Biography of Jacques Voyer dit Lejardinier & Jeanne Routhier
Discover the story of Jacques Voyer dit Lejardinier & Jeanne Routhier, Habitants of L'Ancienne-Lorette
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Biography of Jacques Voyer dit Lejardinier & Jeanne Routhier
Jacques Voyer dit Lejardinier, the son of François Voyer and Mathurine Chauvet, was born circa 1654 in the parish of Saint-Laurent in Aubigny, Poitou, France [present-day Aubigny-Les Clouzeaux, La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée, France]. Today, approximately 3,700 "Aubinois" call Aubigny home. Located in the western part of France, it is about 25 kilometres from the sea. The Saint-Laurent church dates from the 12th century (except for the modern nave) and is listed as a Historic Monument in France.
Location of Aubigny-Les Clouzeaux (Google)
The church of Saint-Laurent in Aubigny (2015 photo by Pierre Bastien, Wikimedia Commons)
Though his exact year of arrival is unknown, Jacques is in New France by 1677. On May 9 of that year, Jean Baudet of Champigny sells him a house located on the "route Champigny" in the seigneury of Gaudarville (sometimes spelled Godarville). The contract indicates that Jacques is from the "haute ville" (upper town) in Québec.
In November of 1681, Jacques is recorded in the New France census living in the seigneury of Gaudarville. Jacques is 27 years old and living on his own. He owns 6 arpents of cleared land and one gun.
1681 census of New France (Library and Archives Canada)
Seigneurie de Gaudarville
Gaudarville was a seigneury dependent on the government of Québec (City), located between the seigneuries of Sillery and de Maure. In 1652, it was granted to Louis de Lauson de la Citière et Gaudarville by his father, Jean de Lauson, governor of New France from 1651 to 1656. It was named in honour of Marie Gaudar, Louis' mother. To see where the seigneury was located, look for #49 on this map.
Jeanne Routhier, the daughter of Jean Routhier and Catherine Méliot, was baptized on 15 Feb 1666 in the Jesuit Mission of St-Joseph in Sillery. Her mother Catherine was a "fille à marier". Her father Jean was a farmer and eel fisherman.
Sillery
The Saint-Joseph mission was the first establishment founded in New France by the Jesuits. Their primary goal was to convert the Indigenous people to Catholicism. They built a few structures and used the land for agriculture, but their conversion efforts weren't overly successful due to repeat epidemics and threats posed by the Iroquois. The mission was abandoned at the end of the 17th century, but the Jesuits remained. They continued to farm the land and built a new house, used as a country residence. Today, the Maison des Jésuites de Sillery houses a museum.
Jesuits' Residence in Sillery, 1637 (drawing appearing in L'Opinion publique in 1877, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec).
In 1667, the Routhier family is recorded in the New France census. Jeanne is 10 months old. Her father Jean and mother Catherine own two heads of livestock and ten arpents of cleared land. A domestic servant, François Hubert, also lives in the household.
1667 census of New France (Library and Archives Canada)
In the same year the census was recorded, Jeanne loses her father. In 1668, her widowed mother Catherine marries the widower Pierre Bouvier.
Jacques and Jeanne's 1683 marriage record (Ancestry.ca)
Marriage
On December 21, 1682, Jacques Voyer and Jeanne Routhier appear before notary Gilles Rageot in Québec (City) to sign a marriage contract. Jacques is recorded as an "habitant de la seigneurie de Gaudartville, route de Champigny", while Jeanne is from the parish of Notre-Dame in Québec, where she lives on Saint-Louis street.
The couple was married three weeks later on January 12, 1683, at the church of Notre-Dame in Québec. Jacques is "about 26 years old", an "habitans" from Champigny. Jeanne is "about 19 years old" (she's actually 16). Jeanne's father-in-law, the notary Gilles Rageot and many others are present at the wedding. The bride and groom are not able to sign the marriage record.
The couple settled in L'Ancienne-Lorette, about 12 kilometres west of Québec.
L’Ancienne-Lorette
The history of L’Ancienne-Lorette begins a decade before in 1673, when a Huron nation settled in a place called "Notre-Dame-de-Lorette". In 1697, the Hurons moved to Wendake, which they then called “Jeune Lorette”. Consequently, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette took the name of “Vieille Lorette” and later became "Ancienne-Lorette". For more than two centuries, the population of L'Ancienne-Lorette was almost self-sufficient, producing most things they needed locally: firewood, food, much of the household linen and clothing. Other goods were purchased in "town" (Québec): sugar, molasses, tea, salt and other fabrics. In 1845, the parish of Ancienne-Lorette officially became a municipality. Today, it is part of Quebec City.
