M. 15 Jan 1720 in Longueuil, New France
Husband: Louis-Antoine Edeline
D. 25 Aug 1747 in Montreal, New France
During the times when fur traders and adventurers populated the area around Montreal, their free-spirited culture spilled over into the lives of the women. One of them was Marie-Madeleine Drousson, who was connected to several family scandals during her lifetime.
Madeleine was born on April 3, 1689 in La Prairie, New France, which was across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. Her parents were Robert Drousson dit Lafleur and Marie-Jeanne Tarde, and she was one of 9 or 10 children in their family. The reason for the confusion about the number of siblings is that one of Madeleine’s younger sisters seems to have been fathered by a different man; the baptismal record says the baby was the daughter of Madeleine’s mother without mentioning a father. A few years later, in April 1706, Madeleine’s older sister Marguerite also gave birth to an out-of-wedlock child.
The church at La Prairie where Madeleine was baptized.
An impression emerges of a permissive atmosphere in Madeleine’s family and community. La Prairie was populated by rugged men who made frequent fur trading expeditions out west, as well as French soldiers sent over to defend the colony, and these types of men didn’t always live by the rules of society. When Madeleine was 18-years-old, she became involved with a married man in his 40s named Pierre You de La Découverte, and she ended up pregnant. Pierre You was a man who had traveled with La Salle during the 1680s, then later had a child with a woman of the Miami tribe in the 1690s. During the time he was with Madeleine, he was married to a French woman, and lived on the western end of the Montreal island where he engaged in illegal fur trading.
Was Madeleine the victim of a rape, or was she a willing mistress to an older man? Given that her mother and sister had also given birth to illegitimate children, it would suggest the relationship may have been consensual. But one source claimed that in July 1708, Madeleine’s father charged Pierre You with seducing his daughter. The same source said she had been his “servant,” which probably meant that she cooked and cleaned for him. On September 9th, Madeleine gave birth to a daughter who was baptized in Montreal, and You attended the baby’s baptism.
Baptism of Marie-Catherine You.
After Madeleine gave birth to her child, she most likely continued to live with her parents, who had moved to Longueuil. Events continued which reflected badly on the character of the Drousson family. In 1713, Madeleine’s father was accused of assaulting two of his neighbors at the Longueuil mill, one of whom he struck with a bayonet. The existing record doesn’t suggest the outcome of his case, but one of the witnesses was a 16-year-old laborer named Laurent Benoît, and three years later, court records indicate that he seems to have married Madeleine.
The problem with the pairing of Madeleine and young Laurent was that their relationship didn’t have the blessing of his parents. On March 11, 1716, they initiated a lawsuit against Madeleine to get her marriage with their son annulled. They claimed the marriage had been obtained “improperly” from the parish priest, and the court agreed, ruling against Madeleine. The marriage (if there was one) seems to have been removed from the parish registers, because no record of it exists. What was the real issue here? It’s easy to speculate that having a child out-of-wedlock offended Laurent’s parents, and they also may have had a problem with the fact she was eight years older than he was. Madeleine did file an appeal the following year, but lost again.
It wasn’t until Madeleine was 30-years-old that she seems to have gotten her life on track. On January 15, 1720, she married a fur trader named Louis-Antoine Edeline in Longueuil. This gave her a late start on having a family, and she only bore four children with her husband, two of whom died young. Sadly, she also lost her illegitimate daughter at age 16.
Fur trading expeditions took Louis-Antoine away from home for much of the time. During their marriage, he was known to have made trips to Fort Detroit, Michilimackinac and Grande Rivière. Typically, a fur trading expedition would last from spring to autumn. Louis-Antoine’s 1730 expedition to Fort Detroit meant that she was alone while pregnant with their youngest child, although he was probably home for the birth in December. His frequent trips continued all the way through their marriage, and for much of the time, Madeleine was left to raise their son and daughter alone.
In July 1747, Louis-Antoine was working as a clerk at Fort des Miamis, a remote trading outpost located in present-day Indiana. Madeleine died in Montreal on August 25, 1747, so it’s likely that he was away at the time of her death. She was buried in the graveyard of Notre-Dame “near the church,” a structure that was torn down in 1830.
Child by Pierre You de La Deécouverte:
1. Marie-Catherine You — B. 9 Sep 1708, Montreal, New France; D. 22 Jul 1724, Longueuil, New France
Children by Louis-Antoine Edeline:
1. Marie-Louise Antoinette Edeline — B. 25 Oct 1720, Longueuil, New France; D. 25 Apr 1748, Montreal, New France; M. Jacques Denis dit Lyonnais (1716-1755), 25 Nov 1743, Montreal, New France
2. Marie-Josephe Edeline — B. 21 Jun 1722, Montreal, New France; D. (probably) young
3. Antoine Edeline — B. 13 Feb 1725, Longueuil, New France; D. 19 Oct 1727, Longueuil, New France
4. Louis Victor Edeline — B. 23 Dec 1730, Longueuil, New France; D. 28 Apr 1799, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; M. Marie Joseph Thomas (~1743-~1808), 14 May 1759, Fort Detroit, New France
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org
“My Ancestry & their descendants plus misc research,” Denis Paul Edeline, RootsWeb.Ancestry.com
“You de La Découverte, Pierre,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography
