Monday, January 29, 2018

Pascal Pinsonneau, Canadian Convict Sent to Australia


Our 2nd cousin 5x removed, Pascal Pinsonneault, a farmer from La Prairie, was a patriot who participated in the “Lower Canada Rebellion,” and an attack on the house of David Witty, La Tortue (Saint-Constant), during which Aaron Walker was killed on November 3 1838.

Pascal was, one of several, sentenced to death for murder by the Court Martial on 10 Jan 1839, but his sentence was later commuted to exile to Australia. 


He left the prison Pied-du-Courant on 26 September 1839 and went to Quebec where it is embarked aboard the ship “Buffalo” to Australia.

He was pardoned in 1843, he returned to Canada in 1845. He died about 1865 in La Prairie.

The LOWER CANADA REBELLION 
(French: La rébellion du Bas-Canada), commonly referred to as the Patriots' War (French: la Guerre des patriotes) by Quebecers, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between the rebels of Lower Canada (now Quebec) and the British colonial power of that province.

The rebellion was preceded by nearly three decades of efforts at political reform in Lower Canada, and sought accountability from the elected general assembly and appointed governor of the colony. The appointed legislative council (a type of upper house) was dominated by a small group of businessmen known as the Château Clique, the equivalent of the Family Compact in Upper Canada.

Activists in Lower Canada began to work for reform in a period of economic disfranchisement of the French-speaking majority and working-class English-speaking citizens. 

The rebellion protested the injustice of colonial governing as such, in which the governor and upper house of the legislature were appointed by the Crown. Many of its leaders and participants were English-speaking citizens of Lower Canada. 


The French speakers felt that Anglophones were disproportionately represented in the lucrative fields of banking, the timber trade, and transportation industry.



Source: Wikipedia


Our Lineage:


Pascal Pinsonneau (1812 - 1865) — 2nd cousin 5x removed

François Marie Pinsonneau (1773 - 1843) -- father of Pascal Pinsonneau

Pascal Pinsonneau (1729 - 1802) -- father of François Marie Pinsonneau

Jacques Pinsonneau dit Lafleur (1682 - 1773) -- father of Pascal Pinsonneau

Joseph Pinsonneau (Pinsono) (1733 - 1779) -- son of Jacques Pinsonneau dit Lafleur

Gabriel Pinsonneau (1770 - 1807) -- son of Joseph Pinsonneau (Pinsono)

Gabriel Pinsonneau (1803 - 1877) -- son of Gabriel Pinsonneau

Lucy Passino (Pinsonneau) (1836 - 1917) -- daughter of Gabriel Pinsonneau