Antoine Brunet_dit_Belhumeur Francoise Moisan Marriage

Françoise Moisan & Antoine Brunet

Françoise Moisan: The Colorful Life of a King’s Daughter

Early Life and Immigration

Françoise Moisan was born around 1645 in the bourgeois district of Saint-Barthélemy in La Rochelle, Aunis (France). She was the daughter of Abel Moisan, a laborer and gardener, and Marie Simiot, who were married on January 23, 1642, at Saint-Barthélemy de La Rochelle.[1] Her paternal grandparents were Mathurin Moisan and Jeanne Coustu, while her maternal grandparents were Charles Simiot, a miller, and Marie Cholet from La Jarrie.

After losing both parents, Françoise left for Canada in 1663 at about 18 years of age as part of the “King’s Daughters” (Filles du Roi) contingent, arriving in Quebec on June 30, 1663, aboard the vessel Le Phoenix de Flessingue.[2]

First Marriage and Family

On November 28, 1663, Françoise married Antoine Brunet dit Belhumeur in Montreal. The marriage contract was drawn up on October 19 by notary Gloria, though neither spouse could sign their name.[3] Antoine was born around 1644 in the parish of Saint-Nicolas in La Rochelle, the son of Mathurin Brunet and Marie Brunei. He had immigrated to Canada in 1662 and worked as a domestic servant for the Sulpicians.

Antoine and Françoise settled in Montreal, where they were recorded in various censuses:

  • The 1666 census lists: Antoine Brunet, 22, habitant; Francoise Moisan, 21, his wife; François, 1.[4]
  • The 1667 census records: Antoine Brunet (dit Belhumeur), 25; Françoise Moysant, his wife, 23; François, 2; Marie-Françoise, 1 month.[5]
  • The 1681 census states: Brunet, Antoine, 36; Moisant, Françoise, 34; children: 15, 13, 7, 7, 3, 1 year 3 months.[6]

The couple had ten children:

  1. François (dit Belhumeur): baptized March 17, 1665, in Montreal; buried July 13, 1739, in Terrebonne. He married Anne Menard, then Marie-Antoine Renaud.
  2. Marie-Françoise: baptized April 26, 1667, in Montreal; died December 10, 1686, in Montreal. She married Jean Patenaude.
  3. Catherine: baptized August 25, 1669, in Montreal; died July 27, 1732, in Montreal. She married Pierre Patenaude.
  4. Antoine: baptized July 6, 1672, in Montreal; buried July 10, 1672, in Montreal.
  5. Élisabeth: baptized July 23, 1674, in Montreal (twin); buried July 19, 1748, in St. Vincent de Paul. She married Robert Rheaume.
  6. Geneviève: baptized July 23, 1674, in Montreal (twin); buried December 17, 1706, in Montreal. She married Louis Bau, then Louis Tetreault.
  7. Marguerite: baptized April 16, 1679, in Montreal; died September 6, 1739, in Verchères; buried September 27, 1739, in Verchères. She married Jacques Tétreault.
  8. François: born around 1680, present in the 1681 census.
  9. Barbe-Angélique: baptized June 19, 1682, in Montreal.
  10. Jacques: married Catherine Ménard.

Three of these children—François (1665), Marie-Françoise (1667), and Élisabeth (1674)—are noted as ancestors of the Vaillancourt and Chartrand families.[7]

Scandal and Reputation

Françoise Moisan’s reputation in the colony was notably controversial. In 1688, she was accused of living a scandalous life and was charged with inciting her son-in-law’s second wife to prostitution.

Jean Patenaude had married Françoise’s daughter Marie Brunet in 1683, but Marie died in 1686 while giving birth to their second child. That November, Jean remarried to Marie Robidou. Françoise maintained contact with her former son-in-law and became friendly with Marie Robidou, who frequently visited Françoise’s house. These relations began to worry the local curé, who voiced his concerns to Jean. When Jean confronted Françoise, both she and her son François allegedly mistreated him.

Unable to resolve the situation himself, Jean approached the authorities to force his wife to return home. He alleged that “for quite some time, several people have engaged in a sinister commerce with the said Bellehumeur woman, who has always been the ruin and the cause of debauchery of the youth of the entire Côte Saint-François and who continues to live in such infamy.”[8]

During the inquiry before prosecutor Migeon de Branssat, several witnesses testified against Françoise. It was stated that soldiers constantly visited her home despite warnings, threats, and beatings by their officers, and that some of her lovers got into fights with each other over her.

