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Antoine Bordeleau dit Laforest*
Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. 25, 1994


Enlarged view (36 kB)		 Bordel means to board, or a house, or a man of the farm. The small village of Antoine Bordeleau is called Dampierre-sur-Boutonne. This community today is part of the canton of Aulnay, in the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, department of la Charente-Maritime. Boutonne is a river, a tributary of the Charente. Twenty-eight French localities bear the name of Dampierre.

Dampierre-sur-Boutonne has already had three churches; only one remains, Saint-Pierre, rebuilt by the monks at the end of the eleventh century. One should especially note its remarkable fifteenth century chateau, rebuilt during the Renaissance.

Antoine Bordeleau, born to Jean and to Marie-Colette Vilain, on Thursday, 22 December 1633, was presented for baptism in his parish by his godfather and godmother: Antoine Gilbert and Marie Parize. This is all that we know about his French origins.



Soldier in the Regiment

The history of the Carignan Regiment does not lack piquancy. It is not always easy to know all of the details about it, however it seems certain that Antoine Bordeleau was on the rolls. In the spring of 1665, he was more than 31 years old and serious. Was he an experienced soldier in the king's army? A last minute recruit?

On the rolls of the Company Maximy, Antoine appeared under the simple last name of Dampierre, his native village.

The regiment of Carignan-Salières was the first of the regular troops paid by the State to cross the Atlantic to defend Canada. Eight companies of 50 men each left La Rochelle on 19 April 1665. On 13 May, eight more companies undertook the crossing: Salières, LaFreudière, Grandfontaine and La Motte swung their hammocks in L'Aigle d'Or. La Colonelle, Contrecoeur, Sorel and Maximy sailed in La Paix. Antoine Bordeleau was among the ranks in the Company Maximy.

La Paix was a royal store-ship with a capacity of 300 tons according to some, 180 tons according to others. The commander was Jean Guillon, Sieur de Laubertière, a Navy Captain; the quartermaster or senior corporal was Jean Boutin, while Jean Masson had the role of master of the stewards.

As for Captain Abraham Maximy, he arrived at Québec with his men, including Antoine Bordeleau, on 19 August 1665, after a crossing of more than two months. The soldiers in his company, with several others, were sent to Sorel and Chambly, then on to Fort Sainte-Thérèse. The said fort was finished on 15 October, the day of the feast of the patron saint.

Then, the daily life of Antoine Bordeleau was hidden in the routine activities of the regiment.

Dombourgeois

We know that in 1667 the Carignan Regiment broke up. Several discharged soldiers hurried to organize their life on Canadian soil. Antoine Bordeleau did not waste any time. On 20 March 1667, he received a commission of land measuring 2 arpents by 40 in Dombourg. Forty-three concessionaires benefited from the same advantages as he did and were committed to fulfill the same duties towards their seigneur. Antoine would be a Dombourgeois or a resident of Neuville for the rest of his Canadian life.
The land of Antoine Bordeleau was located between Jean Garnier or Grenier, to the south-east, and Sébastien Liénard, to the north-east. Antoine also received a half-arpent in area in the village "to build and settle" there. The high tide mark served as the boundary of the Bordeleau land on the river.

In addition, Bordeleau promised to maintain the public roads which passed through his commission, to have his grain ground at the wind mill, to leave "two arpents of land in depth along the width from here to serve as common land for the Sieur Landlord and for ail the residents" and to even fence them in at his own expense, to pay the seigneur 40 sols and two live capons in cens and rent.

This contract, signed by notary Becquet, was renewed in the same terms on 30 May 1672, in the presence of Gilles Rageot, notary; Jean-François Bourdon, Sieur de Dombourg; Jean Maheu, bourgeois of Québec; Antoine Deserre and François Vandal. Was the latter the same person as the ancestor who was married at Neuville in 1680?

At Neuville, on 25 May 1669, Msgr de Laval administered the sacrament of confirmation to eight people, including Pierre Chartier, Guillaume Bertrand and Antoine Bordeleau.

Perrette Hallier

The bride of Antoine Bordeleau was named Perrette Hallier, daughter of the late Jean Hallier and of Barbe Marineau (Marignan). She was born about 1651 at Égly, today a community in the canton of Arpajon, arrondissement of Palaisseau, department of Essone, south of Paris.

