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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)

1727 - 1728

• Cession d'une sauvagesse Panis élevée comme esclave au Canada, par Pierre Riette Dauteuil, sieur de la Malotterie, propriétaire et capitaine de la goelette "Le St-Pierre", de Québec; Au sieur Jean Seigneur, aubergiste à Louisbourg. 1727, 20 août G3 2058-1727 15 H J 22 Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer, G3, Carton 2058-1727

In the summer of 1727 Seigneur purchased a 25-year old Panis slave, named Louise, from a sea captain, Pierre Ruette Dauteuil Sieur Lamolitiere, with the intention of using her as a servant in his inn. Her former owner had been a merchant, Lamy, in Montreal. Seigneur paid two barrels of red wine to Lamolitiere and was to pay two more in 1728. 

To Seigneur's consternation, he discovered in February of 1728 that Louise was in her eighth or ninth month of pregnancy. Michel Ange Leduff, the Recollet curé, was called in for a private interview with her and learned that during the voyage from Montreal - "lors que la chendelle étoit Eteinte et que lEquipage étoit tranquille" she had slept in Lamolitiere's cabin and was expecting his child. Lamolitiere had been aware of her pregnancy when he sold her to Seigneur, and had warned her to say nothing, promising to return before the baby was born. 

Seigneur found the situation unacceptable and refused to keep her, "tant a Cause de Mauvaise Exemple quelle pourroit donner a Sa famille quy Sont des Jeunes filles, que parce qu'il ne Sauroit en Tirer Les Services dont il a besoin dans Son auberge" ... Despite Seigneur's protests, Louise gave birth to a boy on 3 April 1728; he was named Louis and baptised with Seigneur's daughter, Angelique, as godmother and the father unnamed ...

On 1 August 1728 Lamolitiere and Seigneur made a formal agreement that Louise and her child would be sold in Martinique and replaced with a small Negro boy. The arrangements were carried out by August of 1729 - Louise had been sold for 600 livres, and a Negro boy had been purchased for 650 livres, transported to Louisbourg and established in Seigneur's inn .... On 6 January 1731 a 14-year old Negro boy, who was living with Seigneur, was named Etienne and baptised, with another of Seigneur's daughters, Marie Magdelaine, as godmother ... [SOURCE: Brenda Dunn, Block 2, Unpublished Report H D 17 R (Fortress of Louisbourg, September 1971, Revised 1978), p. 69]

Other Links

• The Block 2, Lot B Jean Seigneur dit La Rivière Residence