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Maurice Crépeau and Marguerite Laverdure

Explore the history of Maurice Crépeau, a French weaver from the small village of Les Roches-Baritaud, and Marguerite Laverdure, a Parisian "Fille du roi," as they embark on a journey that would see them establish a family legacy on the fertile shores of Île-d’Orléans.

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Pioneers of New France:  The Life and Legacy of Maurice Crépeau and Marguerite Laverdure

Explore the history of Maurice Crépeau, a French weaver from the small village of Les Roches-Baritaud, and Marguerite Laverdure, a Parisian "Fille du roi," as they embark on a journey that would see them establish a family legacy on the fertile shores of Île-d’Orléans.

 

Château des Roches-Baritaud (Geneanet)

Maurice Crépeau (or Crespeau), son of Jehan Crespeau and Suzanne Fumoleau, was born on November 25, 1637, in the village of Les Roches-Baritaud, located in the commune of Saint-Germain-de-Prinçay, in Poitou, France. He was baptized the same day in the 11th-century parish church. His godparents were Étienne Touret and Suzanne Baujé.

Saint-Germain-de-Prinçay, in the present-day department of Vendée, is located about 65 kilometres north of La Rochelle, Maurice’s likely departure port for New France. Today, the rural commune has a population of about 1,600 residents, called Germinois. One of its main attractions is the 15-century Château des Roches-Baritaud.

1637 Baptism of Maurice Crépeau (“Morisse Crespeau") (Archives départementales de la Vendée)

Location of Saint-Germain-de-Prinçay in France (Google)

A commemorative plaque installed in the church of Saint-Sauveur in La Rochelle, France (©The French-Canadian Genealogist)

Landowner in New France

The details of Maurice’s arrival in New France are unknown, but he appears in the public record for the first time in 1662, when he was 24 years old. On July 15 of that year, he received a land concession from Charles de Lauson in the seigneurie of Liret on Île-d’Orléans. The land measured three arpents’ frontage (facing the St. Lawrence River) on the north side of the island (in the present-day parish of Saint-Pierre).

1662 Land Concession to Maurice Crépeau (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

Maurice Crépeau’s Land Concession on Île-d’Orléans (in blue) (Google)

On March 23, 1664, Maurice and 103 others received the sacrament of confirmation from Monseigneur de Laval, in the parish church of Notre-Dame in Québec. He is recorded as a 26-year-old from the bishopric or diocese of Luçon (just south of Saint-Germain-de-Prinçay).

1664 Confirmation of Maurice Crépeau (Généalogie Québec)

Marguerite Laverdure (or Verdure), daughter of Martin Laverdure and Jacqueline Leliot, was born around 1645 in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in Paris, France. A “Fille du roi,” Marguerite left France in 1665 with an estimated 200 livres’ worth of goods for her dowry.

1615 Map of Paris by Derveaux and Tavernier (Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in yellow) (Musée Carnavalet)

Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs (photo by Mbzt, Wikimedia Commons)

The Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs is located in the 3rd Arrondissement in Paris. Its construction spanned 200 years, from 1420 to 1620. The gothic-style church was classified as a national historic monument in 1887. Inside the church, over 70 further objects (paintings, sculptures, murals, bells, etc.) were also classified as national historic monuments.

Marguerite was likely a passenger on the ship Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which departed from Dieppe and arrived at Québec on October 2, 1665. She was one of 82 Filles du roi aboard, along with 130 labourers. This was the last ship to arrive in Québec that year.

Marriage

Page 3 of Maurice Crépeau and Marguerite Laverdure’s 1665 marriage contract (FamilySearch)

A mere ten days after her arrival, on October 12, 1665, Marguerite and her husband-to-be, Maurice Crépeau, had a marriage contract drawn up by notary Pierre Duquet in Québec. Maurice was 27 years old; Marguerite was about 20. The contract followed the standard clauses of the Coutume de Paris. Marguerite received a prefix dowry of 200 livres. She brought 200 livres to the community of property. The preciput was set at 100 livres. [The preciput, under the regime of community of property between spouses, was an advantage conferred by the marriage contract on one of the spouses, generally on the survivor, and consisting in the right to levy, upon dissolution of the community, on the common mass and before any partition thereof, some of which specified property or a sum of money.]