On 29 September 1669 [Sunday], the 35 year old Antoine Bordeleau, appeared at the home of the notary Pierre Duquet to sign his marriage contract with the 18 year old Perrette Hallier. The terms of the agreement conformed to the coutume de Paris. The bride brought to the marriage some personal property valued at 350 livres, not counting the gift of 50 livres from the king, given to aIl the young women under his protection. Antoine offered Perrette a prefixed dowry of 300 livres. Besides Anne Gasnier, chaperone of the king's daughters, and the seigneur Bourdon Dombourg, François Noël, habitant of the Ile d'Orléans, and the travel companions of Perrette Hallier, Nicole Legrand, Marie-Clair Lahogue and Marie Petit, signed the document.

The marriage banns were published at the church of Notre-Dame de Québec. On Tuesday, 15 October 1669, Antoine Bordeleau dit Laforest, led his fiancée Perrette Hallier to the foot of the altar of the Virgin to receive the nuptial blessing. Witnesses present were Jean-François Bourdon, René Hubert, who had arrived here as a soldier about 1667, bailiff and future groom of the daughter of the king Françoise de Lacroix [married on 04-11-1669], and Léonard Faucher dit Saint-Maurice. The latter married Marie Damois [also a king's daughter] on the same day.

The Hallier-Bordeleau couple headed for Neuville where friends awaited them. The life of the founding Bordeleau family began in this place. Will it be carried on the wings of happiness? Only the future will tell.

Altercation

In the month of August 1675 [young Antoine is 1 ½ year-od], a somewhat toned down document from the Sovereign Council of New France reports the existence of an altercation between neighbor Agathe Merlin, wife of Jean Loriot, and Perrette Hallier. The matter was so serious that the civil lieutenant of Québec ordered "an arrest issued... against Agathe Merlin... to the benefit of Perrete Hallier wife of Antoine Bordelot".

If I understand this report correctly, there was a fist fight between the women, on 5 August. Agathe was the first to be found guilty. So Jean Loriot went to the floor of the great council to explain the situation, with supporting documents, in particular a report from the surgeon. He maintained that his wife did not deserve to be thrown into the jail of the capital. The judges, in sympathy with him, annulled the order.

On the afternoon of Monday, 19 August 1675, Agathe Merlin and Perrette Hallier appeared together before the members of the council which officially annulled the order and even ordered the civil lieutenant "to pay the damages and interests of the parties, to return to them that which they had paid for the costs of the Court, and expenses".

If the warring parties, Agathe and Perrette, had been awarded war honors by the population, it would still be necessary, to conclude that, in addition to the strength of words, they possessed lightning-quick hands and feet.

Debt

The life of the Hallier-Bordeleau couple continued on its course very simply, the way it always does for good people.

On 23 October 1678 before noon, Antoine and Perrette were in Québec, at the study of notary Gilles Rageot. They admitted owing "truly and loyally, to Pierre Mesnier Boullanger, living in this city... the amount of one hundred eighty two livres", a rather considerable debt for habitants living off the fruits of their own farm labor.

Antoine and Perrette were obliged to pay their creditor, on the next 15 March, by giving him "ten minots of corn at three livres per minot and the rest in French wheat at four livres per minot", totaling 15 minots. Mesnier said he was content with the payment of half of their debt. Marandeau, Mesnier, Metru and Rageot signed the document.

The census of 1681 reports the existence of the Bordeleau family at Neuville. Perrette Hallier said she was 30 years old. Antoine owned a gun, one head of cattle and had 20 arpents of land under cultivation. On one side, the neighbors were Jean Loriot and Agathe Merlin, and on the other side, Jean Garnier and Madeleine Leguay. Two children ate at their table.

Small family

There were only two children at the Bordeleau home: Antoine and Marie-Louise.
  1. Father Cyprien Dufort, in charge of the mission at Pointe-aux-Trembles, baptized the only Bordeleau son, on 18 December 1673, in the presence of his godfather and godmother: the ancestor Claude Carpentier and Louise Pelletier, wife of Jean Hayot. The act was recorded in the registry of Notre-Dame de Québec by the pastor Henri de Bernières. Because of an illness, Antoine was admitted to the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec for 27 days in October and November 1694. He was married to Catherine Piché at Neuville, after signing a marriage contract in the presence of Chambalon on 22 February 1696. The couple settled on the paternal property, lot #28 on the present day map. Sixteen times life burst forth in this fertile home. Six children died while very young. Antoine was buried on 4 May 1758 [in fact, it's around May 10th] at Neuville.

