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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
OFFICERS OF ISLE ROYALE (1744) -
ACCOMMODATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES
BY
A. J. B. JOHNSTON
1978
Report H E 12
Fortress of Louisbourg
OFFICERS (1744) - ACCOMMODATION
Staff Officers
Although the governor of Isle Royale was ultimately responsible for the military preparedness of the garrison at Louisbourg, day-to-day responsibility for the smooth functioning of the fortress fell to the staff officers. It was their duty, in conjunction with the governor, first to assign and then to monitor the most important garrison routines. Throughout most of the period from 1714 to 1745 there were three officers on the general staff at Louisbourg: the lieutenant de roi (second in command to the governor), the major de la place and the aide-major. According to T.A. Crowley the senior position of lieutenant de roi gradually "acquired the characteristics of an honorary post" while the major de la place and aide-major were "more active members of the general staff. The two officers acted in tandem and little distinction was made between their duties." Being responsible for military discipline and garrison life they were given, by royal decree (1718), superiority over the company captains. 1 The workload of the staff officers was demanding. To assist them in the performance of their numerous duties junior officers were selected from the garrison and attached to their staff to act as garçons-major. By 1740 there was at least one; during the siege of 1745 there were definitely two.
At the beginning of 1744 the lieutenant de roi at Louisbourg was Francois Le Coutre de Bourville, a French-born former naval officer. He had held the position since March 1730 after serving as major de la place for 12 years. By 1744 he was approaching 74 years of age and considered too old to fulfill his position adequately. Accordingly, on 1 April 1744, Bourville was retired with a pension of 1,200 livres, and Louis du Pont du Chambon was appointed in his place. Like Bourville at the time of his promotion to lieutenant de roi of Isle Royale, du Chambon had previously served as major de la place at Louisbourg, from 1733 to 1737. Du Chambon held the position of lieutenant de roi at Isle St. Jean from 177 until his appointment at Louisbourg.
The other staff officers in 1744 were Jean-François Eurry de la Pérelle, major de la place since 1741, and George-François de Boisberthelot, aide-major. The garçon-majors in 1745, and probably also in 1744, were Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot and de la Pérelle fils, both enseignes en pied . [2]They are discussed in this section rather than in the sections on the compagnies franches because it is not known from which companies they were drawn.
In 1744 he was more than likely living in his two-storey house on Lot A, Block 12.
For a period of 26 years François Le Coutre de Bourville occupied the two most prominent ranks in the Louisbourg garrison, major de la place (1718-30) and lieutenant de roi (1730-44). Moreover, "at different intervals he ... served six years in all as acting governor." [3] One would therefore expect that his living quarters reflected the prestige of his high status within the community. Certainly the concession he was granted in 1722 was extremely generous, over one-half of Block 12, a lot measuring 132 pieds by 174 pieds, for a total of 22,968 pieds quarrés. [4] During the mid-1720s Bourville rented a house on this property to a jardinier named Surgère for 400 livres a year. [5] Bourville himself appears to have been living at the time in a small piquet house on Lot C, Block 33. [6]
It seems that Bourville's marriage to Marie-Anne Rousseau de Villejouin in January 1729 prompted him to improve his accommodation in Louisbourg. His new wife was the daughter of the late Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin, a captain of one of the compagnies franches, and Marie Josephe Bertrand. As a consequence of Bourville's marriage he acquired family ties to two other officers in the garrison: to his wife's brother, Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin fils, then an enseigne, and to his wife's new step-father, Charles-Joseph d'Ailleboust, then a lieutenant. [7] Following Bourville's marriage he began construction of a new house on the large tract of land he owned on Block 12. By November 1730 he was able to report that he had built a fine two-storey stone house on his concession which might serve as an example to others interested in building. He referred to the house as "une decoration et une Embellissement a la nouvelle ville de Louisbourg."[8] In December 1730 Bourville sold his piquet house and property in Block 33 to a sergeant in the Karrer Regiment for 1,300 livres, [9] presumably to help offset the cost of construction of his new stone house on Block 12. There is a reference to Bourville residing in 1732 in a small apartment on the first floor of the barracks, [10] but this may have been only an interim arrangement. It seems likely that from the early 1730s until Bourville's departure from Louisbourg in 1744 he, his wife, their two daughters and the family servants lived in their stone house on Lot A, Block 12. As the household was small by Louisbourg standards, considering the size of the residence, it may well be that there were persons staying in the house other than the immediate family. For instance, both brothers of Bourville's wife were officers in the garrison in 1744 and might conceivably have been living there. A second possibility might be the family of Louis du Pont du Chambon (see below).
The house on Lot A, Block 12 was eventually sold to a menuisier named René Leforestier during the second French occupation by Charles Dailleboust, acting on behalf of Bourville's widow in France. [11]
His residence in 1744 is unknown; one possibility might be Bourville's stone house on Lot A, Block 12.
There is surprisingly little information about where Louis du Pont du Chambon lived at Louisbourg, in spite of the fact that he served there for over two decades. Like Bourville, he was given a very generous concession in the town, Lot B on Block 12.[12] Between du Chambon and Bourville they divided in half the ownership of the entire block. Yet, unlike Bourville, it does not appear that du Chambon ever built upon the concession. In 1735 he was reported to be living on Rue St. Louis. Five years later, while he was the lieutenant de roi on Isle St. Jean, he was said to be living in Louisbourg on Rue des Remparts.[13] In neither reference was a precise location given. Another inconclusive piece of evidence is a reference to a 1750 property transaction on Block 38 in which a du Chambon is named as the owner of Lot A on the eastern section of the block. [14] It is not known which du Chambon was being referred to when the lot was acquired or whether the du Chambon in question had ever lived on the property.
In light of the fact that du Chambon did not return to Louisbourg from Isle St. Jean until the spring or summer of 1744 and that there is no record of him purchasing a house or renting accommodation at that time it would seem that he and his family either moved into a house previously acquired in the town or stayed with friends or relatives. It is interesting to note that the 1744 bordereau does not list du Chambon among the officers for whom the state was renting houses, or portions of houses, in 1744.[15] Obviously he made his own arrangement. The possibility exists that du Chambon and his wife and family might have moved into Bourville's stone house on Block 12. As noted above, the Bourville household was small and soon to return to France, while the two-storey house was commodious. Bourville and du Chambon had known each other for years (indeed from 1733 to 1737 Bourville had been du Chambon's immediate superior) and it may be that the two officers made some private arrangement whereby the new lieutenant de roi was able to live in the house of the one who had just retired and was returning to France. To be sure, du Chambon would have required a residence of the size and quality of Bourville's stone house if he wished to live in a manner appropriate to his rank and comfortable for his large household (it numbered 12 in 1734). A final piece of evidence which helps to support the idea that du Chambon might have moved into Bourville's house in 1744 is that the 1734 census listed their two families one after the other, although it is known that du Chambon was not living on the neighbouring lot. It may well be that the two families were both living in Bourville's house in 1734. [16]
In 1744 he owned a house on Block 17, Lot B, but apparently was living at state expense in the residence of Michel Hertel de Cournoyer on the western section of Block 21, Lot A.
In 1720 Jean-François Eurry de la Pérelle, then a lieutenant, was conceded the property in Block 17 where he later built a house for his wife, Françoise-Charlotte Aubert de la Chesnaye, and growing family. [17] Although the one-storey house (approximately 37 pieds by 24 pieds) must have become somewhat crowded by the mid-1730s when there were eight people in the de la Pérelle household including four children and two servants, [18] the family remained in the house for most of the period to 1745. Neither de la Pérelle's promotion to capitaine in 1730 nor his advancement to major de la place in 1741 caused him to alter his living quarters.
