♀Perrine Séjourné

Perrine Séjourné lived at Angers, in Anjou^W, in the late sixteenth century. She was the wife of Jean Hardye and the mother of René Hardy, a merchant and master goldsmith of that city. She was the eleventh great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son René Hardy.

Jean Hardye and Perrine Séjourné are known from the Fichier Origine, a database of the French origins of Quebec’s early settlers verified against the registers, which names them in its entry for their granddaughter Marie-Anne Hardy. It gives their marriage at Angers under a marriage contract dated 15 August 1585. The baptism registers of the parish of Sainte-Croix at Angers show ten children baptized to the couple there between 1586 and 1600: Antoine on 31 October 1586, Pierre on 2 December 1587, Guillaume on 16 November 1588, René on 26 December 1589, Jean on 23 May 1591, Perrine on 28 November 1592, Marie on 20 November 1594, Claude on 11 January 1597, Nicolas on 2 July 1599, and Christophlette on 4 November 1600. Their own births and deaths are not known.

From 1588 the baptism acts describe Jean as a master goldsmith (maître orfèvre) of Angers. At the baptism of Pierre on 2 December 1587 a grandmother of the child stood as godmother, and the act does not say on which side of the family she belonged. At the baptism of Guillaume on 16 November 1588 the godparents included Jean’s father, Guillaume Hardy, named there as the child’s grandfather. René grew up to be a merchant and master goldsmith in the parish of La Trinité, and his daughter Marie-Anne crossed the Atlantic and married Pierre Maillet at Notre-Dame de Montréal on 23 October 1662.

Lines of descent

Marie-Anne Hardy and Pierre Maillet had two sons whose lines both reach the family. Rene Malet’s line leads to Augustus A. Tougas dit Laviolette, and his younger brother Pierre Maillet’s to Ellenore S. Renaud dit Deslauriers. Augustus and Ellenore married at Vincennes on 6 July 1801, and their son Augustin Tougas Lovellette (1809–1866) carries both lines, so Jean Hardye and Perrine Séjourné each hold two places in the family tree.