♀Marguerite Boissel

Marguerite Boissel (fl. 1657–1690) 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. Tanguay’s dictionary gives her baptism at Québec on 20 September 1643, as a daughter of Jacques Boissel, a butcher at Québec, and Marie Éripert or Héripel.

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.

Children

Seven of the couple’s children appear in the baptism index: Zacharie, Paul, Marie Françoise and Antoine were baptised 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 baptised 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

Tanguay’s dictionary gives Etienne Bouchard’s burial at Montréal on 20 July 1676. 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. When Marie Anne married Jean Roy at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 6 February 1690, the register named her mother as Marguerite Boisel.

Of the records above, only the index has been read, not the registers themselves.