Neither spouse could sign their name on the marriage contract, but some of the colony’s most important individuals did: Daniel Rémy, sieur de Courcelle (the governor), Alexandre de Prouville (commander-in-chief of the colony’s troops), Jean Bourdon (engineer and surveyor) and Anne Gasnier (chaperone to the Filles du roi and wife of Bourdon). The witnesses also included Jean and Louis Levasseur, Pierre Chalut and Jacques Raté. The marriage record no longer exists, though couples tended to marry within three weeks of the signing of the marriage contract.

Maurice and Marguerite had nine children:

  1. Marie Anne (1667-1703)

  2. Marguerite (1669-1745)

  3. Joseph (1671-?)

  4. Maurice (1673-1753); he became a militia lieutenant

  5. Marie Madeleine (1675-1748)

  6. Pierre (1678-1768); he became a beer brewer

  7. Françoise (1680-1680)

  8. Robert (1681-1749)

  9. Marie Geneviève (1684-1764)

A Tranquil Life on Île-d’Orléans

The couple settled on Maurice’s land on Île-d’Orléans. They were enumerated there on the census of New France in 1666. Maurice was a “serger” (serge weaver) and “habitant” (farmer).

1666 census for the Crépeau family (Library and Archives Canada)

A year later, Maurice and Marguerite were enumerated again in the census, still living on Île-d’Orléans. Seven-month-old daughter Marie Anne was recorded in the household. Maurice owned one head of cattle and nine arpents of cleared land.

1667 census for the Crépeau family (Library and Archives Canada)

Maurice’s name did not appear in notarial documents frequently. On January 21, 1668, notary Romain Becquet drew up a document in which Maurice acknowledged a debt to Charles Courtois of 34 livres and 12 sols, which he agreed to pay by June 1st of the following year. He also agreed to deliver two minots of wheat to Courtois within 15 days. A note in the margin of the document indicates that Maurice repaid the debt on August 19, 1669.

Maurice and Marguerite were enumerated in the 1681 New France census living on Île-d’Orléans with their six children. Maurice owned three head of cattle, 15 arpents of cleared land and no guns.

1681 census for the Crépeau family (Library and Archives Canada)

In 1689, a detailed map of the island was created by Robert de Villeneuve, including the names of 347 landowners. The house and barn of Maurice Crépeau are depicted.

1689 Map of Île-d’Orléans (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

On March 31, 1701, Maurice and Marguerite donated a portion of their land on Île-d’Orléans to their son Maurice. “Considering that the great age in which they are advanced no longer allows them to work as they have done in the past, to make the most of the little property it has pleased God to give them, they have enlisted Maurice Crépeau, their son, to relieve them in their old age.” Maurice and Marguerite registered a “pure and simple irrevocable inter vivos donation” of an arpent of land, with its buildings, furniture and livestock to their son. They would, however, retain general control of the farm and could use the entire property as they saw fit. In return, Maurice Jr. would be required to pay the cens and rents of the land and would live with his parents until their death. He committed to maintaining both his parents’ remaining land as well as his portion, and to taking care of, feeding and housing his parents until their death. Upon their death, Maurice Jr. would only receive his share of the movable and livestock assets (per the marriage contract and Coutume de Paris).

Death and Succession of Maurice Crépeau

Maurice Crépeau died at the age of 66 on September 8, 1704. He was buried two days later in the parish of Saint-Pierre on Île-d’Orléans, “after receiving the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and extreme unction." 

