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  Researching the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
  Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada

The Administration Of Justice At The Fortress Of Louisbourg (1713-1758)

1744 - 1745
 

• Procédure criminelle instruite à la requête de Angélique Butel, épouse du Sr. [Quentin] le Lièvre marchand contre Servanne Bonnier, femme de Pierre Santier. 1744-1745. 11 p. 32 f. G2 199 Dossier 190 H J 31 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, G2, Volume 199

• Registre pour servir à l'enregistrement des sentences rendues au Bailliage royal de Louisbourg, pour sentences rendues en matière criminelle. 1734-1745. 44 folios. G2 196 Liasse No. 122 H J 31 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, G2, Volume 196, July 8, 1744

Short Version

... a notorious gossip, Perrine Bonnier, was walking along the road and heard a child being beaten. She walked into the house, scolded the mother, then left; going across rue St.-Louis to tell the news to M. Deschamps in his Inn in Block 16. She was painting a fine picture for Deschamps when suddenly the mother appeared at the Deschamps door. An argument ensued in which Bonnier shouted that the mother was a prostitute who liked making children, but wasn't so good at raising them. Everyone on the street heard the argument which continued for a long time, much to the delight of every gossip in town. [R. J. Morgan, Gossips' Tour of Louisbourg, Unpublished Report H F 30 (Fortress of Louisbourg, July, 1975), pp. 7-8.]

Detailed version

Another event which distractred people's attention from the war was a noisy bout of name-calling that took place one Friday evening early in the month ... Whether one heard the yelling that night or simply heard about it the next day, the episode precipitated a great deal of gossip in Louisbourg. The incident began around nine o'clock in the evening of 3 July. A window was broken at the house of Quentin LeLievre on Rue Saint Louis and, believing her daughter had done it, LeLievre's wife, Angélique Butel began to beat the girl. Servanne Bonnier, wife of butcher Pierre Santier, was walking down the street with a young child in her arms when she heard the commotion within LeLievre's house and went to the door of the house to intercede on the child's behalf. A heated exchange followed in which Bonnier voiced a host of inflammatory accusations at Butel. Among the most serious were charges that Butel had borne two children in France, whose fathers were not her husband, and that she had already killed one child and wished to do the same to her only remaining one. The most memorable phrase Bonnier used was that Butel was "a cheap whore who liked the act but not the children ["une Bougre de putain qui aimant bien à Baiser, mais qu'elle n'aimoit point ses enfans"]. Butel replied in kind, charging that Bonnier's whole family deserved to be hanged and that Bonnier herself could not return to France because of the illegitimate child she had had in Louisbourg ten years before. A third woman present in the LeLievre house at the time, Marie Madelaine Isabel, who had been visiting Butel, then left the house, taking with her the girl whom Butel was beating when the incident began. First Bonnier and then Butel followed her across the street  and into the the tavern operated by Isabel's husband, Nicolas Deschamps. By this point the noisy dispute had kindled the interest of a number of neighbours and pedestrians within earshot. Butel apparently soon decided that she had heard enough and left for her house across the street. Still infuriated, Bonnier followed Butel, reiterating the allegations she had been making since the episode began. Although Butel closed her door and ended her involvement in the yelling match, Bonnier continued to shout insults at Butel's residence. Among the many people who heard Bonnier were three ship captains and an artillery sergeant who were returning from an evening promenade. They, and others, later testified that Bonnier stood in the street denouncing Butel as a whore, a drunkard, and the murderer of one of her own children. 

Angélique Butel was understandably distressed by the insults and allegations Servanne Bonnier had made about her in public. The next day, 4 July, Butel submitted a written complaint to the acting judge of the Bailliage, Michel Hertel de Cournoyer. In her deposition she gave her version of the incident and asked that Bonnier be fined 500 livres for her slanderous remarks and forced to make a public apology. The fine was a secondary i consideration; indeed, it was to go to the poor of the parish. What Butel wanted most was a retraction of what had been said and the public restitution of her honour. Cournoyer acted quickly on the complaints and at nine in the morning of 6 July an inquiry into the Butel-Bonnier shouting episode commenced. in the course of the pro-ceedings that Monday, 13 witnesses gave testimony on what they had seen and heard. The next day Servanne Bonnier submitted a statement containing her account of what had happened. Not surprisingly, it differed substantially from Butel's version, emphasizing as it did the slanderous epithets Butel had shouted at Bonnier. A few days later Bonnier was summoned to appear before the Bailliage on 17 July for questioning. She appeared as requested and denied most of the charges that Butel had made about her, depicting herself as having been mostly concerned with the welfare of Butel's child. Bonnier's performance before the Bailliage may have been a convincing one because thereafter the court appears to have lost any interest in pursuing the case. Late in the month Angélique Butel tried to prod the court into settling the matter but no final judgement was ever made. [.J. B., Johnston, The summer of 1744: a portrait of life in 18th-century Louisbourg, Unpublished Report H F 55 (Fortress of Louisbourg, 1978)]