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- ! Marriage with Anne Herd <http://www.genealogie.org/famille/cholette/emain0002.html>The first available information regarding S?bastien Cholet since his arrival in Canada is to be found in the records of Notre-Dame parish in Montreal, dating back to October 19th 1705. According to the wedding contract by the Sulpician priest Yves Prat, he married on that day Ann Heard, a young English girl born in 1681 at Cocheco in New England, near the actual city of Dover in New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Benjamin Heard and Elizabeth Roberts.At the time of Count Louis de Buade Frontenac, Governor of New France, the relations with New England were very tense. Let us recall the massacre of Lachine in 1689 and Phipps' coming in front of Quebec, also in 1689. Both sides would organize raids in the enemy's territory which resulted in massacres and hostage takings. In the course of such a raid carried out by Indians called Loups and by Canadians, Ann Heard was captured on January 26th 1692 and brought back to Montreal as a prisoner. She was entrusted to the master-gunsmith Pierre Prud'homme and his wife. She was baptized and confirmed on April 10th at the church of Notre-Dame in Montreal. Her godfather was the surgeon Jean Martinetdit Fonblanche and her godmother Anne Ch?les, the wife of Pierre Prud'homme. No other information concerning her is available except that divulged at the time of her wedding with S?bastien Cholet because nothing has been disclosed about their frequentations !On October 17th 1705, two days prior to their marriage, the future spouses appeared before notary* Adhemar for their wedding contract.Doubtless to spare possible difficulties for the future wife, the notary included the following clauseto the effect that they were contracting marriage according to the usual custom of Paris. According to that custom, a stranger who had been naturalized, and all his or her children born outside thecountry, lost the favour of the king if they wentandlived outside the country :* Before presenting the clause referred to above, one might mention that under French law, and in the province of Quebec even today, the notary is the person entitled to legalize deeds or contracts between different parties. Lawyers are not authorized to receive such deeds. The excerpts of the different contracts which are presented below were written in old French and contain many abbreviations. They are difficult to interpret in French and more so when translatedinto English,so that a very liberal interpretation will be presented rather than a literal one."The future spouses will share in common all the goods, personal and immovable,that they will have acquired together during their marriage, accordingtothe customs of the city of Paris which the said spouses promise to observe, even if they were to move to otherprovinces where the laws and regulations would be contraryto the customs of Paris".In this marriage contract the family name of thebride iswritten as "herde". In the numerous subsequent acts, especially in the baptismal certificates, the name "Heard" caused many headaches to their authors, the missionaries and priests inparticular. Thus, when Marie-Anne-Joseph was baptized on February 27th 1711, Father Fran?ois Vachon deBelmont wrote the name of the mother simply as "Marie-Anne", without any family name. On March 25th 1714 the parishpriest of Pointe-Claire, Father Pierre Levasseur, wrote down in the parochial records"Marie-Anne Anglaise", indicating that he could not spell her name but that she wasEnglish. On January 24th 1717 Father Pierre-?lie D?peret wrote down hername as "Marianne Anaherde". At least this time Ann and Heard were combined of some sort. Later,in1719and in 1720 he inscribed the name as "Marie Anaherde". No doubt with the intention of putting an end to all the difficulties, Father Jean-Baptiste Breul who wasthen parish priest of Pointe-Claire decided that from 1721 onward Marie-Anne Herd wouldbe known as Marie-Anne Pr?vost. It would be easier to write and that was the name that she kept afterward.Perhaps the best way toknow how to write the name "Heard" is to refer to page 321 of the Encyclopedia of Maineand New Hampshire where the name isindeed written as "Heard" . There can be no doubt as to the identity because the name of the father, Benjamin, is mentioned as well as that of Ann, born in 1681.The wedding took place on October 19th, the ceremony being carried out bythesulpician priest Henry-Antoine M?riel. Among those present was Philippe Robitaille, husband of Madeleine Warren a nativeofDover in New Hampshire. She was no doubt a friend of the bride and captured at the same time in 1692.It can be notedthatmanypersons werecaptured at the time in New England and brought back to Canada where they settled and founded families.Inhis book De la Nouvelle-Angleterre ? la Nouvelle-France Marcel Fournier testifies to that effect : "Four hundred and fifty five warprisoners or captives of Amerindians and the French come from New England and theAmerican colonies.Most became integrated in the population of Quebec, their ancestors having been baptized by missionaries and brought up in French speaking families". There werealsopresent at the ceremony, Nicolas Jenvrin, Jean Lacroix, Jean Herv? and the grand-vicar Fran?ois Vachon de Belmont".The newlyweds settled in Montreal, on Saint-Paul street. Thanks to well kept documents, more particularly religiousrecords andnotarial documents, it is possible now to obtain some information concerning the life and activities of our ancestors. Such is the contract of May 14th 1706, drawn up by notary Adhemar : "Rental lease by Jean Caillault toS?bastien Cholet". It isinteresting to reproduce its first lines :"Was present Mr. Jean Caillaud,freeman living in this city, who recognized and confessed having leased by the present, for an amount of money, beginning on the first day of next October and for anensuing periodof nine consecutive years, and promises that during that periodBastien Chollet