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- ! <http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=730&&PHPSESSID=ychzfqkvzape&PHPSESSID=ychzfqkvzape>Dictionary of Canadian Biography OnlineCUILLERIER, REN?, indentured employee of the H?tel-Dieu of Montreal,settler; b. c. 1639, probably at V?ron, in the diocese of Angers, son of Julien Cuillerier and Julienne Faifeu; d. c. 1712 at Montreal.Ren? Cuillerier arrived in New France on 7 Sept. 1659. On 8 June 1659, at La Rochelle, he had signed before the notary A. Demontreau an undertakingwith Sister Judith Moreau* de Br?soles, the superior of the H?tel-Dieu of Montreal. By this contract he became a servant at the hospital in Ville-Marie for an annual salary of 75 livres. By the autumn he was at Montreal, and on 25 Oct. 1661, with some settlers assisted by members of the garrison and led by Abb? Guillaume Vignal*, Cuillerier went to ?le de la Pierre, in the St Lawrence, to quarry materials with which to complete the building of the first seminary at Montreal. He had cause torueit, for the Iroquois were roaming the neighbourhood. The latter attacked the workers, killed some of them, wounded others, and captured Vignal, Claude de Brigeac*, Cuillerier, and Jacques Dufresne.Cuillerier and Brigeac were carried off into captivity among the Oneidas. They were subjected to a beating and Cuillerier had his nails torn out. The Indiansthen decided to burn the two Frenchmen. Death was first meted out to Brigeac, but Cuillerier was saved by an Indian woman who asked to adopt him ?in order that he might take the place of her brother.?During his captivity, which lasted 19 months, Cuillerier met other fellow-sufferers: Michel Messier, dit Saint-Michel, and Urbain Tessier, dit Lavigne. Inthe spring of 1663 Cuilleriertook advantage of a hunting trip with theOneidas, who had been joined by some Mohawks and captive Frenchmen, toflee in the direction of New Holland. He went to Fort Orange, whence he made his way to Boston, and finally reached Quebec.Cuillerier wasbackinMontreal at the end of the summer, and resumed his service with theReligious Hospitallers of the H?tel-Dieu. On 20 May 1665 he settled onMontreal Island, having obtained from the Sulpicians a land grant of 45 acres. This land was to formpart of theVerdun fief, which was granted to him in 1671. He took part in the founding of the parish of Lachineand in 1675 became its first churchwarden. The following year his fortified house received the name Fort Cuillerier. At the time ofthe1681 census hehad 32 acres under cultivation and owned 6 muskets, one pistol,and 6 head of cattle.On 22 March 1712 Cuillerier, who had been ill forsome time, made his will in the presence of Louis-Michel de Vilermaula*, parish priest of Lachine. His last willandtestament was deposited in Jean-Baptiste Adh?mar*?s registry on 26 Jan. 1716. Even if the date of his death is unknown to us, a notarial act of 27 Jan.1718, signed before the notary Adh?mar and deposited in Michel Lepallieur?s registry, indicatesthat Madame Lucault had ?been the widow of her said husband for morethan five years.?On 13 April 1665, in the chapel of the H?tel-Dieu of Montreal, Ren? Cuillerier had married Marie Lucault, daughter of L?onard Barbeau, dit Lucault,and of BarbePoisson. Sixteen children were born of this marriage; seven of them were baptized at Montreal and the others at Lachine.Claude PerraultAJM, Greffe de J.-B. Adh?mar; Greffede Michel Lepailleur de Lafert?; Registre d??tat civil de Lachine; Registresd??tatcivil de Notre-Dame de Montr?al. Archives de Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Fran?ois Citoys de Chaumaux, Estat des concessions faites parles seigneurs de Montr?al. JJ (Laverdi?re et Casgrain). Recensements duCanada, 1667, 1681 (Sulte).Camille Bertrand, Monsieur de La Dauversi?re, fondateur de Montr?al et des Religieuses hospitali?res de Saint-Joseph 1597?1659 (Montr?al, 1947), 230. [Faillon], Histoire de la colonie fran?aise. Archange Godbout, Les passagers du Saint-Andr?; la recrue de 1659 (Soci?t?g?n?alogique canadienne-fran?aise, V, Montr?al, 1964). Mondoux, L?H?tel-Dieu de Montr?al, 239, 246, 