Étienne Lessard & Marguerite Sevestre
Pioneers of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Étienne Lessard & Marguerite Sevestre were important land and property owners in New France. They didn't let a pesky case of fur trade fraud get in the way of their success…
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Étienne Lessard & Marguerite Sevestre
Ancestors of the Lessard Family in North America
Location of Chambois (Mapcarta)
Étienne Lessard (or de Lessart), son of Jacques de Lessart and Marie Hersan, and grandson of Gilles Delessard and Marie Drouet, was born around 1622 in Chambois, Normandy, France. Étienne’s father was recorded as a bourgeois and cirier chandelier, or candlemaker.
Located 185 kilometres west of Paris, Chambois lies in the present-day department of Orne. In 2017, the village was amalgamated into Gouffern-en-Auge. Today, its population is fewer than 400 inhabitants, known as Chamboisiens.
As a young boy in Chambois, Étienne’s life would likely have been shaped by agriculture, seigneurial obligations, and the Catholic Church. Most inhabitants worked the surrounding fields, cultivating grains such as wheat and rye, tending small livestock, and maintaining kitchen gardens. Children contributed early to household tasks, from herding animals to assisting in the fields, while formal education remained rare outside of religious instruction.
Postcard of Chambois's 12th-century Norman keep, circa 1910 (Geneanet)
Postcard of Chambois’s Grande Rue, circa 1910 (Geneanet)
The Allure of New France
The reasons for Étienne’s emigration to New France are unknown. A young man in his early twenties leaving France in the mid-seventeenth century was typically motivated by a combination of economic necessity and opportunity. In rural regions, land was scarce and often reserved for the eldest son, leaving younger men with limited prospects beyond day labour or apprenticeship. New France, by contrast, offered the possibility of land, steady employment, or participation in the fur trade, along with the opportunity to establish oneself more quickly within a small but growing colony.
Recruitment efforts by colonial promoters and seigneurial agents also played a role, encouraging migration by emphasizing opportunity and social mobility. For some, military service or work contracts provided a path across the Atlantic; others were drawn by a desire for independence or simply to improve their circumstances during a period marked by economic pressure and uncertainty in France.
Though his exact arrival date is unknown, Étienne was in New France by June 3, 1646, when he was named godfather at the baptism of an Indigenous girl named Jeanne in Trois-Rivières. By the fall of 1647, he was in the Québec area, acting as godfather at two additional baptisms and serving as a witness at the marriage of Médard Chouart des Groseilliers and Hélène Martin, daughter of Abraham Martin and Marguerite Langlois. Des Groseilliers, a French explorer and fur trader, would later help found the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670.
On February 10, 1651, Étienne received a land concession on the côte de Beaupré from Olivier Letardif, a member of the Compagnie de Beaupré. The concession measured 10 arpents of frontage (facing the St. Lawrence River) by one and a half leagues in depth. He named his property “Domaine Saint-Étienne” and employed several domestic servants to work the land. Once cleared, he cultivated wheat, barley, peas, and cabbage.
Marguerite Sevestre, daughter of Charles Sevestre and Marie Pichon, was born around 1635 in the parish of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris, France. Her paternal grandparents were Charles Sevestre, printer and librarian at the University of Paris (son of bookseller Thomas Sevestre and Jeanne Boucherot), and Marguerite Petitpas (daughter of wine merchant Jean Petitpas and Marguerite Macé). Her maternal grandparents were Philippe Pichon (son of Claude Pichon and Marie Perier) and Médarde Vaquemoulin (daughter of Jean Vacquemoulin and Jeanne Morel).
Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, 19th-century drawing by Frederick Nash (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
The parish of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont was a well-established and densely populated urban parish in the first half of the seventeenth century. Completed in the late sixteenth century, the parish church served a mixed population of artisans, labourers, students, and members of the University of Paris, reflecting its location within the intellectual and commercial environment of the Latin Quarter. Architecturally notable for its ornate interior and surviving rood screen (jubé), Saint-Étienne-du-Mont functioned both as a spiritual centre and as a marker of continuity in a neighbourhood shaped by scholarship, religion, and urban growth.
The rood screen in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (Geneanet)
Within a year or two of her birth, Marguerite’s parents sailed to New France, arriving in 1636. Her father, Charles, worked as a clerk for the Compagnie des Cent-Associés.
