1672 or 1679?

Was the Lévrard-Becquet seigneury granted in 1672 or 1679?

Tradition holds that the grant of the seigneury of St-Pierre was made in 1672; that date is written just about everywhere — history websites, scholarly books, the signs at the entrance to the municipality.

That date is correct as regards the first fief or seigneury granted to Romain Becquet: l’île Madame, a small island southeast of l’île d’Orléans, today the property of Laurent Beaudoin, builder of the multinational Bombardier. An examination of the documents, however, shows that 1679 is the only valid date for the Lévrard-Becquet seigneury.

Indeed, we have never found a deed of concession dated 1672, whether at BAnQ or in the Ottawa archives; searches in the records of the Sovereign Council and in the Archives nationales de France came up empty. The documents had been mislaid (that still happens nowadays), and historians relied on hastily read deeds of confirmation of concession to keep the claim alive.

In 1680, a confirmation of concession was issued by Duchesneau; note that several seigneuries were reconfirmed on that occasion, with no detail of their locations

His Majesty Louis XIV confirms the grants made to a good number (more than two dozen) of seigneurs between 12 October 1676 and 5 September 1679, and mentions Romain Becquet’s seigneury without describing it in detail.

Here are the two pages of the 1680 document, with a transcription into present-day French; deciphering the original is something of a challenge!

Romain Becquet having died on 20 April 1682 without having fulfilled his obligations as seigneur (to develop, settle and improve the territory granted to him), his concessions were withdrawn from him on 12 March 1683.

Here is the transcription, in (almost) plain French

1683

” Les sieurs le Febvre de la Barre, seigneur dudit lieu conseiller du Roy

En ses conseils, gouverneur et son lieutenant général en toutes les terres de la Nouvelle-

France et Acadie et de Meulle seigneur de la Source chevalier conseiller du Roy

En sa condition d’intendant de la justice, police et finances …au dit roi

A tous ceux qui ces présentes lettres verront, Salut ! À savoir faisons

Que sur ce qu’il nous avise dit que défunt Romain Becquet…notaire royal

En cette ville aurait obtenu une concession dudit Talon ci-devant intendant

De ce pays en l’année 1672 une petite ile appelée Madame située

Au sud de ile du Comté de Saint-Laurent d’une lieue de tour ou

Environ avec le droit de chasse et de pêche dans le fleuve St-Laurent

Autour de la dite ile icelle en fief et seigneurie ; il aurait pareillement

Été concédé au dit sieur Becquet en l’année 1679 par Messieurs le comte

De Frontenac et Duchesneau ci devant gouverneur et intendant

De ce dit pays une étendue de terre de deux lieues ou environ sur

Ledit  fleuve Saint-Laurent du côté du sud et généralement ce qui

Se rencontre entre la seigneurie de Gentilly et celle de

L’Échaillon avec les iles en batture qui sont dans le dit fleuve

Au devant dudit espace avec les mêmes droits de chasse et de

pêche dans l’étendue des dits lieux le tout en titre de seigneurie

fief, seigneurie, haute moyenne et basse justice sur lesquelles

terres ledit Becquet n’aurait fait aucun batiment ni défrichement

N’ayant point été habitée en aucune manière que ce soit, ce qui

Étant contraire aux intentions de sa Majesté portées par les arrêts de

Son Conseil du 4 juin 1672 et 9 mai 1679. Nous suivant le pouvoir

Donné par sa Majesté aux gouverneur et intendant de ce pays contenu par

Ses lettres patentes du 20 mai 1676 . Avons ledit défunt Becquet

Déclaré déchu du titre des concessions des dites deux terres  ci-dessus

À lui accordées Ce faisant Icelles et leurs dépendances réunies

Au domaine de Sa Majesté pour en disposer par nous sous son bon plaisir comme nous

le jugerons à propos fait à Québec le 12 mars 1683

Signé Lefebvre de la Barre De Meulle

Par moi dudit seigneur Regnault “

NB: Jacques Regnault was Lefebvre de la Barre’s secretary

Moreover, a discovery made after patient research by Mr. Louis Poitras has cleared up a number of points.

Mr. Poitras found an inventory drawn up by the notary Genaple de Bellefonds after Romain Becquet’s death; the inventory set out Sieur Becquet’s holdings, among them two seigneuries and fiefs: l’île Madame, granted in 1672, and the future Lévrard-Becquet seigneury, granted on 26 October 1678 by Governor Frontenac and on 10 February 1679 by Intendant Duchesneau. All of it confirmed and made official by the King’s Council in May 1679!

Why a grant in two stages? The Comte de Frontenac is known to have had an uncompromising, inflexible and at times execrable character; he wanted to rule over everything and impose his will, and he often clashed with figures every bit as rigid as himself, such as Monseigneur de Laval, Bishop of Québec, and Intendant Jacques Duchesneau.

Their ceaseless quarrels did in fact lead the king to recall Frontenac and Duchesneau to France; one can imagine that the intendant refused to put his signature to the deed of concession in October 1678 in order to display his own power, or to vex (the word is too mild) Frontenac. For my part, I think both motives guided Duchesneau’s conduct. Nowadays politicians no longer behave that way…

It is therefore clear that l’île Madame, south of l’île d’Orléans, was granted in June 1672 to the notary Romain Becquet, and that a stretch of land some two leagues long between the seigneuries of Gentilly and Deschaillons was granted in several stages, from October 1678 to May 1679. That seigneury between Gentilly and Deschaillons, having been granted by Frontenac and Duchesneau, cannot have come into being in 1672, since Duchesneau served as intendant from 1 August 1675 to 9 October 1682.

The error probably arises from a reading not careful enough, which left the impression that the whole had been granted in 1672.

Errare humanum est.

But rest assured; within the following weeks his two daughters obtained a deed of reconcession.

Alain Manset, Société d’histoire et de généalogie Lévrard-Becquet (Lévrard-Becquet Historical and Genealogical Society)