After winning the Seven Years War the British Crown was faced with what to do with the remaining French population in Canada. Only 5 years previously in 1755, the British deported over 10,000 Acadians out Acadia out of fear of the population's allegiance to the French Crown when they took over from the French. The "Great Upheaval" from 1755 to 1764 destroyed prosperous farms and dispersed the population many of whom died on the transport ships while others were imprisoned. Fortunately for the population in Quebec, the British took a more conciliatory approach.
Unfortunately for the British, this decision alienated the population in the Thirteen Colonies. The resistance to the Stamp Act which was passed in 1765 to raise funds to pay for the cost of the defense of the American Colonies during the Seven Years War was the beginning of the end for the relationship between the British Crown and the American colonists.
In 1774, while Marie Magdeleine Bertrand and Jean-Charles Renaud were expecting their first child Marie Magdelene, the passage of the "Coercive" or "Intolerable Acts" in 1774 gave birth to the first shots of the American Revolution a year later in April 1775.[i] When the shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, Marie was pregnant for a second time and on 5 January 1776 Marie Magdeleine and Jean-Charles rang in the new year with the birth of twin sons, Charles and Etienne.[ii]
If the order that the names appear in the baptismal records are any indication, Charles was born first. His godfather was his maternal grandfather Jean Baptiste Bertrand, and his godmother was Josette Pilote. Etienne's birth must have been difficult since he was baptized "sous condition," which indicates that Etienne may have undergone an emergency baptism at birth under the belief that his survival was in question. Catholic doctrine stipulated that a person can only be baptized once. Under these circumstances the priest will perform a baptism "sous condition" if there is doubt that Etienne was really baptized or whether it had been done correctly. Etienne's godfather was Etienne Laviolette, and his godmother was Marguerite St. Jean.
It is not known if Jean-Charles and Marie Magdelene knew they were having twins. There were methods by which experienced midwives could detect twins in the 18th Century, so it is possible they knew. They appear to have been prepared with two sets of godparents, but these individuals could have been identified post birth as well.
Six months after Charles and Etienne were born, the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence giving birth to a new national spirit that would raise questions for the former members of La Nouvelle France. The conquest of 1760 was still fresh, and it was not at all clear whether the French inhabitants of Canada would side with the Americans or the British. The response was by no means uniform either. The Americans actively courted the French population. The First Continental Congress issued the "Address to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec" to encourage support for the defeat of the British. The clergy and the seigneurs resisted the appeal and while there was sympathy among the population for democratic ideals, they were tempered by the mistrust for the Protestant Americans and the hostile history which included previous armed assaults against Acadia. As a result, most habitants remained neutral. These circumstances demonstrated that the French inhabitants could be become "British" without becoming English.[iii]
The war could have had another effect since Jean-Charles and Marie Magdelene would not produce another child until over four years later. It is possible that there were unsuccessful pregnancies during this period, but there is no evidence to support this. It is also possible that Jean-Charles was unavailable as the Legislative Council passed the Militia Act in response to the American invasion of Quebec and occupation of Montreal required military service of all habitants on March 29, 1777. This Act was unpopular with the French, and it is hard to say what it entailed but it may have been enough to prevent Jean-Charles and Marie Magdelene from growing their family. Bourgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in 1777 also put the Canadian British on alert for a possible renewed American assault on Canada. The courting of an alliance with France by the Americans also raised the possibility of a return of French rule to Canada. The uncertainties of the war could have also played a role in the gap between children.[iv]
The drought would finally end on April 20, 1780, when 43-year-old Jean Charles and the soon to be 21-year-old Marie Magdelene welcomed their fourth child Jean-Baptiste. His godfather was his maternal uncle, Jean-Baptiste Gignac who was the husband of Marie-Magdelene's younger sister Marie-Charlotte Bertrand. The godmother was Chaterine Bergeron.[v]
At some point in 1781, Jean-Charles and Marie-Magdelene gave birth to another son François. I cannot locate a birth record for François. The only documentary evidence to support his existence is a marriage record from August 27, 1805, noting his marriage to Josephte Meloche, the daughter of Pierre Meloche and Catherine Campau. The witnesses were Charles and Louis Reaume.[vi]
On May 22, 1783, the Renaud family welcomed another child also named Jean-Baptiste. Normally this would suggest that his brother, born in 1780 also named Jean-Baptiste, would have been deceased. However, I can find no record of a death or burial for Jean-Baptiste (1780) prior to 1783. Further confusing the situation is the marriage record for Jean-Baptiste to Josephte Martin on April 15, 1799. It is hard to believe that the Jean-Baptiste born in 1783 would have gotten married in 1799 at the age of sixteen. Even if this refers to the Jean-Baptiste born in 1780, he would have only been nineteen, which is still remarkably early. There is a record of an inhumation for Jean-Baptiste Reneau in 1815, but it does not provide any indication of his age. All I can be sure of is that there was a child of Jean-Charles and Marie Magdelene named Jean-Baptiste that was baptized in 1780 and another that was baptized in 1783. It is best to assume that the first Jean-Baptiste died prior to 1783 and inexplicably, the younger Jean-Baptiste married at age 16 to Josephte Martin on 15 April 1799. I looked to see if there was any record of a child born within 9 months of this date as a reason for this marriage but could not find one. Josephte was allegedly also sixteen being born in 1783 but the record I found indicates that child's father was Pierre Martin while the marriage record indicates her father was François though the mother in both documents is identified as Amable Coquillard.[vii]
