♀Marguerite Boissel

Marguerite Boissel (baptised 20 September 1643 – 1731) was the wife of Etienne Bouchard, a surgeon of Mont-Royal, the settlement of Ville-Marie^W, and raised their children at Montréal and at Québec. Her daughter Marie Anne had as godfather Jean Levasseur, secretary to the Comte de Frontenac, then governor of New France. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her daughter Marie Anne Bouchard (born 1673).

Family of origin

The index of her marriage names her father as Jacques Boissel, written Boesel in the register; her mother is named in the index as Marie Héribert. The index of the Québec registers gives her baptism at Notre-Dame de Québec on 20 September 1643, as a daughter of Jacques Boissel and Marie Héribert. Tanguay’s dictionary gives her father as a butcher at Québec and her mother’s name as Marie Éripert or Héripel.

The Québec registers record eight other children of the couple between 1640 and 1662. The parents’ own marriage does not appear in the Québec registers, so a child born earlier in France cannot be ruled out.

Marriage

Etienne Bouchard married Marguerite Boissel at Notre-Dame de Québec on 6 August 1657. The index of the register describes him as a surgeon (chirurgien) of Mont-Royal, single, and a son of Pierre Bouchard and Nicole Charland; she was single and a daughter of Jacques Boissel, written Boesel in the register, and of Marie Héribert. The index names two witnesses, written Dailleboust (Louis) and Demaysonneufve; it gives surnames only, and the natural reading is Louis d’Ailleboust de Coulonge^W, who had been governor of New France, and Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve^W, founder and governor of Montréal. Tanguay’s dictionary gives the wedding as 6 October 1657.

She was not yet fourteen when she married: her baptism on 20 September 1643 fell less than fourteen years before the wedding.

Children

Seven of the couple’s children appear in the baptism index: Zacharie, Paul, Marie Françoise and Antoine were baptized at Montréal between 1661 and 1669, and Jean Marie, Marie Anne and Marie Jeanne at Québec between 1667 and 1675. The baptisms place the family at Montréal and at Québec in turn.

Marie Anne was born and baptized on 25 December 1673 at Notre-Dame de Québec, in the Basse-Ville. Her godfather was Jean Levasseur, recorded as secretary to the Comte de Frontenac^W. Frontenac was then governor of New France, so the godfather held a post in the governor’s household. Her godmother was Marie Anne Fleureau, and the act also names Jean Delaunay, a surgeon.

Widowhood

Etienne Bouchard was buried at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 20 July 1676. The 1681 census of Québec lists her as his widow, aged 36, heading a household in the Haute-Ville with four of her children at home, aged 18, 13, 8 and 5. The index of the registers shows Marguerite as a widow at a marriage at Québec on 7 January 1687; Tanguay’s dictionary gives that day for her own second marriage, to Julien Joyan dit d’Olonne, a soldier from Olonne in Poitou. Roy’s inventory of marriage contracts lists a widow’s contract that she made with Julien Joyau before the notary Genaple on 28 November 1686. When Marie Anne married Jean Roy at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 6 February 1690, the register named her mother as Marguerite Boisel.

The 1687 and 1690 dates above are given by the index of the registers.

Death

She was buried at Notre-Dame de Montréal in 1731. The burial record gives her age as 96; her 1643 baptism makes her about 87. Family trees give 12 April as the day of her death.

Notes

1681 census

The 1681 census of Québec, as printed in Benjamin Sulte’s Histoire des Canadiens-français, 1608-1880, vol. 5, p. 57, gives “Marguerite Boissel (veuve Etienne Bouchard), 36”, with Paul 18, Jean-Marie 13 and two daughters aged 8 and 5, in the Haute-Ville of Québec. The PRDH list of the same census gives her age as 36. Her baptism on 20 September 1643 would make her 37 or 38 in 1681, so the census age is a year or two lower than the baptism implies.