  2. The baptismal act for the only daughter, Marie-Louise, born at Neuville, was preserved at Notre-Dame de Québec. Louis Croteau, son of Vincent and of Jeanne Godequin, took Marie-Louise Bordeleau as his wife on 22 November 1695. The couple lived at Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly with their family of six [rather 8] children. Alas! the wife was laid to rest in the cemetery of Tilly, on the first of July 1720, only a few years after the death of her father Antoine.

Voice of the ancestor

The life of ancestor Bordeleau unfolded under the shadow of resignation and suffering. After the census of 1681, the presence of Perrette Hallier was not noted in any document. A contract, consulted by Father Archange Godbout and signed by Roger on 19 August 1700, reveals that she had returned to France about twenty years earlier. We know that Perrette did not appreciate her neighbor Agathe Merlin very much. Was this sufficient reason to leave her husband and young children? Did she go to live and die at Égly? These questions and many others leave her descendants wondering.

Antoine Bordeleau found life and hope again when his son Antoine began to raise his family on the same land on which he had been born. During his lifetime, fifteen children [it's really 14, since the grandson Étienne is only born on Nov. 1717, i.e. 1 ½ month after Antoine's death], grandsons and granddaughters, admired our ancestor's white hair.

Antoine Bordeleau died during harvest time, at Neuville, on Saturday, 18 September 1717. Jean Tapin and Jean Bellehumeur carried him to the parish cemetery. Father Pierre Hazeur recorded in the registry that Antoine Bordeleau was 100 years old, so much had the days chiselled his features. However, we know that he went to celebrate his 84th birthday where souls do not age.

According to an African proverb, "an old man who dies is a library which burns". In fact, every elderly person who leaves us carries away with him an experience of life like no other, his own book of wisdom.

Family name variations

The only known alternate name to Bordeleau is Bordelot and the "dit" name of Laforest.

The variations of Laforest however are many: Badier, Barbeau, Benoit, Blanchet, Bordeleau, Chartier, Daupin, De la Forest, De Montigny, Forest, Fort, Foucher, Jean, Joly, Labranche, Laffrey, Laforai, Laforêt, La Forest, Lapierre, Lebrun, Lefort, Léonard, Lionnard, Payment, Semegrain, Taconnet, Tessier, Testard, Thibodas, Tiriac, Trouillard and Vinconneau.

End notes

  1. Record of Becquet, 20 March 1667.
  2. Record of Chambalon, 22 February 1696.
  3. Record of Duquet, 29 September 1669.
  4. Records of Rageot, 30 May 1692; 23 October 1678.
  5. Albert Dauzat, "Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille et prénoms de France" (1951), p. 52.
  6. Silvio Dumas, "Les Filles du Roi en Nouvelle-France" (1972), p. 256.
  7. René Jetté, "Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec" (1983), pp. 130-131.
  8. André Lafontaine, "Recensement annoté de la Nouvelle-France 1681" (1986), p. 51.
  9. Marc Rouleau, "Le Terrier de Neuville 1660-1980" (1984), pp. 16, 64-65.
  10. Régis Roy & Gérard Malchelosse, "Le Régiment de Carignan" (1925), p. 95.
  11. Jugements et délibérations du Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle-France, Vol. 1, pp. 970, 974.
  12. Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française, Vol. 20, pp. 79, 123.
  13. Rapport des Archives du Québec, Vol. 40, pp. 280-281.
  14. Revue de l'Université d'Ottawa, Vol. 15, pp. 11-34. "L'arrivée du régiment de Carignan", by Germain Lesage, O.M.I.
  15. Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, Vol. 4 p. 497.
*  Biography taken from the series Our French-Canadian Ancestors, LISI Press, Palm Harbor, Fla., Vol. 25, 1994.
   «Antoine Bordeleau dit Laforest», by Thomas J. Laforest.

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