GENEALOGY OF THE FAMILY BIS SOT DE VINCENNES
François Bissot de la Rivière.
François Bissot de la Rivière was originally from Pont- Aûdemer, a town o£ ancient Normandy, which today forms a part of the department of l'Eure. Boni in the parish of Notre-Dame des Prés, he was a son of "the honorable man", Jean Bissot du Gommer and of Marie Assour. Bissot went to New France before 1639. He died at the Hotel-Dieu of Québec on the 26th of July, 1673, âge fifty-nine years, and was buried in the cemetery of the hospital.
On the 25th of October, 1648, François Bissot de la Rivière married at Québec, Marie Couillard, daughter of Guillaume Couillard and of Guillemette Hébert. Two years after the death of François Bissot de la Rivière, on the 7th of September, 1675, at Québec, Marie Couillard married again, Jacques de Lalande-Gayon, son of Pierre de Lalande-Gayon and of Marie d'Arasne, of the town of Bayonne. Madame de Lalande died at Saint-Pierre in the island of Orléans on the 22d of June, 1703, and was buried the next day in the cemetery of this parish. Jacques de Lalande-Gayon, after the death of his wife, was certainly settled in France for six years. ='' From the marriage of François de la Rivière and of Marie Couillard were born twelve children :
♦Jacques tlel^laude-Gayou, liowever, weut to Québec in 1704, probably to arrange the inheritauce of bis wife but he soou i-eturned to France. From the marriage of Jacques de Lalaude-Gayou and of Marie Couillard there was boru at Québec a sou ou the 26th of June, 1677: Jacques-Marie de Lalande-Gayon. He became captain of vessel in the service of the king of Spaiu. By his will, received at Bayonne on the 3rd of August, 1753, before the notary Duclercq, he gave to his nephew, Louis de Lafontaine, the eldest son of M. de
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1 — Jean-Francois Bis sot.
Born at Québec the 6th of December, 1649 ; died in the same place on the 25th of November, 1653. He was buried the next day in the chapel of St. Joseph of the parish church, on the right side of the altar.
2 — Louise Bissot.
Born at Québec the 25th of September, 1651 ; married at Québec the 12th of August, 1668, to Séraphin Margane de Lavaltrie, lieutenant of a company of a régiment of Ligniéres, son of Sebastien Margane and of Denise Tonnot, of the parish of Saint-Benoit, town and archbishopric of Paris.
M. Margane de Lavaltrie died at Montréal May 16, 1699, and was buried the next day in the parish church. ^Madame de Lavaltrie survived lier husband almost thirty-four years before she died at Montréal, Mardi 1, 1733.* From their marriage eleven children were born : five sons and six daughters. Two of their sons were killed in the serv-ice of the king. Another, after having lived in Labrador for many years and having raised a family, became a priest. The one who continued the line died at an advanced âge after having served under the crowns of France and England. The daughters ail made distinguished marriages. The family Margane de Lavaltrie died out among us at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
M. Benjamin Suite (Le Régiment de Carignan, p. 85) malles her flie in 1691.
3 — Geneviève Bissot.
Born at Québec May 25, 1653 ; married at Québec June 12, 1673, to Louis Maheu, son of the late René Malien and the
Lafoutaine de Belcour and of Cliarlotte Bissot, ail bis property, his rights and law suits which he miglit hâve in Canada, on condition that he lend assistance and aid to his sister with whom the said testator recommended him to live on good terms and with friendship. M. de I.Kilande-Gayon valued the property he left in this manner to Louis de Lafontaine at the sum of eight thousand livres.
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late Marguerite Corriveau. M. Maheu died in his house in the lower town of Québec November 24, 1683, and was buried on the 26th in the parish cemetery. M. J. Edmond Roy elates an annoying adventure which happened to the widow Maheu ; "Nicolas Daneau Sieur de Muy, captain of a company of infantry, and who was to be later appointed governor of Louisiana, courted her. He had promised marriage and the terms of the betrothal had been solemnly agreed upon, when one fine day suddenly the amorous one disappeared. It was learned in the spring of 1687 that he was about to marry at Boucher ville a granddaughter of Pierre Boucher, the old governor of Trois-Rivières. In spite of the protestations of the discarded beauty, M. de Caumont, then missionary at Boucherville, married the faithless one to Mlle. Marguerite Boucher. A law suit was begun in the court of the provost at Québec, and the priest who had celebrated the marriage was summoned to explain himself. They were summoned to the bishop's court, the pledges of the fickle officer were seized. The situation threatened to become more and more complicated when, to avoid too great a scandai, it was decided that M. de Muy should pay a compensation of 350 livres to the widow, and that the afifair should be forgotten.*
We after that lose sight of the widow Maheu.
