Pierre Joffrion dit St-Jean

• Sources:
  • Drouin Institute (Archived burial record - see attached in Media tab)

    ---

Pierre was born circa 1634 in Fontenay-le-Comte, Poitou (Vendée), France. Fontenay-le-Comte is located between the woods of Vendée and the coastal marshes halfway along the road from Niort to Luçon and has a population of about 17,000. The town is built on both banks of the Vendée River about 17 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, as the crow flies. The old part of town is built around the Notre-Dame and Saint-Jean churches.

Fontenay-le-Comte was the old, fortified capital of Bas-Poitou and had undergone numerous assaults during the centuries.

The old part of Fontenay has many old houses dating from the 16th and 17th centuries which would have been known to Pierre. They are found on Guillemet, des Orfèvres, des Loges and Saint-Jean streets. The main church, Notre-Dame, located on Guillemet Street, was constructed from the 15th to the 18th centuries and would also have been familiar to Pierre. The Terre-Neuve Castle, located about 1,000 meters from Notre Dame church, was built between 1595 and 1600.

A total of about 46 individuals migrated from Fontenay to Canada. Some believe that Pierre came with the Carignan Regiment in 1665 and was known by the dit name, "Grenadier." Louis XIV had promised to send 300 emigrants to Canada for a period of ten years. During the years 1662, 1663, 1664, and 1665 the king kept his promise. Pierre Joffrion must have been part of this quota of emigrants, many of whom had signed contracts before leaving for Canada. The length of these enlistments was for 36 months. The contract of Pierre Joffrion has not been found as of this date.

The major reason the French crown supported exploration of the New World was economic - to enhance trade in furs, to discover a Northwest Passage to China and to share in the wealth of precious metals that the Spanish were so successful in obtaining. Another reason was to spread the Christian faith among the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Nearly 4,900 individuals left France for the New World during the 17th century. Why did so many decide to risk everything?

The 17th century in France was noted for its many wars; wars with England, Spain and the Low Countries. At the beginning of the century there were extraordinarily violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants. In 1648, France was torn by a series of popular uprisings protesting against the absolutism of royal authority. Several regions of France were devastated during these confrontations. An historian describes the situation as follows:

"The unpaid soldiers fed themselves as well as they could. Some were criminals and loosed on the villages, they took what they wanted for food and drink. Then they shattered, burned and desecrated. Sometimes they marauded in small bands led by their officers. Drums were beaten, weapons were pointed and then they reaped the harvest, carried away the wheat and massacred anyone unhappy about this."

In these troubled times the people's economic situations were often precarious and, as a result, taxes went unpaid. Representatives of the royal authority and the aristocracy would then seize the property of the peasants.

This state of continual quasi-war caused epidemics which decimated the population. The birth rate dropped and infant mortality increased. There were important famines in 1629-1630, 1648-1651, 1660-1661 and 1693-1694.

It was only normal that one would look for a more peaceful environment, one with more freedom, where life seemed easier in spite of the dangers of a long sea voyage and the presence of sometimes hostile Indians.

Pierre's name is not included in the census of 1666 but he does appear in the census of 1667 giving his age as 33 and living in Montréal working at the home of Jean Aubuchon, a merchant, and his wife, Marguerite Cedilot. There were a total of 3,215 non-native individuals living in Nouvelle-France at this time.The first census in what is now Canada included 2,034 men, 1,181 women and 528 married couples. This is believed to be the first regular census of an area larger than a single city taken by a country in modern times (The Romans conducted a census 1,000 years before).

Pierre was probably an indentured servant as were most of the emigres from France. It was a convenient arrangement because it served as a training period for life in this new world. When the indenture was completed they could be granted a concession of land.

His presence is mentioned in a legal document dated 24 July 1665. Pierre had some education and signed his name P. Joffrion. When the Curé and the notables of Ville-Marie addressed a petition to the King demanding "lettres patentes" for the religious hospital of St-Joseph (Hôtel-Dieu), the signature of Pierre Joffrion appeared on the document dated 10 October 1667.

On 26 Aug 1668, Pierre Joffrion was awarded a farm of "three acres of frontage on the Saint Lawrence River by twenty acres deep" by Dominique Galinier, "sulpicien". This land was situated at the "hill of Ste-Anne" above the Bois Brulé (Scorched Forest) in the territory of Pointe-aux-Trembles near Montréal. Pierre's intent, as well as all others who had enlisted from France was to be granted a piece of land to reclaim and to build on. Trees were cut down, their stumps were burned and the land was cleared with pickaxes. When Pierre sold his grant to Jean Hardouin dit LeMajor, on 1 February 1669, four acres were cultivated and two others were cleared. Furthermore, there were enough piles of squared lumber to put up a building. The selling price was 400 pounds ($80.00). which represented a tidy sum in those days. The contract was signed in Montréal in the office of Benigne Basset, Royal Notary. At the bottom of this deed appeared the signature of Pierre Joffrion.

Pierre Joffrion married Marie Briau (Priault) about 1669. The marriage contract is missing but it probably took place either at Contrecoeur or at St-Ours in Nouvelle-France. The registers of these parishes are incomplete for this period.