Who was the Compagnie des Cent Associés?
Under the reign of Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu founded the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, also known as the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, on April 29, 1627. Tasked by the king with populating Canada, the Company was granted ownership of New France, a territory with imprecise boundaries (from Florida in the south to the Arctic Circle in the north). It also held a monopoly on the fur trade and the authority to grant land.
Financed by one hundred shareholders, the Company had a capital of 300,000 livres, which was used to pay for the transport, accommodation, and food of settlers during their first three years in the colony. Although its early years were marked by setbacks (captured ships, famine, and English occupation), the Company contributed significantly to population growth by bringing approximately 5,000 settlers to New France, many of whom remained.
Facing financial difficulties, the Company later ceded its rights to the Compagnie des Habitants. The colony came under royal authority in 1663, and the Compagnie des Cent-Associés was subsequently dissolved.
Marriage and Children
Étienne and Marguerite were married on April 8, 1652, in the parish church of Notre-Dame in Québec. Governor Jean de Lauson was among the witnesses. The groom was about 30 years old; the bride was about 17.
1652 marriage of Étienne "de Lessart" and Marguerite Sevestre (Généalogie Québec)
The couple had at least ten children:
Étienne Lessard (1653–1728)
Charles Lessard (1656–1740)
Pierre Lessard (1658–1737)
Marie Thérèse Lessard (1662–1749)
Marguerite Lessard (1664–1665)
Anne Dorothée Lessard (1666–1710)
Noël Lessard (1669–1743)
Joseph Lessard (1672–1763)
Prisque Lessard (1674–1755)
Dorothée Lessard (1677–1756)
Étienne and Marguerite settled at Petit Cap, on the côte de Beaupré, a locality later known as Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap and eventually Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. At the time, the settlement comprised only a small number of families, and no parish had yet been formally established; inhabitants relied on occasional religious services or on nearby parishes such as Château-Richer or Québec. Their children’s baptisms reflect this evolving settlement pattern: the first three were baptized in Québec, the next four in Château-Richer, and the final three in the newly established parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
On May 3, 1653, Étienne entered into a livestock lease with his father-in-law, Charles Sevestre, for two brown-haired cows for a term of three years. Étienne is described as an habitant from the côte de Beaupré, while his father-in-law is recorded as the honorable “lieutenant tenant le siège en la Sénéchaussée de Québec en la Nouvelle-France” (lieutenant sitting in the Sénéchaussée [royal court] of Québec). In exchange for the cows, Étienne agreed to feed and care for them and to provide his father-in-law with 25 pounds of butter annually per cow.
Religious and Community Life
On March 8, 1658, Étienne and Marguerite donated two arpents of land on the côte de Beaupré for the construction of a chapel to serve the local community. Five days later, on March 13, the Journal des Jésuites recorded:
“The Governor went with Mr. Vignard to visit the cote de Beaupré to see if work was underway on the redoubts. Mr. Vignard, delegated by the Abbot, blessed the site of the church at Petit Cap. The Governor laid the foundation stone there.”
In the years that followed, this first chapel was replaced by successive churches. In 1887, the sanctuary at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré was elevated to the rank of basilica, and the present building was completed in 1926. Today, the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré receives more than one million visitors each year.
Étienne continued to play an active role in the church. A notarial record dated February 12, 1663, identifies him as a marguillier (churchwarden) of Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap, alongside Pierre Simard and Jean Picard.
The Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (© The French-Canadian Genealogist)
On January 27, 1659, Étienne and Marguerite donated another portion of their land to Élie Godin. The concession measured two arpents of frontage, facing the St. Lawrence River. Godin agreed to assume all future payments of cens and rente.
Commemorative plaque of the landowners at Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap on March 13, 1658, at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (© The French-Canadian Genealogist)
Succession and Property Holdings
Marguerite’s father, Charles, died on December 8, 1657. Nearly two years later, part of his succession was settled before notary Guillaume Audouart. On October 18, 1659, a sum of 1,300 livres was divided among the six heirs, including Marguerite.
The following day, Marguerite’s mother, Marie Pichon, and the heirs agreed to transfer an additional inherited sum of 433 livres 11 sols 8 deniers to Louis Rouer de Villeray and his wife, Catherine Sevestre, Marguerite’s sister.
