René-Pinot Street (Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets)

René-Pinot Street.

René Pinot (Pineau), known as Descheneaux, or Laperle, was born on 11 August 1675 at Sainte-Anne de la Pérade, and was baptised at Trois-Rivières; he was the son of Pierre Pinot and Anne Boyer.

He married Catherine Janvier on 28 February 1705, at Sainte-Anne de la Pérade.
On 16 August of that year twins were born, Jean-Baptiste and René, after a short pregnancy of five and a half months.

The Batiscan registers(1) tell us that on 20 July 1710 « est né un fils du mariage de René Pinot, habitant de la seigneurie de Saint-Pierre, et de Catherine Janvier, étant en danger de mort il a esté ondoyé à la maison par Jean Baril, habitant de Batiscan, et le 23 juillet suivant a été baptisé et il a été nommé Claude » [a son was born of the marriage of René Pinot, resident of the seigneury of Saint-Pierre, and Catherine Janvier; being in danger of death he was given emergency baptism at the house by Jean Baril, and on 23 July was baptised and named Claude]. This baptism took place at Batiscan, because there was no place of worship at Saint-Pierre at that time; itinerant clergy, among them Father J. Voyer of Sainte-Anne de la Pérade, came to celebrate there for several years. It appears this was the first birth at Saint-Pierre.

In the same Batiscan baptismal register one may read: « Le 7 décembre de l’année 1710, dans la coste de Saint-Pierre qui est à l’opposé de Batiscan, est née une fille du mariage légitime de Pierre Masson et de Catherine François, et a été ondoyée à la maison le même jour par René Pinot, et le 23 avril 1711, ils l’ont apportée à Batiscan ne l’ayant pas pu plus tost à cause que, la rivière n’estant pas prise, ils ne pouvaient traverser » [the river not having frozen over, they could not cross]. Climate warming had already begun!

On the map drawn up by the sieur de Catalogne (2) in 1709, one can see the land granted to René Pinot, designated under the name René Laperle (Pineau), by Pierre Masson, who called himself « seigneur de la Côte Saint-Pierre » [seigneur of the Côte Saint-Pierre]. We do not believe, however, that the Pinot family, the second to settle at Saint-Pierre, put down lasting roots in the seigneury (seigneurie, the landholding unit of New France).

This article is dedicated to the residents of René-Pinot Street, and in particular to my friend and brother-in-law Jean-Lorrain Lafond.

Alain Manset, Société d’histoire et de généalogie Lévrard-Becquet (Lévrard-Becquet Historical and Genealogical Society)

(1) Mémoires de la société généalogique Canadienne-Française, Raymond Douville, January 1947, pp. 132-141
(2) Map of the sieur de Catalogne, 1709