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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)

1719 - 1720

• C11B, Volume 5, August 22, 1720, ff. 78 - 99v.

1719 - 1720

• On the night of 27 December, 15 soldiers who were in the woods cutting firewood for officers appeared at the "cabane" of a man named La Jeunesse and his wife. Already half drunk, the soldiers were looking for more to drink. When they arrived at the "cabane," they later told Governor St. Ovide, there was a sailor in bed with the man's wife while the husband was tending the fire. They began to make jokes and insult the woman. 

St. Ovide wrote that he knew of the woman's bad reputation and had already asked the couple to leave the country, or at least Louisbourg. When questioned, the husband declared that only one sailor and two soldiers had really bothered his wife, and he would be satisfied if they went to prison for a period of time. Accordingly the governor ordered the two soldiers and the sailor put in the dungeon with their legs in irons, while the other soldiers were released. 

St. Ovide believed that the whole affair had thus ended, but found that the Admiralty had become involved and intended to try the guilty parties. The couple was sent for and questioned again by the governor in front of the major and Pere Bruno, a Récollet priest, who had brought the case to St. Ovide's attention in the first place. The three men were told that the "procureur de roi," De La Forant, had forced the couple to press the case, but that they really did not wish to be exposed to a trial. Believing that "the conduct of the man and woman did not deserve such a sacrifice," St. Ovide granted their request regarding the punishment of the three men involved. 

The two soldiers were put in prison with their legs in irons for one month and then, on three successive days, were made to pass by the baguettes. The sailor was made to mount the wooden horse and pay a fine of 22 livres. The woman's reputation, it was noted, was "debauched but not public." [Source: Margaret Fortier, Fortress Security and Military Justice at Louisbourg, 1720-45, Unpublished Report H E 14 (Fortress of Louisbourg, 1980), pp. 67-68]

• On the night of 27 December 1719, 15 drunken soldiers arriced at the home of a man named La Jeunesse who lived in the vicinity of Louisbourg. Upon entering the modest house, they discovered the drunken husband prostrate in front of the fire while the wife was in bed with a soldier. The drunken soldiers taunted and mocked La Jeunesse and his wife and were eventually arrested for creating a disturbance and stealing two shirts. In the end, however, the soldiers were merely reprimanded: two of the soldiers and the sailor were briefly put in irons and the soldiers had to run the gauntlet for three days. Taunting and disturbing a loose woman were hardly considered serious crimes for as ordonnateur De Mézy noted she "had the reputation of a debauched woman but it was not public" ... [Governor] St. Ovide was more severe with the victim than the soldiers who committed the offence ... [Kenneth Donovan, Debauchery and Libertinage: Games, Pastimes, and Popular Activities in Eighteenth Century Louisbourg: A Manual for Interpretation at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Unpublished Report, H F 76 (Fortress of Louisbourg, June 1983), p. 7, and endnote 19]

Le 28 décembre, le père Bruno Sauvé, supérieur des Récollets de la province de Bretagne, faisant les fonctions curiales de Louisbourg, lui a apporté une plainte contre 15 soldats qui avaient, dans la nuit du 27 au 28, insulté une femme et son mari, cabannés dans les bois, aux environs de ce port.

M. de St Ovide, fit arrêter les coupables et, après avoir interrogé le mari, la femme et les soldats, condamna 2 soldats et 1 matelot à 1 mois de prison et à être passé par les baguettes. Il leur fit payer en surplus une somme de 22# dont les plaignants se trouvèrent satisfaits.

Il estime qu'il était de son autorité d'empêcher ces pauvres malheureux (les ploignants) d'être exposés au Conseil de guerre, comme c'était l'intention des officiers de l'Amirauté qui les avaient "comme forcés" de porter plainte.

Il dit joindre la quittance des plaignants et les certificats du major et du curé.

(en marge: Lettre de M. de Mézy, 17 juin.

Marque que les soldats ivres sont entrés dans la maison d'un pauvre habitant nommé la Jeunesse et insultèrent sa femme. Elle s'en plaignit au père Bruno, qui en parla à M. de Mézy. Comme le Conseil supérieur n'était pas encore établi, M. de Mézy signa une commission aux Officiers de l'Amirauté pour connaitre de cette affaire en première instance. Mais M. de St Ovide fit venir cet habitant et le manaça de cachot s'il "ne se raccomodait".

Il lui fit demander excuse par les soldats, et lui fit donner un billet comme quoi il était satisfait, au grand scandale de la colonie.

Ceci a arrêté les officiers de l'Amirauté, et M. de St Ovide fit passer deux soldats seulement par les baguettes.