The only occasion when de la Pérelle appears to have resided elsewhere was during 1744. In May of that year English prisoners, captured by the French at Canso and from ships intercepted off the coast, began to arrive in Louisbourg. The prisoners had to be lodged and the authorities certainly did not have enough space in their prisons to accommodate all of them. By the summer months the English prisoners probably numbered around 400. One of the storehouses rented as a temporary prison was the magasin de la Pérelle which stood alongside his house on Lot B, Block 17. Possibly it was recognized as an inconvenience to live so near to the prisoners of war, because accommodation was found for de la Pérelle, and presumably the rest of his household, in another location in town at the expense of the French government. By November 1744, two months after most of the prisoners were transported to Boston, 250 livres had been paid to Michel Hertel de Cournoyer to accommodate de la Pérelle in the former's house on Lot A of the western section of Block 21.[19] Following the departure of most of the English prisoners from Louisbourg in the fall of 1744 de la Pérelle probably returned to his house on Block 17.
His residence in 1744 is unknown; he was probably living with one of his wife's relatives or in a house owned by one of them.
No evidence has been found to indicate where George-François de Boisberthelot was living during the 1730s and 1740s. During the 1720s, when he was a young enseigne, he may well have lived with his uncle, Jean Maurice Josué de Boisberthelot de Beaucours (lieutenant de roi at Louisbourg from 1717 to 1722 and then from 1723 to 1730) and aunt, Françoise Aubert de la Chesnaye, in their charpente house on Lot E, Block 20. That house was sold in 1730 to the Soeurs de la Congrégation, at which time Boisberthelot's uncle moved to Trois Rivières where he became governor. [20] George-François de Boisberthelot himself remained in the garrison at Louisbourg from 1730 until the 1745 capitulation, becoming lieutenant of one of the compagnies franches in 1732 and then aide-major with the rank of capitaine in 1742. [21] In October 1730 Boisberthelot married Jeanne Degoutin and possibly moved in with his wife's relatives. A year after the marriage Jeanne Degoutin's widowed mother divided the property she owned on Block 21 among her three daughters. Jeanne Degoutin received Lot A on the eastern section of the block, property upon which she and lieutenant Boisberthelot subsequently built a small charpente house. In September 1734 they sold that property and house for 900 livres to Pierre Boisseau.[22] It is not known where they moved after they sold that lot but it was probably into one of the houses owned by a Degoutin relative. In 1744 the Boisberthelot family included six children, so it is likely that wherever they were living they occupied close to a floor of a house .[23]
In 1744 he was living in a one-storey charpente house on Rue Royale; Lot C in Block 16.
Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot purchased the house on Lot C, Block 16 in March 1733, two months after his marriage to Marie-Magdelaine Bottier dit Berrichon. The previous owner was capitaine Charles Joseph d'Ailleboust who had had the house constructed sometime between 1729 and 1733. Lopppinot, his family (which grew to eight children by 1745) and their servants lived in this house until the events of 1745 forced them to leave Louisbourg. During the second period of French occupation of Louisbourg, Loppinot sold the house to another fellow officer, Gabriel-François Dangeac, when he himself acquired the de la Plagne house on Lot E, Block 16. [24]
Probably Jean-François Eurry de la Pérelle (see the section on him in Part II). In 1744 he was probably living with the other members of his family in the house owned by Michel Hertel de Cournoyer on Block 21 (see section above on his father, the major de la place). Other possibilities include the barracks of the king's bastion or the de la Pérelle house on Block 17.
Compagnie de Canoniers-Bombardiers
This company was not formally established until 1743 although the need for trained artillerymen was identified several years earlier. [25] In 1735 Governor St. Ovide had two soldiers selected from each of the compagnies franches to be given special training by a master gunner. The men chosen in this manner remained attached to their companies but were given an extra 6 livres a month to compensate them for learning to work the guns when they might otherwise have been earning extra money labouring on the construction of the fortress. It was not until 1739 that the first steps were taken to create an artillery unit at Louisbourg which would be completely separate from the other companies. Following the establishment of an ordnance school in the barracks and the arrival of a number of experienced artillerymen from France, a company of canoniers-bombardiers was at last set up officially on 1 January 1743. On 1 May Philippe-Joseph d'Allard de Sainte-Marie, the senior artillery officer in the colony, was named captain of the new company while Louis-Félix Vallée was promoted to lieutenant. The rest of the company was to consist of two sergeants, two corporals, one drummer, 13 canoniers and 12 bombardiers. With an "ideal" strength of only 30 men the canoniers-bombardiers were the smallest of the ten companies in the garrison; the "ideal" strength of each of the eight compagnies franches being 70 men, while that of the detachment of the Karrer Regiment was, by the 1740s, 150 men.
According to Louis du Pont du Chambon, the commander of the French forces at Louisbourg in 1745, the canoniers-bombardiers acquitted themselves well during the first siege. In his words, Captain Sainte-Marie and Lieutenant Vallée "se sont dignement aquittés de leurs devoirs ainsy que tous les Canoniers de cette Compagnie et ont donné des marques de leur Valleur."[26]
In 1744 he was renting accommodation somewhere in Louisbourg.
An entry in the bordereau for 1744 states that 200 livres was expended during the year to "la veuve Jacauli pour idem du Sr Ste Marie ...," with the "idem" apparently referring to "le loyer de sa Maison qui Servy a loger."[27] "La veuve Jacauli" was undoubtedly Anne Melançon, mother of Sainte-Marie's wife and widow of Thomas Jacau, former maitre cannonier at Louisbourg. The location of the Jacau house has not yet been determined but Capitaine Sainte-Marie, his wife (Jeanne François Jacau), and their two small daughters probably stayed there throughout the year.
While Sainte-Marie lived in town at state expense he did own property and a house outside the fortress walls. In 1723 his father, Jean-Joseph d'Allard de Sainte-Marie, who was at the time a captain of one of the compagnies franches, was granted two concessions at Louisbourg, one on "la Pointe de l'Est" (Rochefort Point)- and one along "la Grande Grave. [28] The evidence is scant but either Sainte-Marie père or his son PhilippeJoseph (the father died in 1730) had a house constructed on the Rochefort Point property by 1745 and probably many years before. During the first siege a detachment of men was sent outside the walls, via the Maurepas Gate, to bring back as firewood the piquets surrounding the jardins of Sainte-Marie's house and one other on the point. [29] Sometime later in the siege the house itself was burned after nearby fortifications were set on fire "pour Empecher aux Enemis Lapproche de la place." [30]
Following his return to Louisbourg after the colony was restored to France, Sainte-Marie complained that he and his father had served in the military for a combined total of 80 years and yet neither had been granted property within the fortress walls, notwithstanding repeated requests for such a concession. His bitterness over this matter was exacerbated by the expensive rent (1,000 to 1,200 livres) which one had to pay in 1753 "a peine peut on etre Logé un peu convenablement." Apparently giving up on the idea of being conceded land in the town he requested compensation for "la maison que javois avant la guerre, a la pointe a Rochefort." The property he wanted was situated "sur le bord de l'Etant pres de la Batterie de la piece de la grave vis a vis la maison appartenant aux heritiers de feu Me. Berichon qui est meme tout couvert d'eau."[31] It is not known at this time whether or not he was granted this lot.
In 1744 he was apparently living in a charpente house on Lot A, Block 31.
In contrast with the experience of his superior officer, Sainte-Marie, Louis Vallée was given generous land concessions in the town of Louisbourg. Between 1735 and 1743 he was granted three separate concessions so that by the end of 1743 he owned all of the property on the western section of Block 42. [32] Vallée seems to have chosen not to build on this block perhaps because of its relative remoteness from the wealthier sections of town where most of the other officers lived. In December 1741, six months after marrying Marie-Josephe Le Large, Vallée and his family (his first child had been born in October 1741) obtained possession of Lot G on Block 19, a property which was quite small (2,232 pieds quarrés) but which contained a house, storehouse and fence. [33]
The Vallée family lived on Lot G, Block 19 for less than two years when they exchanged it in December 1743 for a house and much larger piece of property, Lot E on Block 31. This lot (7,200 pieds quarrés) was more than three times the size of the property on Block 19. Former owners of the concession included Michel de Gannes de Falaise, captain of one of the compagnies franches, and Bernard Muiron, contractor for the construction of the fortifications of Louisbourg. Louis Vallée obtained the lot from Alain Legras, maitre menuisier, and his wife, Jeanne Severy, by agreeing to pay 700 livres in addition to exchanging property and houses. The charpente house on Block 31 into which the Vallée family moved was only a few months old as it had been constructed by Legras and Severy sometime after they obtained possession of the land from Bernard Muiron in February 1743.[34] As there does not appear to have been any further property transactions involving Louis Vallée until the second period he and his family were probably living on Block 31, Lot E throughout 1744. With the birth of a second son on 10 June 1744 there were three children in the family.
