Route to Vincennes — Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers

B. 1 Oct 1708 in Boucherville, New France¹
M. after26 Oct 1750 in Post Vincennes, New France²
Wife: Marie-Therese Mallet
D. 24 Mar 1773 in Montreal, Quebec³

Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers was the only one in his family to make the migration to Post Vincennes, a remote place in colonial French America. There’s nothing that suggests he was ever involved in fur trading. So this brings to mind the question, how and why did he make such a move?

Jean-Baptiste was born in Boucherville, New France on October 1, 1708 to Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers and Marie-Anne Provost.¹ His parents had six children, then his mother died in 1716,⁴ and his father remarried,⁵ having eight children with his new wife. The early adult years of Jean-Baptiste’s life are missing from the records, but an item that has been attached by researchers to his father might instead be a fact about him. It was said that his father was “a soldier in the company of Villiers.”⁶ It’s unclear what the original source of this was, but there were several military officers in Montreal named “Coulon de Villiers,” and their careers took place when Jean-Baptiste’s father was past the age of 45.⁷

But the dates line up perfectly for the younger Jean-Baptiste to have been the soldier. There were two brothers in the Coulon de Villiers family who led missions to the Great Lakes region and Illinois Country, François and Louis. François spent enough time in Illinois to have married two wives there, and Louis was appointed to command a post in 1748 at Fort des Miamis (present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana).⁸ So either of these men might have headed “the company of Villiers” which had Jean-Baptiste as a soldier.

François Coulon de Villiers (source: BAnQ)

This scenario would offer a plausible reason for Jean-Baptiste to end up in Vincennes. He first appeared in records there in a marriage ban at St. Francis Xavier parish on October 26, 1750.² His bride was Marie-Therese Mallet, a native of Detroit, and was 26 years younger than Jean-Baptiste.⁹ The couple went on to have seven children, all baptized at St. Francis Xavier. Therese died on September 19, 1763,¹⁰ a year after their youngest child was born.

The parish records also reveal that Jean-Baptiste was a slave owner. An indigenous slave named Françoise had a daughter baptized in January 1756;¹¹ unfortunately, on February 6th, the child died and was buried in the parish cemetery.¹² Three days later, Françoise died as well.¹³ Ten years later, on February 24, 1766, a black slave woman named Josette gave birth to a daughter, who was baptized the same day.¹⁴ There is no other record of Josette or her little girl. Could Jean-Baptiste have fathered these slave children? It seems possible, especially for the 1766 baptism since his wife was deceased, but there's no way to tell with any certainty.

For reasons that are unexplained, Jean-Baptiste returned to Montreal at some time after 1770, and died there on March 24, 1773.³ His children must have stayed behind in Vincennes because several of them went on to marry and raise their families there. So while Jean-Baptiste went home to Canada, his bloodline carried on in Vincennes.

Children:
1. Marie-Therese Renaud dite Deslauriers — B. Oct 1753, Poste Vincennes, New France¹⁵

2. Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers — B. 6 Nov 1754, Poste Vincennes, New France;¹⁶ D. 29 Sep 1834, Vincennes, Indiana;¹⁷ M. Marie-Madeleine Bordeleau (1761-1819), 9 Jul 1779, Vincennes, Virginia Territory¹⁸

3. Marie-Anne Renaud dite Deslauriers — B. Jun 1756, Poste Vincennes, New France;¹⁹ D. 26 Mar 1787, Ste-Anne-de-Varennes, Vercheres, Quebec;²⁰ M. Isidore Langevin (1752-1838), 30 Jan 1775, Ste-Anne-de-Varennes, Vercheres, Quebec²¹

4. Françoise Renaud dite Deslauriers — B. 19 Sep 1757, Poste Vincennes, New France²²

5. Louis Renaud dit Deslauriers — B. 14 May 1759, Poste Vincennes, New France;²³ M. Marguerite Codere (1768-?), 2 Aug 1784, Vincennes, Virginia Territory²⁴

6. François Renaud dit Deslauriers — B. before 3 Feb 1761, Poste Vincennes, New France²⁵

7. Charles Renaud dit Deslauriers — B. before 13 Sep 1762, Poste Vincennes, New France²⁶

Sources:
1    Baptismal record of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers, Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org
2    Marriage ban of Jean-Baptiste Renault and Therese Mallet, “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901, p.43
3    Burial record of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers, Q.C.P.R.
4    Burial record of Marie-Anne Provost, Q.C.P.R.
5    Marriage record of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers and Marie Pinot, Q.C.P.R.
6    Généalogie du Québec et d’ Amérique française listing of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers (his father)  
7    Burial record of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers (his father), Q.C.P.R.
8    Nicolas Antoine Coulon de Villiers (Wikipedia article)  
9    Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region, 1701-1936, Christian Dennison, 1987, p. 783
10  Burial record of Marie-Therese Mallet, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 325
11  Baptismal record of “Angelique, daughter of Françoise, Indian slave of Deslauriers, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 322
12  Burial record of “Angelique, daughter of Françoise, slave of Deslauriers,” R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 58
13  Burial record of “Pani slave of Deslauriers,” R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 59
14  Baptismal record of “a little negro girl belonging to Des Lauriers,” R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 204
15  Baptismal record of Marie-Therese Renaud des Lauriers, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 209
16  Baptismal record of Jean-Baptiste Regnaud des Lauriers, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 211
17  Death record of Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers (his son), St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church records: marriages and deaths, 1749-1838, Barbara Schull Wolfe, 1999
18  Marriage record of Jean-Baptiste Renault and Marie-Magdeleine Bordeleau, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 55
19  Baptismal record of Marie-Anne Renaud, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 323
20  Burial record of Marie-Anne Renaud, Q.C.P.R.
21  Marriage record of Isidore Langevin and Marie-Anne Renaud, Q.C.P.R.
22  Baptismal record of Françoise Renaud, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 324
23  Baptismal record of Louis Renault, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 195
24  Marriage record of Louis Renaud and Marguerite Codere, Indiana Marriages, 1780-1992, FamilySearch.org
25  Baptismal record of François Renault, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 197
26  Baptismal record of Charles Renault, R. of the P. of S.F.X., p. 200