B. about 1652 in (probably) New France
M. (1) 16 Jun 1669 in Quebec City, New France
Husband: Joachim Martin
M. (2) 10 Sep 1691 in St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
Husband: Antoine Juchereau
M. (3) 11 Jun 1703 in St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
Husband: Jean-Paul Maheu
D. 2 Mar 1736 in St-Augustin de Desmaures, New France
During the long life of Anne-Charlotte Petit, she was married three times, with each husband leaving her widowed.
Anne-Charlotte was born in about 1652 to parents Pierre Petit and Catherine Françoise Desnaguez, who were married in Paris in 1646, then migrated to New France. Between 1647 and 1660, there were baptisms in Quebec City for four siblings of Anne-Charlotte, but there’s no record of her own baptism, so it isn't certain she was born in the colony. Her family was missing from the 1666 and 1667 censuses, and it’s believed that they may have returned to France periodically.
On June 16, 1669, Anne-Charlotte married her first husband, a widower named Joachim Martin, at Notre-Dame in Quebec City. One of the people at their wedding was Paul Chalifour, who was Joachim's former father-in-law. The newlyweds settled in Ste-Famille on Île d’Orleans, having four children born there between 1671 and 1678. Then in 1680, they moved to to a farm in La Canadiére, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and Anne-Charlotte had two more children.
By 1685, Anne-Charlotte and Joachim returned to Île d’Orleans, settling on a farm in St-Pierre. Their last two children were born there, bringing the total to eight, all of whom lived to adulthood. Joachim was stricken by some illness in 1690 that put him in the hospital at Quebec City for over a week, then he came back home and died on June 30th.
Anne-Charlotte somehow managed the harvest that year, likely relying on her 19-year-old son Louis for help. But a widow with a house full of children needed to find a new husband, so she married a middle-aged bachelor named Antoine Juchereau. The wedding took place on September 10, 1691 at the church in St-Pierre. Antoine brought 5,000 livres into the marriage. The couple had no children together and Antoine passed away on May 3, 1699.
It was four years before Anne-Charlotte married for a third time. Her third husband was Jean-Paul Maheu, who had already been widowed twice by the time he married Anne-Charlotte on June 11, 1703. He was a seigneur of a small fief on Île d’Orleans, but he also had a major scandal in his past. During the 1670s and 1680s, he had solicited men to sleep with his wife in exchange for money. One witness at Jean-Paul’s 1680 trial testified that he was "lazy, drunk and talkative and that [his] most intimate things are common topics of conversation." He was also known to have produced an out-of-wedlock child during this time.
Anne-Charlotte was only married to Jean-Paul for five years before he died on Christmas Day of 1708. When his will was probated, she gave up her claim on his estate because he owed money to “numerous creditors” back in France, and she would have been stuck paying them. She lived on for many years as a widow, passing away on March 2, 1736 in St-Augustin de Desmaures, a town on the north shore upriver from Quebec City. She was about 84-years-old when she died, but curiously her death record exaggerated her age as over 105.
Children (all by Joachim Martin):
1. Louis Martin – B. 12 Jun 1671, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. May 1749, Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, New France; M. Louise-Angelique Ratté (1680-1749), 12 Jan 1700, St-Pierre, Ile d’Orleans, New France
2. Marie-Anne Martin – B. 4 Apr 1673, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 6 Feb 1709, Riviére-Ouelle, New France; M. Pierre Roy (~1669-1734), 12 Feb 1691, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
3. Marguerite Martin – B. 6 Jan 1675, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 14 Nov 1751, Quebec City, New France; M. (1) Jean-Pierre Jollet (~1670-?), 18 Feb 1692, St-Laurent, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Henri Rémi Picoron (1677-1746), 9 Feb 1705, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
4. Marie-Angelique Martin – B. 4 Mar 1678, Ste-Famille, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. (1) Pierre Chantal dit Lafleur (~1667-1707), 12 Jan 1696, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Pierre Chatigny dit Lepine (~1681-1731), 26 Nov 1710, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
5. Catherine-Françoise Martin – B. 19 May 1680, La Canadiére, New France; D. 16 Jan 1747, Kamouraska, New France; M. Jean-Baptiste Labouriére (1680-?), 11 Feb 1697, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France
6. François-Lucien Martin – B. 22 Jun 1683, Quebec City, New France; D. 13 Feb 1747, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. Marie-Françoise Autin (1689-1747), 25 Nov 1710, Riviere Ouelle, New France
7. Jean-Baptiste Martin – B. 2 Dec 1686, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; D. 4 Aug 1761, Kamouraska, New France; M. Marie Genest Labarre (1670-1761), 25 Feb 1710, St-Pierre, Ile d’Orleans, New France
8. Marie-Charlotte Martin – B.16 Jan 1689, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; M. (1) Louis Vernas dit Dufresne (?-1720), 25 Feb 1710, St-Pierre, Île d’Orleans, New France; (2) Pierre Raté (1699-?), 14 Oct 1725, Quebec City, New France
Sources:
Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
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