When Vallée returned to Louisbourg in 1749, still as lieutenant of a company of canoniers-bombardiers, he soon disposed of the property he had acquired during the first period on Block 42. In three transactions between September 1750 and August 1751 he sold his concessions to separate buyers. Two lots without any buildings went for 130 livres each, while the largest property, which also included a house, sold for 2,000 livres. [35]
Karrer Regiment
A detachment of the Colonel's Company of the Karrer Regiment served in the garrison at Louisbourg from 1722 to 1745. [36] The initial contingent sent from Rochefort in May 1722 numbered only 50 but by 1724 the size of the detachment had been increased to 100. An ordonnance of February 1726 prescribed three officers and four sergeants in the 100-man contingent at Isle Royale. [37] That goal was not always reached and there were often only two Karrer officers in the garrison during the 1720s and 1730s. In 1741 the "ideal" strength of the detachment was raised to 150 men. At that figure the men of the Karrer Regiment formed between one-fifth and one-quarter of the total garrison strength at Louisbourg.
During the first few years the Karrer Regiment served at Louisbourg the unit was desperately short of officers. The only officer to accompany the 50 soldiers sent to Isle Royale in 1722 was an enseigne named Berthelot. The following year a sous-lieutenant, Duparé, was assigned to the detachment but enseigne Berthelot seems to have returned to France that same year. [38] The shortage of Karrer officers prompted Governor St. Ovide to complain that "il n y a qu un seul officier pour commander Cinquante hommes, ce qui cause une infinité de difficultés ..." [39] In June 1724 a lieutenant en second, Baron de l'Espérance, embarked from Rochefort to become upon his arrival, the senior officer of the Karrer Regiment in Louisbourg. For the next two years de l'Espérance and Duparé were the only Karrer officers in the garrison, in command of approximately 100 enlisted men. At last in 1726 Karrer officials in France provided additional officers for the detachment at Louisbourg. By the end of the year a capitaine-lieutenant, Louis François de Merveilleux, and a sous-lieutenant, Thevenot, had come to Isle Royale while de l'Espérance had been promoted to lieutenant. With the return to France of Duparé that same year it meant that there were finally three officers in command of the 100-man unit. This was reduced to two again in early 1728 when Thevenot went to France on congé, and never returned to Isle Royale. One can only imagine the frustrations felt by capitaine-lieutenant Merveilleux and lieutenant de l'Espérance over the next few years as they attempted to command the 100 or so men beneath them. Both men returned to France in the early 1730s; Merveilleux not to return and de l'Espérance on a congé that lasted two and one-half years due to a prolonged illness. One probable effect of the shortage of Karrer officers was that the sergents in the detachment were given more authority and responsibility than was the case with the sergents in the compagnies franches where there were generally four officers for 50 to 70 men.
After Merveilleux returned to France in either late 1731 or early 1732 he was replaced by a new capitaine-lieutenant, François-Joseph Cailly. Throughout all of 1733 and most of 1734 Cailly was in much the same situation as his predecessor had been in, with only one other officer, sous-lieutenant Enecker, to assist him in commanding the unit. Late in 1734 enseigne surnumeraire Rasser was posted to Louisbourg, while in the summer of 1735 lieutenant de l'Espérance returned from his lengthy congé. As a consequence there were four Karrer officers in the garrison for most of the next three years, a figure which would not be equaled again for any length of time until late 1742 when the detachment numbered 150 men. The ratio of officers to men dropped in November 1738 with the death of lieutenant de l'Espérance and then again in late 1739 when lieutenant Enecker went to France on congé, leaving Cailly and Rasser temporarily as the only Karrer officers in Louisbourg. By the end of the following year there were again three officers commanding the detachment, Cailly, Enecker and a new enseigne surnumeraire named Felber. Rasser had returned to France for a congé.
In June 1741 two separate contingents of the Karrer Regiment left the port of Rochefort bound for Isle Royale. In charge of a group of ten soldiers was enseigne Rasser, returning from his congé of six months, while a lieutenant Gabriel Schonherr headed the other party comprised of 50 men. Their arrival in Louisbourg brought the number of Karrer troops in the colonial capital to approximately 150. Several months after this augmentation to the strength of the detachment, capitaine-lieutenant Caill was called back to France and retired from service for claiming excessive authority over his troops. [40] He left Isle Royale in late 1741 and in January 1742 the recently-arrived Gabriel Schonherr was promoted to capitaine-lieutenant of the 150 Karrer troops. Throughout 1742 he was assisted in his command by lieutenant Enecker and enseigne Rasser. Sometime late in the year 17-year old Louisbourg-born Charles-Sébastien de l'Espérance, the son of the former lieutenant in the Karrer Regiment became enseigne surnumeraire in the detachment. Since 1735 he had been attached to the Karrer Regiment in Isle Royale as a cadet. [41] His promotion at this time perhaps represented a recognition on the part of the Karrer administration in Rochefort of the need for four officers to command the 150 soldiers in the Louisbourg garrison. For a short period in 1743 there were actually five officers, when enseigne Dahuty was sent out from Rochefort. That situation did not last long, for in November 1743 lieutenant Enecker left the island to return to the Colonel's Company stationed at Rochefort. The four remaining officers, capitaine-lieutenant Schonherr, enseigne Rasser, enseigne Dahuty and enseigne surnumeraire de l'Espérance stayed in Louisbourg until after the capitulation of the fortress in 1745 when they all returned to Rochefort and the Colonel's Company stationed there. [42] During the siege the officers and men of the Karrer Regiment were posted along the loopholed wall between the Brouillan Bastion and the Princess Demi-Bastion. The acting French commandant, Louis du Pont du Chambon, reported that the Karrer officers "m'ont parû tous bien assidus à leur poste, jour et nuit afin de n'etre point Surpris de L'Ennemy." [43]
In 1744 he was probably living in rented accommodation, possibly in a house belonging to Louis Delort on Block 14.
Sometime between late 1743 and March 1745 Gabriel Schonherr obtained ownership of a house on Lot B, Block 45. The evidence is somewhat unclear but it is known that in December 1743 a soldier in the Karrer Regiment named Jacob Christ, who had owned a house on Block 45 since 1727, was indebted to Schonherr for 1,500 livres which the capitaine-lieutenant had loaned him for the construction of a charpente house on the block. By March 1745, at the latest, Schonherr owned the house and property in question (Lot B, Block 45) perhaps obtaining it from Christ because the latter had found himself unable to repay the loan. Even if Schonherr had obtained possession of the house in 1744 it is unlikely that he would have been living there that year; in December 1743 Christ had agreed, with Schonherr's consent, to rent the house and property for one year to a Gilles Lemoine. [44]
In an account of the December 1744 mutiny enseigne Rasser stated that at one point during the uprising he went to consult with Schonherr, who was sick in bed at the time, "Chez mon commandant." [45] Regrettably, there is no indication in Rasser's account as to the location or nature of Schonherr's accommodation.