On April 4, 1869, the Covereign Council rendered an important judgment in a law suit begun by François Vianney Pachot, nierchant of Québec, against the widow Maheu. She had obtained the possession of the effect of the renunciation which she had made to the common possession which had existed between her and her late husband. She was. how-
*Historie de la seigneurie de Lanzon, vol. 1, p. 2jj0. Coucerniiig Nicolas Daneau de Muy consult tlie Bulletin Des Eeolierches Historiques, vol. X, p. 34.'j.
ever, sentenced to give back the sum of 240 livres and 10 deniers into the sum total of the personal effect of the said common possession.f
4 — Catherine Bissot.
Born at Québec March 6, 1655. Married at Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Levy Nov. 27, 1670. to Etienne Charest, son of the late Pierre Charest and of Renée Marie of the parish of Sainte-Radegonde, city and bishopric of Poitiers. Madame Charest died at Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Levy in 1694.* M. Charest died at the same place May 5, 1699, and was buried the next day in the parish church. Of the marriage of Etienne Charest and Catherine Bissot were born ten children. One of them, Etienne Charest, v>'as, in 1763, sent to England as a deputy of the people to beg the king of Great Britain to grant his new subjects a bishop to be governor of the church of Canada. The family Charest left Canada in 1765.
5 — Claire-Françoise Bissot.
Born at Québec April 13, 1656. Married at Québec October 7, 1675, to Louis Jolliet, son of the late Jean Jolliet and of Marie d'Abancourt. Louis Jolliet died between ]May and September, 1700, on one of the Mingan islan'ds or on the island of Anticosti. We know nothing definite on this point. Madame Jolliet died at Québec March 1, 1710, and was buried the next day at the parish church.
Of the marriage of Louis Jolliet and Claire-Françoise Bis-
t.Tugements et Délibérations Du Conseil Souverain, vol. 111, p. 313. *Tbe act of the burial of Madame Charest cannot be found in the register, but au eutry made in the account book of the vestry board allows no doubt of the date of her death. In the giviug in of the account of the church wardeu Guillaume Albert for 1694 : "I hâve received from M. Charest foiuleeu pouuds which he owes for the burial of his wife." The following year the church wardeu received thirty-four pouuds, the balance of the exepense of this burial." (A note of M. Edmond Roy.)
sot there were born seven children. Their two sons Jean- Baptiste JolHet de Mingan and Charles Jolliet d' Anticosti, hâve numerous descendants in the province of Québec. Louise Grignon, the daughter of Jean Grignon, who married Marie Geneviève Jolliet, the eldest daughter of Louis Jolliet, became the wife of the baron of Castelnau.
6 — Marie Bissot.
Born at Québec July 3, 1657; married at Québec December 5, 1682, to Claude Porlier, merchant, son of the late Claude Porlier and of Marie-Madeleine Sylvain, of the parish of Saint-Sévérin, city and archbishopric of Paris.
M. Porlier died at Québec July 31, 1689, and was buried in the parish church. Marie Bissot married again at Québec, February 26, 1691, Jacques Gourdeau, of Beaulieu, son of Jacques Gourdeau de Beaulieu, citizen, and Eléonore de Grandmaison. Madame Gourdeau de Beaulieu died at Québec July 23, 1719, and was buried in the parish church the next day. M. Gourdeau de Beaulieu died in his turn July 2, 1721.*
Marie Bissot had children by her two marriages. The Porlier family died out among us about the middle of the nineteenth century. The Gourdeau are still numerous in the district of Québec. Colonel Gourdeau ex- sub minister of the Marine, is descended from Jacques G. de B. and Marie Bissot.
7 — Guillaume Bissot.
Born at Québec September 16, 1661.
In the inventory of the property of François Bissot de la Rivière made April 27, 1676, by the notary Becc^uet, it is
*Neithei' Mgr. Tanguay uor the registers of Notre Dame of Quebec mention the death of M. Gourdeau. We hâve found this information in a request addressed to the Superior Couucil of Québec in October, 1732, by Jacques G. de B., son of Jacques G. de B. and of Marie Bissot, to obtain some letters of inheritance without liability to dehls beyond assets descended.
