♂Pierre Maillet

Pierre Maillet (1629 – 1707) was a Breton settler of Montréal, baptised at Saint-Coulomb near Saint-Malo. He is an ancestor of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) twice over: her ninth great-grandfather through his son René Malet, and again through his son Pierre Maillet, because two of his great-great-great-grandchildren married each other at Vincennes in 1801.

Life

He was baptized at Saint-Coulomb (Saint-Colomban), a coastal parish of the diocese of Dol in Brittany, on 1 July 1629, the son of Jean Maillet and Guillemette Ruellan, who had married there in 1618. Both his parents died in 1641 and 1642, when he was about twelve. He came to Canada about 1659 and settled at Montréal, then a small fortified mission settlement. On 23 October 1662 he married Marie-Anne Hardy at Notre-Dame de Montréal; the register of the marriage names him as the son of Jean Maillet and Guillemette Ruellan of the parish of Saint-Coulomb, diocese of Dol, which confirms the parents. A marriage contract had probably been drawn up before the notary Bénigne Basset at Montréal on 9 July 1662, months before the wedding.

Their children were baptized at Montréal between 1663 and 1676: Marie Geneviève, Marie Anne, René, Jean, Louis and Pierre. The surname was written Maillet, Mallet and Malet, sometimes in the same family. He was still living in February 1699.

Death

He was still alive on 25 July 1707, when he declared before the notary Antoine Adhémar that he could not sign. On 23 September 1707 his widow, Marie-Anne Hardy, gave a receipt to the same notary, so his death falls between those two dates.

Lines of descent

His son René’s line ran through Montréal and Detroit to Augustus Tougas dit Laviolette; his son Pierre’s line, a merchant whose son was born at Detroit, to Ellenore Renaud dit Deslauriers. Augustus and Ellenore married at Vincennes in 1801 as fourth cousins, so Pierre Maillet and Marie-Anne Hardy each hold two places in the family tree.

Notes

The marriage contract

The date, the notary and the act number (no. 239) come from the notary’s own repertoire of acts, as indexed in a compiled collection of Montréal notarial records. The grade is compiled, not on record, so the body gives the contract a light word.

The date of death

No record of his death is known. The date rests on two notarial acts in the minutes of Antoine Adhémar at Montréal (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec): on 25 July 1707 he was alive and declared that he could not sign, and on 23 September 1707 his widow gave a receipt to the same notary.