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Pierre Jamme dit Carrière & Marie Madeleine Barbary

Survivors of the Lachine Massacre

Pierre Jamme dit Carrière, son of Jean Jamme and Charlotte Hus, was born around 1662 in the parish of Saint-Sylvestre in Lantheuil, Normandy, France (now Ponts-sur-Seulles, in the Calvados department). The former rural commune of Lantheuil is located fifteen kilometres north-west of Caen, and less than ten kilometres from the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Before its merger with Ponts-sur-Seulles in 2017, Lantheuil had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, known as Lantheuillais.   

At the end of the 17th century, Ponts-sur-Seulles was a small rural parish in the Bessin region of Normandy, where daily life revolved around agricultural work and the religious calendar. The community lived mainly from cereal farming and livestock breeding, in conditions marked by uncertain harvests and the burden of seigneurial and ecclesiastical taxes. For younger sons of families with no prospect of inheritance, the future was often limited to a precarious existence of labour in the fields. Pierre’s father was a ploughman.

Emigration to New France

In this economic climate, a young man of twenty-five might have been tempted to enlist in the Compagnies franches de la Marine. Military service offered pay, a measure of prestige, and above all, the chance to escape poverty and try his luck across the Atlantic. Pierre enlisted as a soldier, joining the company of Cruzel [also spelled Creusel or Creussel]. According to the Association des Familles Carrier et Carrière d’Amérique du Nord, Pierre and his comrades-in-arms left La Rochelle on April 26, 1687, possibly aboard the ship Arc-en-ciel. They arrived in Québec City on May 29. 

The main objectives of the Compagnies franches de la Marine were to defend the colony against the Iroquois and to protect its interests in the lucrative fur trade. The Cruzel Company was assigned to the garrison at Fort de la Présentation, also known as Fort Gentilly, located in what is now the town of Dorval, near Lachine. 

The settlement known as La Présentation opened around 1666, at about the same time as Lachine. It was a fief measuring nineteen arpents by twenty, with a 53-foot-long wooden house, two cellars (one wooden and one of masonry), a stone fireplace, cabins, a barn, and two stables at the end of the structure—altogether 93 feet long, built of logs, covered with straw, and enclosed by cedar stakes. For nearly a century, this property was known as Fort de la Présentation. One of the rooms in the house served as a chapel dedicated to the Presentation of Mary at the Temple. The Sulpician priest Rémy, parish priest of Lachine and, for a time, chaplain at the Hôtel-Dieu, lived there until 1685. In 1691, the fief and the three islands opposite, on Lake Saint-Louis, passed into the hands of Jean Baptiste Bouchard dit Dorval, from whom the present-day municipality of Dorval takes its name.

The War Against the Iroquois

The French and Iroquois Wars were a series of conflicts between the French colonies in North America and the Iroquois nations during the 17th century. These conflicts were intensified by competition for control of the fur trade and by the Iroquois alliance with the English, rivals of the French. [Today, the Iroquois are known as the Haudenosaunee.]

Throughout the 1680s, the Iroquois carried out numerous destructive raids against French settlements and their Indigenous allies, prompting a series of reprisals by the French. These actions heightened tensions and created a climate of fear and mutual distrust. Attempts at negotiation often failed or produced fragile, short-lived peace agreements. In 1687, the governor of New France, Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, captured a group of Iroquois who were on their way to a peace meeting. This betrayal severely damaged relations and provoked retaliation by the Iroquois.

This ongoing conflict would prove devastating for Pierre and his family.

Marie Madeleine Barbary

Marie Madeleine Barbary, daughter of Pierre Barbary dit Grandmaison and Marie Lebrun, was baptized on September 1, 1673, in the parish of Notre-Dame in Montréal, New France. Her godfather was Jean Gourdon, and her godmother was Marie Madeleine Bourgery, both of whom declared that they could not sign their names. 

The Barbary family remained in Montréal until 1675. Sometime before 1677, they left Montréal for Lachine—a decision that would have serious consequences.                       

Marriage

Pierre Jamme “dit La Carrière” and Marie Madeleine Barbary had their marriage contract drawn up on the afternoon of October 24, 1688, by notary Jean Baptiste Pottier at the Barbary home in Lachine. Pierre was still a soldier and had to obtain permission to marry. He was about twenty-six years old. Marie Madeleine was fifteen; her father was present and consented to the marriage. The contract followed the norms of the Coutume de Paris. Pierre granted his future wife a customary dower of 300 livres. Marie Madeleine’s parents promised to give the new couple a heifer (young cow), two pigs, half a dozen hens, and a rooster. Pierre was able to sign the marriage contract, but Marie Madeleine could not.

Pierre and Marie Madeleine were married approximately four months later, on February 21, 1689, in the parish church of Saints-Anges in Lachine. The marriage record indicates that Pierre’s father was deceased and had been a ploughman. Marie Madeleine’s father was a ploughman in Lachine.   