dit Laviolette and Jean Herve dit Lalibert?, weavers both living in this city, will have the full usage of the property ?"One can note that S?bastien Cholet has become "Bastien Chollet" to which was added the surname Laviolette,as in his wedding contract. He is also described as a weaver as in many of his subsequent deeds. Could he have learnt this trade before his departure from France, in the townof Choletwhichis wellrenowned for its famous weavingmills ? andthe well known handkerchiefs from Cholet ? According to this lease the price of the rental was 180 pounds per year payable in halves at intervals of six months.There must have beensome flaws in that deed because the length ofnine years specified was cut short to only four days !The following year, onJanuary 20th 1707, another deed by notary Adhemar : "Sale by Jean R?gnier to S?bastien Cholet". It was in important deed anddeserves that thefirst partbereproducedas follows :Was present Jean Reynier dit Brion, inhabitant of this city, who voluntary recognized and confessed having sold and hereby sells, quits, transports and leaves at once and has promisedand promisesthat there will be no troubleswith respect to debts, mortgages, evictions and other impediments in general. To S?bastien Chollet weaver living at the said Ville Marie who hereby accepts as buyer for himself, his dependants at presentand inthefuture.A piece of landsituated on theshore of Lake Saint-Louis, above Lachine, commonly known as the large bay, the area of which (the piece of land) is sixty acres, three acres wide by twenty in depth, without any buildings and as it is. The saidbuyeracknowledges that heknowsthe place because he has seen and visited it. He is satisfied and will not seek to claim anythingfrom the said seller of the whole piece of land, one end of which borders on Lake Saint-Louis andaway from standing trees. Theother endborderson the unsoldlands of the Noblemen of this Isle. The neighbour on oneside is Mathurin Chartier dit Lamarche and on the other side ? Dubois dit ? The said seller owns the land because he bought it fromLafaye as per the deed prepared by theundersigned notary ?Itwas an important purchase of a piece of land, three acres bordering on Lake Saint-Louis by twenty in depth, at a place which became Pointe-Claire later on. The lack of buildings on that piece ofland,boughtin1707,explainswhy the Cholet family waited until 1714 to go and live there. In other respects, themention of the two neighbours Chartier on one side and Dubois on the other will be helpful later on.Four years went by before S?bastien Choletwas partto an another deed which took place on July 11th 1711. It consists in a sale by the Noblemen of Montreal, (the Sulpician priests), toS?bastien Cholet. It was the first of three deeds with the same heading and the preamble of each deed readapproximately as follows :In the presence of theroyalnotary of the Isle of Montreal in New France, resident of Villemarie and undersigned, was present Sir Fran?ois Vachon de Belmont, one of the priests of the Seminary ofSaint-Sulpice in Paris, superior oftheclergymen of the seminary ofVillemarie,procurator of Sir Fran?ois Lechassier, priest, doctor of theology of the faculty of Paris, superior of the clergymen of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice of Paris who arethe noblemenownersof the said IsleofMontrealand other places, who(Vachon de Belmont) is assisted by Leonard Chaigneau, procurator and purser of the said clergymen in Villemarie, has recognized and confessedhaving leased and sold, right now and forevertoS?bastien CholetteditLaviolette weaver now present who accepts to buy ?Through thisdeed S?bastien Cholet bought a piece of land forty feet wide only on Notre Dame street, in the direction of Coteau Saint Louis. Was it his intention to build thererather than on the land he had boughtin 1707 ? The answer came two years later onSeptember 11th 1713 when in a deed drawn up by notary P. Raimbault he sold the same piece of land to Vincent Tudault, miller.Duringthat time S?bastien Choletand AnnHeard had five children whowere all baptized in the church ofNotre Dame in Montreal. Theywere :Marie-Anne, on July 26th 1706. Godfather : Jean Herv? dit Lalibert?, soldier of Blainville, godmother : Marie Benoist. Marie-Annewas married on January 14th 1726 in Pointe-Claire to Jean-Baptiste Legault, son of No?l and of Marie M?nard oftheparish of Lachine.Jean-Baptiste, on November 5th 1707. Godfather : Jean Renier, weaver, and godmother : SuzanneSire. He was married inPointe-Claire on October 11th 1728 to Marianne Foucher, daughter of Martin and of Marie-Madeleine Par?.Marie-Marthe, on July 6th 1709. Godfather : Sir Jean-Baptiste Montremont and godmother: Marthe-Marguerite French, daughter ofThomas French,a former notary in Deerfield, inNew England. It may be noted here that Deerfield was oneof the targets of the numerousraids carried out by Indians and Canadians in New England. The attack on Deerfield tookplace onFebruary 29th 1704, or onMarch 11th according to the Gregorian calendar. It wasno doubt themosttragic and barbaric. There were 112 prisoners,among whichmany women and children, who had to undertake an arduous walk towardMontreal, in snow and by cold weather. Manycould not support the journey and died on the way. Many of thosewhosurvived remained in Canada and becamethe ancestors ofa great manydescendants. Marie-Marthe was married inPointe-Claire on July 9th1731 to Jean-Baptiste Th?oret, son ofthe lateJacques Th?oret and of Marie Roy.She died and was buried in Pointe-Claire on January 21st 1748.Marie-Anne-Joseph, on February 27th 1711. Godfather : Master Louis-Hector Duvivier and godmother :MargueritePrud'homme.She was buried inMontreal on January 18th 1712.Joseph-S?bastien, on January 24th 1713.Godfather : Jean-BaptisteDagueuil and godmother : Mrs.Lericogne, widow.This is how the Choletfamily lived in Montreal until1714 when theybecame residents of Pointe-Clairewhere they continued tobe active.
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1677 - 1728 (~ 51 ans)