♀Madeleine Just

Madeleine Just was a native of Brèves in Burgundy who came to Montréal, New France, and married two of its merchants in turn. She was the wife of Pierre You Sieur de la Découverte (1658–1718), the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Marie-Anne You de la Couverte (1694–1766), born of an earlier union.

Early life

A compiled genealogy gives her parents as Hubert Just and Madeleine Daumont, of Brèves in Burgundy.

Marriage to Pierre You

Widowed, she married Pierre You at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 19 April 1697. A compiled genealogy calls it Pierre’s second marriage; the register describes him as single. The register describes him as an ensign of the marine detachment, a native of Saint-Sauveur at La Rochelle, and single; it gives the bride as Madeleine Just of Brèves, aged 35, widow of Jérôme Legay, merchant.

Five children of the marriage are given. Philippe was baptized at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 3 November 1699, François-Madeleine on 24 November 1700, Joseph-Pascal on 15 April 1702 and Marie-Louise on 21 March 1706, each entry naming her as mother; Tanguay’s dictionary places Marie-Catherine, baptized on 10 September 1708, in the same family. A compiled demographic database gives Joseph-Pascal’s burial at three days old, and a compiled genealogy gives Marie-Louise’s burial on 7 September 1728. Tanguay’s dictionary also gives the marriage of her son François-Madeleine at Montréal on 12 August 1722 to Marie-Marguerite Dufrost, later Marguerite d’Youville^W, founder of the Montréal general hospital and first superior of the Grey Nuns.

Widowhood

Pierre You was buried on 28 August 1718.

Notes

Names and dates

A note on the first husband gives him as Jérôme Le Gay de Beaulieu. The 1697 register writes Jérôme Legay. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography and other compilations give the marriage to Pierre You as 15 April 1697; the register gives 19 April, the date used here. Her age of 35 in 1697 puts her birth about 1662.