The Lachine Massacre

For more than twenty years, the diplomacy of New France had protected the colony from Indigenous attacks. But in May 1689, France and England declared war on each other. In North America, the English in New York were the first to hear the news and immediately informed their Iroquois allies. The Iroquois had been rivals of New France for most of the previous eighty years. They regarded the French alliance system as a powerful threat to their security and territory. In New France, no one knew that war had been declared. Most Canadians still lived in unfortified villages, such as Lachine, near Montréal, which had 375 inhabitants.

At dawn on August 5, 1689, 1,500 Iroquois warriors attacked. Men, women, and children—no one was spared. In total, twenty-four settlers were killed, more than seventy were taken prisoner, and fifty-six of the seventy-seven houses were razed to the ground.

In his History of Canada, the superior of the Sulpicians of Montréal, François Vachon de Belmont, described the massacre:

Several prisoners escaped, others were released in prisoner exchanges, and some were adopted by the Iroquois. In all, forty-two inhabitants of Lachine were never heard from again.

The Lachine Massacre took place five months after Pierre and Marie Madeleine’s wedding. They were not spared.  

Pierre’s fate following the massacre remains unknown. He may have been taken prisoner and released in 1694, or he may have been absent from Lachine at the time of the attack because of his duties as a soldier at Fort de la Présentation (about eight kilometres from Lachine). He does not appear in the public register between his 1689 marriage and 1694.

Marie Madeleine’s sister, also named Marie Madeleine (born around 1669), was killed by the Iroquois on the morning of the massacre, along with her husband André Danis dit Larpenty. Marie Madeleine’s parents, Pierre Barbary dit Grandmaison and Marie Lebrun, were taken prisoner by the Iroquois, along with their children: Marie Madeleine (aged fifteen, wife of Pierre Jamme), Pierre (aged twelve), Marie Françoise (aged seven), and Marguerite (aged two months). Pierre Barbary dit Grandmaison and Marie Lebrun died in captivity.       

Aftermath and Return

Pierre was alone in Lachine, unaware of the fate of his young wife. However, it appeared to be known that Pierre Barbary dit Grandmaison and Marie Lebrun had died. On January 23, 1698, the Séminaire Saint-Sulpice granted a continuation of the land concession to the Barbary family through Pierre Jamme “as having married Marie Magdeleine Barbary, daughter of the late Pierre Barbary and Marie Le Brun, captured and burned by our enemies, the Iroquois, and for the other children of the said Barbary and Lebrun who may return from the country of the said Iroquois.”

In 1699, the new governor of New France, Louis-Hector de Callière, met with the chief of the Onondaga nation in Montréal to resume peace talks. [The Onondaga were one of the five nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, known as the Iroquois.] Callière stated that peace would be possible only through the exchange of all prisoners, regardless of the nation involved. The following year, three Frenchmen travelled to Onondaga (now Syracuse) to organize a prisoner exchange.  

Despite their efforts, several prisoners refused to leave, particularly the younger ones who had grown attached to their adoptive families. On September 8, the three men returned to Montréal with a group of Iroquois and thirteen prisoners. Madeleine and Pierre Barbary Jr. were among them, but Marie Françoise and Marguerite were not. They remained in Iroquois territory.      

After nearly a century of conflict and hostilities, the Great Peace of Montréal was concluded on August 4, 1701, between the French and the Iroquois nations.     

Pierre and Marie Madeleine organized their affairs and settled the estate of Pierre Barbary and Marie Lebrun before notaries. Pierre Jamme was appointed guardian of the minor Barbary children (of whom only Pierre had returned; the other two daughters were “still captive of the Iroquois”). The Barbarys owned two land concessions: one in Lachine and one in Pointe-Claire. The parties agreed that Pierre Barbary would inherit the land and house in Lachine, while Pierre Jamme and Marie Madeleine would inherit the land in Pointe-Claire.  

Little by little, life returned to normal. After ten years apart, Pierre and Marie Madeleine were able to start their own family. The couple had at least seven children: 

1. Marie Louise (1701–1755)

2. Louis Pierre (1703–1723)

3. Marie Anne (1707–1748)

4. Jean Baptiste (1710–1710)

5. Jean Baptiste (1711–1780)

6. Thomas (circa 1713–1795)

7. Marie Geneviève (1716–1718)

In 1707, there was still no news of Marie Françoise and Marguerite Barbary. Pierre Barbary, now of legal age, requested a reassessment of their parents’ estate. Pierre did not believe that his sisters would return. He asked Intendant Jacques Raudot to examine the case, with the aim of dividing the estate between the two children rather than four. The matter was settled as requested on June 14, 1707. 

Deaths of Marie Madeleine and Pierre

The details of Marie Madeleine Barbary’s death are unknown, but she died between April 6, 1728 (she was alive at her son Jean Baptiste’s wedding) and November 26, 1731 (she was declared deceased at her son Thomas’s wedding).  

On January 23, 1735, Pierre asked notary Jean Baptiste Adhémar dit Saint-Martin to draw up a contract between himself and his four children in the house of Jacques Chasle. Pierre, “being very old and infirm and unable to work his land of one and a half arpents of frontage by twenty arpents,” asked his children which of them could “take care of him for the rest of his days by providing him with a life annuity.” The pension requested included five bushels of wheat and one fat pig per year, given by each of his children in turn, as well as clothing and linen as needed, and “whatever he might need during his illnesses.” Thomas was deemed “most capable of caring for their father.” With that settled, Pierre gave his land to his children. Marie Louise and her husband ceded their inheritance rights to her brother Thomas in exchange for being relieved of the pension and the sum of 100 livres. Jean Baptiste did the same but received the sum of 260 livres.     

