Pierre You De Ladecouverte

In 1680, Pierre You accompanied La Salle down the Mississippi River and claimed the Louisana Territory for France. He later became known as Pierre You Sieur de la Coverte (Discoverer). In April of 1693, Pierre married an Indian woman in Chicago. She took the Christian name Elizabeth Miami when whe was baptized. Her Indian name is unknown. Pierre obtained a land grant in 1703 near Fort Senneville at the western tip of the island of Montreal. He lived here with his two sons in illegal fur-trading as far as New England.

Ref: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:S5H2-Z8M : accessed 2017-01-01), entry for Pierre /YOU/.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YOU DE LA DÉCOUVERTE, PIERRE (Hiou, Hyou; he signed himself de Ladescouverte), officer, adjutant, merchant; b. 1658 at La Rochelle, parish of Saint-Sauveur; son of Pierre You, a tanner, and of Marie-Renée Turcot; buried 28 Aug. 1718 at Montreal.

The first document which mentions Pierre You in New France is the deed of grant made to the Recollets in 1677 by Cavelier* de La Salle: the land grant in question bordered on that of the Sieur You, a sergeant in the garrison at Fort Frontenac (Cataracoui, now Kingston, Ont.). Pierre You was later to accompany La Salle on his expeditions of discovery; La Salle wrote that "much courage and skill were necessary for these expeditions," and he considered that his habitual companion was "a very worthy fellow." When going to find the Chevalier Henri Tonty in 1680, he took with him only the Sieur Bourdon* d'Autray, and two Indians. In March 1682, after the fatigues and perils of this hazardous expedition, Pierre You had the honour of signing the proceedings of the taking over of the Arkansas country. The following year, by virtue of the privileges granted by the king to the discoverers, he adopted the title of Sieur de La Découverte, a title which was subsequently attributed to him in official government records. In 1695 Buade* de Frontenac, in his farewell harangue to the chiefs of the western tribes, named the officers serving at the Michilimackinac post whom the Indians were to obey as they would himself, and he included the Sieur de La Découverte. In 1697 we find him at Montreal, and eight years later he was in possession of a piece of land with a 50-foot frontage on Rue Saint-Paul. His house was so large that it looked like a storehouse. In 1711 he bought another lot on the Place du Marché, and on it he had a two-storey house erected.

In addition to his activities as explorer and merchant, La Découverte went in for fur-trading. In 1703 he obtained a land grant near Fort Senneville, at the western extremity of Montreal Island. From then on he lived on this remote property, which facilitated clandestine fur-trading and allowed his sons to escape into the woods; despite the ordinances, they trafficked in furs even as far as New England. In proof of this, one of them, brought before the court, admitted that he had gone there and had bought a negro and some silverware there.

La Découverte won the confidence of Rigaud de Vaudreuil, who leased to him Île-aux-Tourtres, one of his two fur-trading factories at the juncture of the St Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The constant offer of spirits induced the Indians to stop there with their canoes loaded with furs. The Montreal merchants complained, and La Découverte, strong in the governor's protection, went so far as to display arrogance towards them. In 1709 Rocbert* de La Morandière, the keeper of the king's stores at Montreal, complained to Jacques Raudot about the insults that La Découverte had directed at him; in the autumn mail, the intendant drew these complaints to the attention of Pontchartrain, but Vaudreuil, on the same occasion, praised his protégé: 'We has always served," he said, "with distinction, he is even disabled in one arm, having been wounded in the last war." The governor did not wait for the minister's favours: he appointed La Découverte adjutant at Montreal to assist the Sieur de Clérin [Denis d'Estienne Du Bourgué], the regular adjutant. In 1710 La Découverte himself requested a lieutenancy; the minister replied that there was no vacancy, but that he would bear him in mind if the occasion arose, provided he received good reports about him.

Pierre You de La Découverte was buried on 28 Aug. 1718, and the burial certificate called him an officer of a company of the colonial regular troops. From a private he had become an officer. La Découverte's first wife, whom he had married in April 1693 at Chicago, was an Indian woman of the Miami tribe, named Élisabeth, by whom he had a daughter baptized Marie-Anne; the latter married the interpreter Jean-Baptiste Richard in 1718 at Montreal. On 15 April 1697 he had taken as his second wife Madeleine Just, a native of Brèves in the province of Burgundy and the widow of Jérôme Le Gay de Beaulieu. From this marriage were born five children, two of whom survived their father: François-Madeleine d'Youville, who died in 1730, and Philippe, who died a bachelor six years later.