247.! <http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/hssh/article/viewFile/4299/3497>" .... In the second and more satisfying essay, Brand?o details hisreasons for attributingthe document to Ren? Cuillerier. At 20, Cuillerier emigrated from Anjou to Montrealasan indentured servant; two years later, in the fall of 1661, Mohawk and Oneidaraiders carried him off to Iroquoia. Adopted by an Oneida woman, Cuillerier laterescaped to seek refuge among the Dutch and subsequently made his way back to Canada.In Brand?o?s reconstruction of events, shortly after his return the Sulpiciansasked the young manto give an account of hisexperiences among the Oneidas. Twodocuments allegedly resulted. The first, a captivity narrative, was forwarded totheHistoire sociale ? Social History, vol. XXXVIII, no 75 (mai-May 2005)Comptes rendus / Book Reviews 125Jesuits for inclusion in theRelation of1665.The second,the Abreg?, remained in thepossession of the Sulpicians who, four years later, would begin a mission to the Iroquoissettlements on the north shore of Lake Ontario (pp. 33?35). As Brand?o freelyconcedes, this hypothesis regarding the text?s genesis,however plausible, lacks firmevidence (pp. 32?33). more certain are the subsequent peregrinations of the text.Nation Iroquoise was without doubt one of the sources used by Antoine-Denis Raudotin his manuscript memoironNorth America (circa 1709), which the Jesuit PierreFran?ois-Xavier Charlevoix in turn consultedfor his Histoire et description g?n?ralede l?Am?rique septentrionale (1744) (pp. 21?25). Sometime before the Revolution,the only extant copyof the Abreg?made its way into thecollection of the Sulpicianmother community in Paris.The transcription of the document appears meticulous and the facing-page translationis intelligent and restrained.Each has its own set of notes: those accompanyingthetranscription focus on the peculiarities of the manuscript itself, while thoseaccompanying the translation explicate the content. The archaisms and lack of punctuationin the transcription will deter all but specialists, who are certain, however, toappreciate the editor?sdedication toaccuracy. Not wishing to impose their owninterpretations upon a number of ambiguous passages in the original or to obscureCuillerier?s occasional efforts to render Iroquois expressions into French, Brand?oandtranslator K. Janet Ritchhave optedfor a literal translation. Thus French famillebecomes English ?family?, even though (as a note explains) the term was evidentlyintended to designate a clan or clan segment (p. 63). A rare exceptionto this policyisthedecision to render French sauvage as?Native? rather than?savage? (p. 130,n. 5).Cuillerier?s report, written in the seventeenth-century equivalent of the ?ethnographicpresent?, favours simple, concrete description and tends overallto belessjudgemental than the writings of missionaries. Many of the conventional ethnographiccategories of the era are invoked (physique, virtues, vices, superstitions,funerals, mental faculties), but the Abreg? stands out for the detail it provides onIroquoiscouncils, a topic that occupies overone-thirdof thetext.Cuillerier makesclear that Iroquois women spoke in council and initiated mourning wars (pp. 62, 66,74?76), anticipating the Jesuit Joseph-Fran?ois Lafitau?s remarks by more than ahalf-century. Little of the author?s personalitycomesthrough in this short text ?perhaps because, as Brand?o surmises, the unlettered Cuillerier likely dictated hisreport to a Sulpician scribe (p. 34). From an era whose textual legacy to the presentis dominated bythe writings of missionaries,theAbreg?joins the works of Champlain,Radisson, Denys, and de Liette in delivering a lay person?s first-hand impressionsof seventeenth-century Native cultures. Brand?o prefers to emphasize thedocument?ssignificance for providing evidenceof the antiquity ofIroquois politicalarrangements (pp. 36?37), noting that the Abreg? does not so much add to ourknowledge of seventeenth-century Iroquois culture as it confirms the evidencegleaned from other, better-known sources...."
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1637 - 1713 (~ 75 ans)
