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Jean Leclerc & Marie Blanquet

Discover the story of Jean Leclerc, a Norman linen weaver, and Marie Blanquet who settled on Île-d'Orléans in 1660s New France. Explore their mysterious legacy.

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Jean Leclerc & Marie Blanquet

A Linen Weaver in New France   

 

Jean Leclerc, son of Jean Leclerc and Perrette Brunet, was baptized on August 24, 1635, at the parish church of Saint-Rémy in Dieppe, Normandy, France. His godparents were Nicolas Forlhomme and Marguerite Le Comte.

1635 baptism of Jean Leclerc (Archives de la Seine-Maritime)

The Church of Saint-Rémy, 1915 postcard (Geneanet)

Location of Dieppe in France (Mapcarta)

Dieppe sits in northern France, in the Seine-Maritime department. Today, the city has approximately 30,000 inhabitants, known as Dieppois. As a major port, it distinguished itself in the 16th century for its contribution to the French school of cartography.   

During the Second World War, Dieppe became the site of a pivotal event for Canada: the raid of August 19, 1942. The operation sought to capture the port, hold it briefly, gather intelligence, and test German defences. The assault ended in heavy casualties—more than 900 Canadian soldiers died and nearly 2,000 were captured. However, the hard-won lessons from this operation proved crucial in planning future Allied amphibious assaults, including the D-Day landings.

Aerial photograph of Dieppe taken in June 1945 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)

Marie Blanquet, daughter of Adrien Blanquet and Catherine Prévost, was baptized on August 31, 1631, in the parish of Saint-Vaast in Ocqueville, Normandy, France. Her godparents were Esloy Ducal and Marie Prévost.

Her paternal grandparents were Andrien (or Andrieu) Blanquet and Perrine Caperon, married at Notre-Dame parish in Sasseville on November 10, 1599.

Located approximately 30 kilometres southwest of Dieppe, Ocqueville is a small rural commune. Today, it has fewer than 500 inhabitants, called Ocquevillais.

1631 baptism of Marie Blanquet (Archives de la Seine-Maritime)

Catholic church of Saint-Vaast in Ocqueville, postcard (Geneanet)

Marriage and Children

Jean and Marie married before 1657, probably in Ocqueville. Their marriage record has not been found. Jean worked as a linen weaver.

Artificial intelligence image created by the author with ChatGPT (August 2025)

The couple had at least ten children, the first two of whom were born in France:

  1. Robert (1657–before 1660)

  2. Pierre (1659–1736)

  3. Marie Marguerite (1660–1729)

  4. Jean (1663–before 1666)

  5. Anne (1664–1699)

  6. Marie Nicole (1666–1668)

  7. Jean Charles (1668–1749)

  8. Adrien (1670–1746)

  9. Marie Madeleine (1672–1702)

  10. Martin (1674–1703)

Life in Normandy in the 17th Century

We don't know whether Jean and Marie settled in Dieppe or Ocqueville after their marriage. Whether they lived at Saint-Rémy de Dieppe or with Marie's family in Ocqueville, their lives revolved around linen. In Dieppe, a bustling port, a linen weaver filled orders for household linens, canvas and sometimes sailcloth, working to the rhythm of shipping seasons and conflicts that disrupted trade. In Ocqueville, in the heart of the Pays de Caux, the linen trade—retting, scutching, spinning then weaving at home or in small workshops—provided modest and unpredictable income. Everywhere, the Fronde civil wars (1648-1653), taxes and poor harvests in the early 1660s drove up bread prices and squeezed artisan families' budgets. Work became sporadic, depending on demand.

"Dieppe, famous seaport on the northern coast of the province of Normandy," 1650 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

In this climate, New France offered tangible benefits: paid passage or an « engagé » contract, quick access to land under the seigneurial system, the chance to combine farming and weaving (winter at the loom, summer in the fields), and partial escape from urban guild restrictions. Norman recruitment networks naturally ran through Dieppe. Whether they had lived at the port or in the village, the couple primarily wanted food security, land they could pass to their children, and better chances for social advancement in a small, growing society that needed families and skilled craftsmen.

