M. 1670 in (probably) Île d'Orléans, New France
Wife: Jeanne Savonnet
D. about 1678 in New France
Jean Soucy dit Lavigne was one of 1,200 soldiers who arrived in New France in 1665, and he was one of the 400 who didn’t return to France. There were many options of where he could live, and he ended up in a somewhat unlikely place.
There is no surviving record of Jean that shows his birth or age. He was born in Abbeyville, France, an ancient city in the Picardy region, and his parents were Claude Soucy and Françoise de Vaime. Most likely, he was born during the 1640s. All other details of his origins are unknown.
Jean came to New France as a soldier during an effort by France to protect their North American colony. From June to September in 1665, over a thousand troops were transported across the Atlantic. This was called the Carignan-Salières Regiment, and Jean served in the company of Grandfontaine. In April 1665, Jean's company was camped on the Île de Oléron in France. He left on board the ship L' Aigle d'Or on May 13th. The crossing took an agonizing three months; the hull was eaten with worms and was said to have sprung a leak. On August 18th, the ship arrived in New France; upon the return trip to France, it was deemed no longer seaworthy.
The soldiers worked to protect the colony against the Mohawk Indians. Jean was involved in building a fort on the Richelieu River and a road connecting two outposts. In 1666, he took part in an expedition that took possession of some Mohawk land. When the Carignan-Salières Regiment returned to France at the completion of their mission, Jean decided to stay in New France.
On October 6 1669, Jean signed a bond to marry a Fille du Roi named Madeleine Marechal, but a week later, the marriage contract was cancelled. Why the marriage fell through isn’t known, but she may have already promised herself to another man who she ended up marrying. Madeline later got into trouble for “scandalous conduct,” and was banned from Montreal.
After the marriage with Madeleine fell through, Jean married another Fille du Roi, Jeanne Savonnet, on the Île d'Orléans; the exact date of their marriage is unknown. The couple had four children born between 1671 and 1677. Perhaps the reason Jean’s marriage isn’t recorded was that by this time he was living on the remote island, Île-aux-Oies. One of the men he had served with in the Grandfontaine Company, Pierre Bécart, had became seigneur of two small islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence. In about 1669, Jean was asked to help build him a house, and in return, he received some land to clear for a farm. Île-aux-Oies only measured 3 miles in length and 2/3 of a mile at its widest point, so very few people could settle there.
Location of Île-aux-Oies.
Jean died in about 1679 because Jeanne remarried on August 22nd of that year. It’s been speculated that he may have drowned because there is no record of a burial. Because he lived on a small island, he would have been out on the water frequently, which would increase the odds of having an accident. His wife Jeanne survived her second husband, and married a third whom she also outlived; she passed away in 1721. Jean was the ancestor of Chloë Sevigny and Dan Aykroyd.
Children:
1. Anne Soucy — B. 5 Sep 1671, Île-aux-Oies, New France; M. (1) Jean Lebel (?-1699), 16 Aug 1689, Riviere Ouelle, New France; (2) Jacques Bois, 24 Nov 1704
2. Pierre Soucy — B. 13 Apr 1673, Île-aux-Oies, New France; D. 7 Jan 1760, Riviere Ouelle, New France; M. Elisabeth-Ursule Fouquereau (1679-1758), 13 Jan 1699, Riviere Ouelle, New France
3. Marie-Anne Soucy — B. 15 Feb 1675, Île-aux-Oies, New France; M. (1) Charles Pelletier (?-1713), 24 Nov 1701, Riviere Ouelle, New France; (2) Robert Gaulin, 15 Apr 1716, Ste-Famille, New France
4. Guillaume Soucy — B. 5 Apr 1677, Île-aux-Oies, New France
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
King's daughters and founding mothers: the filles du roi, 1663-1672, Peter J. Gagné, 2001
Wikipedia article on the Carignan Regiment
