Terrible Tragedy Left Her a Widow — Catherine Brunet

B. 5 Nov 1681 in Champlain, New France
M. (1) 15 Nov 1694 in Montreal, New France
Husband: Honoré Danis
M. (2) 26 Jan 1750 in Fort Frontenac, Quebec
Husband: Joseph Levron dit Metayer
D. about 1755 in (probably) Fort Frontenac, New France

When Catherine Brunet’s husband was killed in a fight, she ended up in a desperate financial situation, and had to accept help from the community to get through it.

Catherine’s life began on November 5, 1681, in Champlain, New France, a village on the St. Lawrence River not far from Trois-Rivières. Her father was a fur trader named Matheiu Brunet dit LeTang; her mother was Marie Blanchard. Catherine was named for her godmother Catherine Guerard, the wife of Julien Dubord dit LaFontaine. The Brunet family was large, and Catherine was the eighth of ten children. Since her father was away on expeditions that often lasted more than a year, Catherine’s mother had to look after the affairs of the household. Such was life in 17th-century New France. 

Catherine’s childhood was brief—she was only 13-years-old when she was married to Honoré Danis, a man 12 years her senior. The wedding took place in Montreal, where her family had moved, on November 15, 1694. Being so young, she may not have shared a bed with her new husband at first; her first child was born over three years later. Between 1698 and 1711, Catherine had seven children; it’s believed three of them died young.

Catherine and Honoré moved to Lachine in about 1700, and Honoré supported the family as a carpenter and farmer. Everything changed on the night of August 14, 1722, when some Indians living at a mission across the river got drunk and came into their neighborhood. A fight erupted and as a result, Honoré would up dead, leaving Catherine grief stricken and without a means of support. Luckily the crops had already been harvested; her only surviving son was just 13—too young to run the farm—and her other children were girls.

The family made it through the winter, then Catherine faced the challenge of planting crops in the spring without a man to work the plow. An old friend of Honoré, Thomas Letendre, offered to help, not by doing the work, but by purchasing half of the farm; this would give her 800 livres to help pay off debts from the previous year. But another source of help came through when the governor made good on a previous offer to help support Catherine. With money from the government, she then asked Letendre to cancel the contract to buy her land, which he agreed to do.

By virtue of dying in the prime of life, Honoré left debts that Catherine couldn’t pay. On March 8, 1726, she sought to have two plots of land that he had purchased on Lake St-Pierre to be auctioned off to raise money. Because Catherine failed to make payments on the property itself, debtors came after her in 1728. The amount she owed was over 167 livres — quite a sum of money. After several postponements, the court ruled on October 1, 1729 that the auction could finally take place, with the proceeds given to the man who sued her, Jean-Baptiste Neveu.

1727 court record from case involving Catherine.

There is a gap in the records of Catherine’s life until she turned up in a marriage far away from Lachine. On January 26, 1750, she married a widower, Joseph Levron dit Metayer at Fort Frontenac, a military outpost at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. How she ended up at the fort is a mystery; Joseph had only recently moved there from the Montreal area, and perhaps they were acquainted when they both lived in that area. Fort Frontenac was a supply post for expeditions goiing west, and there were only about 100 civilians living there.

Catherine’s story ends with her Fort Frontenac marriage. After that date, it isn’t known when and where she and her husband died, but it was probably by 1755.

Children (all by Honoré Danis):
1. Marguerite Danis — B. 23 Jan 1698, Montreal, New France; D. 10 Aug 1784, Laval, Quebec; M. Charles-François Raymond (1697-1746), 24 Nov 1721

2. Jean-Baptiste Danis — B. 7 Feb 1701, Lachine, New France; D. 14 Mar 1701, Lachine, New France

3. Marie-Catherine Danis — B. 19 May 1702, Lachine, New France; D. 21 Aug 1739, Montreal, New France; M. Jean Custeau (1699-1769), 11 Sep 1724, Montreal, New France

4. Jean-Baptiste Danis — B. 21 Apr 1704, Lachine, New France

5. Marie-Anne Danis — B. 4 Sep 1706, Lachine, New France

6. Jean-François — B. 8 Jul 1709, Lachine, New France; D. 14 Jan 1731, Montreal, New France

7. Marie-Josephe Danis — B. 1711, Lachine, New France; D. 1732, Montreal, New France; M. Jean-Baptiste Chabot (1701-1771), 23 Jan 1732, Montreal, New France

Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org

L'autre Marie Morin: une femme abandonnée en Nouvelle-France : 1667-1748, Marcel Myre, 2004

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