One of her most persistent admirers, a man named Pillereau, was reportedly beaten by soldiers Manceau and Maisonneuve who claimed Françoise was “their woman.” Another lover, Pierre Delorme dit Sans-Crainte, testified that he would sleep with Françoise when her husband was away (which was often) and that when Antoine returned, he would stay in the barn.

André Huneau testified that Françoise had led a “dissolute and infamous life” and that the two of them had lived together for two years as husband and wife. The most damaging testimony was that “she was even so brazen that to satisfy her brutality she had no concern if her daughters who were twelve or thirteen years old were present.”

It seems that the only outcome of all this testimony was to publicly denounce Françoise’s conduct and to ban her from contact with her former son-in-law’s second wife.

Widowhood and Second Marriage

Antoine Brunet died in Montreal between September 13, 1693, and July 3, 1694.[9] By this time, Françoise was approaching her fifties and appears to have managed her personal assets well. Her name appears in transaction records for loans, sales, and rentals.

On February 13, 1707, Françoise married Pierre Perthuis dit Lalime in Montreal, with notary Adhémar drawing up the marriage contract that same day.[10] Pierre was a merchant and bourgeois, previously a soldier in the Salière Company of the Carignan Regiment. He was baptized on February 18, 1645, in the parish of Notre-Dame-du-Bout-des-Ponts in Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, the son of Sylvain Perthuis and Mathurine Racicot from Saint-Denis in Amboise.

Pierre had been previously married in 1668 to Claude Damisé, another Fille du Roi, with whom he had twelve children. Claude died on October 6, 1705, in Montreal.

A year after her marriage to Pierre, Françoise had her assets from her marriage officially recognized, including: “a feather bed covered with cotton and its matching pillow, a new wool mattress, an almost new green Normandy blanket, a coverlet that cost her 32 livres, a silk sieve, a pewter pitcher containing more than one pot, six table knives with horn handles… seven deerskins… eight minots of peas… ten minots of wheat estimated at 32 livres 10 sols.”[11]

Pierre Perthuis died on April 16, 1708, just two months after this inventory. Françoise and Pierre had no children together.

Final Years

Françoise Moisan was about 73 years old when she died at Contrecoeur on November 2, 1718, possibly a victim of a malignant fever epidemic. Seven years earlier, she had sold her two-story stone house on Saint-Joseph Street for the sum of 1,450 livres.

In her will drafted that year, she bequeathed 100 livres to the priest for her funeral service and 150 livres to the Récollets to have masses said for the repose of her soul.[12]

Sources

  1. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1997. ↩︎

  2. http://www.migrations.fr/700fillesduroy_3.htm#M ↩︎

  3. https://www.genealogiequebec.com/Membership/LAFRANCE/acte/47271 ↩︎

  4. Recensement de 1666 en Nouvelle-France, référant au chapitre IV du livre Histoire des Canadiens-Français de Benjamin Sulte, compilé par Jean-Guy Sénécal le 17 mars 1998. ↩︎

  5. Recensement de 1667 en Nouvelle-France, référant au chapitre IV du livre Histoire des Canadiens-Français de Benjamin Sulte, compilé par Jean-Guy Sénécal le 17 mars 1998. ↩︎

  6. Recensement de 1681 en Nouvelle-France, référant au chapitre IV du livre Histoire des Canadiens-Français de Benjamin Sulte, compilé par Jean-Guy Sénécal le 17 mars 1998. ↩︎

  7. http://histoiresdancetres.com/non-classe/les-filles-de-la-rochelle/ ↩︎

  8. Quoted from trial testimony, 1688. ↩︎

  9. Pistard – Fonds Cour supérieure. District judiciaire de Montréal. Greffes d’arpenteurs. Procès contre Jacques Baudry, chirurgien, sergent de la Cie de Crisafy et les nommés Langevin, Doré et Castillon, accusés de fabrication de fausses monnaies. – 3 juillet 1694 – 10 juillet 1694. In these documents, it is noted that Françoise Moisan was referred to as a widow on July 3, 1694. ↩︎

  10. Tanguay: vol.1, p.476, 154; Jetté, p.902-903, 180, 872; Drouin, vol.2, p.1058; Dumas, p.213, 300; Landry, p.295-96, 348-349; Sulte, Hist.5, p.66(3); DBAQ, t4, p.106-108; R.M. Le Régiment de Carignan, p.86; Langlois, p.432-433. ↩︎

  11. From the inventory of assets brought to her second marriage, 1708. ↩︎

  12. From her will, circa 1711. ↩︎

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