♀Marie Minaud

Marie Minaud was a woman born at La Rochelle, France, who settled on the Île d’Orléans, in New France, where she married Jean Mourier at Ste-Famille in 1678 and had children baptized at St-Jean on the island. She was the eighth great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through her daughter Marie Mourier (born 1685).

Early life

Marie Minaud was born on 4 November 1664 at La Rochelle, France, and baptized on 11 November in the parish of Notre-Dame there. The baptism names her parents as Jean Minaud and Jeanne Caillé, written Caillère. Her father was a miller. He died when she was an infant, and about 1670 she came to New France with her widowed mother. Her mother later married Guillaume Dupas on the Île d’Orléans.

Marriage and children

Jean Mourier married Marie Minaud at Ste-Famille on the Île d’Orléans on 29 October 1678. The couple had signed a marriage contract before the notary Paul Vachon on 26 October 1678, three days before the wedding. The marriage record writes the groom’s name Morier, describes both as single and of the island, and names the groom’s parents as Jean Morier and Anne Caron and the bride’s as the late Jean Minaud and Jeanne Caillé. The 1681 census of Ste-Famille lists her, aged 18, as Marie Mineau.

The St-Jean parish register records the baptisms of ten of their children. The first, Marie, was baptized on 24 November 1680. Marie Madeleine was born on 24 April 1682 and baptized on 10 May. Marie was born on 6 July 1685 and baptized on 10 July; she married Marc Semeur dit La Bonté at St-Jean in 1700 and, as his widow, Pierre Galien there in 1704. Twins, Jean Baptiste and Marguerite, were born on 4 August 1687 and baptized the next day; Jean Baptiste died on 20 September 1687, aged six weeks. Jeanne, written Meurier in the register, was baptized on 31 August 1688. Claire Françoise was baptized on 19 October 1690 and buried on 14 April 1691. Jean was baptized on 12 November 1692. Mathurin was baptized at St-Jean on 11 November 1694; the entry is incomplete, but its margin calls him the son of Jean. Gabriel was baptized on 6 September 1696, and died on 17 May 1703.

The register also records the marriages of four of the children. Marguerite married Michel Chiasson of Port-Royal, Acadia, at St-Jean on 30 June 1706. Françoise married Louis Grifar at St-Jean on 17 November 1710. Jean married Marie Marthe Laviolette at Québec on 17 February 1716, when both his parents were recorded as dead. Mathurin, a carter, married Françoise Choret, also called Marie Jeanne, at Beauport on 17 November 1721; after her death he married Marie Madeleine Gilbert, widow of Nicolas Godin Lapoterie, at Québec on 26 October 1750. No baptism is recorded for their daughter Françoise.

On 3 January 1683 the St-Jean burial record entered the bones of Marie, aged five, and Marie Madeleine, aged one, daughters of Jean Mourier and Marie Minaud, together with a son of Pierre Mourier. The record states that the children had been consumed by fire on 27 December 1682. Marie had been baptized in November 1680, so she was two, not five, when she died. The dictionary of Cyprien Tanguay^W lists ten children of the couple and notes the two daughters burned in the fire.

Widowhood, remarriages and death

Tanguay’s dictionary gives her husband’s burial at St-Jean on 18 August 1705. As Jean Mourier’s widow she signed a marriage contract with Jean Rabouin, a widower, before the notary Genaple on 10 May 1706, and they married at St-Jean on 6 July 1706. As Rabouin’s widow she signed a contract with Pierre Hérodeau dit Larose before the notary La Cetière on 6 November 1708. A son of her second marriage, Nicolas Rabouin, was buried at Québec on 6 September 1709, aged 14 months; the entry names Jean Rabouin as the deceased father and Marie Minau as the mother.

She died at Québec on 19 March 1711 and was buried there on 20 March; the burial entry gives her age as 46 and names her as the wife of Pierre Érodeau Larose. When Hérodeau contracted to marry Jeanne Philippe de Beaulieu before the notary François Rageot on 2 January 1712, the contract calls him the widower of Marie Minaud; they married at Charlesbourg on 7 January 1712.