M. 5 Jun 1673 in Quebec City, New France
Wife: Jacquette Fournier
D. 28 Feb 1703 in Montmagny, New France
Jean Proulx was a contract laborer in New France whose life was shaped by the people he worked for. He came from the village of Distré, in the Maine-et-Loire region of France, born there on December 2, 1646 to Jean Proulx and Louise Vallée. He was one of at least seven children, of which four died young.
In about 1666, Jean arrived in Quebec City under a three-year contract of servitude. Typically, groups of men were recruited in France, and shipped over as a group; once they got off the boat, they would be assigned to a habitant. Jean came under the charge of a seigneur named Louis Couillard, and this arrangement proved key to his future. Sieur de Couillard was the son of one of the earliest settlers at Quebec, and the grandson of Louis Hébert. By the 1660s, he had a residence in Quebec City, as well as a seigneury at Montmagny, on the south side of the the St. Lawrence River downriver from Quebec. He had a great interest in fishing and used his land there for that business.
Jean was listed in the 1667 census at Couillard’s house in Quebec, along with Sieur de Couillard’s wife, children and another male servant. When Jean’s three years of service were over in 1669, he received 3 arpents of wooded land from Couillard in Montmagny. Jean cleared the land and built a cabin. Like his former master, he took up fishing; under the agreement, he was to pay Couillard the profits from one-tenth of his catch.
Two years later, he sold his property for 150 livres to Guillaume Fournier, and moved back to Quebec City. Fournier was the husband of Sieur de Couillard’s niece, and he must have taken an interest in Jean because it was his daughter Jacquette who became Jean’s wife. The wedding took place on June 5, 1673; Jean was 27-years-old and Jacquette was 14. Another relative, Jacquette’s step-grandfather Noël Morin, offered another concession of land back in Montmagny, which Jean bought from him on August 22, 1672. This was said to be a better deal since he didn’t have to pay any of his fishing profits to live there; again he had to clear the land to build a house to live in.
Marriage record of Jean Proulx and Jacquette Fournier.
In 1676, Jean and Jacquette started a family with the birth of their first child; they had 13 more, with the youngest born in 1701. Jean acquired more land in Montmagny from Sieur de Couillard, this time with 3 arpents of river frontage and 40 arpents deep. This is the land he where he raised his family, earning a living by farming and fishing.
There is no other mention of Jean in records until August 14, 1701, when the widow of a merchant in Quebec calls him out on a massive debt of over 700 livres. Why he owed so much money isn’t known, but he didn’t live to pay it, because he died on February 28, 1703. Jean was the ancestor of actress Chloë Sevigny.
Children:
1. Denis Proulx — B. 24 Apr 1676, Montmagny, New France; D. 12 Dec 1749, Montmagny, New France; M. Marie-Anne Gagné (1674-1751), 17 Nov 1699, Cap-St-Ignace, New France
2. Jean-Baptiste Proulx — B. Oct 1677, Montmagny, New France; D. 20 Apr 1756; M. Louise Rousseau (1682-1759), 14 Jun 1701, Montmagny, New France
3. Louise Proulx — B. 29 Aug 1679, Montmagny, New France; D. 1745, Montmagny, New France; M. Pierre Gagné dit Bellevance (1670-1748), 22 Jun 1700, Montmagny, New France
4. Pierre Proulx — B. 8 Jun 1681, Montmagny, New France; D. 10 May 1757, Montmagny, New France; M. Agathe Destroismaisons dit Picard (1691-1730), 8 Jun 1711, Montmagny, New France
5. Marie-Anne Proulx — B. 1 Sep 1683, Montmagny, New France; D. 1 Jun 1756, Montmagny, New France; M. Jacques Thibault (1678-1755), Montmagny, New France
6. Marie-Barbe Proulx — B. 25 Mar 1685, Riviere-Ouelle, New France; D. 17 Mar 1765, St-Pierre-de-la-Riviére-du-Sud, Quebec; M. Louis Isabel, 11 Aug 1704, Montmagny, New France
7. Thomas Proulx — B. 27 Aug 1686, Montmagny, New France; D. 9 Jun 1753, Montmagny, New France; M. Marie-Catherine Caron (1695-1744), 5 Nov 1714, Montmagny, New France
8. Angélique Proulx — B. 12 Aug 1688, Montmagny, New France; D. 27 Jan 1763, New France; Jean-François Thibault (1675-1760), 12 Nov 1705, Montmagny, New France
9. Joseph Proulx — B. 18 Sep 1690, Montmagny, New France; D. 3 Nov 1693, Montmagny, New France
10. Catherine Proulx — B. 12 Jul 1692, Montmagny, New France; 13 Jul 1692, Montmagny, New France
11. Anne Proulx — B. 17 Sep 1693, Montmagny, New France; D. 6 Dec 1749, Montmagny, New France; M. Henri Ruel (1690-1747), 30 Oct 1720, Montmagny, New France
12. Louis Proulx — B. 3 Apr 1696, Montmagny, New France; D. 6 Oct 1748, Montmagny, New France; M. Marie Dufresne (1706-1780), 23 Oct 1730, St-Laurent, Ile d’Orleans, New France
13. Joseph Proulx — B. 27 Apr 1698, Montmagny, New France; D. 14 Jun 1767, Montmagny, Quebec; M. (1) Theodore-Dorothee Bouchard (1708-1734), 20 Feb 1729, New France; (2) Angelique Laberge (1718-1777), 19 Nov 1736, Montmagny, New France
14. Françoise Proulx — B. 8 Dec 1701, Montmagny, New France; D. 11 Jun 1775, Montmagny, Quebec; M. Alexandre Gagné (1705-1790), 24 Oct 1729, Montmagny, 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
Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
“Couillard de Lespinay, Louis,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography (website)
Find-a-Grave.com