Two months after Maurice’s burial, on November 10, 1704, notary Etienne Jacob drew up the inventory of Maurice and Marguerite’s property. On the following day, the estate was divided between his heirs. The inventory listed all of the couple’s possessions: kitchen items, tools, linens, clothing, a plow, a horse harness, other farming equipment, farm animals and harvested grains.

1704 Burial of Maurice Crépeau (Généalogie Québec)

Extract of 1704 Inventory (FamilySearch)

The inheritance division among Maurice Crépeau’s heirs doesn’t appear to have gone smoothly. On March 20, 1705, Maurice Crépeau Jr.’s siblings and their spouses revoked a clause they had previously agreed to the year prior.   

On March 22, 1706, Marguerite had an agreement drawn up by notary Louis Chambalon, in which she sold her son Maurice “the furniture and household goods and livestock,” which she had inherited from her deceased husband (her half of the community of goods). Maurice paid his mother 400 livres by way of 12 playing cards worth 32 livres each.

 

Playing-Card Money (excerpt from The Canadian Encyclopedia)

Playing-card money was a type of paper money used periodically in New France from 1685 to the British Conquest in 1763. Playing cards issued by the king—later replaced with white cards cut to various shapes—held values equivalent to French livres.

The administration of New France counted on the arrival of cash from France in order to pay civil servants, suppliers, soldiers and clerks. There was confusion if the ship did not arrive until the end of the season, and even more if it did not come at all. In 1685, Intendant de Meulles invented a type of paper money with the purpose of meeting the expenses. He printed various face values on playing cards and affixed his seal to them. When the king’s ship arrived, he redeemed this “card money” in cash. This system ended after 1686, but it was necessary to return to it during the period 1689–1719. In 1714, card money to a value of 2 million livres was in circulation. Some cards were worth as much as 100 livres.

The king later returned to using card money in 1729 because the merchants themselves demanded it. This time, the money took the form of white cards without colours, which were cut or had their corners removed according to a fixed table. The whole card was worth 24 livres (which was the highest sum in card money). With the corners cut off, it was worth 12 livres. Other cuts carried other values.

Parish Church of Saint-Pierre on Île-d’Orléans in 2022 (©The French-Canadian Genealogist)

A pious woman, Marguerite was devoted to her church, stating that “there is nothing more reasonable than to give back to God part of our possessions.” On July 19, 1708, she and her son Maurice asked notary Etienne Jacob to draft an arrangement in which they would give the Church of Saint-Pierre an annual and perpetual annuity “for the repose of the soul” of Marguerite. Maurice also appears to donate to the parish the arpent of land his parents had previously given him. Perhaps he did this in order to avoid further disputes with his siblings.  

On February 27, 1710, Georges Plante, the husband of Marguerite Crépeau (second child of Maurice Sr. and Marguerite Laverdure), gave a receipt to his brother-in-law Maurice (Jr.) for his wife’s portion of the Crépeau inheritance. A year later, on February 21, 1711, a ruling by the Intendant Jacques Raudot officially concluded the disputes between Marguerite Laverdure and her children, concerning the sale of land to her son Maurice. Raudot ordered that Maurice “will only pay to his brothers and sisters the sum of 1,423 livres, of which he will keep 100 livres for his dowry, minus the sums he has advanced them.”

Death of Marguerite Laverdure

1727 Burial of Marguerite Laverdure (Généalogie Québec)

Marguerite Laverdure died suddenly at the age of 82 on August 22, 1727, “after several years of infancy” [a return to the stage of unreason and carefreeness]. She was buried the following day in the parish cemetery of Saint-Pierre on Île-d’Orléans.

And so concludes the story of two French pioneers who braved the unknown to carve a better life for themselves in New France. Like many early immigrants, Maurice Crépeau and Marguerite Laverdure settled into a humble life of farming and raised a large family, leaving thousands of descendants across North America today, including the Crespeau, Crespel and Crespieul families.

 
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