Chapter 4: Louise Mousseau (Monceau), the guardian (1635-1707)

After the death of their father Romain, a seigneur stripped of his rights over the seigneury (seigneurial estate) of St-Pierre and l’île Madame, the little girls Marie-Louise and Catherine-Angélique, barely out of the cradle, were taken in by their grandmother Louise Mousseau. She had been born in 1635 in the parish of St-Hilaire-du-Mont in Paris and had married Pierre Pellerin dit St-Amant at Trois-Rivières in 1655.

Feeling his end drawing near, Romain Becquet had sold his entire notarial minute-book to his colleague François Genaple de Bellefonds for the sum of 500 livres; he was well advised to do so, for he gave up his soul a few days later and had thus placed his daughters beyond want.

Louise Mousseau lost no time in taking the steps needed to recover these lands: “…elle nous avait humblement supplié de vouloir accorder aux dites mineures les dites deux concessions ci-dessus spécifiées qui avaient déjà été accordées au dit sieur Becquet ” [she had humbly begged us to grant the said minors the said two concessions specified above, which had already been granted to the said Sieur Becquet].

She managed to persuade the authorities to grant her requests by promising to carry out “plusieurs travaux et défrichement” [a good deal of work and clearing of land]. L’île Madame and the seigneury of St-Pierre were therefore returned to the two children under the guardianship of Louise Mousseau, by these documents dated 17 April 1683.

The seigneur undertook “à peupler le fief par des « tenanciers » qui tenaient feu et lieu… réserver les bois de chêne pour la construction de vaisseaux (pour le roi), les mines et minéraux qui s’y trouvent et laisser tous les chemins et passages nécessaires.” [to settle the fief with “tenants” keeping hearth and home there… to reserve the oak timber for shipbuilding (for the king), the mines and minerals found there, and to leave all necessary roads and rights of way.]

Little is known of the elder daughter, Marie-Louise; born in 1678, she married Jean-Jacques Le Ber, a Montréal merchant, in August 1703, and died on 21 March 1704, after a few months of marriage.

Catherine-Angélique, born in 1680, married Louis Lévrard in 1703 at the church of Notre-Dame in Montréal; over the 14 years that followed she gave birth to 7 children, 5 of whom died in infancy; Charles Lévrard, born in 1716, would be the only one to carry on the line.

Louise Mousseau (Monceau) was buried on 13 July 1707 in the cemetery of the Hôtel-Dieu of Québec; through her tenacity she had a decisive influence on the future of the seigneury.

“le 13 juillet 1707 a été inhumée au cimetière de l’hôtel dieu de cette ville Louise Monceau veuve du défunt Pélerin dit St-Amand après avoir reçu les sacrements de pénitence viatique et extrême onction en présence de Jean Brassard père et fils et autres témoins. signé L. Dupré“