M. 11 Aug 1730 in Montreal, New France2
Husband: Antoine Mallet
D. after 25 Oct 1753 in (probably) Post Vincennes, New France3
By the time Marie-Thérèse Maillot had reached her 14th birthday, she had seen the death of both parents and eight of her ten siblings, plus her home was destroyed in a fire. But she survived, and wound up making a life far from where she started out.
Thérèse was born on March 3, 1708 in Montreal to Guillaume Maillot and Marie-Anne Massé.1 Her father and grandfather were both blacksmiths,4,5 a vital part of the growing settlement on the St. Lawrence. When she was a child, Thérèse watched as her parents buried infants, one-by-one. Then in 1718, her father died at age 47.6
Thérèse’s mother remarried to merchant from France named Pierre Courault de LaCoste,7 who became her step-father even though he was just 12 years older than she was. The family continued to live in the house owned by Thérèse’s father, said to be two stories tall and measuring 33 feet by 45 feet.8 Unfortunately, it was made of wood, which would come into play one fateful day during 1721.
That June 19th, the people of Montreal had gathered on the streets in celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, one of many special dates on the Catholic calendar. It’s easy to imagine Thérèse and her sister Marie-Anne joining in the excitement. But then someone fired a gun in the air, with sparks landing on and igniting the roof of a church building. Before anyone could stop it, lower Montreal was engulfed in flames.9 The house where Thérèse lived was on Rue Saint-Paul,10 and wasn’t far from the church. The blaze ended up destroying about 150 homes, and hers was one of them. For the next several months, the family was forced to take refuge in a house located outside of the fire zone.11
Map of the 1721 Montreal fire.
Things got worse for Thérèse that year. In September, her mother went through her final labor, delivering a stillborn child — and then she died.12 Thérèse and Marie-Anne were left under the care of their young step-father, who remarried to someone even younger in March 1722.13
It may have been because Pierre Courault de LaCoste was a fur trading merchant14 that Thérèse ended up moving to the West. Certainly she came into contact with many people in Montreal who had dealings with her step-father, such as Antoine Mallet, a man from Detroit. They were married on August 11, 1730 at Notre Dame de Montreal with Courault de LaCoste in attendance.2 Not long after that date, she left the St. Lawrence River area, never to return.15 Thérèse was able to sign her name on the marriage document, an indicator that she had received some education.
Signature of Therese.
After a long trek by canoe and foot, Thérèse and Antoine set up their household at Detroit.15 Established in 1701, the French outpost was already a lively place of fur trading leading to places further west. Thirty years after its founding, it still was a rough existence, and of the ten children Thérèse gave birth to, only four survived. Her child-bearing spanned the years 1731 to 1743.
Thérèse moved one more time in her life. In 1750, her 15-year-old daughter was married at Post Vincennes,16 which is in present-day Indiana. Thérèse’s name was on a Post Vincennes baptism dated October 25, 1753, and she was described as a widow.3 Most likely, Antoine had died after they both moved there, but there is no record of his death. The baptism was the last mention of Thérèse, and she probably passed away during the 1750s.
Children:
1. Marie-Therese Mallet — B.about 3 May 1731, Detroit, New France;15 D. Jan 1734, Detroit, New France15
2. Marie-Catherine Mallet — B. about 22 Oct 1732, Detroit, New France;15 D. Oct 1732, Detroit, New France15
3. Marie-Therese Mallet — B. about 12 Apr 1735, Detroit, New France;15 D. 19 Sep 1763, Post Vincennes, New France;16 M. Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers (1708-?), 26 Oct 1750, Post Vincennes, New France17
4. Jacques-Louis Mallet — B. about 15 Apr 1736, Detroit, New France;15 D. 14 Jun 1794, Vincennes, Indiana Territory;18 M. Marie-Louise Crepeau (1758-1825), about 1778, Post Vincennes, Illinois Country18
5. Joseph Mallet — B. about 26 Aug 1737, Detroit, New France;15 D. Apr 1739, Detroit, New France15
6. Jean-François Mallet — B. about 11 Oct 1738, Detroit, New France;15 D. before 25 Jul 1806, Vincennes, Indiana Territory;19 M. Marie-Charlotte Levron dit Metayer (1756-1814), 30 Jan 1770, Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory19
7. Marie-Timothea Mallet — B. about 6 Sep 1739, Detroit, New France;15 D. Dec 1739, Detroit, New France15
8. Angelique Mallet — B. about 9 Dec 1740, Detroit, New France;15 D. Dec 1740, Detroit, New France15
9. Antoine Mallet — B. about 12 Feb 1742, Detroit, New France;15 M. Catherine Bordeleau (1759-1818)20
10. Augustin Mallet — B. about 12 Apr 1743, Detroit, New France;15 D. Apr 1743, Detroit, New France15
Sources:
1 Baptismal record of Marie-Therese Maillot, Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org
2 Marriage record of Antoine Mallet and Marie-Therese Maillot, Q., C. P. R.
3 Baptismal record of Marie-Therese Renaud dit Deslauriers, “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901, p. 209
4 Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Martin Masse
5 Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. 6, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
6 Burial record of Guillaume Maillot, Q., C. P. R.
7 Marriage record of Pierre Courault de LaCoste and Marie-Anne Massé, Q., C. P. R.
8 Montreal Fire 1721, Google Groups
9 Torture and the Truth: Angélique and the Burning of Montreal (website)
10 Property sale record, 9 Jul 1721 to 30 Jan 1722, BAnQ
11 Inventory of property of Pierre Courault de LaCoste, 23 Sep to 16 Oct 1721, BAnQ
12 Burial record of Marie-Anne Massé, Q., C. P. R.
13 Marriage record of Pierre Courault de LaCoste and Marguerite Aubuchon, Q., C. P. R.
14 Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Pierre Courault de LaCoste
15 Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region, 1701-1936, Christian Dennison, 1987, p. 783
16 Burial record of Therese Mallet, “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901, p. 325
17 Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Therese Mallet
18 WikiTree listing of Jaques Louis Mallet
19 WikiTree listing of Jean François Maillet
20 WikiTree listing of Antoine Maillet
