M. (1) 5 Nov 1662 in Quebec City, New France
Wife: Marie Chalifour
M. (2) 16 Jun 1669 in Quebec City, New France
Wife: Anne-Charlotte Petit
D. 30 Jun 1690 in Saint-Pierre, Île d'Orleans, New France
Joachim Martin was like many of the men who populated New France: he started out as an indentured servant and made a life for himself when his service ended. He was born about 1636 in Aytré, France to Jacques Martin and Luce Chaslut. Aytré was a village on the coastline just south of La Rochelle, a major seaport for ships coming and going to New France. Joachim’s mother died when he was a young boy and his father remarried. The family moved into La Rochelle by 1649, but his father died in early 1653.
On April 11, 1656, Joachim signed a contract to become a laborer in New France. The agreement said he was to receive the sum of 75 livres per year for three years. He boarded the ship Le Taureau on April 30th along with 30 other indentured men; the crossing took about six weeks, arriving at Quebec City on June 15th. Typically, Joachim would have been assigned to work for someone doing labor for their farm, household, or business, but no record survives of who he might have worked for.
Joachim's 1656 labor agreement.
After his term of service was up in February 1660, Joachim bought a farm in L’Ange-Gardien on the Beaupré Coast, but cancelled his purchase the following day. He may have at this point signed another contract of servitude. There was a shortage of women in New France, and on November 5, 1662, Joachim married a 13 year-old girl named Marie Chalifour at Notre-Dame de Quebec. Her father, Paul Chalifour, offered to build the couple a house 18 by 16 feet, and he promised to feed them “until All-Saints’ Day 1663,” but Marie died within the year. In 1664, Joachim settled on the Île d’Orleans; he was listed in 1667 as having 9 arpents of land under cultivation.
Joachim married a second wife, Anne-Charlotte Petit on June 16, 1669 in Quebec City. Betwenn 1671 and 1689, they had eight children. The family lived on Ile d’Orleans until 1680 when Joachim signed a 3-year sharecropping lease under Pierre Denis. The deal offered workable land with 6 arpents of river frontage in La Canardiére. The land had “a habitable house, barn, stable yards [and] garden.” Joachim was required to share half of his crops with Denis.
The 1681 census shows that Joachim owned a gun and 10 head of cattle, with 15 arpents under cultivation. In 1684, he was hired by a wealthy woman in Quebec City, Anne Auber, to deliver building materials for her new house; he was paid by the boatload. By 1685, Joachim and his family returned to Île d’Orleans, to the parish of Saint-Pierre, where his last two children were born. The house where the family of 10 lived measured 24 by 18 feet.
Joachim's land in Saint-Pierre.
In 1690, Joachim spent 9 days in the hospital at Quebec City, but returned home and died on June 30, 1690 at the age of 54. His wife Anne remarried twice and outlived all of her husbands, dying on March 3, 1736 in St. Augustin, New France. They were ancestors of Ricky Gervais and Matt LeBlanc.
Children (all by Anne-Charlotte Petit):
1. Louis Martin — B. 12 Jun 1671, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. May 1749, Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, New France; M. Louise-Angelique Ratté (1680-1749), 12 Jan 1700, St-Pierre, Ile d’Orleans, New France
2. Marie-Anne Martin — B. 4 Apr 1673, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 6 Feb 1709, Riviére-Ouelle, New France; M. Pierre Roy (~1669-1734), 12 Feb 1691, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
3. Marguerite Martin — B. 6 Jan 1675, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 14 Nov 1751, Quebec City, New France; M. (1) Jean-Pierre Jollet (~1670-?), 18 Feb 1692, St-Laurent, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Henri Rémi Picoron (1677-1746), 9 Feb 1705, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
4. Marie-Angelique Martin — B. 4 Mar 1678, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. (1) Pierre Chantal dit Lafleur (~1667-1707), 12 Jan 1696, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Pierre Chatigny dit Lepine (~1681-1731), 26 Nov 1710, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
5. Catherine-Françoise Martin — B. 19 May 1680, La Canadiére, New France; D. 16 Jan 1747, Kamouraska, New France; M. Jean-Baptiste Labouriére (1680-?), 11 Feb 1697, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
6. François-Lucien Martin — B. 22 Jun 1683, Quebec City, New France; D. 13 Feb 1747, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. Marie-Françoise Autin (1689-1747), 25 Nov 1710, Riviere Ouelle, New France
7. Jean-Baptiste Martin — B. 2 Dec 1686, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 4 Aug 1761, Kamouraska, New France; M. Marie Genest Labarre (1670-1761), 25 Feb 1710, St-Pierre, Ile d’Orleans, New France
8. Marie-Charlotte Martin — B.16 Jan 1689, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. (1) Louis Vernas dit Dufresne (?-1720), 25 Feb 1710, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Pierre Raté (1699-?), 14 Oct 1725, Quebec City, New France
Sources:
Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
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