Pierre Jamme dit Carrière died at the age of seventy-eight on November 22, 1740. He was buried two days later in the cemetery of Saint-Joachim in Pointe-Claire.

Beyond the Massacre

The story of Pierre Jamme dit Carrière and Marie Madeleine Barbary embodies both the hardship and resilience of the first generations of settlers in New France. Torn from their families by war and captivity, they endured loss, separation, and uncertainty before rebuilding their lives on the western tip of the Island of Montréal. Through perseverance and faith, they secured a modest prosperity and rebuilt a life that endured long after their deaths. Their experience, rooted in the tragedy of the Lachine Massacre, reflects the broader struggle of a colony caught between conflict and survival—an enduring testament to the human capacity for endurance and renewal in the face of adversity.

Sources:

• "Histoire de Pierre Jamme et Marie Madgelenne Barbary," Association des Familles Carrier et Carrière d’Amérique du Nord, digitized by Geneviève Hopkins (https://genevievehopkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Histoire-de-Pierre-Jamme-et-Marie-Madeleine.pdf : accessed 30 Mar 2024).

• "Le LAFRANCE (Baptêmes, mariages et sépultures)," database and digital images, Généalogie Québec (https://www.genealogiequebec.com/Membership/LAFRANCE/acte/40239 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), baptism of Marie Madeleine Grandmaison, 1 Sep 1673, Montréal (Notre-Dame-de-Montréal) ; citing original data : Collection Drouin, Institut généalogique Drouin.

• "Le LAFRANCE (Baptêmes, mariages et sépultures)," database and digital images, Généalogie Québec (https://www.genealogiequebec.com/Membership/LAFRANCE/acte/14296 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), marriage of Pierre Jamme and Marie Madeleine Barbary, 21 Feb 1689, Montréal, Lachine (Sts-Anges) ; citing original data  : Collection Drouin, Institut généalogique Drouin.

• "Le LAFRANCE (Baptêmes, mariages et sépultures)," database and digital images, Généalogie Québec https://www.genealogiequebec.com/Membership/LAFRANCE/acte/118304 : accessed 31 Mar 2024), burial of Pierre Jamme dit Carrière, 24 Nov 1740, Pointe-Claire (St-Joachim) ; citing original data  : Collection Drouin, Institut généalogique Drouin.

• "Actes de notaire : Jean-Baptiste Pottier : 1686-1701," digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-P3VW-VB54?i=832&cat=529326 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), marriage contract between Pierre Jamme dit Lacarriere and Marie-Madeleine Barbary, 24 Oct 1688; citing original data : Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

• "Actes de notaire : Jean-Baptiste Pottier : 1686-1701," digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-L3VW-V97Y-Q?i=1473&cat=529326 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), land concession by the Séminaire de St-Sulpice de Montréal to Pierre Jeamme dit Cariere and Marie-Madeleine Barbary, 23 Jan 1698; citing original data : Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

• "Archives de notaires : Jean-Baptiste Adhémar dit Saint-Martin (1714-1754)," digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4393224?docref=00797--W8RK4vQNKw1N2ng : accessed 31 Mar 2024), transfer of land located at Pointe Claire by Pierre Jamme dit Carriere to Michel Brunet and Marie-Louise Jamme, Michel Debien and Marie-Anne Jamme, Jean-Baptiste Jamme, and Thomas Jamme, 23 Jan 1735, reference CN601,S3.

• "Fonds Juridiction royale de Montréal - Archives nationales à Montréal," digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (https://advitam.banq.qc.ca/notice/697829 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), « Tutelle des enfants mineurs de feu Pierre Barbery dit Grandmaison et de feu Marie Lebrun, son épouse, brûlés par les Iroquois », 26 Jan 1701 to 1 Feb 1701, Id 697829.

• "Fonds Intendants - Archives nationales à Québec," digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (https://advitam.banq.qc.ca/notice/86226 : accessed 31 Mar 2024), "Ordonnance de l'intendant Jacques Raudot entre Pierre Barbary dit Grandmaison et sa sœur Marie-Madeleine Barbary dit Grandmaison, mariée à Pierre Jamme dit Carrière, de Lachine, au sujet de la succession de leurs père et mère amenés en captivité par les Iroquois et qui sont morts entre leurs mains," 14 Jun 1707, Id 86226.

• Université de Montréal, Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) database (https://www-prdh-igd-com/Membership/fr/PRDH/Famille/6320 : accessed 30 Mar 2024), dictionary entry for Pierre JAMME CARRIERE and Marie Madeleine BARBARY GRANDMAISON, union 6320.

• “The Lachine Massacre,” Canada: A People's History, CBC Learning  (https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPCONTENTSE1EP3CH1PA4LE.html : accessed 30 Mar 2024).