The final piece of evidence which might relate to Schonherr's living quarters in 1744 is contained in the bordereau. Schonherr is one of several officers mentioned in the bordereau for that year for whom the state was renting space in the town. In his particular case it is difficult to tell whether the 150 livres that was paid to Delort fils was expended to provide the capitaine-lieutenant with personal accommodation, as was the case with a number of people in preceding entries, or to acquire the use of a storehouse for supplies belonging to the Karrer Regiment, as was stated in the entry immediately above the one referring to Schonherr. [46] The idem in the Schonherr entry should imply the latter interpretation, but the fact that the very next entry repeated the idem and yet referred to a rental arrangement for "Sr Sabatier Cadet Ecrivain de la marine," who would not have had anything to do with storehouses for the Karrer Regiment, casts some doubt on that interpretation. It is possible that an error was made in writing up the bordereau and that what was meant to be indicated was that Schonherr, like the other officers listed in this section of the bordereau (Sainte-Marie, de la Pérelle, and the officers on Isle St. Jean), was being provided with personal accommodation; in his case, in the house of Louis Delort on Block 14, Lot C.
In 1744 he may have been living in the barracks of the King's Bastion.
Enseigne Rasser was the first officer on the scene during the 1744 mutiny. One of the accounts of the mutiny referred to him as "l'officier suisse qui y couche," with the "y" referring to the "fort" or barracks area. It is possible that Rasser was only sleeping in the barracks because he was on duty the night of the mutiny but the use of the present tense suggests that his regular sleeping quarters were found there. [47]
His residence in 1744 is unknown; he may have been staying in the barracks of the King's Bastion.
Enseigne Dahuty joined the detachment of Karrer troops at Louisbourg sometime toward the end of the summer of 1743. There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate where he lived at any time during the two years he spent on Isle Royale. For the want of a better suggestion it seems possible, if not probable, that Dahuty was given accommodation in the barracks on his arrival and that he was living there in 1744.
In 1744 he was more than likely living with his widowed mother in the house on Block 38 belonging to the heirs of the late Gabriel Dangeac.
The first seven years of de l'Espérance's life in Louisbourg were likely spent in a house his father (Charles-Léopold Eberhard de l'Espérance) and mother (Marguerite Dangeac) had built on Lot A of the eastern section of Block 32. Shortly before de l'Espérance père returned to France on what was to become a two and one-half year congé in late 1732 he sold this house to his newly-arrived superior in the Karrer Regiment, capitaine-lieutenant Cailly. It is not known where the de l'Espérance family was lodged after their return to Louisbourg in the summer of 1735. Following the death of de l'Espérance père in November 1738, however, Charles-Gabriel-Sébastien, his mother and the other children of the marriage appear to have moved in with their Dangeac relatives, in a charpente house on Lot E, Block 38. [48]
From late 1738 to 1741 lieutenant Gabriel François Dangeac fils, his wife and children, his widowed mother, widowed sister (veuve de l'Espérance) and two de l'Espérance children were living at Port Dauphin where Dangeac was posted. [49] The identity of the two de l'Espérance children is not known but it seems unlikely that Charles-Gabriel-Sébastien would have been with his mother at Port Dauphin. He had become a cadet in the Karrer detachment in 1735 and probably stayed in Louisbourg, either living in the barracks or in the house of an officer in the garrison. When lieutenant Dangeac and his numerous dependents returned to the capital in late 1741 or early 1742, the 17-year old cadet de l'Espérance probably moved in with the family in their house on Lot E, Block 38, although there is no firm evidence for that contention. [50] Certainly his desire to be with his mother was a strong motivating factor with him (in 1753 he successfully petitioned the minister of the marine to allow him to join one of the compagnies franches at Louisbourg so that he could be with his mother). Thus, it would have been quite consistent for him to have joined the Dangeac household in 1742 and have stayed there until the fortress capitulated.
Compagnies Franches de la Marine
The first French troops to garrison Isle Royale were soldiers of the compagnies franches de la Marine. From 1713 to 1722, when the first contingent of the Karrer Regiment arrived in Louisbourg, soldiers of the compagnies franches comprised the entire garrison at three locations on the island, Louisbourg, Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin. Even after the arrival of the Karrer troops in the capital, soldiers drawn from the compagnies franches stationed at Louisbourg continued to form the only garrison at the smaller settlements. As the years went by the number of compagnies franches troops assigned to Isle Royale increased steadily so that by 1741 their "ideal" strength stood at 560, a marked improvement over the 350 men posted to the island in 1718. In 1744 the officers and men of the eight companies franches posted to Louisbourg accounted for approximately three-quarters of the soldiers in the fortress garrison. [51]
As Allan Greer has pointed out, each of the compagnies franches was "fairly autonomous." A captain commanded the company, administered its affairs and was responsible for its welfare. He did not belong to a company; rather the company belonged to the captain and was named after him." He was assisted in his duties by a lieutenant, who would take command if the captain were absent. Normally there were also two junior officers in each company, an enseigne en pied and an enseigne en second. [52] With four officers to command a company with an "ideal" strength of 70 men the compagnies franches presented quite a contrast to the Karrer Regiment at Louisbourg, where from late 1743 to 1745 there were four officers commanding 150 men.
Promotions for the officers of the compagnies franches were based on a combination of factors, of which seniority and meritorious service were usually the most important. But on occasion other factors apparently took precedence. For instance, on 1 April, 1744, the most senior company captain in the garrison, Pierre Rousseau de Souvigny, retired from service because of old age and failing health. One would have expected that the senior lieutenant, Gabriel François Dangeac, would have been named to replace him. Instead, the appointment went to François-Nicolas Chassin de Thierry who had been made a lieutenant five years after Dangeac's promotion to that rank. However, by the time the captaincy of what had been Rousseau de Souvigny's company became available it had probably already been decided to sent Gabriel Dangeac to command the small detachment at Port Dauphin for a year, which left François-Nicolas Chassin de Thierry and Louis de Coux as the senior lieutenants in the garrison. [53] The deciding factor in making a selection may well have been that Chassin de Thierry was a son-in-law of the retiring Pierre Rousseau de Souvigny. [54] Unfortunately Governor Duquesnel's recommendation of Chassin de Thierry for the position made no mention of the reasons why he should be promoted, describing him only as a "Lieutenant et bon sujet." [55]
Where the garrison duties inside the walls of the fortified town of Louisbourg appear to have been shared between the compagnies franches and Karrer Regiment, the manning of the two key harbour fortifications, the Royal and Island Batteries, was left entirely to the compagnies franches. Commencing in the 1730s a different company was posted to the Royal Battery each year, with the assignments being made in the fall. It has not yet been determined which company was posted to the Royal Battery in the summer of 1744 although we know Chassin de Thierry's company was stationed there in the fall of 1744. In the spring of 1744 the commandant, Duquesnel, decided to increase the size of the detachment at the Island Battery to include four officers on a rotating basis. A different captain was to be assigned to the fortification each month while the lieutenants and enseignes detached there were to be changed every 15 days. This staffing procedure was in effect from April to November 1744. [56]
There were three locations outside of Louisbourg where soldiers from the compagnies franches were garrisoned. The smallest garrison (seven or eight men) was at Port Dauphin. In the summer of 1744 the officer in command there was Gabriel Dangeac, the lieutenant from the company of Claude-Elizabeth Denys de Bonnaventure.. It was toward the end of April 1744 that the minister of the marine approved the recommendation that Dangeac relieve enseigne Louis du Pont du Chambon de Vergor who had been commanding the detachment. [57] The commandant of Port Dauphin received a 300 livres gratification. The detachment assigned to Port Toulouse was larger than that at Port Dauphin but still small (about 25 men). [58] Pierre Benoist, the lieutenant from Robert Tarride Duhaget's company, was the officer in command there during 1744 and in 1745 until forced by the enemy to evacuate and return to Louisbourg. [59] The largest detachment outside Louisbourg was on Isle Saint-Jean where 40 men were normally posted. [60] In 1744 there were two officers at the island posting, a lieutenant and an "officier subalterne" of unspecified rank. [61] The identity of these two officers has not been established definitely but the lieutenant was probably Louis de Coux and the subaltern officer Joseph du Pont du Vivier, an enseigne en pied at the time. De Coux's dossier personnel states that he served on the island from 1737 to 1745, acting as the commandant when lieutenant de roi du Chambon was absent. [62] In 1744 with du Chambon's departure for Isle Royale, lieutenant de Coux was more than likely once again acting as the interim commandant. The subaltern officer referred to in the bordereau is thought to have been Joseph du Pont du Vivier because it is known he was posted to the island detachment in 1745 and as an enseigne en pied at the time he would have been subordinate (hence the description subalterne) to the new lieutenant. [63]
(i) Compagnie de Rousseau de Souvigny/Chassin de Thierry:
At one time Pierre Rousseau de Souvigny owned a total of 15,844 pieds quarrés of land on Block 15, more than half of the property on the block. [64] The concession was extremely large (Lots C and E) with long frontage on both Rue St. Louis (113 pieds) and Rue d'Orleans (117 pieds) and a relatively small frontage on Rue Royalle (43 pieds). A reference in a 1736 court case to Rousseau living on Rue Royalle would seem to indicate that his house was placed facing that street. [65] French plans from 1730 do not show any houses on Rousseau's concession which would fit that description but English plans drawn during the occupation do. In the absence of more reliable evidence it would seem that sometime after 1730 but before 1736 Rousseau had a house constructed on Lot E facing Rue Royalle, as shown on Plan 746-8a. [66] In 1731 there was at least one other house on the concession belonging to Rousseau as one was being rented to a Pierre Pont, who to Rousseau's great annoyance kept pigs on the premises. [67]
Following the death in 1732 of Rousseau's wife, Jeanne St. Etienne de la Tour, portions of the concession on Block 15 were distributed among the three children of the marriage, Pierre Jacques Ange, Marie-Josephe and Marie-Charlotte. [68] The property and houses on Block 15 which were distributed when the estate was settled appear to have been on the southern and western sections of the concession. Pierre Rousseau de Souvigny seems to have maintained ownership of at least Lot E where, as mentioned above, he may have been living in 1736. As there are no references to Rousseau acquiring, selling or simply owning property in Louisbourg after the 1730s, the evidence suggests that in 1744 he was still living on Lot E, Block 15.
