OUR ANCESTORS LOUIS PILET DIT JOLICOEUR
AND THÉRÈSE BARBEAU DIT BOISDORÉ

It was aboard the "Le François", a 4th-row Roy's vessel, armed with 46 cannons (1) and commanded by Captain Nicolas Gédéon de Voutron, that the young Louis Pilet arrived in Quebec on September 23, 1716 (2) with 190 recruits of fresh draft, 20 which had already been attributed to the company of Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, the son of Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of New France (1634-1725), and 20 others to the company of Captain Amariton (3). We do not know exactly the age of our ancestor when he arrived but by backdating, that is to say by taking the date of an event with which he is associated and his given age at that time, we can locate his year of birth either in 1698 or 1699 but more probably in 1698. The young Louis was therefore most probably 18 years old at the time of his arrival. Following this two-month trip, Louis was hospitalized at the Hôtel-Dieu on September 23 for a few hours, during routine examination where he was enrolled, he wrote: “Du dit Louis pilet aged 18 from paris sotis “. On October 1st, we still know this in Quebec City because he will be hospitalized again at the Hôtel-Dieu, this time for a period of three days. A short time later, during a review of the new recruits on Place d'Armes in Quebec City, Louis was assigned to a company, probably that of Jean-Paul Legardeur St-Pierre, received captain on July 1, 1715.

The first trace of Louis Pilet, as a soldier of the Troupes de la Marine, is around 1717-1718. In fact, Louis will then testify in Montreal at a trial of soldiers accused of having made counterfeit money (4). During this trial, which lasted several months, he still presented himself as a simple soldier and said he belonged to the company of Saint-Pierre. It is the first known mention of his nickname or nom de guerre "Jolicoeur". It is not known exactly the first military duty stations of Louis Pilet dit Jolicoeur but if we trust the career of Captain St-Pierre, it is very likely that he followed his captain to Pays-d'en-Haut, more precisely to Chagouamigo (currently in Wisconsin), a strategic fort built on the south shore of Lake Superior where Captain St-Pierre will spend a large part of his career as a captain. It may even be that Louis Pilet took part in an expedition to this place in the autumn of 1716, in the company of Captain St-Pierre. He had just received the order to go to the western end of Lake Superior to invite the "Sauteux" Indians to take part in a council in Montreal. This meeting finally took place in July 1718 in the presence of Governor Vaudreuil (5). Despite the remoteness of his post, Captain St-Pierre made frequent visits to Montreal, which was then the gateway to Pays-d'en-Haut and the center of the fur trade in the colony (5). It is therefore not surprising to find traces of Louis Pilet dit Jolicoeur in this city during his first years on Canadian soil.
Louis remained in the service of Mr. St-Pierre until his death in Chagouamigon in the winter of 1722-1723 (5). In the records of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, where he was hospitalized from May 25 to 29, 1723, Louis was registered there for the first time as a “sergeant” of Captain St-Pierre’s company. After the death of Captain St-Pierre, Louis found himself in Quebec under the orders of Captain Pierre-François Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the younger brother of Pierre Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnal whose first recruits had crossed La Rochelle-Québec with Louis in 1716. It was under the orders of Captain Rigaud (whom he was so named to distinguish him from his brother Vaudreuil-Cavagnal), who had become captain in 1724 (6) that he served when he entered into a lease for a “fired chamber” in 1727 on rue St-Joseph (currently rue Garneau) for his marriage to Thérèse Barbeau dit Boisdoré (7)
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The marriage between Louis and Thérèse will be celebrated without the publication of banns on February 19, 1727 at Notre-Dame Church in Québec City. Thérèse is a minor since she is only 18 years old while Louis is 29 years old. Thérèse Barbeau dit Boisdoré (1709-1747) is the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Barbeau dit Boisdoré (1661-1714), also known as François-Jean Barbeau dit Boisdoré, and Marie Denoyon (1671-1750) of the parish Sainte-Famille de Boucherville. She is the thirteenth of fifteen children born to the couple. The marriage contract was signed on February 18, 1727 by notary Jean-Étienne Dubreuil in the presence of her mother Marie Denoyon, Louis' witness, Captain François Amariton, his stepfather Daniel Beauregard, his brothers-in-law Pierre Lamotte and Sieur Pierre Chaloux as well as two witnesses: Jean Brassard and François Levitre (9). The next day, they were also present at their wedding, celebrated by the priest Étienne Boullard, his comrades-in-arms, Sergeants Laurent Deparois and Léonard Saint-Simon. Thérèse, not knowing how to write, will put an X at the bottom of the marriage contract. Louis, his witnesses and his friends will sign the official document. Louis and Thérèse will have 12 children, all born in Quebec, including: Laurent (born 08/30/1727; death date unknown), Jean-Louis (born 05/19/1729; died 05/4/1733), Pierre (born 16/09/1730; died 2/11/1730), Vincent-Maurice (baptized 22/01/1733; died 5/10/1803); Louise (baptized 10/12/1734; died 11/02/1809), Antoine (born 19/11/1736; death date unknown), Marie-Louise alias Thérèse 1st (baptized 28/03/1738; died 1/12/ 1811), François-Louis (born 18/02/1740; died 15/07/1818), Marie-Anne alias Catherine (baptized 24/02/1742; died
19/05/1829), Élisabeth (baptized 27/11/1744; death date unknown), Thérèse 2nd (born 24/05/1746; died 6/07/1746) and Marie-Madeleine (born 14/11/1747; death date unknown).