Postcard of the Hurons of Lorette, circa 1908 (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
20th-century photo of Ancienne-Lorette and Loretteville (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
Children
Jacques and Jeanne had at least 12 children:
Marie Anne Voyer (1694-1704)
François Marie Voyer (1695-?)
François Voyer (1696-1761)
Marguerite Voyer (1700-1703)
Noël Voyer (1704-1777)
Marie Ursule Voyer (1707-1717)
Jacques Voyer (1683-1711)
Marie Catherine Jeanne Voyer (1685-1703)
Marie Thérèse Voyer (ca. 1687-1711)
Michel Voyer (ca. 1689-?)
Pierre Voyer (1691-1753)
(anonymous) Voyer (1692-1692)
On June 9, 1691, Jacques appears before notary Rageot again. He agrees to lease a dwelling and farm to Mathurin Trud, a resident of the seigneury of Cap-Rouge. Mathurin will also rent an eel fishery from Jacques, who is recorded as a resident of the seigneury of Champigny and Gaudarville.
Eel Fishing
The eel fisherman caught eels either for personal consumption or for sale. Eel fishing was practiced mainly in the St. Lawrence, but also in the Richelieu River, Lake St. Pierre, near L'Islet and Kamouraska. Fishing was the first resource of early inhabitants, as they waited for their land to be cleared and start producing wheat. The first French settlers noticed that the natives captured eels and smoked them for their winter reserves. Since eels were abundant and very easy to catch, they were an important part of the diet of Indigenous people and the first European settlers. Enterprising colonists would transport and sell eels to urban areas after salting and storing them in barrels.
The eel fishing season would begin in September and continue until November, but fishermen would prepare their traps much earlier during springtime. At low tide, they would set up long wooden poles perpendicular to the shore, in a zigzagging fashion, then set up their nets. Once the traps were installed, the eels would simply move towards the hatch that formed the very end of the trap, and get caught there.
Just a few weeks later on the 25th of June, Jacques is before Rageot yet again. He buys a plot of land located in the censive of the seigneury of Gaudarville from Noël Levasseur, a master carpenter, and his wife Marguerite Guay, of Québec.
1692 survey plan of the seigneury of Maur and its two rows of land plots, starting from the seigneurial line between de Maur and Gaudarville. Jacques' land is in red. (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec).
Jacques and Jeanne purchase another plot of land on the "côte de Champigny" in a place called "la route Saint-Denis" on August 11, 1710, from Barthélémy Tinon.
Living on a "côte"
Within the seignorial system of New France, a new type of community emerged: the "côte". A côte was normally comprised of families and/or friends who owned neighbouring land within a specific area. Thus, they created a new community on a côte with its own social and economic ties, the entirety of the seigneury being too large to develop a solidarity with others. On average, a côte would include anywhere between 10 and 50 dwellings.
Jacques Voyer dit Lejardinier died at the age of about 57 on April 26, 1711, at the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec. He was buried there on the same day.
The Hôtel-Dieu
"Hôtel-Dieu" translates as "God Hotel". This institution was actually a hospital, not a hotel. Its name stems from the fact that the Hôtel-Dieu was staffed by nuns. Both Québec (City) and Montréal had a Hôtel-Dieu. The one in Québec was founded in 1639, while the one in Montréal was opened in 1644. Admission to the Hôtel-Dieu was only granted to the severely ill or dying. It was understood that those coming to the Hôtel-Dieu went there to die. The nuns were there to care for the souls, and not necessarily the bodies, of their patients.
Drawing of the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
Guardianship & Remarriage
On January 25, 1713, Jeanne appeared before the king's advisor in Québec to request that she be appointed guardian of her five minor children, and Pierre Drolet the subrogate guardian (the children's uncle), after being elected as guardians by the family. This was a common practice in New France after the death of a spouse, and before a second marriage, for a variety of legal reasons.
Excerpt of the 1713 guardianship record (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
On February 9, 1713, Jeanne Routhier and Jean Etienne Dubreuil appear before notary Rageot de Beaurivage to sign a marriage contract. Etienne is recorded as a royal notary and court officer of the Sovereign Council in the city of Québec, and the widower of Marianne Chevalier (his second wife). Jeanne is from the parish of Notre-Dame in Lorette, a resident of the côte de Champigny, and widow of Jacques Voyer. The couple is married three days later in L'Ancienne-Lorette. Jeanne is 46 years old.
Jeanne appears in several notarial records over the following two decades:
On June 28, 1723, the estate of Jeanne Routhier and the late Jacques Voyer Jr. (her son) is settled. On the very same day, Jeanne and Etienne sell a plot of land located in the seigneury of Demaure to Alexandre Trudel.