In 1744 he was apparently living on the southwest corner of Block 15.
Without doubt it was Chassin de Thierry's 1734 marriage to Marie-Josephe Rousseau de Souvigny, one of his captain's daughters, that brought him ownership of property on Block 15. The first reference to him owning land in Louisbourg is in September 1741 when he and his wife sold, for 2,500 livres, a charpente house and surrounding property (around 2,000 pieds quarrés) on Rue St. Louis to a Pierre Lambert. The land and building had come into Marie-Josephe's possession after her late mother's estate had been distributed among the three Rousseau children. [69] The same day that the above transaction was completed Chassin de Thierry and his wife purchased from her brother, Pierre Jacques-Ange Rousseau de Souvigny (enseigne in his father's company, of which Chassin de Thierry was the lieutenant), a charpente house on a corner lot of more than 4,500 pieds quarrés. This new property contained 63 pieds frontage on Rue St. Louis and 73 pieds on Rue d'Orleans; it was located immediately to the south of the lot sold to Pierre Lambert and the purchase price was 4,000 livres. [70] In the fall of 1743, two years after acquiring the above house, lieutenant Chassin de Thierry subdivided the lot and sold the house and over half the land to a merchant named Cantin Lelievre for 4,000 livres. [71] The lieutenant retained property on the southwest corner of Block 15 (28 pieds on Rue St. Louis by 73 pieds on Rue d'Orleans) and it was probably in a house on that land that he and his family were living in 1744. We know that towards the end of the 1745 siege an important meeting with a representative of the besieging forces was held in Thierry's house. [72] That house was likely located on the southwest corner of Block 15. Certainly an English map of Louisbourg drawn up in 1746 shows a house located on the land retained by Chassin de Thierry in the fall of 1743. [73] The final piece of evidence is that in 1752 a new charpente house was built on this property which had one end "Joint a la vieille Maison," quite possibly referring to the house in which Chassin de Thierry and his family were living in 1744-45. [74]
Chassin de Thierry's promotion to capitaine in April 1744 created a vacancy at the rank of lieutenant in his own company. That vacancy was filled by the appointment of François du Pont du Chambon, formerly enseigne en pied in the company of Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin. [75]
It is not known where this young officer was living in 1744. He may have been staying with his parents (see section above on Louis du Pont du Chambon), in the barracks or in some private household in Louisbourg. There are no references to this young, unmarried officer (32 years old in 1744) owning or renting accommodation in Louisbourg during the period to 1745.
The accounts of the 1745 siege do not identify anyone as serving as enseigne en pied in Chassin de Thierry's company. The explanation is undoubtedly because the enseigne in question was serving elsewhere or in some other capacity. In 1738 the enseigne en pied in Pierre Rousseau de Souvigny's company was Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot,[76] so it seems likely that he still served in that capacity in 1744. In 1745 he was one of two garçons-major in the fortress. His accommodation in Louisbourg is discussed above in the section on staff officers.
In 1744 he was probably living with his father on Lot E, Block 15.
The only property which this junior officer seems to have owned in Louisbourg was the lot on Block 15 which he inherited from his mother and sold to his brother-in-law, François-Nicolas Chassin de Thierry, in September 1741.[77] Given that he appears to have been unmarried and without property in 1744 and that his father was an aged widower with failing health, it is quite possible that he was staying in his father's house to keep him company and assist in any way he could. As discussed above, this house is thought to have been located on Lot E, Block 15, facing Rue Royalle.
Pierre-Jacques Ange Rousseau de Souvigny died during the 1745 siege.
(ii) Compagnie de Dailleboust:
In 1744 he was probably living in a house on Lot A, Block 14.
During the 1720s when Charles Joseph Dailleboust was a lieutenant he was granted land first on Block 17 (Lot C) and later, after that concession reverted to the crown, on Block 31 (Lot C). [78] On neither property did he erect a house. In January 1729, at the age of 40, Dailleboust married for the first time and in the process acquired land on the northeast corner of Block 16. The marriage was to Marie Josephe Bertrand, widow of Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin, a former captain in one of the compagnies franches in Louisbourg. Sometime between 1729 and 1733 the couple had a house erected on their property on Block 16. [79] Then in the spring of 1733 the property they owned on Block 16 was subdivided into two lots (Lots B and C) and sold (along with a house on each lot) to buyers for a total of 6,000 livres. [80] Following the sale the Dailleboust family moved two blocks to the east along Rue Royalle to Lot A on Block 14, where they appear to have remained until forced to evacuate in 1745. This property on Block 14 had 102 pieds frontage on Rue Royalle and 90 pieds along Rue Dauphine, a total of 9,130 pieds quarrés. [81]
Judging by those plans which indicate building locations in the town it appears that there were two houses on Lot A, Block 14 before the Dailleboust family acquired possession of the property; one which faced Rue Dauphine and one which faced Rue Royalle. [82] References to Dailleboust living on Rue Royalle seem to indicate that the captain and his family lived in the latter house, situated on the northeast corner of the property. [83] A plan drawn during the English occupation of the fortress (846-8a) shows a third house located in the Dailleboust lot. It is entirely possible that this third house was built on the property between the mid-1730s (the date of the last French plan showing houses in the town) and 1745; certainly Dailleboust owned three houses in Louisbourg by 1745. When he returned to the fortress in 1749 as lieutenant de roi it was reported that he had to live in one of the king's buildings as all three of the houses he owned before the siege were ruined. [84]
During 1744 de Coux was the interim commandant on Isle Saint-Jean and living in accommodations rented at state expense.
De Coux was stationed at Isle Saint-Jean during the period 1737-44 in which Louis du Pont du Chambon was lieutenant de roi there and in 1739 he married one of du Chambon's daughters, Anne, in Port La Joie. With his father-in-law's departure in 1744 lieutenant de Coux became the senior officer in the island garrison. According to bordereau for 1744 the state rented accommodation for the lieutenant of the detachment for 250 livres in 1744.[85]
The individual occupying this position was not identified in any of the 1745 siege accounts, because he was serving elsewhere or in a different capacity. Dailleboust's enseigne en pied may have been Joseph du Pont du Vivier, serving on Isle Saint-Jean, or Jean-François Eurry de la Pérelle, who was acting as a garçon-major in 1745.