After his marriage, Louis remained for a few years at the service of Captain Pierre-François Rigaud de Vaudreuil.
But he was very often absent from Quebec and played an obliterated role in the Troops, mainly concerned with his advancement and his interests (6). This is perhaps why, in 1735, Louis Pilet was again in the service of Captain Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Roch de Ramezay, who had been promoted captain since 1731. During this term, he testified in Quebec City at the trial of Léonard Dufour dit Prêt à Boire, 60, a soldier of Rigaud's company, accused of the kidnap and rape of the 6-year-old Angélique Morin (9). In 1742, Louis was still in Quebec City, having been
present present on February 27 of that year at the wedding of Joseph Roy and Marie-Josephe Chalou (his niece), the daughter of Pierre Chalou and Marie Barbeau dit Boisdoré. In April of the same year, he was a witness at the wedding of Louis Aubry and Elizabeth Hubert.
The census of Québec city in 1744 tells us that Louis and Thérèse now live with their seven children on rue Sainte-Anne in Québec. In addition to being a sergeant in the Troupes de la Marine, Louis also declared that he works as a day laborer (10)
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In 1745, when the English threatened to take the fortress of Louisbourg, Louis Pilet was sent to Rivière-du-Loup, the beginning of the long portage leading to Acadia, to carry orders. Louis Pilet was awarded a reimbursement mark of £94 for expenses incurred during this trip (11).
Louis died on June 1st, 1747 at the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec at the age of 48 after a 19-day hospitalization (May 12-June 1). In the register of sick people at Hôtel-Dieu and Madeleine's birth certificate, it is mentioned that he is attached to Captain Raymond’s company (Raimond), the same company in which his son Laurent, also a member of the Troupes de la Marine, served (12). He will be buried the next day in the cemetery of the poor, located within the walls of this institution. His wife was killed the same year, November 25, 1747, 10 days after the birth of Marie-Madeleine. She was 40 years old and will be buried in the cemetery of the tingled (picotés).
Our ancestor will be given several first names other than Louis appearing on his contract and his marriage certificate. But having no birth certificate, we have no way to verify its accuracy. Thus, at the baptism of his son Pierre in 1730, the celebrant designated the father of the child under the first name of François. During the census of 1744 and upon his death in 1747, he was referred to as Louis-Hervé. Finally, at the wedding of Marie-Catherine or Louise-Catherine, when he is deceased, he will be given the first name of Laurent. The name of Pilet will be spelled in several ways in the registers and archives (Pillet, Pilette).
All the descendants of Louis Pilet dit Jolicoeur come from the marriage of the couple's third child, that of Vincent-Maurice with Geneviève Godbout from Saint-Laurent, Ile-d‘Orléans (1728-1795). From the middle of the 19th century, the descendants abandoned the name of Pilet dit Jolicoeur to adopt only the nickname of Jolicoeur.
Sources
1 Correspondence of May 12, 1995 between René Jolicoeur and Mr. Philippe Henrat, Chief Curator at the National Archives of France (in 1991)
2 De Voutron, Nicolas Roch. 1716. Diary of Sieur de Voutron commanding the vessel of Roy Le François. Travel from Larochelle to Quebec. 1716. CARAN. 5th division. No 6. Mar4JJ / 11.
3 Correspondence of February 23, 1995 between René Jolicoeur and Mr. Fardet, Conservator of Heritage at the National Marine Service of Rochefort.
4 Testimony of Louis at the counterfeiters trial in Montreal. National Library and Archives of Quebec.
5 Chaput, Donald. Jean-Paul Legardeur of Saint-Pierre. Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
6 Hamelin, Jean and Jacqueline Roy. François-Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil. Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
7 Rental lease for a firebox on St-Joseph Street. Bail, Jean Brassard in Jolicoeur on 09-30-1727. Notary Dubreuil (# 2924)
8 Dubreuil notary marriage contract. February 18, 1727 (# 285)
9 Testimony of Louis at the trial of Léonard Dufour dit Prêt-à-Boire. National Library and Archives of Quebec.
10 The Census of Quebec in 1744. Page 26.
11 Statement of the expenditure made on the occasion of the party sent to war in Acadia, under the command of Sieur Marin de la Malgue both in Quebec before his departure and on the journey to Acadia. General correspondence. Canada. C11A series. R11577-4-2-F.
12 Lessard, Rénald, Les Compagnies franches de la Marine at the end of the French Regime: a new database to
commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Sainte-Foy. Quebec genealogical society.