François-Madeleine d'Youville succeeded his father as tenant-farmer at Île-aux-Tourtres, and he continued the same trade in spirits. Not content with the pelts from the Nipissings, he raided the furs brought by the canoes from the west. He had at his command a sergeant and six soldiers for intercepting the canoes and forcing them to go to trade at the island, to the detriment of Montreal. On 12 Aug. 1722, at Montreal, François-Madeleine d'Youville married Marie-Marguerite Dufrost* de Lajemmerais. They had six children, but only two reached adult age; Joseph-François and Charles-Marie-Madeleine* both became priests. François-Madeleine d'Youville died on 5 July 1730, when he was barely 30 years old. He signed himself Youville without the "de," as the name was generally written at the time. Abbé Étienne-Michel Faillon did research in France to find out whether a place or a domain of that name existed there. He did not find any, and there was none in Canada at that time. No doubt it was Youville who adopted the "de" for euphony. Without being a noble name, You thus acquired a noble particule.

Albertine Ferland-Angers

AJM, Greffe d'Antoine Adhémar; Greffe de J.-C. Raimbault, 27 juin 1729, 24 avril, 16 juin 1731; Greffe de Marien Tailhandier; Registres d'état civil de Notre-Dame de Montréal, 1697, 1698, 1699, 1700, 1702, 1718, 1722, 1730. AN, Col., B, 27; C11A, 22, 24, 30, 45; D2C, 222, f.187. Découvertes et établissements des Français (Margry), II, 117–183; IV, 117. La Poterie, Histoire (1753), IV, 67. Le Tac, Histoire chronologique de la N.-F. (Réveillaud), 191. "Lettres et mémoires de F.-M.-F. Ruette d'Auteuil," 36–51. [%C3%89.-M. Faillon], Vie de Mme d'Youville, fondatrice des sœurs de la Charité de Villemarie dans l'Île Montréal en Canada (Ville-Marie [Montr%C3%A9al], 1852). J.-B.-A. Ferland, Cours d'histoire du Canada (1534–1759) (1re éd., 2v., Québec, 1861–65), II, 145. Désiré Girouard, Lake St. Louis, old and new, and Cavelier de La Salle (Montréal, 1893). Francis Parkman, La Salle and the discovery of the great west (Boston, 1887).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On La Salle's Expedition – Pierre You de La Découverte By: Laura M. http://ancestorbios.blogspot.com/2018/04/on-la-salles-expedition-pi...

B. 1658 in La Rochelle, France M. (1) about Apr 1693 in (probably) Native American camp at future site of Chicago Wife: Élisabeth (of the Miami tribe) M. (2) 15 Apr 1697 in Montreal Wife: Madeleine Just D. Aug 1718 in Montreal, New France

Pierre You de la Découverte was best known for having traveled with René-Robert La Salle, but there was much more to his story. Pierre was from the parish of St-Sauveur in La Rochelle, France, born in about 1658 to Pierre You, a tanner, and Marie-Renée Turcot. Nothing is known of his childhood, or whether or not he had siblings.

Pierre came to New France during the 1670s. The earliest record that mentioned him was a 1677 grant of land that was next to his property. The document described Pierre as a sergeant at Fort Frontenac, a military outpost at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. The recipient of the land grant was René-Robert La Salle, a man who figured prominently in Pierre's life.

By 1682, La Salle had already made several expeditions out west, and he was seeking to set up a network of French outposts in the Mississippi River basin. In late January, Pierre joined a group of 23 Frenchmen and 18 Indians led by La Salle, and they set out in canoes from Fort Crèvecœur (present-day Peoria, Illinois). The men navigated south through icy waters, entering the Mississippi River. They passed the mouths of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, and then camped for a week at the future site of Memphis where they built a small fort. A little ways further down the river, the expedition met up with a group of warriors of the Arkansas tribe who had likely never seen Europeans before. Peace was made and La Salle claimed the region for France. The expedition had several more contacts with natives before they reached the Mississippi River delta. The men had to live off the land, and survived for a time on a diet of potatoes and crocodiles.