In 1744 he was probably living with the other members of his family in a house owned by Hertel de Cournoyer (see section above on his father, the major de la place).
There is no evidence to indicate that enseigne Eurry de la Pérelle owned or was renting accommodation in Louisbourg separate from his parents. (See the section in Part II on de la Pérelle fils, qarçon-major, for a brief discussion of the difficulties involved in identifying the de la Pérelle children).
(iii) Compagnie de de Gannes:
In 1744 he was living in a house on the southern half of Lot A, Block 17.
The land upon which Michel de Gannes eventually built his house was originally conceded to Jean-Baptiste de Couagne, one of the engineers in Louisbourg. Following de Couagne's death in 1740 Captain de Gannes acquired Lot A for 6,000 livres and rented the house de Couagne had lived in (on the northern half of the lot) to Michel Rodrigue, a Louisbourg merchant. Around 1742 de Gannes had a house constructed on the southern half of the lot. De Gannes and his family moved into this new house sometime later and were living there throughout 1744 and 1745. [86]
In 1744 he was more than likely living in the house owned by his brother, Pierre-Paul d'Espiet de la Plagne, on Lot E, Block 16.
The only evidence which indicates where Jean d'Espiet de Pensens was living in Louisbourg at a given point in time is a reference in a 1740 court case which placed the bachelor lieutenant in his older brother's house on Block 16. As his brother Captain d'Espiet de la Plagne was in France at the time, the arrangement may have been only a temporary measure, although the large size of the house (two storeys, measuring approximately 50 feet by 30 feet) combined with the relatively small size of the de la Plagne household (in 1740 there was Madame de la Plagne, an infant and a slave) certainly would have made it possible for Jean d'Espiet de Pensens to live there after his brother's return. Even by 1744 there were only three children in the family. Moreover, there appears to have been very close ties among d'Espiet relatives which would tend to support the idea that Jean d'Espiet stayed with his brother's family. To cite just two examples: the house itself had been inherited in 1738 by de la Plagne from his bachelor uncle, Jacques de Pensens, and then when de la Plagne did not return to Louisbourg in 1749 Jean d'Espiet de Pensens himself lived in the house for over a year. In September 1750 Jean d'Espiet, then a captain, sold the property and house to Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot, capitaine aide-major, for 10,000 livres. [87]
His residence in 1744 is unknown. He might have been living along Rue Toulouse, staying with a fellow officer somewhere in town, or living in the barracks.
The only evidence which has been found concerning Joseph Sevinacq de Bellemont's living quarters in Louisbourg is a vague reference made in September 1740 to "son domicille rue Toulouse." [88] There were fewer than ten private houses along that street, all of which have been studied in depth by the authors of reports on Blocks 1, 2, 16 and 17. None of the authors record having found evidence of Bellemont renting accommodation from any of the owners. That suggests, assuming that the enseigne was actually living on Rue Toulouse as stated in September 1740, that he was either staying at one of the two inns on Block 2 or that he had made arrangements, but not a contract, to have a room or two of his own in one of the other houses along the street, perhaps that of a fellow officer as his closest friends seem to have been officers. [89] Even if such speculation was correct, of course, there is no evidence to suggest that Joseph Sevinacq de Bellemont was still riving on Rue Toulouse in 1744. By that time he could easily have moved from his domicille of 1740, perhaps even into the barracks. In addition to the uncertainty over Bellemont's accommodations at Louisbourg it is also not known when he came to Isle Royale, whether or not he was married nor anything about his subsequent career in the compagnies franches.
His residence in 1744 is not known. He might have been staying in the barracks or in a household in town.
Amable-Jean-Joesph Came de Saint-Aigne appears to have resided in the town from 1737, when he became a cadet, until forced to evacuate in 1745. There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate where he lived. Therefore, he either lived in the barracks or made arrangements to stay in the town, possibly with the family of an officer. St. Aigne (as he was commonly referred to) remained a bachelor until 1748, when he married at Québec. After his first wife died he married, in 1752, a daughter of Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot (aide-major at the time) and Madelaine Boitier. [90]
(iv) Compagnie de Duvivier:
In 1744 he was probably living in a charpente house facing Rue Royalle located on the southern section of Lot B, Block 4.
François du Pont Duvivier was the oldest of the three Duvivier brothers serving as officers in the garrison in 1744. Born at Port Royal, François and his brothers left Acadia in 1713 when their father, an officer in the compagnies franches, was assigned to the expedition which founded Louisbourg. The father died in 1714 but his widow and the Duvivier children stayed on in Louisbourg, living in a piquet house on Lot B, Block 4 for the next few years.
Although the family stopped residing on Lot B in 1719 the veuve Duvivier retained ownership of the property until 1736. In that year she sold the land and the old piquet house facing Rue du Quay to a Louisbourg merchant named Louis Jouet for 2,500 livres. Sometime later on the day of the sale her son, François du Pont Duvivier and Louis Jouet formed a partnership "which provided for the sale of the southern part of Lot B for 1,250 livres [which Duvivier paid to Jouet] undoubtedly a condition of the original purchase." The following year Duvivier began construction of a charpente house on this southern portion of Lot B. The foundation of the new house encroached on the concessions on Lots A and C, thereby precipitating several years of quarrels and legal entanglements with the neighbours. In the end Duvivier's arguments prevailed, or to put it more accurately, his influence prevailed and Lot B was awarded a total of 514 pieds quarrés of land which had formerly belonged to his neighbours. [91]
In 1744 the charpente house on Lot B, Block 4 was probably, but not definitely, home to both François du Pont Duvivier and the small family of his partner, Louis Jouet. As Duvivier was a bachelor it is possible that this house might also have provided accommodation for the small family of his brother, Michel du Pont Duvivier. In addition to the house on Block 4, François du Pont Duvivier also owned a storehouse in Louisbourg which was used in 1744 "pour y loger les prisonniers de Guerre, [92] referring to the English prisoners captured in the raid on Canso and in privateering encounters at sea.
In 1744 he was probably living in a two-storey charpente house facing Rue Toulouse, on Lot D, Block 16.
Lot D on Block 16 came into the possession of the de la Vallière family in 1736, when Michel le Neuf de la Vallière purchased the property from fellow officer Jacques de Pensens. The purchase price was 11,000 livres for which de la Vallière acquired a two-storey charpente house and two, two-storey stone storehouses. The house and one of the storehouses were being leased by de Pensens at the time of the sale. In 1740, Michel le Neuf de la Vallière died and the property passed to his heirs, one of which was Louis le Neuf de la Vallière, the oldest son in the family. De la Vallière fils was likely living in the house before his father's death and probably continued to live there after 1740 as the head of the household. The other members of the household in the summer of 1744 were likely to have been Louis le Neuf de la Vallière's pregnant wife, Marie-Charlotte Rousseau de Souvigny (daughter of the company captain who retired in April 1744), a year and -a half old daughter, several brothers and sisters and whatever servants were attached to the family. In the spring of 1744 Louis le Neuf de la Vallière was sent to France carrying confidential packets concerning the outbreak of hostilities in the colonies. [93]
His residence in 1744 is not known. He was perhaps living in the barracks or in whatever accommodation his father, Louis du Pont du Chambon, had in the town.
There are no references to this junior officer owning or renting accommodation in Louisbourg in the period to 1745. This absence of evidence and the fact that he did not marry until several years later tend to suggest that he was probably living either with his family or in the barracks.
It is not known where this officer was staying in 1744. He might have been living in the barracks or in a house owned by a relative.
Like the junior officer above there is no evidence to suggest that Michel Rousseau d'Orfontaine owned or was renting property in Louisbourg in the period to 1745. As he was an unmarried 29-year old enseigne in 1744, without a large income, he was likely staying either in the barracks with other junior officers or with some family in town. If it was the latter case the most likely residences were capitaine Charles Joseph Dailleboust's on Block 14 (Michel's widowed mother had married Dailleboust in 1729) or that which it is thought his older brother (capitaine Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin) constructed on Block 34.
