♀Françoise Bouet

Françoise Bouet was a woman of the parish of the Saints-Anges at Lachine, near Montréal in New France, whose son Jean Roy married Marie Anne Bouchard at Montréal in 1690. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Jean Roy.

She was baptized in the parish church of Saint-Étienne at Marans, in the old province of Aunis^W in western France, on 4 October 1624, and the register names her as the daughter of Pierre Bouet and Catherine Catelle. The baptism comes six years before the birth of about 1630 that Tanguay’s compiled dictionary gives her.

Marriage and children

Her husband was Jean Roy. The couple married at the church of Notre-Dame-de-Cougnes in La Rochelle on 5 June 1659, both of them then of the parish of Marans. Their son Jean married Marie Anne Bouchard at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 6 February 1690, and the marriage record names the groom’s parents as Jean Roy and Françoise Bouet, both of the Saints-Anges at Lachine. The record calls the bride’s father deceased but does not say the same of Jean Roy, so the record and Tanguay’s dictionary do not agree on whether he was living in 1690.

The couple had seven children in all, and their son Jean was the second of them. The six others were baptized at Notre-Dame de Montréal between 1660 and 1675.

Second marriage

Tanguay’s genealogical dictionary, a compiled work, gives Françoise Bouet’s birth about 1630, spelled Bouer there, and dates her marriage to Jean Roy to 1659.

After Jean Roy’s burial at Lachine on 1 November 1676, Tanguay has her, as his widow, marrying Alexis Buet at Lachine, in 1677 in one entry and in 1678 in another. It lists two children of that second marriage, Marie, born in 1678, and René, born in 1681. A family chart compiled in 1994 gives the same years of birth for her and her first husband.

Notes

The baptism of 1624

The baptism is entered in the register of the parish of Saint-Étienne at Marans for the years 1623 to 1629, now held by the Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime. The entry of 4 October 1624 names the child “Françoise fille de Pierre Bouet & de Catherine Catelle”, with a blot obscuring the first letter of Bouet. The Fichier Origine, a register of the French origins of emigrants to Québec, has an entry for Françoise, written Bouhet, that gives the same baptism and the same parents, and names her second husband, Alexis Buet. Through that second marriage the entry ties the child baptized at Marans to the Françoise Bouet of Montréal and Lachine. Tanguay’s genealogical dictionary, a compiled work, spells her name Bouer and gives her birth as about 1630, six years after the baptism.

The marriage of 1659

The parish register of Notre-Dame-de-Cougnes at La Rochelle records the marriage of Jean Roy and Françoise Bouet on 5 June 1659, with both entered as of the parish of Marans. The entry describes Jean as a sergeant. Tanguay’s genealogical dictionary, a compiled work, dates the marriage to 1659 as well; the register supplies the day and the place.

The capture of 1651

A capture by the Iroquois in 1651 has been attached to Françoise’s name. It comes from a footnote on the same page of Tanguay’s dictionary, “Enlevée par les Iroquois en 1651”, but the footnote’s marker stands against Catherine Mercier, wife of Jean Boudart, in the entry above hers; Françoise’s own line carries no marker. Catherine Mercier’s capture that year is recorded elsewhere. Nothing places Françoise in captivity.