Beadle
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Le Bedeau | The Beadle
The bedeau, or beadle, was the priest's jack-of-all-trades; he was essential to the proper administration of the church. He was mainly tasked with the maintenance of the church and preparation for religious services. During mass, he would distribute the blessed bread to the attendees and collect donations. The beadle also tried to maintain peace and quiet during services, chasing away beggars and dogs from the church doors, earning him the nickname of “chasse-chiens,” or dog hunter. He was responsible for drawing “Passover water” for baptisms and “Pentecost water” for Sunday mass. He would lead the way during any religious processions, removing any obstacles. The beadle rang the church bells, either for religious announcements or civic ones, such as weather warnings.
The beadle was also tasked with keeping the church clean, and in winter, ensuring that the roads leading to the church were clear. Some beadles also doubled as gravediggers, a lucrative side job.
Similar to their French counterparts, beadles wore long robes that were either blue or red, or sometimes with both colours. The left sleeve sometimes featured a silver plate or an embroidered figure representing the patron of his church. In France, beadles traditionally held a wand in their right hand. It was used as a stick, to drive out the aforementioned beggars and dogs from the church. Over time, the object evolved into an adorned symbol of authority. Following tradition, wands were used in New France as well.
In the early days of the colony, the beadle occasionally had to go around the censitaires to collect unpaid rent. A censitaire was essentially a tenant, a settler established on a seigneurie, who paid rent to a seigneur.
Known persons who had this occupation: Charles Bélanger, Jean Besson, Nicolas Bourdet, Jean Baptiste Brassard, Julien Brûlé, Philippe Brunet, Pierre Chantereau dit Tourangeau, Michel Dagnault, Joachim Demolier, Joseph Descarreaux, Jean-Étienne Dubreuil, Charles Dufrêne, Eustache Genet, Thomas Giroux, Pierre Guillot, Antoine Lemay, Simon Mongeneau, Jean-Baptiste O’Neil, Jean Baptiste Quenneville, François Roy, Julien Talua dit Vendamont, Jean Vallée
"Lackadaisical Beadle" (1850 drawing by an unknown artist, Wikimedia Commons).
Sketch of a beadle inspired by a Charles Dickens character ("Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, Pourtrayed by Kyd", 1889 watercolour sketch by Joseph Clayton Clarke, Wikimedia Commons).
Sources:
Francis Back, “Le bedeau de Notre-Dame”, 2000, appearing in Cap-aux-Diamants, (62), 60–61, digitized by Érudit (https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cd/2000-n62-cd1043519/8514ac.pdf).
Claude Lemay, "Fonctions et métiers délaissés", l'Ancêtre, number 281, volume 34, winter 2008, and number 280, volume 34, winter 2007; electronic edition, Société généalogique de Québec (www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ENT-FONCTIONS-METIERS-DELAISSES.pdf).