M. 10 Dec 1668 in Montreal, New France
Husband: Pierre Perthuis dit Lalime
D. 6 Oct 1705 in Montreal, New France
Claude Damise was a 17th-century woman, who lived at a Paris orphanage, then moved to Montreal when it was little more than a fur trade outpost. Given the rough circumstances she must have had, perhaps it’s not surprising that she had a child with a man while she was married to someone else.
Claude was born in Paris in about 1643 to Étienne Damisé and Geneviève Pioche. Her family lived in the parish of St-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet and were likely poor. It’s known that Claude had a younger brother named Jean.
After their father died and their mother remarried, both siblings were sent to Pitié-Salpêtrière, a Paris gunpowder factory that had been recently turned into a hospital. Run by nuns, Pitié-Salpêtrière took in orphaned and unwanted children, putting them to work under miserable conditions. It also served as a sort of women’s prison for prostitutes and beggars, treating misbehavior as a disease, and offering no timetable for release. It’s uncertain exactly what Claude’s status was, but she was there as early as 1665, and didn’t leave until 1668 when she sailed to America as a Fille du Roi.
Pitié-Salpêtrière in about 1660.
Claude arrived in Quebec aboard the ship La Nouvelle France on July 3, 1668, along with about 80 other women. She was among a group of prospective brides who were transported to Montreal, and there she was housed at Maison Saint-Gabriel, a place run by nuns that took in single women. Men came there seeking wives, and on December 10th, Claude married Pierre Perthuis dit Lalime, a former Carignan soldier who had decided to stay in New France.
During this time, Montreal was becoming a center for the fur trade, a town where expeditions to the West were organized, and where a marketplace of merchants did their business. Pierre became a successful merchant who sometimes traveled to outposts, and Claude was probably often left to raise their children alone. Their first child was born in 1670, followed by two more, one of whom died young.
Then in 1675, while Pierre was presumably away, Claude became pregnant by another man. His name was Jean Paradis, and he had migrated from France with his parents and maternal grandparents as a boy. It’s unknown what brought the two together or if their relationship was consensual; Jean was unmarried at the time and a few years younger than Claude. The baby, a boy, was born on March 3, 1676 and baptized at Pointe-aux-Trembles. Claude gave her son to a childless couple in Beauport to raise, and he was adopted by them.
Baptismal record of Claude's out-of-wedlock child.
In 1678, Claude resumed having children with her husband by giving birth to a daughter; she had seven more by 1688. There is some confusion whether or not they had another child in 1691, a son named Pierre since they already had a child by that name born in 1686. The family moved to Pointe-aux-Trembles by 1684. Pierre continued to thrive in the fur trading business and was said to be “in the second stratum of merchant-outfitters.”
Claude died on October 6, 1705 at Montreal. Her husband Pierre survived her, passing away in 1708. Among their descendants were Ricky Gervais, Tyrone Power and Alex Trebek.
Children by Pierre Perthuis:
1. Catherine Perthuis — B. Jan 1670, Montreal, New France; D. 17 Feb 1736, Riviére-des-Prairies, New France; M. Pierre Maguet (1663-1725), 7 Jan 1686, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France
2. Jean Perthuis — B. Feb 1672, Montreal, New France; D. (probably) young
3. Jeanne Perthuis — B. Dec 1673, Montreal, New France; M. Nicolas Deroche (1652-1737), 22 Nov 1688, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France
4. Élisabeth Perthuis — B. 7 Feb 1677, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 23 Apr 1703, Montreal, New France; M. Claude Caron (1672-1759), 20 Jun 1695, Montreal, New France
5. Marie Perthuis — B. 8 Sep 1678, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 23 Dec 1766, Chateauguay, Quebec; M. Vital Caron (1673-1745), 24 Jan 1698, Montreal, New France
6. Geneviéve Perthuis — B. 17 Oct 1680, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 28 Aug 1774, Montreal, Quebec; M. (1) Urbain Gervaise (1673-1713), 19 Mar 1701, Montreal, New France; (2) Louis Renaud (1683-?), 5 Apr 1717, Lachine, New France
7. Marguerite Perthuis — B. 23 Jul 1682, Montreal, New France; D. 11 Mar 1703, Montreal, New France
8. Angélique Perthuis — B. 1 Jan 1684, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 25 Apr 1755, Montreal, New France; M. Louis Lefebvre dit Duchouquet (~1672-1741), 28 Sep 1700, Montreal, New France
9. Anne-Françoise Perthuis — B. 26 Jan 1685, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 31 Jan 1685, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France
10. Pierre Perthuis — B. 16 Apr 1686, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 6 Dec 1758, Pointe-Coupée, Louisiana, New France; M. (1) Angélique Caron (1690-1715), 24 Jan 1713, New France; (2) Catherine Mallet
11. François Perthuis — B. 1 Oct 1688, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France
Out-of-wedlock child by Jean Paradis:
1. Andre Paradis — B. 3 Mar 1676, Pointe-aux-Trembles, New France; D. 11 Oct 1745, Beauport, New France; M. Marguerite Ménard, 7 Jan 1697, Beauport, New France
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers—1663-1673, Peter Gagne, 2000
The Pietié-Saltpêtriére Hospital, Atlas Obscura
Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal, Louise Dechêne, 1993
