Beyond

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/06/forerunners-of-coureur-des-bois-indian.html

Aunt Francoise Duquet married well, and her brothers benefited

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/06/aunt-francoise-duquet-married-well-and.html

UNDERSTANDING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE FUR TRADE

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/04/understanding-family-relationships-in.html

My Pioneer Ancestors of Quebec — They Arrived Before 1637

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/03/my-pioneer-ancestors-of-quebec-they.html

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCESTOR AND RELATIVE

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-difference-between-ancestor-and.html

THE VOYAGEURS, By George T. Marsh

 THE VOYAGEURS

By George T. Marsh

Out of the past they glide

O’er nameless rivers wide,

Phantoms, the craft they ride,

Specters are steering.

Far in the golden haze

Lingers their camp-fires blaze.

Back from the gallant days

Faint floats their cheering.

Comrades of brave Champlain,

O’er lake and mountain chain,

Fighting for Louis’s fame.

Toiled they and traded.

Bullies of Frontenac

Wolves of the forest track,

Hurling the English back,

Roved they and raided.

Wand’ring with Père Marquette

Into the red sunset,

Fair flames their glory yet,

Hennepin’s henchmen.

Bravos of stout LaSalle,

Riding the horns of hell

Where the wild waters fell.

Half-breed and Frenchmen.

Scouring the inland seas,

Scathless through the centuries,

Gambling their destinies;

Not their’s the reaping.

Right of the west they won

Where grey ranges run;

Now their bold task is done,

Deep are they sleeping.

Singing of trail and stream,

Brightly their paddles gleam,

Safely in peace they dream,

Past are their dangers;

Dicing for death with fate,

Flouting the Arctic’s hate,

Vikings insatiate,

Valiant world-rangers!

Poem source: Outing Magazine, Volume 56, page 192, May 1910.

Art source: “Poling Up Rapids” (illustration for “Toilers of the Trails” 1921)