M. (1) 8 Aug 1661 in Ars-en-Ré, France
Wife: Catherine Delor
M. (2) 30 Oct 1684 in Montreal, New France
Wife: Marie-Charlotte Beauvais
M. (3) 25 Feb 1702 in Montreal, New France
Wife: Marie-Josephe Gauthier
D. before 17 Aug 1709 in (probably) New France
Because of the paper trail he left, we know a lot about the 17th-century life of Alexandre Turpin in New France. He was primarily a fur trader, but he also dabbled in many other types of business along the St. Lawrence River.
Alexandre was born on April 30, 1641 In Ars-en-Ré, France to René Turpin and Marie Robin. Ars-en-Ré is on an island just off the coast of La Rochelle, so perhaps Alexandre began looking to the west when he was a boy. When Alexandre was 20-years-old, he married Catherine Delor, with the wedding taking place on August 8, 1661 at the church in Ars-en-Ré. Sometime within the next five years, the couple migrated to America settling in Quebec City, where they had five children born between 1666 and 1677.
St-Etienne Church in Ars-en Ré, France. (Source: Xauxa (Håkan Svensson), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
During this time, Alexandre showed up in many records. Often the word “bourgeois” was given after his name, including a document dated October 9, 1671 about the money a tenant living in his house owed him. Alexandre seemed to be resourceful, and along with supplying loans to other settlers, he was also dealing in “merchandise and other things,” which included selling wine. It was as a merchant that he seemed to find his calling, and in 1678, he teamed up with a gunsmith named Étienne de Xaintes to form a fur trading company. On March 28th, he terminated the rental for his Quebec City house to prepare to move to Montreal, where he could do business with the Indians.
Before Alexandre left for Montreal, a contract was drawn up for his partnership with de Xaintes. Although they would share the money they made while trading for furs, Alexandre seemed to be the one to handle much of the business. He agreed to acquire the goods they would trade with the Indians (beads, glass, metal tools, etc.), as well as supplies they needed; records show he spent 2,500 livres, an enormous sum of money. Alexandre was also assigned to keep track of what they sold and what they got in return. According to the contract, they were equally responsible for “the rent of the house, the food, the firewood, and other things which will be necessary for their partnership [in Montreal].”
Alexandre's distinctive signature on several documents.
Alexandre arrived in Montreal, where he conducted his business at a marketplace that was set up every summer. Hundreds of Indigenous people brought canoe-loads of beaver pelts to the gathering spot (they often traveled in large groups to avoid conflicts with tribal enemies). After Alexandre permanently settled in the area, he became a regular trader at the market, and in some years, went on expeditions that traded at outposts in the Great Lakes area. He also supplied goods for other fur traders, and funded them as well. And in 1682, he was known to have operated an inn for lodging men who were getting ready to make trips to the west.
Alexandre’s dealings at Montreal also brought charges against him for illegal fur trading, and in October 1680, he was arrested along with five other men for “having been in the depths of the woods [without permission] and having conducted trade in peltries with the natives of distant nations.” The ruling came down on November 18th that each man was guilty and had to pay a fine of 2,000 livres. It’s interesting to note that Alexandre was the oldest of the men who were charged, so he was therefore thought to be the leader in this “criminal” activity.
By 1683, Alexandre and his family were living at a building called “The Frog Pond,” located in the south part of Montreal west of Rue St-Paul. The lease he signed on April 9th designated his occupation as “wine merchant,” but this was the last time that appeared in records. That year, a new description of Alexandre showed up on records: he was a fencing master. This seems like an odd skill to have in a colonial setting, but it seems like another way he found to make some money was to teach them the art of sword fighting. He would continue to be identified as a fencing master over the next 20 years.
Alexandre’s wife Catherine passed away in 1683, and on October 30, 1684, he married the sister of his son-in-law, a 17-year-old girl named Marie-Charlotte Beauvais. Between 1685 and 1700, they had eight children. A sign that Alexandre was involved in yet another type of business was in a few documents showing he had purchased a large quantity of small pans for making baked goods. One document listed that he had 48 “pastry shells,” various baking utensils, and contracts for hiring four cooks. The speculation is that for a time during the late 1680s, Alexandre and Charlotte were running some sort of bakery in Montreal. There’s evidence that commercial space was acquired for this purpose, in that some masonry work was ordered on May 26, 1689 to build a cheminée d’une boulangerie, which translates as a “chimney for a bakery.”
Montreal in about 1690.