Étienne’s signature in 1659. He generally signed “Lessart,” with at least one instance of “Lessard.”
Marguerite’s mother, Marie, died on May 3, 1661. Her succession was settled the following year. On February 4, 1662, three properties were divided among her heirs: two land concessions located in the côte and seigneurie of Lauzon, as well as buildings in Québec’s Lower Town.
Marguerite and Étienne inherited "a large portion of cellar space, a portion of the attic, one half of a small building used as a bakery, and one quarter of a courtyard, all constituting one quarter of the house and courtyard formerly belonging to the late Master Charles Sevestre, formerly lieutenant particulier in this jurisdiction, the said house being located in the lower town, on Notre-Dame Street."
The property was formally declared in the papier terrier of the Compagnie des Indes occidentales, seigneur of the land, on February 24, 1668. In this act, Étienne Lessard acknowledged holding the inherited property under seigneurial tenure (en censive) and undertook to pay the associated annual dues.
The Lessard Family in the Census
In 1666, the Lessard family was recorded in the census of New France on the côte de Beaupré. Étienne, aged 44, and Marguerite, aged 31, were living with their four children and a domestic servant, Urbain Jobineau.
1666 Census of New France (Library and Archives Canada)
The following year, Étienne and Marguerite again appear in the census at the same location, now with five children and a domestic servant named Jean Chauvet. Étienne declared owning six head of livestock and 50 arpents of “valuable” land (cleared or under cultivation).
1667 Census of New France (Library and Archives Canada)
Financial Transactions and Property Dealings
"An old windmill still in use on Île-aux-Coudres," 19th-century postcard (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
On November 15, 1669, Étienne and Marguerite borrowed 834 livres 14 sols 1 denier from Québec merchant Charles Aubert de Lachenaye. In return, they agreed to pay a fixed annual rente of 46 livres 7 sols 3 deniers for life. This arrangement functioned as a credit instrument: the couple assumed a long-term financial obligation, secured by their properties in Québec and Sainte-Anne, in exchange for immediate funds.
In 1670, Étienne became involved in a legal dispute. In the fall of that year, he was accused of fur trade fraud by his creditor, Charles Aubert de Lachenaye—general clerk of the Compagnie des Indes occidentales and its prosecutor—along with three other men. He was suspected of concealing beaver pelts of significant value. [A deeper examination of the 38-page case file would be required to determine the outcome.] Regardless, the proceedings do not appear to have had a lasting impact on Étienne’s life.
On March 4, 1677, Étienne was granted the fief of Île-aux-Coudres by Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Governor General of New France. However, the grant was never ratified, and he likely never occupied or exploited the land. Étienne sold it to the Séminaire de Québec on October 19, 1687, for 100 livres.
In 1681, the Lessard family was recorded in the census of New France still living in the seigneurie of Beaupré. They owned 40 arpents of land, seven head of livestock, and three guns.
Étienne and Marguerite sold the Québec property they had inherited from her mother on April 6, 1683, to bourgeois François Hazeur and Étienne Lander for 1,200 livres. The sale included “that remainder which may be useful, together with everything inside that is left after the fire of the 4th and 5th of last August.” Though the building was restored and rebuilt in 1998–1999, it is still known today as “la Maison Hazeur.”
During the 1680s, Hazeur was regarded as one of the leading merchants in the colony, ranking behind Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye and Jacques Leber. He operated a thriving shop in Québec, was active in the fur trade, and was a principal shareholder in the Compagnie du Nord and the Compagnie de la Colonie.
Maison Hazeur (building on the right), located in Place-Royale, Québec (photo by Selbymay, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
On February 9, 1684, Étienne and Marguerite donated another two arpents of land, located in the seigneurie of Beaupré, to Monseigneur François de Laval, first bishop of Québec, for the parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
In April 1684, in the marriage contract of his son Charles, Étienne is identified as a militia captain in the seigneurie of Beaupré, demonstrating his continued involvement in his community.
Étienne’s Final Years
In the final years of his life, Étienne was involved in two additional land transactions. On April 27, 1688, Étienne, Marguerite, and the other heirs of Charles Sevestre received a concession of a seigneurie along the St. Lawrence River, likely granted in recognition of Sevestre’s service and carrying the full rights of a fief, including high, middle, and low justice, as well as hunting and fishing rights. The concession measured two leagues of frontage by two leagues in depth. [This seigneurie would later become known as Lanoraie.]
