Alexis de Barbezieux ("Père Alexis") (1854 - 1941) - Virtual Museum of Canada - "Des Saisons en Nouvelle-France" Published in « Le Canada héroïque et pittoresque, 1927 ».

Sieur Clément Lériger de Laplante & His Wife Marie Roy

Clément Lériger de Laplante

Birth: circa 1662, Saint-Claud, Angoumois (Charente), France[1]
Death: December 5, 1742 (age ~80), Laprairie, New France[2]
Burial: December 7, 1742, Notre-Dame-de-La-Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, New France[2:1]
Parents: Paul Lériget and Mauricette du Souchet[1:1]
Alternate name spellings: Lériger, Lérigé, Lériget

Military Service

Clément Lériger, Sieur de La Plante came to New France in 1685 as an officer of the Troupes de la Marine, a section of the King’s Navy.[3] He served in the Troupes for more than fifty years, eventually attaining the rank of Lieutenant.

The Lachine Massacre

On the nights of August 4-5, 1689, fifteen hundred Iroquois landed at Lachine. At the signal, the massacre began. Two hundred people died and one hundred and twenty others were taken captive.[4]

Monsieur de Vaudreuil, entrenched at Fort Roland near the dock of Lachine, gave the order to the garrison at Fort Remy to join him. As these troops marched down the main road, the Iroquois surprised them. Lieutenant La Rabeyre, La Plante and Villedonne were taken prisoner. Only the future baron of Longueuil, having a broken limb, escaped on his own thanks to some friendly Indigenous people who carried him on their shoulders.[4:1]

The unfortunate captives, transported beyond Lake St-Louis, suffered at the hands of their captors. Many of them were tortured and burned. Others were carried to Onnontague where they were made to walk for a long time on a bed of live coals.[4:2]

However, La Plante and Villedonne were spared. The enemy judged them more useful alive than sacrificed; they became enslaved servants and porters in the combat expeditions of the Iroquois.[4:3]

For Clément, this servitude lasted more than two years. Out of necessity, he adapted himself to this new life and familiarized himself with the Indigenous languages. A French party commanded by Monsieur de Beaucourt freed him in an attack on the Iroquois near the island of Tonihata in February 1692.[4:4]

Charlevoix, who reported the incident, wrote that “not having been recognized at first sight in his Indian clothes, (La Plante) we thought to have him killed as an Iroquois.”[4:5]

The same year, Frontenac made him an infantry ensign. This nomination was confirmed by Louis XIV in an order dated March 1, 1693.[4:6]

It is worth noting that the Lachine Massacre was a retaliatory response. The French had previously burned Iroquois villages and destroyed their winter food supplies, leaving the Agniers with no shelter or food for the winter. In retaliation, they ambushed the small unprotected community of Lachine.[5]

Marriage to Marie Roy

For Clément there was a separate peace of sorts after his ordeal with the Iroquois. He had come to be acquainted with the beautiful daughter of Pierre Roy, a farmer, and his wife Catherine Ducharme of Saint-Lambert. A man of Clément’s rank, by custom and by command of the king, was to marry a woman of some social standing whose family could provide a reasonable dowry. Though in Canada individuals could climb the social ladder more readily than in Europe, there still existed a line separating the classes. And the lovely Marie Roy stood on the other side of it. It seemed futile to ask for permission since her family could not produce the dowry. With peace now secured, at least for a time, Clement’s next move was to defy the rules of his society to marry the woman he loved. He would pay a price for his defiance.[6]

The scandal was not that he married beneath his social status but that he married without permission of his superior officer. Soldiers of any rank were not free to marry while in service without obtaining such permission.

