♂Joseph Seraphin Tougas dit Laviolette

Joseph Seraphin Tougas dit Laviolette (14 March 1743 – 11 December 1793) was a French Canadian from Boucherville, near Montreal, who settled at Post Vincennes on the Wabash. His godfather was Ignace Boucher de Lisle-Bonne, écuyer, a member of the noble Boucher family who held the seigneury of Boucherville. He was the fifth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Augustus A. Tougas dit Laviolette (1776–1849).

Early life

He was born at Boucherville on 14 March 1743 and baptized the next day, the son of Guillaume Tougas dit Laviolette and Marie-Anne Quintal. “Écuyer” (squire) was the title of a gentleman of noble rank, and another Boucher, René Boucher de Montbrun, also signed the baptism. The register does not say how a farming family came to have such sponsors.

He was one of twelve children born to his parents between 1740 and 1757, seven of whom died as infants. His father died in 1756 or early 1757, when Joseph was about fourteen, and in May 1757 his mother married François Chicot, a widower.

Vincennes

By 1773 he had gone west to the French settlement at Vincennes. There, on 16 January 1773, he married Jeanne Marie Cardinal, the daughter of Jean Baptiste Cardinal and Marie Anne Mallet. The register calls him “native of Boucherville in Canada”.

Seven children of the couple are recorded at Vincennes between 1774 and 1792: Joseph, Augustus, Guillaume, Pascal, François Xavier, Leonore and Isaac. Leonore was buried in July 1791 at the age of two, and Isaac in September 1792, ten days after his christening.

On 20 July 1778 he signed the oath of the inhabitants of Post Vincennes with his mark. On 13 July 1790 the list of the heads of families settled at Post Vincennes by 1783, drawn up by Winthrop Sargent^W, named him as one still resident there. A later survey of the old French and British land claims at Vincennes lists a Joseph Tougas holding three parcels there, one of them next to another Tougas.

He died at Vincennes; he was buried there on 11 December 1793, aged about 53, and the burial register calls him a native of Boucherville near Montreal. His widow married André Montplaisir at Vincennes in April 1795, and in 1798 his heirs were listed for six arpents at the Terre Noire.

Notes

The indexed christening entries for the eldest son disagree on the day: they give christenings on 7 March, 15 March and 13 October 1775, and one of them gives his birth as 13 October 1774. A 1975 transcription of the Vincennes burials calls the child buried in 1791 “Leonard, son”, while the christening index calls her Leonore, a girl.