Our French Canadian Ancestors by Thomas J Laforest, Vol 28

CHAPTER 18

Nicolas Patenostre

Nicolas Patenostre, son of Nicolas and of Adrienne Simon, said he was originally from the parish of Berville in Caux. Since no one has yet found his baptismal act in the registries of old France, it is a little difficult to find this Berville, which seems today to be Berville-sur-Seine, canton of Doudeville. arrondissement of Rouen, in the department of La Seine-Maritime in Normandie.

Nicolas was born about 1626. He learned the trade of cloth merchant, which he apparently never practiced. He was 22 years old when he decided to come to New France. Everything implies that Nicolas, upon his arrival in Quebec about 1650 or perhaps earlier, was in the service of Charles Sevestre, who was clerk of the warehouse of Quebec, private lieutenant of the senechaussee and provost judge. This hypothesis is suppported by the following fact: Charles Sevestre was the first and the principal witness to the marriage contract of Nicolas on 25 October 1651.

MARGUERITE BRETON

Marguerite Breton, was born to Antoine and to Sainte Paulin, at Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Paris. Upon her arrival in Canada she found a chaperone in the person of Marie Favry, the widow of Pierre Legardeur, Sieur de Repentigny, who had died at sea in May 1648, and mother of six children, four of whom were still under their maternal guardianship.

After the death of her husband Antoine Breton, Sainte Paulin, Marguerite's mother, was married again. to Robert Vie. Two Vie daughters, Marie-Sainte and Marie, half-sisters to Marguerite Breton, also came to the Colony. The first married Jean Poitras on 27 August 1664; the second married Hubert Simon dit Lapointe, on 27 November 1659. These two sisters had 17 and 15 children, respectively. Like today, the migration movements followed the routes of the heart and kinship.

On Wednesday, 25 October 1651, at the house of Marie Favry at Quebec, there was an official gathering of the friends of Marguerite and Nicolas. In the presence of the notary Audouart, the bride was supported by the mistress of the house, son-in-law Jean-Paul Godefroy, son Jean-Baptiste Legardeur and daughters Marie-Madeleine and Catherine. On the side of Nicolas Patenostre were Charles Sevestre and Marie Pichon, his wife, Denis Duquet and Catherine Gauthier, Guillaume and Charles Gauthier, Jean Lemire, master cabinet-maker, and Pierre Masse.

The bride and groom wanted to have community property. Nicolas offered the customary dowry. The two agreed to a preciput of 100 livres before division of the property of the said community. Marguerite Breton signed.

On the following Monday, 30 October, there was the blessing of the matrimonial commitment of Nicolas and Marguerite at the church of Notre-Dame de Quebec. by the Jesuit priest Joseph Poncet, in the presence of Nicolas Godefroy, Denis Duquet and Martin Boutet, chorister.

Where did the new couple set up housekeeping for the winter? A difficult answer to give.

LANDOWNER

On 16 January 1652, Nicolas had an appointment with the Jesuit father Jean Dequen, "Superior of the Residence of St Joseph en lance de Sillezy and trustee of the Savages of the said Sillery". The latter ceded a piece of land with two arpents in frontage on the river and twenty deep. "beginning after the fir plantation which is on the coast..". The neighbors named were Jean Lemire and Jean Noel. The cens and rents would only be paid beginning on the feast day of Saint Jean, 27 December 1653. Nicolas was obliged to build a house as soon as possible: However, he was not an avid man of the soil. On 29 November 1656, his property located between Sillery and the Cap Rouge passed into the hands of Gilles Pinel, who resold it to Jean Routhier, on 28 July 1657. Patenostre had obtained 80 livres tournois for his work.

On the first of August 1655, he took a six year lease on a piece of land with one arpent in frontage belonging to Guillaume Gauthier dit Lachesnaye, located on the Grande-Allee between Antoine Brassard and Denis Duquet. He was committed to build a barn there. He became free of this obligation on 23 April 1658, while continuing to work in this place that year.

Nicolas continued his course as landowner on trial without stopping. On 10 March 1658, he acquired another farm located in the seigneurie of Notre-Dame-des-Anges, rear-fief of Grandpre de Ia Redoute, between Jean Normand and Nicolas Gendron dit Lafontaine. These two arpents of frontal land, with a depth of 30, faced the Saint-Charles river. During the same era, Jean Normand ceded to Patenostre a half-arpent in frontage from his farm, the latter returned it to him on 3 April 1661. Patenostre's house, states Marcel Trudel, had been built, perhaps by mistake, on the half-arpent obtained from Normand. To avoid a lawsuit and disputes which could arise between them, the house would be moved at the expense of Patenostre to his land with two arpents in frontage. Normand would help Nicolas dig a well similar to the one that Nicolas had dug on Normand's half-arpent.