In 1785 the string of male children continued for Jean-Charles and Marie Magdeleine with the birth of Louis, their sixth consecutive male birth on 13 February. Louis' god parents were mis maternal uncle Jean-Baptiste Bertrand and Marie Archange Pageot. Neither godparent knew how to sign their name which was common for the time.[viii]
It had been over twenty years since the conquest by the British. The identity of the French population was evolving. They no longer shared a unified identity as subjects of the French Crown. They were a people set apart by language and the divisions within their own populations became evident. The French clergy and Seigneurs increasingly believed that they should be loyal to the British Crown. The American Revolution introduced the concept of liberty to the population that was still wary of the Americans who decades previously had periodically attacked the French settlements. The introduction of the Loyalist population into Canada created anxieties of displacement even though the French outnumbered the newcomers. The merchant class both French and English brought their own competing interests. Then there were the British ruling class trying to transform this former French Colony into a contributing member of the British Empire. There was a continual churn in the leadership class and in 1786 the former Governor Guy Carleton returned to lead the effort in Quebec this time as Lord Dorchester. He was no longer as sympathetic to the French concerns as he previously was.
Through it all, the Renaud clan continued to grow. The string of male children ended on 18 October 1786 with the birth of their second daughter, Archange. The godfather was once again Jean-Baptiste Bertrand, and the godmother was Marie Magdeleine Pajot. Archange had a fascinating life and was said to be 97 years old in her colorful obituary. The mother of thirteen children, her ten children produced 103 offspring. Archange was the ancestor of over five hundred descendants at the time of the obituary. Remarkably, during the War of 1812, she is described as having to hide in the woods from enemy troops where she gave birth to a daughter.[ix] Shortly after their 15th wedding anniversary, Jean-Charles and Marie Magdeleine welcomed their 9th child, Joseph, on 29 July 1788. He was baptized on the following day. His godparents were Joseph Cauté and Catherine Meté.[x] While the following year did not see any new children added to the family, it did birth a movement that would have significant consequences for Europe and the French population with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and the adoption by the National Assembly of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and off the Citizen the following month. The spirit of Revolution that had cleaved the American colonies from the British Empire, had now spread to the European mainland and the former homeland of the French population was at the center. A year after the attack on the Bastille, Jean-Charles and Marie Magdeleine brought forth their 10th child and 8th son, Pierre, on 23 July 1790. His godparents were his 14-year-old brother, Charles, and Marie Jeane Pageot.[xi]
By this time, the tensions between the English and French speaking populations were growing. The approach of the British Crown had been accommodationist to the French so far but the growing English-speaking population in the former French colonies were making this approach more of a challenge. There was a growing diversity of interests from two distinct cultures and governmental traditions pressing on the traditional interests of the clergy, seigneurial and merchant classes as well as those of the habitants. The solution was the Constitutional Act of 1791 which split the province of Quebec in two, Upper and Lower Canada. The names Upper and Lower were derived from the flow of the St Lawrence waterway. Upper Canada, modern day Ontario, was closer to the headwaters of the St Lawrence while Lower Canada, modern day Quebec, was downriver and closer to the mouth of the St Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. The importance of the Act and its ramifications are far too numerous to adequately cover in this post. What I find notable is that because of this Act, a portion of the French speaking population would lose their identity as Quebecois and in time become the Franco-Ontarians, some of whom in later generations would further lose their identity as francophones. The limitations of the Act would also contribute to the rebellions of 1837-38.[xii]
At the time of the passage of the Constitutional Act, Marie Magdeleine was pregnant with their 11th child. Marie-Louise Reneau was born on 26 June 1792 and baptized the following day. Her godparents were her 16-year-old brother Etienne and yet another member of the Pageot family, Catherine.[xiii]
Meanwhile, the Revolution in France continued to alarm Europe and the British Crown as the monarchy was abolished and the First French Republic established in September of 1792. While it was now 32 years since the British victory on the Plains of Abraham, the British hold on the colonies was not a given. While the threat of a reconquest by the French may have been remote, even the author of the Constitutional Act of 1791, believed that Canada would eventually go its own way.[xiv]
For the French Canadians, the ongoing revolution created a conflict for their traditional loyalties. On 21 January 1793, King Louis XVI was guillotined and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, met the same fate in October of that year, bringing on what has come to be known as the Reign of Terror which would last through 1794. In response, the Bishop of Quebec Jean-François Hubert called upon all French in his circular of 9 November 1793 to be loyal to the British Crown. It was believed that the new French Republic would mount a naval expedition to Canada. Hubert proclaimed that it was their duty to 'drive the French from this province." Threats of invasion also came from the newly formed United States of America. In May 1794 Lord Dorchester called out the militia to prevent an invasion through Vermont.[xv]
To what degree these events and political concerns seeped into the everyday lives of habitants like Jean-Charles, I cannot say. It did not stop him from growing his family. Marie-Magdeleine spent the bulk of 1793 pregnant with their 12th child and gave birth to another son, Antoine, on January 17, 1794. He was baptized the next day. His godparents were his soon to be married 19-year-old sister Marie-Magdeleine and her fiancé Jean Baptiste Robidou.[xvi]