On March 17, 1725, Jeanne and Etienne lease a farm on a plot of land in the côte de Champigny to her son François.
On July 15, 1728, Michel Voyer, a cooper and another of Jeanne's sons, signs a work contract with his mother.
On June 22, 1730, Jeanne transfers part of her land in the seigneury of Gaudarville to her son Pierre Voyer.
Etienne Dubreuil dies on June 4, 1734 in Québec, where he is buried in the parish cemetery the following day. Following her husband's death, an inventory of Jeanne's goods (from her marriage community) is taken on June 18, 1734. She is now living in Québec on St-Joseph street.
Jeanne dictates her last will and testament to notary Pinguet de Vaucour on April 25, 1737. She dies shortly after, on May 13 in Québec. She is buried in the parish cemetery the following day.
1737 burial of Jeanne Routhier (Ancestry.ca)
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Sources:
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/), baptism of Jeanne Routier, 15 Feb 1666, Mission St-Joseph-de-Sillery; citing original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
"Histoire de raconter : La Maison des Jésuites de Sillery", Itinéraires histoire et patrimoine, Division de la culture, du loisir et de la vie communautaire de l'Arrondissement de Sainte-Foy-Sillery, 2008 (https://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/publications/patrimoine/docs/histoire_de_raconter_maison_jesuites.pdf)
Peter Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: Les Filles a Marier, 1634-1662 (Orange Park, Florida : Quintin Publications, 2002), 221-222.
"Recensement du Canada, 1667", Library and Archives Canada (https://collectionscanada.gc.ca/), entry for Jean Routier, 1667, Québec, Finding aid no. MSS0446, Item ID number: 2318857; citing original data: Centre des archives d'outre-mer (France) vol. 460.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), sale, 9 May 1677 from Jean Baudet to Jacques Voyer, notary Rageot.
"Recensement du Canada fait par l'intendant Du Chesneau", Library and Archives Canada (https://collectionscanada.gc.ca/), entry for Jacques Voyer, 14 Nov 1681, Québec, Finding aid no. MSS0446, MIKAN no. 2318858; citing original data: Centre des archives d'outre-mer (France) vol. 460.
"Avenue de Gaudarville", toponymy cards, Ville de Québec (https://www.ville.quebec.qc.ca/citoyens/patrimoine/toponymie/fiche.aspx?idFiche=13984).
Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Université de Montréal (https://www.prdh-igd.com), dictionary entry for Jacques VOYER LEJARDINIER, person #73042.
Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Université de Montréal (https://www.prdh-igd.com), dictionary entry for Jacques VOYER LEJARDINIER & Marie Jeanne Anne ROUTHIER, union #5271.
"Quebec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637-1935", Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/), marriage contract of Jacques Voyer and Jeanne Routhier, 21 Dec 1682, Québec, notarial act 2518; citing original data: Fonds Cour Supérieure. Greffes de notaires. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), marriage contract between Jacques Voyer and Jeanne Routtier, 21 Dec 1682, notary Rageot.
"Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/), marriage of Jacques Voyer and Jeanne Routtier, 12 Jan 1683, Québec (Notre-Dame); citing original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
René Jetté and the PRDH, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730 (Montréal, Gaëtan Morin Éditeur, 1983), page 1132, entry for Jacques Voyer dit LeJardinier.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), lease and rental agreement between Jacques Voyer and Mathurin Trud, 9 Jun 1691, notary Rageot.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), sale of land from Barthélémy Tinon to Jacques Voyer and Jeanne Routtier, 11 Aug 1710, notary Barbel.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), marriage contract between Etienne Dubreuil and Jeanne Routier, 9 Feb 1713, notary Rageot de Beaurivage.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), sale of land from Etienne Dubreuil and Jeanne Routier to Alexandre Trudel, 28 Jun 1723, notary Rageot de Beaurivage.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), farm lease from Etienne Dubreuil and Jeanne Routier to François Voyer, 17 Mar 1725, notary Rageot de Beaurivage.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), work engagement by Michel Voyer in favour of Jeanne Routier, 15 Jul 1728, notary Pinguet de Vaucour.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), land transfer from Jeanne Routier to Pierre Voyer, 22 Jun 1730, notary Pinguet de Vaucour.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), inventory, Jeanne Routier, 18 Aug 1734, notary Pinguet de Vaucour.
"Banque de données notariales du Québec ancien (1626-1801)", Parchemin, Société de recherche historique Archiv-Histo (https://www.archiv-histo.com/), testament, Jeanne Routier, 25 Apr 1737, notary Pinguet de Vaucour.
“Pêche à l’anguille”, GrandQuébec.com (https://grandquebec.com/faune-quebecoise/peche-anguille/).