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said that Louis Jolliet is the giiardian of the minor Bissots among others Guillaume fifteen years old.
On the other hand, in the census by name of the colony of New France made in 1681, there is no mention of Guillaume Bissot. From which one can conclude that he died between 1676 and 1681.
8 — Charles-François Bissot.
Born at Québec February 5, 1654.
He was married at Montréal, February 28, 1699, to Anne- François Forestier, daughter of Antoine Forestier, surgeon, and of I\iarie-Madeleine Cavelier. M. Bissot carried on business at Mingan for twenty years. In 1705 he turned his énergies toward the island of Terre Neuve where he had rented the fief and seigniory of Port-à-Choix in order to carry on there fishing and trading. We lose sight of him from this time. It is possible that he died at Terre-Neuve and also his wife and François Forestier. We know of one child Marie ÏMadeleine Bissot born at Montréal December 5, 1699; died at Lachine March 22, 1718.
9 — Maric-Charlo tte B issot.
Marie-Charlotte Bissot, born at Québec June 4, 1666. Married at Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, February 25, 1686, to Pierre Benac, a native of Bayonne, merchant of Québec. In 1690 Al. Benac was controller gênerai of the farms of the king in New France. M. Benac returned to France toward the end of the 17th century. His wife followed him there since our parish registers nowhere mention her burial.
Father Paul du Poisson, Jésuit, traveling in Louisiana in the summer of 1727, wrote to his confère father, Louis Patouillet: "We left the Chapitoulas on the 29th. Although a larger canoë had been sent us, and in spite of the new arrangement of our party, we had almost as much discomfort
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as before. We had only two miles to go that day in order that we might spent the night at Cannes Boulées, at the house oi M. de Benac, director of the concession of M. D'Artagnan. He received us with friendship and regaled us with a Mississippi carp which weighed thirty-five pounds."
Could this M. de Benac who received so well the missionary Jésuit be our Benac? At ail events we hâve no trace of M. Benac or of his wife after their departure from Canada.
10 — Jean-Baptiste Bissot de Vincennes.
Known by the name Jean ; was born at Québec January 19, 1668. He was an ofifîcer in the troops of the detachment of the Marine; and died among the Miamis in 1719.
M. Bissot de Vincennes married at Montréal, September 19, 1696, Marguerite Forestier, daughter of Antoine Forestier, surgeon, and of Marie-Madeleine Cavelier. Madame Bissot de Vincennes died at Montréal September 27, 1748, and was buried the next day in the parish church. Of the marriage of Jean Baptiste Bissot and Marguerite Forestier there were born seven children :
(1) Marie-Louise Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montréal June 20, 1697; married at Québec, June 4, 1741, to Nicolas Boisseau, chief clerk of the provost of Québec, widower of Marie-Anne Page de Quercy. She died at Québec June 14, 1766. M. Boisseau died in the same place February 9, 1771.
(2) Claire-Charlotte Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Quebec May 6, 1698; a nun of the congrégation of Notre-Dame, under the name of Soeur de l'Ascension. Died at Montréal April 25, 1773, and was buried on the 27th in the chapel of the Infant Jésus of the parish church.
(3) François-Marie Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montréal June 17, 1700. Officer in the troops of the detachment of the Marines. Founder of the post of Vincennes. Burned
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to death by the Chicksaws on the Mississippi* on the 25th of March, 1736.
He had married in 1733 Longpré, daughter of
Philippe Longpré of Kaskaskia. Of this marriage were born two daughters, Marie Thérèse, who became the wife of î\l. de LTsle and Catherine.
(4) Marguerite-Catherine Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montréal September 10, 1701. Died at the Hotel-Dieu at Québec May 3, 1767, and was buried the next day in the couvent cemetery.
(5) Catherine Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montréal October 11, 1704. Died at the gênerai hospital of the Gray Sisters at Montréal September 20, 1778, and was buried the 22d in the cemetery near the parish church.
(6) Michel Bissot de Vincennes — Born October, 1706. Died at Montréal January 10, 1709.
(7) Pierre Bissot de Vincennes — Born at Montréal August 27, 1710. Died in the same place August 29, 1710.
11 — Jeanne Bissot.