The turbulence caused by the French Revolution persisted in Canada reaching another head in 1796 when a ship that contained 20,000 muskets destined for French-Canadians to support a revolution in Canada was captured in the English Channel. The unrest was quelled in 1797 with the public hanging of David McLane an American merchant accused of being a spy for France and for recruiting for supporters to seize Quebec.[xvii]
Like the rumors of invasion, Jean-Charles' fertility persisted. On April 1, 1796, the 59-year-old Jean-Charles and soon to be 37-year-old Marie-Magdeleine welcomed their 13th child, a son named Dominique. His godfather was his elder brother Jean Baptiste Reneau. His godmother is a mystery as her given name is left blank and only the surname Meloche appears in the record. There is a blank space before the surname as if the recorder had temporarily forgotten the name and hoped to go back and enter it later. [xviii]
Remarkably, Jean-Charles was not done! He was just months away from his 63rd birthday when his nearly 40-year-old wife gave birth to their 14th child, a daughter named Josephte on July 10, 1799. She was baptized the next day. Her godparents were her 18-year-old brother François and Archange Anatailla. Unfortunately, just a month later, on the night of August 14th, Josephte died. She was buried the next day. Her brother Etienne and Josephte Mailloux were noted as present for the burial.[xix]
Josephte was not the only casualty. On October 27th, Marie-Magdelene passed at the age of forty. We do not know if the birth and death of Josephte contributed to her death. She was buried the next day and the witnesses to the burial were two of her brothers-in-law, Jean-Baptiste Gignac (husband of Marie Charlotte Bertrand) and Jean-Baptiste LaFramboise (husband of Elizabeth Bertrand).[xx] About two weeks later, the French Revolution ended as Napoleon Bonaparte seized power on November 9th.
Jean-Charles would see the beginning of the 19th Century but not much beyond that. On the morning of January 25, 1801, Jean-Charles died. He was buried the following day. The record of the inhumation lists him as "Jean Charles" whereas he had consistently been listed in all the previous entries as simply Charles. His surname is recorded as Reneau as it had been for much of his life. The witnesses to his burial were Jean Baptiste Gignac and Jean-Baptiste Antailla.[xxi]
The only male child of Charles Renaud, Jean-Charles did not have his first child until he was nearly 38. The continuance of La Ligne was in danger if not for his marriage to the 14-year-old Marie-Magdeleine Bertrand who would spend the equivalent of 10 years pregnant, nearly 25 percent of her life. It is remarkable that he and Marie Magdeleine would subsequently produce fourteen children over the next 25 years thereby ensuring that La Ligne would continue into the 19th Century.
ENDNOTES
[i] Marie’s godparents were Thomas Pajot and Marie Magdelene Martin. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61505/images/FS_005107031_00100?pId=733405 Ancestry.com, Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923 Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. (2017) Lehi, UT.
[ii] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61505/images/FS_005107007_00434?pId=15293612 Ancestry.com, Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923.
[iii] Mason Wade, The French Canadians 1760–1967: Volume One 1760–1911, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada, 1968), 65–69.
[iv] Wade, 73-74.
[v] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61505/images/FS_005107007_00448?pId=293873Ancestry.com, Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923; and http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/detroit1.htm
[vi] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32281688?pId=14722 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.Original data - Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec. Also https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61505/images/FS_005107032_00157?pId=865516
[vii] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150559?pId=134603 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954. For the marriage record see https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150735?pId=148877 and https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61505/images/FS_005107032_00148?pId=865432 Ancestry.com, Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923. The burial record is available at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32290364?pId=203849 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[viii] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150577?pId=148667Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[ix] Archange’s birth record is available at Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150596?pId=148907 Archange’s obituary is available at https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/48244292/person/12874021491/media/1de58371-8eca-4a16-b11b-86add187e375?galleryindex=1&sort=-created.
[x] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150612?pId=134643 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xi] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150630?pId=148408Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xii] Although he does not make the specific arguments that I put forth, Wade’s coverage of the Constitutional Act of 1791 inspired my view. Wade p. 86. See also https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitutional-act-1791.
[xiii] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150648?pId=147994 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xiv] Wade, p. 87.
[xv] Wade pp. 98-99.
[xvi] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150665?pId=148524 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xvii] Wade, p. 99.
[xviii] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150693?pId=148735Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xix] The baptismal record is available at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150741?pId=148255. The burial record can be viewed https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150742?pId=148823. Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xx] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150745?pId=134521 Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.
[xi] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1111/images/d13p_32150764?pId=147464Ancestry.com Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954.