THE ISLANDER

Nicolas Patenostre and his family finally went to settle once and for all on the Ile d'Orleans. It was in Charny-Lirec, on the north side of the island, in the parish of Sainte-Famille that they obtained their first island concession from Charles de Lauzon on 2 February 1662. This land with two arpents of frontage on the river and 132 arpents in area was neighbor to Jean Royer and Jean Raboum. the latter within the boundaries of Saint-Pierre.

In the census of 1666, Nicolas Patenostre, cloth merchant, Marguerite Breton and their seven children were living on the island. The following year, they declared having 9 arpents under cultivation and 9 head of cattle in their stable. Their immediate neighbors were Jean Royer, husband of Marie Target, and Jean Foucher, the farmer of Pierre Niel.

Since 14 April 1668, Barthelemy Verreau had owned a piece of land with three arpents in frontage near the Patenostres. Verreau exchanged it during the same year with another owned by Noel Rose. This property leased by Paul Vignault dit Laverdure, was sold to Patenostre on 10 November 1676, for 630 livres. But for lack of payment it was taken by Jean Choret in 1679.

A merchant from La Rochelle, Moise Petit, in the name of Alexandre Petit. his father, also from La Rochelle, on 22 November 1675, just before the closing of navigation, sold to Nicolas Patenostre a farm with three arpents of frontage by thirty deep, with no buildings, located in the Seigneurie of Maure, near Louis Dore, censive of Jean Juchereau. Asking price: 300 livres tournois, 25 of them in cash. The 275 remaining livres would bear interest according to the royal rate. Signing this document at Quebec were Martin Geudon and the notary Pierre Duquet.

SOCIAL LIFE

The Patenostres did not make a lot of noise among their compatriots. We know from the book of the Accounts of the Fabrique of Sainte-Anne du Petit-Cap that in June 1665 the wife of Patenostre made a gift of two pounds of butter.

The name of Nicolas Patenostre was recorded in an act of the Sovereign Council, on the first of March 1664, as a witness favorable to the case of Francois Blondeau. accused of having lost a canoe.

In the Ordinances of the Intendant of New France, Pierre-Ceorges Roy noted the following fact on the date of 6 July 1671: By Order of the intendant Talon to the named Patenostre: To give to Lavigne, concierge of the prisons, two minots of wheat for the subsistence of the prisoners. Had Jean Talon already done a service for Patenostre and was he justified in asking for these two minots of wheat? A simple question!

In short, Nicolas and Marguerite seemed to be good-hearted people. peaceful, generous and appreciated.

THE PATERNOTRES

According to Larousse, Patenostres (Our Father) are in a pejorative sense prayers said in a low voice and without specified intentions. It is in a loud voice and with admiration that we must introduce the eleven Patenostres of the second generation: Pierre, Jean, Charles, Pierre, Marie, Louis, Gervais, Nicolas, Marin, Marguerite and Elisabeth: three daughters and eight sons.

1. The eldest, Pierre Patenostre, godson of Pierre Duquet on 22 January 1653 at Quebec, confirmed on 16 February 1669, was no longer alive for the census of 1681.

2. Hubert Simon dit Lapointe, husband of Marie Vie, half-sister of Marguerite Breton, held Louis Patenostre at the baptismal font of Quebec on 15 October 1662. Louis remained a bachelor. He was confirmed at Quebec in 1681, when he was a servant at the Ho'tel-Dieu. He was buried at Montreal on 19 December 1705.

3. The seventh child of the family, Gervais, was hired on 31 July 1688 by Francois Chorel, Sieur de Saint-Romain. Did Gervais go out West in search of furs? If so, it seems that he returned in rather poor health. On 20 September 1689, he was hospitalized at the Hotel-Dieu of Quebec. He stayed at this institution beginning in 1691 until his death on 27 January 1693. A doctor today would perhaps say he had tuberculosis.

4. The third baptism. recorded in the registry of Sainte-Famille on 20 April 1666, was for Nicolas Patenostre(2). Nicolas, confirmed in 1682, was the concessionaire of a piece of land from the Nursing Sisters on 16 April 1684, cited at Saguenay on 25 April 1688, disappeared later into the mists of oblivion.