On March 12, 1698, Étienne and Marguerite sold their portion of this concession to Jean Berdelle, sieur de Duchenay, a sergeant in the Troupes de la Marine, for 100 livres.
On March 26, 1699, Étienne and Marguerite formally donated all of their movable and immovable property to their youngest and unmarried sons, Joseph and Prisque. The act states that, due to “their advanced age, rendering them infirm and frail due to the natural ailments that accompany old age; as a result, having exhausted their physical strength, they find themselves unable to make use of the little property they have left,” they transferred their assets to their sons. In return, the sons “promise to feed and care for their father and mother, whether they are in good health or ill, in a proper and fitting manner.”
What is a Donation?
In Québec, the practice of making donations entre vifs (between living persons) was common, particularly as individuals aged or experienced declining health. This type of donation involved transferring control of one’s possessions to another person, typically a child, who would assume responsibility for their care.
The process was formalized before a notary, who documented the agreement in detail. These notarized acts specified the rights and obligations of both parties, outlining what was transferred and what was to be provided in return. Assets commonly included land, a house or farm, and livestock. In exchange, the recipient was often required to settle outstanding debts and ensure that the donor was properly housed, fed, clothed, and otherwise cared for until death.
Death of Étienne
Étienne Lessard (or de Lessart) died on April 20, 1703, at the age of about 81, “having received all the sacraments and shown all the signs of a good Christian and a true child of the Church.” He was buried the following day in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, “in the church beneath the preacher’s pulpit, in the presence of his widow, his children and several of his friends.”
He died on the same day as his grandson Étienne, son of Joseph Lessard (or de Lessart) and Marguerite Racine. Grandfather and grandson were buried together in the church.
1703 burial of Étienne Lessard (or de Lessart) and his grandson Étienne (Généalogie Québec)
Marguerite’s Final Years
Marguerite appears only rarely in the public record after her husband’s death. On January 22, 1704, she is named as the godmother of her grandson François Malo Lessard (or de Lessart), son of Prisque Lessard and Marie Jacob.
On April 29, 1712, Marguerite and two of her children—Noël and Andrée Dorothée (through her husband François Loquet dit Dupont)—sold a plot of land in the parish of Sainte-Anne to shoemaker Jean Baptiste Boyer for 510 livres. The property measured three perches wide along the Chemin Royal (Royal Road) by five perches in depth and included a house, yard, and garden.
A few years later, on November 13, 1714, Marguerite and her son Joseph sold another plot of land to the church and parish of Sainte-Anne for 160 livres. It measured eight perches and thirteen feet of frontage along the Chemin Royal.
Death of Marguerite
Marguerite Sevestre died on November 26, 1720, at the age of about 85, “having received all the sacraments and showing signs of piety and devotion right to the end.” She was buried the following day inside the parish church, beneath the preacher’s pulpit.
1720 burial of Marguerite Sevestre (Généalogie Québec)
1751 map by Ignace Plamondon, listing landowners (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)
Close-up of the 10 arpents of land owned by the heirs of Étienne Lessard (or de Lessart), located on the same property as the church of Sainte-Anne (côte de Beaupré seigneurie
Builders of Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap
Commemorative plaque at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (© The French-Canadian Genealogist)
Étienne Lessard and Marguerite Sevestre stand among the early builders of the côte de Beaupré, at a time when the colony of New France was still taking shape. Established at Petit-Cap, Étienne emerges as a central figure in his community: a landholder, militia captain, and marguillier, entrusted with both the practical and spiritual life of the parish. His donation of land for the first chapel at Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap, and his continued involvement in parish affairs, reflect a sustained commitment to the religious and communal foundations of the settlement.
Marguerite’s background brought additional strength to this foundation. Through her father, Charles Sevestre—an officer of justice and administrator within the colonial system—her family contributed to the institutional and social framework of early Québec. Together, Étienne and Marguerite represent the convergence of rural settlement and urban influence, helping to anchor a community that would endure for generations. As the ancestors of most Lessards in North America, their legacy extends far beyond their own time, rooted in both the land they cultivated and the community they helped to build.
PDF version of biography located at: https://www.tfcg.ca/etienne-lessard-and-marguerite-sevestre.
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