On April 9th, La Salle formally claimed the Mississippi River basin for France; this territory represented roughly a third of what is now the United States. La Salle was dressed in a coat of "scarlet trimmed with gold" as he planted a cross and buried an engraved copper plaque at a site near the mouth of the Mississippi. He also drew up a document that was signed by 12 of his men, including Pierre. Soon after the ceremony, the expedition began their journey home paddling up the river.

After participating in La Salle's expedition, Pierre added "de La Découverte" to his surname, and from then on, he signed himself that way. He went on to pursue a life in the remote French outposts of the Great Lakes, sometimes living amongst the natives. One place he spent time was at the future site of Chicago when it was a temporary village of the Miami tribe. It was said that Pierre married a native woman there in April 1693, but it's likely that this marriage wasn't a formal arrangement. His wife was known as Élisabeth, and in about 1694, she bore Pierre's child, a girl named Marie-Anne. In 1695, Pierre was known to be an officer in Michilimackinac, an outpost located where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. It isn't known if his native family was with him. Not long after, Pierre left his wife and child amongst Élisabeth's tribe and moved to Montreal, where he married Madeleine Just on April 15, 1697. Between 1698 and 1706, Pierre and Madeleine had five children, two of whom died young.

When Pierre lived in Montreal, he had a large house on the Rue Saint-Paul. The house was said to be so big that it looked like a warehouse, a sign that he had acquired some wealth. By 1703, he received a land grant at the far western part of Montreal island so he could more easily engage in fur trading, and he settled with his family there. Pierre conducted much of his business from Île-aux-Tourtres, an island at the junction of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. He was offering liquor to the Indians which enticed them to stop and trade with him, and this gave him an advantage over other merchants, a practice which was against the law. When the lawful merchants complained about Pierre, the authorities looked the other way because of his connections and his record serving in the military. Along with furs and other goods, Pierre also dealt in buying and selling Indian slaves. The slaves often came from tribes in the far west; they were captured by other tribes, then traded until they ended up in New France.

While married to his wife Madeleine, Pierre had two out-of-wedlock children with a 19-year-old woman. Her name was Marie-Madeleine Drousson dit Robert. It's not known if she consented to the relationship or not. The two babies, both girls, were born in 1706 and 1708; the older of the two was born only a month after one of Pierre's children by his legal wife. It isn't known if Pierre had any relationship with his daughters, but he did attend the younger daughter's baptism in Montreal.

Pierre continued conducting his business until he died in Montreal in August 1718. He was 60-years-old. His son François carried on in the fur trade until his death in 1730.

Children by Élisabeth of the Miami tribe: 1. Marie-Anne You – B. about 1695, (probably) Native American camp at future site of Chicago; M. Jean-Baptiste Richard (1682-?), 15 Aug 1718, Montreal, Quebec

Children by Madeleine Just: 1. Pierre You – B. Jan 1698, Montreal, New France; D. May 1703, Montreal, New France

2. Philippe You – B. 2 Nov 1699, Montreal, New France; D. 1736

3. François d'Youville – B. 24 Nov 1700, Montreal, New France; D. 4 Jul 1730, Montreal, New France; M. Marie-Marguerite Dufros (1701-1771), 12 Aug 1722, Montreal, New France

4. Joseph-Paschal You – B. Apr 1702, Montreal, New France; D. Apr 1702, Montreal, New France

5. Marie-Louise You – B. 20 Mar 1706, Montreal, New France; D. 7 Sep 1728, Montreal, New France

Children by Marie-Madeleine Drousson dot Robert: 1. Marie-Charlotte You – B. 30 Apr 1706, La Prairie, New France

2. Marie-Catherine You – B. 9 Sep 1708, Montreal, New France; D. 22 Jul 1724, Longueuil, New France

Sources: Généalogie du Quebec et d'Amérique française (website) Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org Pierre You de La Découverte, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France, Brett Rushforth, 2013 "French-Canadian Exploration, Missionary Work, and Fur Trading in Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley During the 17h Century, Part 7," Diane Wolford Sheppard, 2010 Encyclopedia of Chicago (website)