December 21, 2005:


Many of the early French families who came to the Ottawa and Hull area beginning
in the 1820's, came from the seigniories located in the Montreal area. Also, some
came from seignieuries which extended along the north shore of the Ottawa River, from
Montreal to about Thurso, Quebec.

One of the seigniories was called La Petite Nation and was in the Montebello area.
It was owned by the Louis Joseph Papineau family beginning in 1801. Early church
records in Ottawa, Buckingham, etc. often mention the place of origin of the
early settlers in the Ottawa area. Quite a few families, mostly French but some 
Irish, came from La Petite Nation or nearby seignieuries around 1830 to work on
the building of the Rideau Canal or to establish farms here.

Thanks to Frank Watters for the following information:

Hi Al;

In the register for Rigaud, I don't believe it said where the Sloan 
family was living.   I usually note it only when they are NOT from the 
parish. Usually the priests showed their place of residence when they 
performed a church ceremony.   But I'd have to go back and see if they 
mentioned if the parents were from the Rigaud parish or not.

For example, here's one I didn't send before, because I wasn't sure of 
the family name.  But perhaps someone would recognize the family if it 
moved to Ottawa later:

SLIVIN??, Patrick, 18 yrs old, son of Patrick and Margaret FLANIGAN, 
died in Argenteuil.  It wasn't possible to know the place of residence 
of the parents of the deceased.  Wit. Francois Séguin & Francois 
Regimbald.  (The note regarding the lack of place of residence was 
written in the register by the priest)

(Note: I think that this may refer to the Slavin family who came to Bytown ... Al)

The Albert, Dugas - dit - Labreche, and Joanisse families came from the 
Seigniory of Argenteuil.  There was also a Blais family, there and they 
eventually moved to Ottawa as well.  Many of the earliest Ottawa French 
Canadian families came from St Hermas, St Augustin, Ste Scholastique, St 
Benoit (Damour dit - Potvin), St Eustache, Rigaud, Vaudreuil.  I think 
they followed the bush operations, expecially after about 1830. 
According to a book I read on the area, many of the farms by then had 
run into hard times while the Seigniors continued to raise the rent (one 
of the forgotten reasons for the 1837 rebellion).  During the early 
1800's there was a lucrative trade in the potash business because of the 
wars in Europe (used in making gun-powder, glass, & soap), plus the land 
still had virgin forests.  But when there were no more trees and the 
farms became unproductive, that's when the families left.  Surprisingly, 
the French Canadian farmer, before the Conquest, didn't know too much 
about crop rotation and the use of manure as a fertilizer.  That was 
brought in by the Scotch, supposedly.

Regarding the Seigniories north-east of Montreal, where most of the 
Ottawa French Canadian people came from, there is a book that you could 
read, if you can read French, that was written by a fellow by name of 
Serge Laurin.  It's entitled "Histoire des Laurentides" and covers the 
settlement of the area from the beginning to the 1900's, including 
demographics, religion, etc..  It's a well written book;  very 
informative and balanced.  He's very fair in his comments.  But mostly, 
it's very informative.  You can see that one of the main goals of the 
French Canadian clergy was to stop the progress of Anglo Protestantism 
and Anglo Catholicism in the area.  Which they succeeded very well.  Even 
St. Andrews East, which was settled by Protestant Scots has now become 
St-André d'Argenteuil and has very few Anglos in its population.  
As you probably know, St Andrews, Quebec, had the "East" attached to it, 
so as not to confuse it with St Andrews "West" in Glengarry County which was 
settled by Catholic Scots about the same time.

The book was published by the Institut québécois de recherche sur la 
culture.  It should be on the shelves of the Ottawa Public Library. 

Regarding what I wrote, I have no objection to any reproduction.  Once 
your map is up, I think I may be able to get a fresh copy of the various 
"côtes" and "rangs" that existed at that time in the Seigniories of 
Argenteuil and Deux-Montagnes so that readers, if they knows the 
location where their ancestors came from, whill be able to find it.  I 
have a couple of copies, but they are not very clear.  I could try and 
get better copies made from either the Archives or the Grande 
Bibliothèque, depending on where that part of the Montreal Library 
documentation went.

Best regards

... Frank
_____________________

I'm trying to locate a good map showing the seigniories in the Montreal area.
There is one in one of my books here and when I find it, I'll scan it for
this web page.

I'm also interested in the migration of French Canadian farmers to North and
South Plantagenet Townships, half way between Ottawa and Montreal.
Somewhere (again) there's a good article in my so-called filing system. I think
that many of these farmers came from the seigniories along the north shore of
the Ottawa River, in Quebec, in the 1860's.

There will be more to come for this page.
... Al
January 13, 2006:

The textbook for the Winter 2006 course at Carleton on the History of Quebec (HIST 3301)
contains a detailed explanation of the seigneurial system in Quebec. The textbook is
A Short History of Quebec (it's not all THAT short!) by John Dickinson and
Brian Young, McGill- Queen's University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2450-9. See pages 31-33.

It also contains some maps but not the one I want. The maps show that about half
of the seigneuries were owned by the Catholic Church (for example the Sulpicians
owned the siegneury of Montreal). The other half of the seigneuries were owned
by private landholders who formed part of the Quebec nobility under the ancien regime
of France (before 1763) and England (after 1763). Oka was a seigneury on its own.
... Al
_____________________

The article regarding French migration to Prescott County is Boom and Bust:
The Demography and Economy of the Lower Ottawa Valley in the Nineteenth Century,
by Chad Gaffield (White Binder #3).

January 15, 2006:

Paul Phillion (Philion / Filion) came to Bytown from Terrebonne, Lower Canada,
a seigneury owned by the Montreal fur trader Simon McTavish.

Here's a quote from Dickinson and Young:

Simon McTavish (1750-1804) was a dominant fur trader in the Northwest Company. 
Born in Scotland, he emigrated to New York, USA, and traded at Detroit and
Michilimackinac before moving his operations to Montreal at the end of the 
American Revolution. With capital acculumated in the fur trade, McTavish emulated 
other rich anglophone merchants by buying a seigneury. His siigneury at Terrebonne
represented more than status and a secure investment for his merchant capital;
besides the seigneurial grist mill, McTavish opened a bakery, a sawmill and a
barrell factory to supply fur traders in the west.
January 31, 2006:

The following is part of an e-mail from Christine. She has sent along an
interesting link to St. Columbans which is north-west of Montreal:

I will add another bit of information. Many Catholic Irish settled in the 
Mirabel region of Quebec - my ancestor, Michael McLean (aka McLaughlin) 
apparently arrived here around 1820. There are villages such as St-Canut, 
Ste-Scholastique and St-Columban which had large Irish populations. There is 
a relatively new website about the Irish in St-Columban 
http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/. I am sure many Irish who ended up in this 
area started out there.
... Christine 
(Christine is researching the Mousseau, David and McLean families ... Al)

I believe those villages were part of that seigneury. I had found this 
letter a while ago at the Rootsweb site: 
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/QUEBEC/1999-05/0927174123 which may 
contribute to your research. It is written by Frank Watters.
... Christine
 March 2, 2006:

The north-west corner of Osgoode Township in the 1800's was mainly Roman Catholic.
Some of these folks had connections to the Oka area of Quebec, including St. Columbans and
Ste. Scholastique. Some possible family connections include surnames at this link.

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