Born at Québec April 10, 1671. Alarried at Québec April 7, 1687, to Philippe Clément du Valult de Valrennes, captain of a Company of the troops of the detachment of the Marine, son of the late Antoine C du V. de V. and of Françoise De Coeur of the parish of Saint-Germain de la Potherie, bishopric of Beauvais. May 1, 1698, M. de Valrennes, weakened in conséquence of his severe campaigns, obtained his discharge. He left for France with his wife in the autumn of 1698.
Madame de Valrennes was still living in 1708, smce on the sixth of June of that year the minister wrote to M. l'Abbé de Mignon to ask him if the widow Valrennes whom
*Aecording to the most probable opinion M. de Vincennes and his compauions were burned near Fulton in Lee County, Miss.
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he had recommended to him was French or Canadian, and if she was of noble family.
12 — François-Joseph Bissât.
Boni at Québec May 19, 1673. ^Nlarried at Québec February 4, 1698, to Marie Lambert-Dumont, daughter of ihe late Eustache Lambert-Dumont, who when he was living was a citizen and merchant of Québec, and of Marie Vanneck. M. Bissot died at Québec December 11, 1737, and was buried the next day in the parish church under his pew. Madame Bissot died at Québec May 3, 1745, and was also buried in the parish church. Of their marriage there were boni nine children :
(1) Louise-Claire Bissot — Born at Québec June 23, 1701. Married at Québec, May 13, 1726, to Jean Fournel, son of Jean Fournel and of Marthe Crespin of the parish of Saint Caparacy, bishopric of Agen. M. and Mme. Fournel died in France.
(2) Charlotte Bissot— Born at Québec April 30. 1704. Married at Québec, October 24, 1728, to Jacques de Lafontaine de Belcour, son of Jean de Lafontaine, officer of the king and of Bernardine Jouin, of the parish of Versailles. She died at Québec November 21, 1749, and was buried the next day in the parish church. Al. de Lafontaine de Belcour died at Québec June 18. 1765. They had several children. A number of their descendants still live in the district of Québec.
(3) François-Etienne Bissot — Born at Québec May 26, 1708. Died in the same place February 7, 1726. Buried in the parish cemetery.
(4) Jean Bissot — Born at Québec November 30, 1711. Died in the same place December 1, 1711. Buried in the parish cemetery.
(5) Joseph Bissot — Born at Québec September 4, 1713.
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Died at Saint-Aiigustine November 3, 1713. Buried in the parish cemetery.
(6) Marie Bissot — Born at Mingan December, 1715. Died at Québec Augiist 18, 1720. Buried the next day in the parish cemetery.
(7) Louise Bissot — Born at Mingan August, 1718. Died at Québec November 9, 1730. Buried the next day in the parish cemetery.
(8) AngeHque Bissot — Born at Québec December 12, 1719. Married at Québec, September 17, 1737, to Jean Baptiste Poitevin de la Salmonais, son of the nobleman Henri Poitevin-Desorme and of the late Jeanne-Olive Arsan, of the parish of Saint Malo. This union was of short duration. In the autumn of the same year 1737 M. Poitevin de la Salmonais set sail for ^Martinique on the ship Le Prudent, commanded by Charles Cotterelle of Maine. He died in the course of this voyage. Of this marriage there was born a posthumous child, Marie Angélique Poitevin de la Salmonais, born at Quebec the llth of July, 1738. After the death of her husband the v^idow Poitevin went to France to obtain the allowance of her matrimonial rights. On September 3, 1743, by the intervention of Jacques de La fontaine, her brother-in-law, she demanded from the Lieutenant General of the Provost of Quebec to call together an assemblage of her relatives in order to sélect from among them a guardian and to allow her to remarry. The assemblage of her relatives took place the next day and the widow Poitevin de la Salmonais received permission to marry a second time the sieur Alexander-Jean Devaux, receiver of customs at Saint Malo, "or with any other who presented himself and suited her". In 1745 she was still a widow and lived at Rouen.
(9) Marie-Charlotte Bissot — Born at Mingan March 4,
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1722. Married at Québec, October 3, 1736, Jean-Pierre-François Vederic, the son of François Vederic and of Julie Houet, of the parish Notre-Dame de Havre de Grâce, the diocèse of Rouen.
The census of the parish of Québec in 1744 shows us that François Vederic navigator, thirty-five years old, and his wife Marie Bissot Hved at that time at Québec. The census gives them one child, Jacques François, seven years old. We then lose sight of M. Vederic. The widowed Mme. Vederic retired to the convent hospital of Québec. She died in this hospital June 7, 1772, and was buried the next day in the cemetery of the nuns of the convent.
