But it was too small and must give place to another--a real parish
church, large, dignified and commodious, to meet the needs of the
expanding corporation. The cherished decorations and the altar
furniture and plate, which were gifts from rich friends in France,
would still be a link between the old and the new, and thus its memory
would be kept forever green.
The old chapel church still continued its work. It witnessed, on May
28th of the year following, 1654, the marriage of Charles Le Moyne with
the adopted daughter of Antoine Primot and Martine Mercier, his wife,
whom we know as the valiant and chaste Parmenda. This girl, Catherine
Thierry, probably a niece of Madame Primot, had been brought as a
child of one year to Montreal in 1642, and she was commonly known as
Catherine Primot and was now fourteen years of age. This union begot
the famous Le Moyne family. Their first home was on the arpent town
lot near the hospital. On February 3rd the fort chapel witnessed the
marriage of Jean Gervaise and Anne Archambault, who also reared one of
the most numerous and honourable families of Montreal. This was the
fourth marriage of the thirteen occurring this year.
The history of Anne Archambault gives us an insight into one of the
few scandals of the time. This was Anne's second marriage, having
been married before the church in Quebec in July, 1647, to a Michel
Chauvin, _dit_ Ste Suzanne who had been sent out by de la Dauversière
to Montreal in the service of the Company in 1644.
In 1650 Louis Prud'homme, of whom we have made mention already, had
on a voyage to France discovered that Chauvin had deserted his wife,
and on returning to Montreal he had notified the authorities, so that
on October 8, 1650, Chauvin acknowledged freely before Jean Saint
Père, the official notary of justice, that some seven years before
leaving France for Canada he had married Louise de Liles. He then
hurriedly departed for Quebec and took the first boat back to France.
Anne Archambault had one child by this scoundrel, born on April
5th following. To sympathize with her Jeanne Mance and M. Charles
d'Ailleboust des Musseaux were the godparents.
To the great joy of the colony, Anne Archambault was honourably
remarried on February 3, 1654, to Jean Gervaise, one of the recruits
brought over by de Maisonneuve in the previous autumn. The esteem of
the public was manifested to offset the unaccustomed scandal that had
arisen in their midst. One child, Charlotte Chauvin, was reared by
these two and for this purpose the governor gave special assistance on
behalf of the Company. At this time there were also several orphans,
children of soldiers that had died in battle with the Iroquois, and for
these de Maisonneuve also provided.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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