(v) Compagnie de Bonnaventure:
In 1744 he was possibly living in a house on Lot D, Block 33.
Claude-Elisabeth Denys de Bonnaventure was conceded Lot D on Block 33 in 1729, 12 years after he had come to Isle Royale as a 16-year old cadet. [94] To judge by a plan of the town drawn in the mid-1730s (N.D. 89), Bonnaventure did not erect a house on the property in the first five or six years he owned the lot. However, a building is shown on the southwest corner of the lot on several plans (745-24, 746-4, 746-8a) drawn during the English occupation, suggesting that Bonnaventure had a house constructed there sometime during the late 1730s or early 1740s. Unfortunately none of the written evidence mentions the existence of a house in Lot D, Block 33. References in 1742 and 1752 confirm that the property was still in capitaine Bonnaventure's possession on these dates, while there is a reference in June 1757 to the corner of Bonnaventure's house being on the Rue de l'Etang, [95] which would be consistent with the early plans showing a house located on the southwest corner of Lot D, Block 33. While the evidence is far from conclusive, in 1744 Claude-Elisabeth Denys de Bonnaventure was probably living in a house constructed on Lot D, Block 33.
Bonnaventure remained unmarried until 1748 (when he married his cousin, Louise Denys de la Ronde at Quebec), so family considerations were not likely to enter into his decisions about accommodation in the period to 1745.
In 1744 he was living in Port Dauphin where he commanded the small detachment. In Louisbourg he was part owner of a house on Lot E on the western section of Block 38.
In the spring or early summer of 1744 lieutenant Dangeac took command of the small detachment at Port Dauphin. The assignment was a familiar one for him as he had been commander there from 1738 to 1741. During the earlier posting Dangeac had taken his family and other dependents (such as the widow de l'Espérance) with him to Port Dauphin. In 1744 he probably left them in Louisbourg because it had been stipulated that he was only to serve there for one year. The bordereau for 1744 states that 750 livres were paid to a Sr Vergor for the rent of lodgings for the commanding officer (Dangeac) and soldiers of the Port Dauphin detachment. [96]
The first names of this officer have not been determined but he was probably the son of Anne Desgoutins and Michel du Pont de Renon, an officer in Acadia and then on Isle Royale until his death in 1719. [97]
De Renon's residence in 1744 is unknown; perhaps he was staying with relatives or in the barracks.
As with so many of the junior officers in the garrison at Louisbourg, very little is known about this enseigne. If he was the son of Michel du Pont de Renon and Anne Desgoutins, as is almost certainly the case, he would have had a number of prominent relatives in Louisbourg with whom he might have been staying in 1744. Louis du Pont du Chambon (lieutenant de roi) was an uncle wile François du Pont du Vivier, Michel du Pont du Vivier de Gourville and Joseph du Pont du Vivier were all cousins. On the other side of the family his mother had remarried in 1724 Michel Hertel de Cournoyer (appointed capitaine des portes in 1744) and de Renon might have been residing in Cournoyer's residence on Lot A on the western section of Block 21. Other possibilities for his living quarters include the barracks of the king's bastion or an informal rental arrangement in the house of someone to whom he was not related. Neither de Renon's age nor marital status are known.
The first names of this officer are not known at this time.
His residence in 1744 is unknown; perhaps he was staying in the barracks or renting somewhere in town.
All that is known about this junior officer is that he was made enseigne en second in May 1743 at which time he was either 30 or 31 years of age. He served in the 1745 siege with the rest of Bonnaventure's company and returned to Isle Royale as an enseigne en pied after the island was restored to France. De Caubet was promoted to lieutenant in April 1750.[98] Nothing is known about his living quarters, marital status or whether he had any relatives in the town.
(vi) Compagnie de d'Espiet de la Plagne:
In 1744 he was undoubtedly living in a two-storey house on Lot E, Block 16.
Until 1738 Lot E on Block 16 was set aside as a government garden under the jurisdiction of the governor. In 1738 Governor St. Ovide obtained personal possession of the property, which he relinquished shortly thereafter when he left the colony. St. Ovide's cousin, Jacques d'Espiet de Pensens, then obtained the lot but died later in 1738. De Pensens was not married, so the property (including the two-storey house de Pensens had had constructed) was inherited by his oldest nephew, Pierre-Paul d'Espiet de la Plagne, capitaine of one of the compagnies franches in the garrison. Until the capitulation of the fortress in 1745 de la Plagne, his wife Marie Charlotte de Lort, their four children, whatever servants they had and probably de la Plagne's younger brother, lieutenant Jean d'Espiet de Pensens, lived in the house. [99]
His residence in 1744 is not known. One possibility is that he was living on Rue du Port.
There are only two references indicating where Michel du Pont de Gourville was living during the period to 1745, both of which place him near the harbour.
In 1736 he was staying in a house on Rue du Quay, while four years later he was said to be living on Rue du Port. [100] As these two street names were occasionally used interchangeably during the 1740s it is possible that the officer was living in the same location at both dates. [101] As for his residence in 1744, by which time he was married to Marie-Josephe Gautier and had three children, there is no indication. The family may well have been living at the Rue du Port address (or Rue du Quay as it had been called earlier) where Gourville had been residing in 1740. Another possibility is that he resided in the house on Block 4 belonging to Gourville's bachelor brother, François du Pont du Vivier.
The accounts of the 1745 siege do not identify anyone serving as enseigne en pied in de la Plagne's company. It is unlikely that the position was vacant. In 1745 the enseigne in question was probably serving elsewhere (as was Joseph du Pont du Vivier, who was on Isle Saint-Jean) or in some other capacity (such as de la Pérelle fils who acted as one of the garçons-major during the siege).
In 1744 he was probably staying either with his parents or in the barracks.
There are no references to this junior officer owning or renting accommodation in Louisbourg during the period to 1745. Being quite young (he turned 24 in October 1744) he probably resided either with his parents (his father was lieutenant de roi) or with some of the other junior officers who are thought to have lived in the barracks.
(vii) Compagnie de Duhaget:
In 1744 he owned a large two-storey house on Lot C on Block 17, but may have been living on Rue de l'Estang.
Lot C, Block 17 was conceded to Robert Duhaget in June 1730, a month and a half after he was promoted to lieutenant in one of the compagnies franches. The property had originally been conceded to another officer in the garrison, Charles Joseph Dailleboust. Except for vegetable gardens that might have been established on the lot, the property sat undeveloped for the next six years. Apparently not until 1737 did Duhaget commence construction of a house on the concession. In September of that year he married Marguerite Rousseau de Villejouin, the daughter of a former company captain and the sister of one of Duhaget's fellow lieutenants, and they apparently moved into the commodious residence Duhaget had built. The early years of the marriage proved to be childless and beginning in 1741 at least a portion of the house was rented as lodgings for Antoine de Paul Sabatier and as the office of the Bureau de Controle. There is a possibility that Duhaget and his wife might have moved out entirely at the time as there is a September 1741 reference to Duhaget living on Rue de l'Estang several blocks away from the house on Block 17. By 1740 Duhaget's brotherin-law , Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin owned property on Rue de l'Estang and it may be that Duhaget and his wife were living with the Villejouin household from 1741 (see the section below on Villejouin). In any case the reference to Duhaget living on Rue de l'Estang, combined with the rental of at least a portion of Duhaget's Block 17 house as lodgings and office space, indicates that Robert Duhaget and his wife might not have been living in their Block 17 house in 1744. [102]
In 1744 he was living in Port Toulouse where he commanded the detachment. In Louisbourg he owned a house on Lot C, Block 2.
