The Schoolmistresses

The first schoolmistresses.

Marie-Anne Tarieu de Lanaudière (1765-1849), co-seigneuress of the seigneury (seigneurial estate) of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, married François Baby (1733-1820), who was then 52 years old.

The Baby children would become the heirs of the Lévrard-Becquet seigneury; among these descendants, two of the Baby sons, Charles-François-Xavier and Jacques-Raymond, lived part of their lives at Saint-Pierre, taking an interest, among other things, in the timber trade. In 1817, Charles-François ran a general store at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets. Beyond their own business interests, they also took part in community affairs.

On 11 July 1830, before the notary Gamelin Gaucher and witnesses, Jacques Raimon Baby, « écuier, major de milice résident à Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, comme officier principal en l’absence du lieutenant colonel François Baby » [esquire, militia major residing at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, as senior officer in the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel François Baby], asked that five people of the parish (sindics, or school trustees) be appointed for the establishment of schools in the parish, so as to encourage elementary education.

This request was entered in the minutes of the notary Gamelin Gaucher in the presence of one of the trustees (sindics, sic) named Michel Mailhot, and of the witnesses Alexandre Rousseau and Lubin Rousseau.

It was a beginning for public instruction in the seigneury.

TWO YEARS LATER…

On 12 November 1832, before the notary Gamelin Gaucher, a schoolmistress was engaged: Miss Marguerite Trottier, an unmarried woman of full age and a schoolmistress living at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets.

Magloire Gingras, Pierre Duclos and Laurent Pepin were the « sindics des écoles élémentaires de l’arrondissement du premier rang, élus à cette charge par assemblée publique des tenanciers du premier rang » [trustees of the elementary schools of the first-rang district, elected to that office by a public meeting of the tenants of the first rang — a rang being a concession road lined with farm lots].

Marguerite Trottier, as schoolmistress, « volontairement oblige envers lessindics, pour une année seulement, à partir du 17 septembre dernier et finir à pareille date du 17 septembre 1833 inclusivement. » [voluntarily bound herself to the trustees, for one year only, beginning last 17 September and ending on the same date, 17 September 1833, inclusive].

As early as 1832, teachers were required to produce not only a certificate of loyalty but also testimony of good morals and, above all, proof of their teaching ability. They had to sit an examination in the presence of the parish priest, the justice of the peace and the highest-ranking militia officer of the parish.

And the trustees agreed that the young woman would teach school all year long in the house of Laurent Pepin, in the first rang, to 36 and even as many as 40 pupils spread across several levels of instruction.

Miss Marguerite Trottier promised to instruct these pupils to the best of her ability and to comply in every respect with the established regulations. The trustees undertook to pay Miss Trottier for the year (the amount is not recorded) in addition to the « allouances » [allowances] granted by the legislature to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses…

« Marguerite Trottier acceptant des sindics de payer sa pension chez Laurent Pepin durant l’année chauffer la chambre d’école au besoin durant l’année, et dans le cas ou la demoiselle voudrait se nourrir payer elle-même, le sindic s’obligent à lui payer 16 livres anciens cours pour chaque mois, tant qu’elle tiendra la dite école, de lui fournir des chandelles, soit 8 livres pour l’année ».

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