Notes |
- From "Les Trois marriages de Claire Langlois", Contact-Acadie No 7 (Dec 1985), pp. 15-18, by Stephen A. White; translated in April 1999 by Bob Landry (with some minor corrections):
In his correspondence with Placide Gaudet, Bernard A Pâté, an ardent amateur of Acadian genealogy repeatedly made reference to Claire Langlois' marriages (in letters of: September 12, 1898, pages 2-3; October 6, 1898, pages 4-5, and 7-8; and September 4, 1899 [CEA] of Placide Gaudet, 1.66-16, 17, 67-7.)
According to Bernard, Claire was first married around 1730 to his ancestor, Jean Pâté. On September 12, 1898, he says that Claire married for a third time to a Maillet, whom he did not know the first name, but he changed his opinion three weeks later, that is on the 6th of October, suggesting that Claire was married to Mr. Maillet shortly after the death of her first husband, Jean. This was from the first part of the genealogy of the Samsons of Cape Breton (a work which is sufficiently complete for the Samsons of L'Ardoise), on the 8th page, where he explained that some of the elders of L'Ardoise suggested that Claire Langlois married a Josse, in addition to Mr. Pâté and Mr. Maillet, but he gave no indication of the order of these three marriages. Based on all these references, it is evident that Mr. Pâté was confused concerning the question of the marriages of Claire Langlois. Despite the confusion, we can nevertheless discern the presence of a sufficiently strong tradition that Claire Langlois was married three times.
Authors, notably Placide Gaudet and Father Archange Godbout only attribute to Claire Langlois two spouses: Jean Pâté and Jean Maillet (P. Gaudet, Genealogies acadiennes (typed manuscript) p. 2793-1 and R.P.A. Godbout (Dictionnaire des Acadiens, Volume 2 page 428). These two marriages were amply documented. In the 1752 census of Sieur de La Rocque can be found Jean ''Mayet'' and his spouse Claire Langlois, with their children Jean-Marie, whose age was 12 years; Jean-Pierre, 8 years; François, 6 years; Marie, three years; and a fifth child, not named during the enumeration. On October 3, 1771, at L'Ardoise harbour, the missionary, Charles François Bailly revalidated the marriage of Jean-Marie, son of a preceding marriage of Claire Langlois and that of Marie Maillet, daughter of Jean Maillet. We therefore have the certainty that Claire Langlois had married the two persons indicated above by Gaudet and Godbout.
In examining the document entitled "General Listing of the Families of Officers and Residents in the Colony of Ile Royale During the Present Year 1749" (Colonial Archives, C1 466, no. 76), we note, in the family of François Langlois and Henriette Bénard, the presence of Cécile Detcheverry, ''his niece''. This Cécile Detcheverry is the one who would marry two years later in Port Toulouse with Pierre Girouard. Given that Henriette Bénard, the eldest of her family was born, according to the census of La Roque, around 1719, it is not possible to link Cécile Detcheverry to the Bénard family, the latter being born, according to the same census, around 1732. The mother of Cécile Detcheverry was, therefore a sister of François Langlois, but which? A second look at the census of Sieur de La Rocque leads us to believe that it was, in effect, our Claire Langlois.
In 1752, we find most of the Langlois family established along the north shore of Ile Madame, to the south of L'Ile Royale; old François and Madeleine Comeau, his spouse were still alive, surrounded by their married children, Catherine, Madeleine, Marie, François, Nicolas and Marguerite. The only one still single at the time of the census, Joseph, lived in the paternal home. Their daughter, Claire, lived a bit apart, in Petit de Grat. We have already indicated that she was the spouse of Jean Maillet at the time of the census and that she had with her five young children. What struck us when studying the census again, however, is that the immediately preceding families were that of Marie Detcheverry, married for approximately two years to a Basque fisherman named Jean Daguerre and that of Cécile Detcheverry, married to Pierre Girouard. Given that the 1749 census revealed to us that Cécile was the daughter of a sister of Francois Langlois, and that the only one of his sisters established at the same place as Cécile in 1752 was Claire, we concluded that Claire Langlois was the mother of Cécile. We should mention here that there are other good reasons why the sisters of François could not be the mother of Cécile but we do not want to take up more space in trying to elaborate on them. Claire Langlois was therefore, like her old father, surrounded by her children at the time of the visit of Sieur de La Rocque.
It remains for us to identify Monsieur Detcheverry, the first husband of Claire Langlois. This task is rather easy. In the 1734 census of Port Toulouse (Colonial Archives, G1 466, no b9) there appears only one Detcheverry, Joannis Detcheverry Basque navigator from Saint-Jean de Luz.
An additional detail confirms the identification; in the census Joannis Detcheverry directly follows François Langlois. We noted that there were many other old colonists who followed their sons and sons-in-law in this census, such as François Coste, for example, followed by his son (Jacques dit) Jacob and his sons-in-law Pierre Bois, Joseph Dugas and Barthélemy Petitpas.
Bernard Pâté was therefore on the right track. His ancestor Claire Langlois had three husbands, Joannis Detcheverry dit Miquemak, who she married around 1717, Jean Pâté who she married around 1738, and Jean Maillet who she married around 1741.
Note, in concluding, that Claire Langlois was the ancestor of all the Girouards and Pâtés of Richmond County, of all the Berthiers and Laurents of L'Ardoise, and of all the Maillets (which became Myette) of Chezzetcook, Tracadie and L'Ardoise, Nova Scotia.
(Signed) Stephen A. White
|