After leaving Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1669, Pierre received a grant of land from François Jarret deVerchères, an ex-officer of the Compagnie Contrecoeur, one of the twenty companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The date of the grant of land is unknown.

Power to govern and to allocate land, monopoly rights to the fur trade, and responsibility for luring settlers all belonged to a company chartered by the crown. With feudalism as a model the company appointed seigneurs: resident nobles, clerics, and merchants who were granted control over a parcel of land.

The company had awarded a seigneurie to deVerchères that measured a little over three miles along the Saint Lawrence River and about 2 ½ miles in from the river. The date of the grant by the surveyor, Jean Talon, was 3 November 1672. François Jarret deVerchères occupied his land before this date.

Four or five years had to pass before a Lord could receive title to his land. The King wanted to make certain that the Lord had fulfilled his obligations.

The grant was extended by another league in depth by deFrontenac on 8 October 1678.

These seigneuries were divided into long thin farms, whose tenants, or habitants, paid rent and were charged for fishing, cutting wood, and use of the seigneur's mill. Habitants could not be evicted so long as they met their obligations; they could even sell, lease, or bequeath their farms. To prevent speculation, the seigneur was obliged to occupy his estate and to bring colonists to develop the land by granting them pieces of it and to build a mill to grind the grain of his vassels.

Pierre Joffrion may have received his grant of land in 1669, after his departure from Pointe-aux-Trembles.

When Pierre's third child, Marie, was baptized, the ceremony was performed in the home of François Jarret deVerchères. The child was baptized on 27 April 1672 by Reverend Pierre Decaumont, the priest of Boucherville, while passing through the deVerchères property. There was no local priest so that the priests of Boucherville and Contrecoeur came through to baptize the children and perform marriages. Pierre Joffrion is listed on the baptismal record as residing in the Seigneurie de Verchères in 1669.

Pierre Joffrion witnessed the baptism of Marie Joffrion on 27 Apr 1672 at Boucherville, Nouvelle-France. He witnessed the baptism of Toussaint Joffrion on 14 Jan 1676 at Boucherville, Nouvelle-France.

In a report submitted by the Seigneur, François Jarret deVerchères on 27 Oct 1676, the land of Pierre Joffrion was described as follows: "two acres of frontage on the river by 30 acres in depth." He had for neighbors on one side, François Chaignon (ancestors of the present-day Chagnons) and on the other side, André Barsal, also known as Barsa. He witnessed the baptism of his son, Michel on 26 Oct 1677 at Boucherville, Nouvelle-France.

Pierre Joffrion and Marie Briau appeared on the census of 1681 living in Verchères: Pierre Joffrion, 43 years old; his wife Marie Priot, 36; children: André, 11; Jean, 9; Marie, 8; Toussaint, 6; Françoise, 4; Anne, 6 months; 3 horned cattle; 8 acres of land. On 27 October 1684, with his wife's consent, contracted the services of his son, Jean, to Catherine Primot and Charles Lemoine for forty pounds per year. Jean was thirteen years old.

In Chambly, La Prairie, Boucherville and Verchères, coexistence with the Iroquois became increasingly difficult beginning about 1689 and settlers began abandoning their land around 1690. The Verchères fort was attacked in 1690 and again in 1692.

In 1690, Madame de Verchères underwent, practically alone, a seige by the Iroquois. The manor-house of Verchères was enclosed by a palisade with a few redoubts. Under cover of these improvised shelters, the coolness and pluck of Madame de Verchères so told upon the Iroquois that they withdrew, thinking that she could not be alone.

"What these beseigers hoped," says Charlevoix, "was to take possession, without difficulty, of a place that they knew to be stripped of its male defenders. They renewed their attacks more than once, but the lady scattered them every time. She fought in this way for two days with a courage and presence of mind that would have done credit to a veteran, and she finally compelled the enemy to retire for fear of being destroyed, humiliated at having to fly before a woman.

Three of her sons and three sons-in-law were killed while fighting the Iroqouis.

These attacks were to continue for about ten more years and Pierre left his land and took refuge with his family in Montréal. On 4 February 1698, he sold his land in Verchères to Pierre Guertin for fifty pounds.

Pierre did not remain idle in the city. On 20 July 1692, in partnership with Simon Piton, he went into business with Charles Perineau dit Lamarche and Jean Deslandes dit Champigny. They did masonry work for the Sulpician Fathers for a salary of 3 pounds for each six feet of masonry completed.

He witnessed the marriage of Louis Rouleau and Françoise Joffrion on 5 Mar 1696 at Montréal, (Montréal), Nouvelle-France.

Pierre Joffrion died suddenly on 17 Oct 1704 at Montréal, Nouvelle-France. He was buried on 18 Oct 1704 at Notre-Dame, Montréal, Nouvelle-France. Present at the burial were Reverend Michel Barthelemy, a priest of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Pierre Chantereau, a "bedeau", or a minor church official who acted as an attendant during ceremonies, and Reverend Yves Priat, vicar-general of the diocese of Québec.

D'origine inconnue

Domestique de Jean Aubuchon

http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/GenealogieQuebec.aspx?genealogy=Pierre...

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LDHJ-NWG* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 1 2022, 22:17:42 UTC