5. Three Patenostre daughters were married and founded families. Marie, wife of Claude Plante, mother of eleven children. died in her native parish of Sainte-Famille on 13 June 1699.

6. Pierre Plante, son of Jean and of Francoise Boucher, took Marguerite Patenostre as his wife on 6 November 1691. Seven children were placed in their family cradle at Saint-Jean on the island. Marguerite was buried at the age of 68 on 4 September 1737, at Saint-Jean.

7. As for the youngest, Elisabeth, god-daughter of Elisabeth Drugeon on 18 September 1672, she was married at Montreal on 27 November 1696, to Jean Ferron, a soldier, voyageur and shoemaker. Their nine children were born at Ville-Marie where their mother was buried on 24 June 1723.

8. Jean, Charles, and Pierre Patenostre were married at Montreal and have fine descendants. Jean, godson of Jean Pelletier at Sillery on 10 August 1654, accepted as his wife Marie Brunet, born to Antoine and to Francoise Moisan, on 25 October 1683. Father of two children, he was married again on 10 December 1686, to Marie Robidoux, who added four branches to his familv tree. He died at the hospital and was buried at Montreal on 25 June 1699. The inventory of his property was drafted the day after his burial. On 14 November 1687, Jean had received a release for excess insults from Joseph Serran dit L'Espagnol.

9. Charles, baptized on 21 May 1656, found a rare pearl in the person of Francoise Seguin, born to Francois and to Jeanne Petit. Marriage at Boucherville on 8 January 1694. In the summer of his wedding, 19 September, Charles was hired as a voyageur. Posterity: ten children. Burial on 17 February 1724 at Longueuil.

10. Godson of Pierre Voyer, Governor, Count d'Argenson, on 19 July 1658, Pierre appeared at Lachine in 1681 as the servant of Francois Lenoir. Catherine Brunet, sister of Marie. accepted him as her husband on 25 November 1685. Ten children were their legacy also. Pierre was buried in the cemetery of Montreal on 31 March 1715. On 29 October 1685, he had bought from Jean Quenet a piece of land on the Saint-Louis coast for 150 livres paid in cash.

11. The last of the surviving sons, Marin, born on 15 February 1668, remained faithful to his native island. On 7 March 1695, the Patenostre heirs ceded him all their rights to the two concessions on the ile d'Orleans. It was at Sainte-Anne du Petit-Cap that Marin went to find his wife, Marguerite Mercier, born to Julien and Marie Poulin, Nuptial blessing on 11 November 1698. And in 1702, on 25 February, Marin finally received a receipt from Guillaume Cuyon, of the Beaupre Coast, for the sale made by Barthelemy Verreau to his late father Nicolas, on 10 November 1676. Among his seven children, including twins, three daughters became nuns: Marguerite, at the Hotel-Dieu of Montreal; Marie-Josephe, Ursuline at Quebec; and Genevieve, a lay sister at the Hotel-Dieu of the capital. Moreover, it was at this Hotel-Dieu that Marin died on 13 June 1715.

Such is the brief history of the second generation.

THE LAST PRAYER

Nicolas said he was a cloth merchant in the census of 1666. However, we have found no proof that the ancestor practiced this trade in New France. He was, above all a man of the earth. In spite of his unfulfilled dreams, he was obliged to leave his loved ones, his children still minors, on Saturday, 13 February 1670. Burial took place at Sainte-Famille, on the following Monday. The pastor Lamy stated in the registry that he was 50 years old and devoted.

As for Marguerite Breton, she continued the education of her children for several years more. We know that she was alive at the marriage of her son Marin, heir to the paternal property, on 11 November 1698. Did she die during the great epidemic of 1702? Did she die in the region of Montreal where the majority of her children had migrated? These are questions without any answers.

Nicolas and Marguerite, by founding a family, you helped found a country. Your hope in this world was fulfilled, your mission accomplished. Today, it is we who remember you and express our gratitude with more than one well-deserved Lord's Prayer.

FAMILY NAME VARIATIONS

Patenostre has the following known variations: Paenaute, Partenais, Partenet, Partney, Patenaude, Pateneau, Patenotre, Patenote, Patenoude, Patna, Patnaud, Patno, Patnod, Patnode, Patnot and Pattenode.

Our French Canadian Ancestors by Thomas J Laforest, Vol 28 Chapter 18

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