Jacques Talbot dit Gervais

Notes

• Lieux info: Normandie, France (naissance), Pointe-aux-Trembles (Montréal) (mariage,décès), Saint-Thomas-de-la-Pointe-à-la-Caille (décès)
• Pionnier de la Nouvelle-France. Arrive au Québec en c1698.
• Tabolt était un soldat de la marine.

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https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/5428394 The Story of Jean-Jacques Talbot dit Gervais · 22 February 2014 · Talbot is an international name; it has representatives in France, England, the United States and Canada. Albert Dauzat maintains that English immigrants brought this name to France in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. M. Jean-Marie Talbot, from Chicoutimi, claims that the truth is something else. L’Histoire de Falaise, in Normandy, reports that a tower called Tallebot was constructed there in 1028, and that in 1207 one Robert Tallebot was living in the valley of Ante, and that in 1262 a certain Geoffroy Tallebot was residing in the parish of Sainte-Trinité. The name Talbot or Taillebosq still exists in France. In 1983, newspapers reported the details of a strike at the Talbot automobile factory in Poissy.

Jean-JacquesTalbot born about 1679 in Saint-Gervais, one of the 18 present-day parishes of Rouen, whose church had been built on the ancient crypt of Saint Mellon and Saint Avitien. At the time of the ancestor’s birth, Bishop Francois IV Rouxel de Médory presided over the affairs of the archdiocese of Rouen, a city founded by the Celts, known to Caesar’s Romans, and Christianized since the first centuries of the Church. The English occupied this capital of Normandy, today the capital of la Seine-Maritime, from 1419 to 1449. This is why they could have burned a French girl, Jeanne D’Arc, in territory as French as the heart of the city of Rouen.

Jean-Jacques Talbot, son of Nicolas and of Marie Duchesne, carried the surname of Gervais, that of his parish. Witnesses at his marriage give us reason to suppose that he arrived in Canada before 1698.

Jean-Jacques was a tenant farmer for 16 years. He must have feared notaries like the plague. It was only on 6 April 1716 that he resigned himself to obtain a land grant contract from Jean-Baptiste Couillard, the Seigneur of a part of la Rivère du Sud. Notary Abel Michon wrote that our concessionaire had owned this property “for several years.” The Talbot farm had 6 arpents of frontage on the river and neighbored those of Michel Arbour and Mathurin Rousseau. Antoine Dandurand signed as witness to the contract between the patron of l’Espinay and notary Michon.

Talbot dit Gervais must have understood that notaries were men of our planet who ate through their mouths like simple mortals. On the following 14 July, he decided to obtain another concession of 5 arpents and 8 perches of frontage between those of François Destrois-maisons and Denis Prou. Jean- Jacques had to pay his seigneur, annually on ll Saint’s Day, only twenty sols and one fat live capon, in addition to another sol for the cens for each arpent of frontland. Couillard reserved for himself the right to requisition all the wood that he wanted in order to build the future church and seigneurial manor house, and a parcel of land for the construction of a common mill.

Thus, in the space of a few months, ancestor Talbot became a considerable land owner. He thought of his children. On 18 May 1722, Jacques Moyen, husband of Jeanne Pellerin, a neighbor, sold an arpent of frontage of his property to Talbot for the paltry sum of ten livres cash and thirty minots of wheat. The buyer paid him with two arpents of land in seeding condition.

In the month of March 1714, the surveyor and notary, Bernard de la Rivière, was asked to determine the boundaries of at least 28 pieces of land ceded on the Rivière du Sud, including that of Jacques Talbot.

The Sommereux-Talbot Family

Charlotte Sommereux presented her husband with six children, all born and baptized at Montmagny. They survived except for the fifth, Anne-Françoise, who was baptized on 3 January 1706. She died the following year and was buried on 8 April 1707.

Marie, the eldest, was married on 17 November 1720 to Jean Fournier, son of Simon and Catherine Rousseau, grandson of Guillaume and of Françoise Hébert.

