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Jean Hamel & Marie Auvray

Discover the story of Jean Hamel and Marie Auvray, a pioneering couple who built their lives in New France. From land acquisitions and legal disputes to census records and family legacies, explore their journey through detailed historical records. Learn about early settlement life in côte Saint-Michel and Sillery, as well as the challenges faced by French colonists in the 17th century.

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Jean Hamel & Marie Auvray

From Normandy to New France

 

Jean Hamel, son of François Hamel and Catherine Carpentier dite Lapierre, was born around 1635 in the parish of Saint-Aubin in Avremesnil, Normandy, France. His baptismal record has not been found. His brother Charles, born around 1624, also became a pioneer in New France.   

Marie Auvray was also from Avremesnil, Normandy, and was born around 1636. The identity of her parents is unknown. Her sister Judith married Charles Hamel, but she died in France shortly after their wedding.      

Located 150 kilometres northwest of Paris, Avremesnil is now part of the Seine-Maritime department. It is classified as a bourg rural (rural hamlet) and has a population of about 1,000.

 

Location of Avremesnil in France (Mapcarta)

 

Jean left for New France around 1656, though the exact date is unknown. On December 26 of that year, he accepted a two-year farm lease from Jean Gloria for land on côte Sainte-Geneviève. It appears that Jean intended to settle in Canada before starting a family. He later returned to France, likely in 1657 or 1658, the year of his marriage.

Jean Hamel and Marie Auvray were married on May 6, 1658, in the parish of Saint-Aubin in Avremesnil.

Marriage of Jean Hamel and Marie Auvray (Archives départementales de la Seine-Maritime)

The church of Saint-Aubin (photo by Pierre Bastien, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Settling in New France

The exact date of Jean and Marie’s arrival in Québec is unknown, as is whether they travelled together. However, they were settled there by 1661, the year their son Jean François was born.  

17th-century Québec, engraving by Alain Manesson Mallet (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

Jean and Marie had at least six children:

  1. Jean François (1661–1733)

  2. Pierre (1664–1722)

  3. Marie Anne (1666–1731)

  4. Charlotte (1669–before 1679)

  5. Ignace Germain (1672–1732)

  6. François (1674–?)

In 1663, Jean received two land concessions and was described as a resident of côte Sainte-Geneviève. The notarial deeds were drawn up by notary Jean Gloria, with whom he had signed a farm lease eight years earlier.  

  • October 21, 1663: Jean received a concession from Nicolas Gaudry, measuring five perches of frontage by 20 arpents in depth. The annual rent was five sols in cash and one live capon, payable on All Saints’ Day. The land was located near what is now rue Myrand in Sainte-Foy.

  • October 28, 1663: Jean received a concession from Antoine Duhamel dit Marette, measuring one arpent of frontage by 20 arpents in depth. This land was near the concession he had received from Nicolas Gaudry. 

Less than four months later, on February 12, 1664, Jean and Antoine Duhamel dit Marette exchanged two plots of land at côte Sainte-Geneviève.

The Hamel Family in Census Records

In 1666, during the first census of New France, the Hamel family was listed in the district of Sillery, Cap-Rouge, and François-Xavier. Their household included two children and a domestic servant, Mathurin Chesneau. [The second "Pierre Hamel" was likely an error.]  

1666 census for the Hamel family (Library and Archives Canada)

The following year, Jean and Marie appeared in the census as residents of “costes de Sainte-Geneviève, Saint-François et Saint-Michel,” along with their three children. They owned ten arpents of land and one farm animal.

1667 census for the Hamel family (Library and Archives Canada)

Jean Hamel's Real Estate and Hiring Activities

On February 6, 1668, Jean purchased neighbouring land from Jacques Duhamel dit Marette, who had inherited it from his brother Antoine a few years earlier. The sale price was 500 livres. Located at côte Saint-Michel, in the parish of Sillery [now Sainte-Foy], the land measured 100 arpents, six to seven of which were “under labour,” having been cleared with pickaxes.

On January 16, 1673, Jean appeared before the Conseil souverain (Sovereign Council) as an appellant. The court ruled in his favour and ordered Jean Poitras to pay him 80 livres: 

"Between Jean Hamel, on the one hand, appealing against the sentence of the Lieutenant General of this town of the eighteenth of November last, and Jean Poytra, on the other hand, defendant. [...] The Council dismissed and rendered null and void the said sentence as far as the said Hamel is concerned, and ordered the said Poytra to pay the said Hamel the sum of eighty livres, without prejudice to his recourse against the said Chesnier as he sees fit, with legal costs compensated. Mr. de Tilly, reporter. FRONTENAC."  

At the beginning of 1673, Jean hired Mathurin Greslier on two occasions. The first contract, signed before notary Romain Becquet on February 17, required Greslier to “provide good and faithful service” for one month and “do whatever he was ordered to do” for 26 livres. On April 30, Jean hired Greslier again, this time for a period of one year, for the sum of 120 livres.

On June 26, 1673, Jean returned to notary Becquet’s office in Québec to sell an habitation in the seigneurie of Gaudarville, village of Champigny, to Gaston Guay and his wife Jeanne Prévost for 200 livres. The deed of sale describes him as an habitant of côte Saint-Michel. The land measured six arpents of frontage by 20 arpents in depth. The term habitant referred specifically to settlers who had cleared and permanently established themselves on their concessions, building homes and cultivating the land. Their plots, known as habitations, formed the core of the emerging rural community.