Pierre Benoist spent both 1744 and 1745 at Port Toulouse, presumably with his family. [103] It is not known whether or not his house on Rue Toulouse was rented during his absence, although that would certainly be a possibility. In 1724, before his first marriage, Benoist had four other officers lodging with him, for which he was paid 250 livres. As Benoist and his family seem to have been in Port Toulouse from 1742 to 1745 it is conceivable that the house on Block 2 was rented at least part of the time to some of those officers in the garrison for whom we have no indication as to where they were residing. The Benoist house on Block 2 suffered severe damage during the siege and "could hardly be occupied" when the family returned to Louisbourg in 1749. [104]
Although there is no one identified in this position in the 1745 siege account it is highly unlikely that the position was vacant. The junior officer in question may have been serving elsewhere or he might have been acting as garçon-major during the siege.
In 1744 he was probably staying in the accommodation of Louis du Pont du Chambon.
There is no evidence whatsoever indicating where this junior officer was residing at Louisbourg. He was probably living in his father's household but may have been staying in the barracks or in some private household.
(viii) Compagnie de Rousseau de Villejouin:
In 1744 he was possibly living in a charpente house on the southeast corner of Lot E, Block 34.
During Villejouin's early years in Louisbourg he would have lived with his parents (Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin and Marie-Josephe Bertrand). It is not known whether or not he continued to live with his mother after she remarried in 1729 (when she married Charles Joseph Dailleboust) but it seems likely. He had by that time been granted two concessions (Lots A and B) on Block 31, but plan 730-2 does not indicate any houses constructed on these properties. He probably lived on Block 16 with his mother and Dailleboust until they sold the property in the spring of 1733. In January 1733 he married Anne Angelique de Gannes de Falaise and they probably moved with the rest of the Dailleboust-Villejouin family to a house on Lot A, Block 14. [106] (See the section above on capitaine Dailleboust).
In April 1740, while Villejouin was aide-major in the garrison at Louisbourg, he was conceded Lot E (10,350 pieds quarrés) on Block 34. A year and a half later he sold the northern half of the lot to Pierre Derieux, a maitre tailleur, for 300 livres. [107] Villejouin retained the southern half of Lot E, which had 115 pieds frontage on Rue de l'Estang, until April 1745 when he sold it to Pierre Andre Carrerot. Unfortunately, the document recording that transaction has not survived to confirm whether or not there was a house on the lot in which Villejouin and his family might have been living in 1744. Certainly when Carrerot's widow sold the property in 1754 there was a charpente house on the lot. [108] If one can judge by English plans of the fortress drawn in 1746, there were two houses on Lot E, Block 34; one on the northern portion sold to Derieux in 1741 and one on the southern section retained by capitaine Villejouin. Assuming there was a charpente house on the lot in 1744, were Villejouin, his wife and five children living in it? As usual the evidence is only circumstantial. By the early 1740s at the latest the growth of the Villejouin and Dailleboust families (five and three children respectively plus, undoubtedly, a few servants) had likely been such to suggest to each officer that it might be best to separate their households, which had been joined together since 1729 when Dailleboust married Villejouin's mother. Moreover, as of April 1741, Villejouin was a capitaine of his own compagnie franche, equal in rank to his step-father, and he may have wished to possess his own house as an indication of his increased status. While this is all speculation the concession to Villejouin of Lot E on Block 34 in 1740, his promotion to capitaine in April 1741, the sale in October 1741 of half the property (perhaps to obtain money to finance the construction of a house) and the existence of a house in the correct location of a 1746 plan, tend to support the idea that he and family might have been living in 1744 in a house on the southeast corner of Block 34.
This officer was probably Pierre-Charles de St. Etienne de la Tour, only son of Charles de Saint-Etienne de la Tour, a former officer in the compagnies franches, and Angélique Loreau. He is not to be confused with another resident of Louisbourg, his cousin, Charles de Saint-Etienne de la Tour, who first married Marie-Anne Peré and then Joseph Dugas' widow, Marguerite Richard. Pierre Charles appears to have remained a bachelor.
In 1744 Saint-Etienne de la Tour was probably living with his widowed mother, Angélique Loreau on Rue d'Orleans, possibly in Block 23.
In 1714 Charles de Saint-Etienne de la Tour, an Acadian-born lieutenant in the compagnies franches was posted to Isle Royale. With him came his wife, Angélique Loreau and their only child. Sixteen years later, in March 1730, de la Tour was promoted to capitaine. He died the following year. [109] Four years before de la Tour's death he was conceded Lot A on Block 20, a property which he quickly sold to a nephew of the same name, Charles de Saint-Etienne de la Tour. [110]
De la Tour's widow continued to live in Louisbourg after his death in 1731. The 1734 census records that there were two other persons in her household at that date; a servant and a son over 15 who was in military service. This son seems to have been named Pierre Charles as that is the name of the only de la Tour officer recorded in the parish records between 1732 and 1745.[111] In one reference Pierre Charles Saint-Etienne de la Tour is described as an enseigne de compagnie; in the other he is identified as an enseigne en pied. [112] Both of these references were in the late 1730s; in June 1742 he was named to become a lieutenant. [113]
Pierre-Charles Saint-Etienne de la Tour's accommodation at Louisbourg is not known but it seems more than likely that he was living with his widowed mother throughout the 1730s and 1740s. The fact that he was her only child, that he was apparently unmarried, that there is not a single reference to him renting or owning property of his own in town and that his mother claimed to have some difficulty affording to live in Louisbourg after her husband's death, all tend to support that contention. [114] The house which the veuve de la Tour occupied in Louisbourg is known to have been somewhere on Rue d'Orleans near the Maurepas Gate. [115] During the 1745 siege the house was apparently burned deliberately as it was considered "prejudiciable à la fortification." When Isle Royale was restored to the French in 1749 she sought to be compensated for the loss of her house. If, as the veuve de la Tour maintained, her house was destroyed because of its proximity to the fortifications near the Maurepas Gate then it was probably located on Block 23. It was likely in this house that lieutenant Pierre-Charles de Saint-Etienne de la Tour was living in 1744.
In 1744 he was probably living in the charpente house located on Lot E of the western section of Block 38 owned jointly by himself, his older brother (lieutenant Gabriel François Dangeac), his sister (Marguerite Dangeac, widow of the de l'Espérance who had been a lieutenant in the Karrer Regiment) and his widowed mother (Marguerite Bertrand).
The only references to Michel de Merville Dangeac owning property in Louisbourg are those which pertain to the property on Lot E, Block 38 which he and the other members of his family appear to have owned jointly following the death of Dangeac père in 1737. [116] Since Michel de Merville had part ownership in the house and extended family relationships were common in the Dangeac family (see the sections above on Gabriel François Dangeac and Charles-Gabriel-Sébastien de l'Espérance), he was more than likely living on Block 38 in 1744. He probably acted as interim head of the household that year as his older.brother was posted to Port Dauphin.
Michel de Merville Dangeac appears to have remained unmarried throughout the period to 1745. [117]
In 1744 Louis Loppinot might have been living in a house on the only property he seems to have owned in Louisbourg (Block 37, Lot C).
Unlike his older brother, Jean-Chrysostome Loppinot, Louis Loppinot was not often mentioned in property transactions in Louisbourg. The only time his name appears in the records dealing with the town's real estate is in connection with Lot C on Block 37, a piece of property which he was originally conceded in May 1728 (at which time he was probably a serpent) and still owned in September 1735 (at which time he was a Cadet). [118] According to French plans of the town (N.D. 89, N.D. 24, 730-2) no buildings were erected on this lot (4,860 pieds quarrés) during the early 1730s. A plan drawn during the first English occupation of the fortress (746-8a), however, clearly shows one and possibly two houses on what appears to be Lot C, Block 37. As there is no record of the property passing out of Louis Loppinot's hands between 1735 and 1745 it is likely that the house shown on the plan was one that he had constructed sometime during that decade. Certainly, by the 1740s he was probably beginning to feel the need for more spacious accommodation than wherever he had lived during the 1730s. In slightly less than six years of married life following his 1738 marriage to Marie-Josephe Seigneur, Louis Loppinot de la Fresillière had fathered six children. This fact, combined with his promotion to a junior officer rank in the 1740s, may well have prompted Loppinot to erect a house on his Block 37 property as is shown on the 1746 plan.