Jean and Marie chose to leave France. They reached Québec in either 1659 or 1660, with spring 1660 more likely. Marie's father Adrien probably urged them to go—he had been in New France since at least 1658. Two of Jean's sisters also became pioneers: Marguerite and Anne. Marguerite first appeared in New France records in 1660; she may have travelled with Jean and Marie. Anne was a Fille du roi who arrived in Québec around 1668.

On Île-d’Orléans

First page of Jean Leclerc’s second land concession in 1662 (FamilySearch)

Few details are known about Jean and Marie's life during their first two years in New France. Their daughter Marguerite was born on December 26, 1660, and baptized in Québec on February 21, 1661. The record does not specify the couple's residence.

On August 10, 1662, Jean received two land concessions from brothers Jean and Nicolas Juchereau, located "on Île-d'Orléans in the seigneurie of la Chevallerie." The first is described in a notarial act where Jean and eight other men each received a plot, including his father-in-law Adrien Blanquet dit Lafougère, Nicolas Godbout, René Brancheu, Pierre Guilbert, Paulin, Jean Fichet, Charles Roger des Colombiers, and Jacques Pifre. Each man received two arpents of frontage bordering the river.

The second concession measured four arpents of frontage, facing the St. Lawrence River, between the lands of Nicolas Godbout and sieur [Tisseraie?]. Jean agreed to pay 20 sols per arpent of frontage in seigneurial rente, 12 deniers in cens per arpent of frontage, as well as four live capons annually. He also promised to bring his grain to be ground at the seigneurial mill.

A few years after his arrival, Adrien Blanquet, widowed, remarried on November 7, 1663, in Quebec. His new bride was Fille du roi Anne Lemaistre, widow of Louis Leroy.

On June 2, 1667, Jean obtained from Nicolas Godbout an adjacent plot of two arpents of frontage in the arrière-fief of la Chevalerie through an exchange. [The details remain unknown, as the notarial record has not been found. This agreement is mentioned in Godbout's inventory drawn up on September 26, 1674, by notary Paul Vachon.]

The Leclerc Family in the Census

In 1666, Jean and Marie were enumerated in the census of New France on Île-d'Orléans with their three children. Jean's occupation: “tisseran en toille habittant” (linen weaver [and] habitant).

1666 census for the "Le Clercq" family (Library and Archives Canada)

The following year, they were enumerated on Île-d'Orléans with their four children. The family owned six head of livestock and 13 arpents of “valuable” land (cleared and under cultivation).

1667 census for the "Le Clercq" family (Library and Archives Canada)

Land Concessions and Transactions

On March 4, 1673, Jean purchased another land concession "located at the southern passage of Île-d'Orléans in the seigneurie of Argentenay" from Louis Juchereau. This concession measured three arpents of frontage on the river and was bounded by the lands of Jacques Bluteau and Symphorien Rousseau, and by the road that crossed the island from one side to the other. Jean agreed to pay three livres annually in seigneurial rente, three sols in cens, and three live capons. He also promised to bring his grain to the seigneurial mill to be ground. Three years later, on January 24, 1676, Jean sold this concession to François Daneau for 37 livres.

Artificial intelligence image created by the author with ChatGPT (August 2025)

Two days after his first purchase, on March 6, 1673, Jean bought land from Jacques Bernier dit Jean de Paris. This habitation consisted of two arpents of frontage on the river, on the north side, extending to the middle of the island, adjacent to his own property. Part of the purchase price was to be paid in labour: Jean had to cut trees into logs of nine to ten feet on Bernier's new concession in Cap-Saint-Ignace, then use this lumber to build and roof a house and barn for the seller. The house was to measure twenty-five feet long, and the barn forty feet end to end. Jean had two years to complete the work—cutting five arpents of wood the first winter (1673-1674) and five arpents the following winter (1674-1675), then constructing the buildings once the wood was burned and cleared.

While the work was being carried out, Bernier remained in his house on Île-d'Orléans. To guarantee completion of the work, the habitation sold was specially mortgaged in his favour, in addition to the general guarantee on Leclerc's property. This transaction illustrates a common arrangement: sale with partial payment in labour, which allowed the buyer to acquire property while enabling the seller to quickly establish his new land.