Signature of Jean Hamel in 1673

The Death of Jean Hamel

Jean Hamel died on October 12, 1674, “in his house after receiving the holy sacraments of penance, viaticum, and Extreme Unction.” He was buried the next day in the Notre-Dame parish cemetery in Québec. The burial record identifies him as an habitant of côte Saint-Michel. His age was left blank on the document, but he was about 39 years old.

Burial of Jean Hamel in 1674 (Généalogie Québec)

Four days after her husband's death, Marie gave birth to their last child, François.

Marie Auvray Before the Court and Notaries in 1678

There is no trace of Marie between 1674 and 1678, a year in which she was particularly active before the court and notaries.

  • March 18, 1678: Marie filed a complaint against Sébastien Gingras. Although the details are unknown, Gingras was ordered to pay her 10 livres in compensation, three livres for the bailiff, 20 sols for Jean Nault, and 10 sols for Jean-Baptiste Larue.

  • March 18, 1678: Marie filed a complaint against Antoine Gentil. The court ordered that the parties appear together in the presence of Pierre Bertrand, their mutual friend.

  • April 19, 1678: Marie lodged a complaint against Laurent Arnaud. The defendant was ordered to pay her 44 livres and 13 sols in two installments, the first on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

  • April 19, 1678: Marie lodged a complaint against Jacques Meilleur. By mutual agreement, Meilleur was to pay her 113 livres in four instalments: the first on July 22, 1678, the second on All Saints’ Day, the third on July 22, 1679, and the last on All Saints’ Day the following year.

  • May 1, 1678: Marie and Antoine Gentil appeared before notary Gilles Rageot. She accepted a payment of 184 livres, and Gentil agreed to settle the remainder of his debts by 1682.

  • May 1, 1678: Marie purchased land in the seigneurie of Gaudarville from Pierre Bultey and his wife, Jeanne Carron, for 350 livres. She was described as a resident of the parish of Notre-Dame de Foy. The property measured three arpents of frontage by 20 arpents in depth.

  • October 18, 1678: Marie took legal action against Gabriel Gosselin, bourgeois of Québec, for a debt of 300 livres. The court ordered René Dupil to render accounts to Gosselin, who was then required to seize whatever assets he could to settle the debt.

Inventory of Marie Auvray

Extract of Marie Auvray's inventory (FamilySearch)

After five years of widowhood, Marie decided to remarry. On November 27, 1679, she asked notary Pierre Duquet de La Chesnaye to draw up an inventory of her community property with Jean Hamel. She was listed as a resident of "route Saint-Michel.” The inventory detailed all her possessions.

  • Household goods and furniture: a cooking rack, a large iron pot, a large copper pot, a frying pan, an old pail with a hole in it, two old red copper pots, a wooden bucket, a copper candlestick, a cast-iron frying pan, a small table, two tables, eight wooden chairs (pine and cherry), a furnished bed, eight old tablecloths, 16 serviettes and four chests.

  • Farming tools and equipment: a pitchfork, a manure fork, a spade, two old hoes, two scythes, an anvil and hammer, two ploughs, a pair of wooden scales, two flaking irons and two old axes.    

  • Food and provisions: 85 pounds of butter, two barrels of eau-de-vie (brandy), half a barrel of wine, five and a half barrels of salted eels, three and a half minots of wheat, and eight minots of ground oats. [A minot was a measure once used for dry matter (seeds and flour) and which contained half of a mine. A mine corresponded to approximately 78.73 litres.]

  • Weapons: a rifle, a carbine and an old pistol.

  • Harvests and reserves in the barn: 262 sheaves of wheat, 50 sheaves of rye, 100 sheaves of oats, four and a half bushels of peas and 200 bales of hay.

  • Animals and livestock: two oxen, four cows, a horse and cart, three calves, five “large half-fat pigs” and twelve chickens.

The inventory also listed an animal hide, 15 cords of wood and debts totalling 473 pounds.

 

The After-Death Inventory

The Coutume de Paris (custom of Paris) governed the transmission of family property in New France. When a couple married, with or without a contract, they were subject to the “community of goods.” All property acquired during the union by the spouses was part of this community. After the death of the parents (assuming the couple had children), the property of the community was divided in equal parts between all the children, sons and daughters. When the community was dissolved by the death of one of the spouses, the survivor was entitled to his or her half, the other half being divided equally between the children. When the survivor died, the children divided their share of the community. Inventories were drawn up after a death in order to itemize all the goods within a community.

Second Marriage of Marie Auvray

On December 11, 1679, notary Duquet drew up the marriage contract for Marie Auvray and René Pelletier. René was a master carpenter from Saint-Étienne, near La Rochelle, France. The date and place of the wedding ceremony remain unknown, as the marriage record has not been found. The couple had no children.    

[In his Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730, René Jetté indicates that the marriage contract between Marie and René was annulled. He likely made this assumption because they did not appear together in the 1681 census. However, documents from 1682 to 1708 confirm that Marie was indeed the wife of René Pelletier.]  

In 1681, Marie was enumerated in the census at “Coste St Michel” in Sillery. Five of her children—Jean, Pierre, Marie, Ignace, and François—were living with her. The census recorded her age as 47. She owned a gun, four head of cattle, and 15 arpents of land. Her husband, René Pelletier, was absent from the household.

1681 census for the household of Marie Auvray (Library and Archives Canada)

Death of Marie Auvray

Marie is last mentioned on March 22, 1708, when she was godmother at the baptism of Jean-Baptiste Prévost in Sainte-Foy. She died before May 22, 1716, the date on which notary Jacques Barbel drew up the inventory of René Pelletier, identified as the "widower of the late Marie Auvray, prior to her marriage the widow of the late Jean Hamel.”

 
 
Jean Hamel & Marie Auvray (article in PDF format)
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