Clément married Marie Roy on September 8, 1700, at the chapel of Sainte-Vierge in Saint-Lambert, Quebec.[7] The ceremony was performed by Father Louis de LaFaye, curé of the parish of St-François-Xavier et La Prairie de la Magdelaine, who had received a written dispensation from Monsieur Dolier, vicar of the diocese, exempting the couple from the publication of banns. Present at the ceremony were Pierre Roy (Marie’s father), Gabriel De St-Lambert, André Colen, Claude Gauthier, and Clancy Lavigne.[7:1]

The original French marriage record reads:

L’an de notre Seigneur mil sept cent le huit septembre. Je soussigné, Louis de LaFaye, curé de la paroisse de St-François-Xavier et La Prairie de la Magdelaine, certifie avoir donné la bénédiction de mariage après avoir eu de monsieur Dolier vicaire du diocèse, une dispense écrite de tous les bans à Clément Leriger officier d’un détachement de la marine, dit autrement Laplante et à Marie Roy dans la chapelle de la ste église de la Sainte-Vierge de St-Lambert en présence de Pierre Roy, habitant de St-Lambert, André Babeu, Claude Chartier, qui ont déclaré ne savoir signer; ledit Cément Lérigé a signé une copie en foy de quoy jay signé ce jourd’huy du neufième de septembre de la présente année mil sept cent. (Signature du pêtre)……Louis de LaFaye[8]

The marriage was initially frowned upon by the King, who demoted Clément, but later reversed his position.[3:1]

Marie Roy

Birth: 1681, La Prairie, Canada, Nouvelle-France[9]
Baptism: May 25, 1681, Notre-Dame-de-La-Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, New France[9:1]
Death: December 31, 1757 (age ~76), La Prairie, New France[10]
Burial: January 2, 1758, Notre-Dame-de-La-Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, New France[10:1]
Parents: Pierre Roy and Catherine Ducharme[9:2]
Alternate name: Baptized as Marguerite Leroy but known as Marie Roy[11]

Marie’s baptismal record shows her godfather was Pierre Ducharny and her godmother was Marguerite Beauvais.[9:3]

Children of Clément and Marie

Clement and Marie settled in Laprairie, Quebec and had 13 children:[12]

  1. Louis LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1701-1762)
  2. Marie Catherine LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1702-1770)
  3. Pierre LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1704-?)
  4. Gilbert LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (?-1736)
  5. Clément LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1708-1708)
  6. René Clément LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1709-1709)
  7. Marie Charlotte LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1711-1782)
  8. François Michel LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1713-1713)
  9. Paul LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1714-1763)
  10. Jean Baptiste LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1717-1752)
  11. Antoine LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1719-1720)
  12. René LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1721-?)
  13. Joseph LÉRIGER de LAPLANTE (1723-?)

Evolution of the Family Name

Clément’s last name has evolved into a variety of spellings for his descendants. Eventually, the name became Laplante or simply Plante. The original name from France was Lériget.[3:2]

Sources

Additional References

  • Clément Lériger de LaPlante (semperaltius)
  • Sieur de LaPlante (petelle)
  • Clement Leriger Sieur de LaPlante 151070 (nosorigines)
  • Lerigé/Lériget/Laplante Clément 242526 (fichierorigine)
  • PRDH: Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique: Descendance: 49396 Descent of Marie Roy

  1. PRDH: Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique: Individu: 49395 Clément Lériger de LaPlante ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Quebec/Fonds Drouin/L/La Prairie/La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine)/1740/1742 – Burial of Clément Lériger de LaPlante (drouininstitute) ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Family history records as preserved in paste.txt document ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. http://semperaltius.com/laplante_roots_16851865.htm ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Noted by Barbeau-601 in the original documents ↩︎

  6. Petelle, “A Rule Breaker” (petellemotors) ↩︎

  7. Quebec/Fonds Drouin/L/La Prairie/La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine)/1700/1700 – Marriage of Clément Lériger Sieur de LaPlante to Marie Roy (drouininstitute) ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Secret marriage documentation (petellechicago) ↩︎

  9. Quebec/Fonds Drouin/L/La Prairie/La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine)/1680/1682 – Baptism of Marguerite Leroy (drouininstitute) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  10. Quebec/Fonds Drouin/L/La Prairie/La Prairie (Notre-Dame-de-LaPrairie-de-la-Madeleine)/1750/1758 – Burial of Marie Roy Laplante (drouininstitute) ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. Biographical information from paste.txt document ↩︎

  12. PRDH: Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique: Descendance: 49395 Descent of Clément Lériger de LaPlante ↩︎

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