In 1678, the aveu et dénombrement (admission and enumeration) by Nicolas Juchereau de Saint-Denys [...] to Christophe-Martin de Boiscorneau, director of the island and county of Saint-Laurent, attorney for François Berthelot, Count of Saint-Laurent in New France for the arrière-fief of la Chevalerie, indicates that Jean owned a total of eight arpents in the seigneurie, a number that corresponds to the concessions and purchases made since 1662:

 

by Jean LeClerc, eight arpents of frontage on the said river and depth up to [text missing] from one end joining on one side to [text missing] on the other to Gabriel Gosselin and charged twenty-one sols and one capon of cens and rente payable per arpent annually to the seigneurial estate of the said Sieur de St-Denis.

 

Extract from the 1678 "aveu et dénombrement" (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

The map of the Île-d'Orléans seigneurie drawn in 1689 by Robert de Villeneuve shows the Leclerc family's lands.

Map of the seigneurie of Île-d'Orléans drawn in 1689 by Robert de Villeneuve, with the lands of the "widow of Jean Leclère" marked in red (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

The Mysterious Death of Jean Leclerc

On February 25, 1680, notary Paul Vachon drew up the marriage contract of Jacques Bouffard and Anne Leclerc, daughter of "Jean Le Clerc being at present absent in France and Marie Blanquet her father and mother of the parish of St Pierre of the said county St Laurens."

The following year, in the 1681 census, Marie was declared a widow. She still lived on Île-d'Orléans with her five children. The family owned 20 arpents of land under cultivation, 13 head of cattle, and one gun.

1681 census for Marie Blanquet's household (Library and Archives Canada)

Jean Leclerc therefore died between autumn 1679 (the date of his departure for France) and November 1681 (the date of the census), probably at sea or in France. No burial record has been found.

In August 1690, Jean's estate was settled through a division agreement between his heirs and his widow. [The act is not dated; it is situated between acts of August 2 and 6. It is also very difficult to read.]

The Blanquet Land

In 1669, on his deathbed, Adrien Blanquet, Marie's father, bequeathed half of his property to her. [The exact date of his death is unknown, but it occurred before August 6, 1684.] On March 10, 1695, Marie "permitted Guillaume Le Roy [grandson of Anne Lemaistre] to sell the land of her late father, Adrien Blanquet, on condition of receiving half the sale proceeds" (private agreement). The land measured three arpents of frontage facing the river, on the south side of the island, between the lands of Charles Thibault and the late René Asselin. A year later, on March 27, 1696, Guillaume Le Roy and Jean Charles Leclerc, "both for himself and for Jacques Bouffard, Pierre Le Clerc, Clement Ruelle, Adrien Le Clerc, Martin Le Clerc and René Pelletier," all heirs of the late Adrien Blanquet, their maternal grandfather, sold this land to Gervais Pépin dit Lachance for 320 livres.

Death of Marie Blanquet

Burial of Marie Blanquet in 1709 (Généalogie Québec)

Marie Blanquet died at age 78 on September 10, 1709. She was buried the following day inside the parish church of Saint-Pierre on Île-d'Orléans, "on the gospel side at the very bottom against the holy water font." [The record incorrectly states she was 86 years old.] On October 1, 1718, her body was transferred from the old church and buried toward the middle of the new one.

From Normandy to New France

Jean Leclerc, a linen weaver from Dieppe, and Marie Blanquet from Ocqueville made the bold crossing to New France around 1660, driven by economic hardship and the promise of land ownership. On Île-d'Orléans, Jean transformed from artisan to habitant, acquiring eight arpents through strategic land deals while maintaining his weaving trade. The family flourished—by 1667 they owned livestock, cultivated land, and raised seven children who survived to adulthood. Yet Jean's story ends in mystery: sometime between his departure for France in autumn 1679 and the 1681 census, he vanished without a trace, leaving no burial record. Marie carried on as a widow for nearly three decades, managing the family holdings until her death in 1709.

Their legacy extends far beyond their own lives. Through shrewd land acquisitions and careful estate planning—including Marie's inheritance of her father Adrien's property—they established a foundation that would support multiple generations. Today, this pioneer couple's memory endures in stone: a commemorative plaque installed in 2001 at the church of Saint-Rémy in Dieppe honours their Norman origins, while a monument at Saint-Pierre cemetery on Île-d'Orléans marks their final resting place in the land they helped to build.

 
 
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