During 1692, Alexandre’s entrepreneurship took him all the way back to France. That fall, he sailed to his home country for the purpose of making business arrangements for his various activities in Canada. He was gone for an entire year and his wife was left to handle alone things at home. In 1700, Alexandre and Charlotte actually arranged for a legal separation, but it wasn’t anything to do with their feelings for one another — it was strictly so that she wouldn’t have liability for his debts. The thinking was perhaps that if he died, she would be protected, but as it turned out, Charlotte passed away on Christmas Day of that year after giving birth to her eighth child
On February 25, 1702, Alexandre took a third wife, Marie-Josephe Gauthier. After attending a baptism for a grandchild that September, it’s believed that Alexandre made a trip out west without permission from authorities, going all the way to Michilimackinac. During his absence of about two years, his wife Marie gave birth to an out-of-wedlock child; court testimony stated, “her husband having deserted her to go to the Ottawa Country, she had the misfortune to become pregnant due to the unwelcome solicitation of François Brunet dit Le Bourbonnais, who seduced her while she was living at the home of her family.…” Upon Alexandre’s return, she became pregnant with what would be his last child, who was born on August 17, 1705.
It’s not known exactly when and where Alexandre died, but his third wife remarried on September 16, 1709, so it was before that date. Alexandre left a legacy of success in the fur trade, and several of his sons followed in his footsteps, settling at the trading post of Kaskaskia in present-day Illinois.
Children by Catherine Delor:
1. Jeanne Turpin — B. 24 Sep 1666, Quebec City, New France; D. 12 Nov 1666, Quebec City, New France
2. Élisabeth Turpin — B. 23 Oct 1667, Quebec City, New France; D. 2 Jan 1747, Montreal, New France; M. Raphael Beauvais (1654-1734), 24 May 1683, Montreal, New France
3. Alexandre-Romain Turpin — B. 2 Jun 1670, Quebec City, New France; D. 10 Aug 1747, Montreal, New France
4. Jean-Baptiste Turpin — B. 7 Oct 1673, Quebec City, New France
5. Marie-Madeliene Turpin — B. 30 Aug 1677, Quebec City, New France; M. Noel Levasseur (1680-1740), 3 Apr 1701, Montreal, New France
Children by Charlotte-Marie Beauvais:
1. Jean-Baptiste Turpin — B. 23 Nov 1685, Montreal, New France; D. 1784, Montreal, New France; M. Marguerite Fafard (1686-1756), 5 May 1710, Detroit, New France
2. Louise Turpin — B. 6 Apr 1687, Montreal, New France; D. 11 Jul 1687, Montreal, New France
3. Jeanne Turpin — B. 7 Sep 1688, Montreal, New France; D. 9 Sep 1688, Montreal, New France
4. Charlotte-Marie Turpin — B. 12 Jul 1691, Montreal, New France; D. 17 Jul 1767, Soulanges, Quebec; M. (1) Nicolas Legros (1678-1720), 25 Feb 1713, Lachine, New France; (2) Simon-Joseph Reaume (1697-?), 10 Sep 1722, Lachine, New France
5. Louis Turpin — B. 15 May 1694, Montreal, New France; D. 20 Dec 1752, Kaskaskia, New France; M. (1) Marie Coulon (~1694-1724), 1719, Kaskaskia, New France; (2) Dorothee Mechipoueoua (~1694-?), 11 Sep 1724, Kaskaskia, New France
6. Joseph Turpin — B. 21 Jun 1696, Montreal, New France; D. about 1750, Kaskaskia, New France; M. Hypolite Chauvin de La Freniere (1718-1757), 7 Nov 1731, New Orleans, New France
7. Jacques Turpin — B. 25 Jul 1698, Montreal, New France; D. 3 Jul 1723, Kaskaskia, New France
8. Marie-Madeleine Turpin — B. 18 Dec 1700, Montreal, New France; D. 26 Nov 1777, Montreal, Quebec; M. Pierre Babin Lacroix (1692-?), 13 Apr 1723, Boucherville, New France
Children by Marie Gauthier:
1. Marie-Suzanne Turpin — B. 17 Aug 1705, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, New France; D. 25 Oct 1797, L’Acadie, Quebec; M. Jean-Baptiste LaRoche (1696-1753), 29 Oct 1723, Montreal, New France
Sources:
Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu'à nos jours, Cyprien Tanguay, 1890
Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1997
The Family of Joseph Turpin, Sadie Greening Sparks, 18 Oct 2000, sadiesparks.com [http://www.sadiesparks.com/josephturpin.htm]
Phantoms of the French Fur Trade, Timothy J. Kent, 2015
The Fur Trade: Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Booklet Series, No. 2, Rachel B. Juen and Michael S. Nassaney
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