As for Marie-Charlotte, the god-daughter of the Poitevin Daniel Frégeau dit Laplanche and Marie Fiset, she was baptized by the Récollet Laurent Vatier, a priest who was later massacred by the Sioux in February 1713 at the age of 43. Marie-Charlotte signed her marriage contract with Joseph Asselin on 13 June 1728.

Three boys followed: Simon, Jacques and Jean. Simon, became the godson of Denis Prou on 28 October 1702, and married Marie-Barbe Isabel, daughter of Louis and of Barbe Prou, on 17 August 1730, if we are to believe notary Michon. Marie-Barbe died at the beginning of married life, after having given to posterity two children, Marie and Geneviève. Thérèse Allaire de Saint-Vallier took her place on 27 July 1734. She enriched the home with eleven children.

Father Rodolphe Dubus, Récollet, baptized Jacques Talbot, godson of Jacques Posé on 6 April 1704. At the age of 22, Jacques joined his future life to that of Marie-Angélique Meunier at Sainte-Anne-de- Beaupré, on 1 July 1726. François Richard, S. J., pastor of Saint-Pierre in Montmagny, then sent a notice attesting to the good conduct and well being of Jacques Talbot, to Abbot Antoine Chabot, pastor of the parish of Sainte-Anne. Ancestor Talbot took advantage of this recommendation to make his pilgrimage at the same time. Eight of the ten Meunier-Talbot children were baptized at Berthier.

As for Jean Talbot, his baptismal act has not been found. Abbot Simon Foucault blessed his matrimonial union to Barbe Fortin on 25 July 1726 at l’Islet. Jean and Barbe had 6 children. t Saint-Pierre in Montmagny on 8 April 1715, Laurent Gaudin and Anne Guerin promised to sell 3 arpents of frontal land for the sum of 110 livres and a gold pistole d’epingles to Jean Talbot. The promise to sell, signed by pastor François Richard, indicates that the money had already been paid to the last penny by Jacques Talbot, father of said contracting party. On the following 22 June, after sowing time, notary Michon drew up the contract in proper form. This property neighbored that of Jacues Moyen and Laurent Guadin. The question you would like to ask is undoubtedly “What is a pistol d’epingles?” In order to indicate that a transaction, concluded by a husband in the presence of his spouse, was forever, the buyer added an elegant present offered to the wife of the seller. A pistol was a gold coin worth ten French livres.

Lamarre-Talbot Family

Charlotte Sommereux left her family at the age of 30, after only 10 years of marriage. She died on the rd th 23 of November 1708 and Abbot Mesnage presided at her funeral on the 25 . Jean-Jacques Talbot went into mourning with his children for a year and a half. Finally, the children accepted another good and devoted mother, one Catherine Lamarre, daughter of Pierre and of Marie Paulet, a 22 year old native of the Ile d’Orléans. Catherine took over the Talbot home on the day of her marriage, 28 pril 1710. She enriched the home with at least 4 new Talbots: Joseph, Marie-Catherine, Anne-Françoise and Augustin.

Anne-Françoise, like her namesake of the first marriage, died after seven months, on 13 November 1714.

Marie-Catherine married Charles Rousseau at the beginning of 1734, and gave him 6 children.

Joseph took as his wives Madeleine Nolin and Marie-Josephine Patry and amassed 15 half-brothers and sisters to assure his line.

Augustin Talbot conquered the heart of Geneviève Aubin-Mignau in September 1743. He died and was buried at Montmagny on 9 December 1749 leaving 3 children. His widow was remarried to Charles Marot on 13 July 1750.

Such is, briefly, the calendar in the life of the first Canadian Talbot family.

Account

Just as we all must do one day, Jean-Jacques Talbot had to render an account of his profits and losses. He appeared before his Great Patron on 5 November 1730, when about 51 years old.

Ancestor Talbot had been a humble, sincere and hard working man. We have found only one flaw, one oversight in his public life. He had sold a piece of land to a 19-year old minor, one Jacques Duboct. An order from the Intendant nullified this contract of sale on 25 March 1706.

Jean-Jacques, feeling his end approaching, settled the question of inheritance posed by the death of his first wife. After 22 years, it was time! The event occurred on 22 March 1730, seven months before his death. Then on 16 June 1731, clerk Louis Boisseau at Québec signed an act of guardianship for the Talbot children at the request of son Jacques. This document informs us that Catherine Lamarre was also dead. The act was recorded in the records of notary Michon.

On 28 June 1731, guardian Pierre Lamarre, Catherine’s brother, ordered an inventory of the property of ancestor Talbot. This was quite an event but without any troublesome incidents. It is impossible to summarize in a few lines the full 15 pages. Some hand-picked examples will give an idea of the property existing on an average farm more than 250 years ago. Winnowing basket, spinning wheel, some tree taps, a churn, coarse woolen jacket, pair of deerskin scarves, caribou hood, knife for skinning leather, gun with powder-horn, sheath and deer skin were reported together. Two pairs of mittens, 2 quires of paper and 4 empty urns followed. In the stable, 18 head of cattle were next to 3 horses. In the sheep pen, 38 ovines did not seem disturbed by the 14 pigs in the sty, nor the male and female turkey, the 4 hens and the rooster in the hen-house. Let’s forget the 831 minots of wheat, the 8 of flour, the 350 pounds of bacon in the salting tub in order to cast an admiring glance on the 55 arpents of cultivated land, the stone house 40 feet in length by 18 feet wide and the stable 40 feet ling. The witnesses to this inventory have even stated having seen 101 livres in playing card money. Such is the brief, but very positive account of ancestor Talbot’s properly after his death.

Epilogue

It cost 20 livres to bury our ancestor, but his soul entered Heaven without charge. Sixty-five years later, on 24 November 1795, his mortal remains were exhumed and placed in the consecrated ground of the new church of Montmagny.

His descendants have multiplied unto our day. Félix-Alonzo Talbot (1860-1915), born at Cacouna, was a deputy in the National Assembly as a representative from the county of Témiscouata. AntonioTalbot (1900-1980), native of the parish of Saint-Pierre, Montmagny, a lawyer, and Minister of Transportation. His name was given to a road lining Québec to Chicoutimi. One descendant left a permanent mark in the history of French-Canadian genealogy, Eloi-Gérard Talbot (1899-1976), a Marist Father. He has to his credit, left 35 precious volumes of research to posterity.

Family Name Variations

Talbot: Gervais, Talbeaut and Thalbaut

Gervais: Beaudoin, Beausejour, Gervaise, Gevais, Houde, Houle, Jarvais, Jarvah, Jearnes, Jervia, Jervis, Parisien, Servais, Sigervase and Talbot.

End Notes

Record of Bernard de la Riviére, March 1714

Record of Fleuricourt, August 1698.

Records of Michon, 22 June 1715; 6 April 1716; 14 July 1716; 18 May 1722; 22 March 1730; 16 June 1731; 28 June 1731.

Dauzat, Albert., DENF&PF (1951), p.561.

Dumas, Silvio., LFRNF (1972), p.336.

German, Paul., Histoire de Falaise, p.105.

Jetté, René., DGFQ (1983), p.1061.

Roy, P.-G., IOINF (1919), Vol.1, p.12.

Talbot, Eloi-Gérard., Généalogie des Familles originaires des comtés de Montmagny, l”Islet, Bellechasse. Vol.15, p.179

Talbot, Jean-Marie., personal notes (Chicoutimi).

Vaillancourt, Emile., La Conquête du Canada par les Normands (1930), p.239

BRH, Vol.28, p.343.

DBC, Vol.2, pp. 477-478.

Encyclopedia Britannica (1947), Vol.21, pp.761-762.

RPQ 1867-1978 (1980), p.544.

The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia (1942), Vol.32, pp.11804-11805.

This information found at: http://talbotgervaisfamilyreunion.com/files/Jacquesstory.pdf