ADRIEN D'ABANCOURT & SIMONE D'ORGEVILLE

ON GOING RESEARCH


This couple is one of the primary ancestors of the families GUILLOT, JOLLIET, LAVALLÉE, PREVOST of North America, including many family names spelling variations.
Their descendance is through their only daughter, Marie d'Abancourt who married three times; with Jean Jolliet, Godfroy Guillot (Guillaud)dit Lavallée and Martin Prévost.
The main secondary source of what is known today about Adrien d'Abancourt and his wife Simone d'Orgeville is "Le Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec" by René Jetté, Université de Montréal, ISBN2-7606-0645-5, published in 1983 as reproduced here:

ABANCOURT (d') dit LACAILLE, Adrien (...) de St-Waast, v., ar. et év. de Soissons, Picardie; d 02 s 25-05-1640 Québec (noyé dans le Saint-Laurent); cité 09-12-1637 Québec. [AGA]
m vers 1617, Soissons
ORGEVILLE (d'), Simone (...) de Soissons, s 04-01-1649 Québec (60 ans).
1- Marie, 48 ans au rec. 66, 48 ans au rec. 67, m 1639 Jean JOLLIET; citée 26-03-1637, Québec
JOLLIET Jean...
m 09-10-1639 Qu/bec (ct 13-11-1637 Audouart)
ABANCOURT(d'), Marie (Adrien & Simone d'ORGEVILLE)

I cannot find the citations mentioned by Jetté dated 26-03-1637 and 09-12-1637. They might have been mentions of these people as witnesses or as godparents. Similarly I cannot find the marriage registration and the marriage contract of Marie d'Abancourt and Jean Jolliet dated 09-10-1639 and 13-11-1637. The registry of Quebec burned in June 1640 and was rewritten a year later based on memories and interviews with the people concerned. As for the contract supposedly by Audouart, well Audouart started working as a notary only in 1646; but he might have registered a document previously written by others. Any help with this will be appreciated.


ON GOING RESEARCH ON THIS COUPLE
Table of content
Primary Sources
Findings from these Sources
Reliability of primary sources
Other researches
PRIMARY SOURCES

What we know about these ancestors is limited and based on the following primary sources sorted by date:

First the ones that I have seen:

  • Engagement contract of Adrien Dabancourt for Canada dated April 8, 1632 in Le Havre, Normandy, France.
    "...Adrien Dabancourt dit La Caille natif de Beauvais paroisse Saint-Paul..."
  • Testament of Samuel de Champlain dated December 1635, Québec, Canada.
    "...Je donne cent livres à la femme à La Caille..."
  • Registration of the first marriage of Marie d'Abancourt dated October 9, 1639 at Québec, Canada.
    "...Marie dabancour autrement dicte Marie la Caille..."
  • Registration of the death of Adrien d'Abancourt dated at Québec, Canada
    "...Adrien Dabancour surnommè La Caille..."
  • Report on the discovery of the remains of Adrien d'Abancourt at Québec, Canada
    "...Jean Joliet Gendre de la Caille..."
  • Registration of the second marriage of Marie d'Abancourt dated October 19, 1651at Québec, Canada.
    "...Marie d'Abancour fille de Adrian d'Abancourt et de Simone Orville ses pere et mere de La paroisse St-Vaux à Soissons veuve de feu Jean Joliet..."
  • Vente de Marie d'Abancourt, veuve en premières noces de Jean Jolliet, en secondes de Geoffroy Guillot et femme en troisièmes noces de Martin Prévost, à monseigneur François de Laval. Gilles Rageot, notaire. MG8-A23 1668, octobre, 08 Item Québec. Greffes de notaires.
    unreadable
  • Census of Canada, 1666.
    ...Marie d'Abancourt...
  • Census of Canada, 1667.
    ...Marie Dabancour...

    The ones I have not seen yet but which might be of interest:

  • Mention of Adrien and/or Simone and/or Marie, probably as godparents, in Quebec, on March 26, 1637. Mentioned in the Jetté Dictionary.
  • Mention of Adrien and/or Simone and/or Marie, probably as godparents, in Quebec, on December 9, 1637. Mentioned in the Jetté Dictionary.
  • Registation of burial of Simone d'Orgeville at Quebec on January 4 1649, where, according to Jetté, she was said to be 60 years old.
  • Vente de Geoffroy Guillot dit Lavallée et Marie de Abancourt à François Fortin. (No 119). Claude Auber, notaire. MG8-A23 1662, octobre, 01 Item Québec. Greffes de notaires.
  • Inventaire des biens meubles et immeubles de feu Jean Jolliet et Marie Abancourt et dépendant aussi du deuxième mariage de cette dernière avec feu Geoffroy Guillot dit Lavallée. (No 212). Claude Auber, notaire. MG8-A23 1665, juillet, 18 Item Québec. Greffes de notaires.


    FINDINGS FROM THESE SOURCES

    The findings from these sources differs somewhat from the generally ill informed notions spread on the Internet. It also challenges some of the assumptions taken in the past by professional researchers who did not necessarily have access to all the data now being rediscovered.

  • Adrien d'Abancourt emigrated without his family to Canada in the spring of 1632 as one of the leading 40 men engaged to prepare Quebec to receive immigrants in the following years.

  • Adrien d'Abancourt is described as "a native of the parish of Saint-Paul at Beauvais" in his engagement contract.

  • Adrien d'Abancourt is referred to as "dit La Caille" in France, prior to immigrating. - This indicates that he was still or had recently been a military.

  • The family name in the various period documents is written Dabancour,Dabancourt and d'Abancourt, with and without the added "dit La Caille".

  • In Canada it seems that the usual names were both La Caille or Dabancourt, a detail, taking into account that most writers did not care much about syntax, a common situation prior to the mid XVII century French culture.

  • Simone d'Orgeville and Marie d'Abancourt emigrated to Canada in the spring of 1633, 1634 or 1635.

  • The registration of the second marriage of Marie d'Abancourt in 1651 states, not very clearly, that either Marie or the whole family is from the parish of St-Vaux in Soissons. It is the only document referring to this place.
    RELIABILITY OF PRIMARY SOURCES

    Primary sources originating at the moment that an activity takes places are the only concrete data to go by. The circumstances of the preparation of a document must be taken into consideration to evaluate its value.
    Everything else is conjectural although sometimes well supported by circumstancial evidences and worth consideration.

    In summary, the reliability of the above mentioned documents are given here.

    The engagement contract of Adrien in 1632 at Le Havre was written by S. Jehan Fresquet, the official notary appointed by the King for the affairs of the Royal Navy. In the particular case of the preparation of this voyage to Canada this notary had prepared about 20 documents for the Navy, having to do with engagement contracts, suppliers contracts, labour contracts, management contracts. The whole costly exercise was directly being supervised by the Prime Minister the Cardinal of Richelieu who watched every aspects of it. The project was also highly political at the time and was center piece for the establishment of the "Mercantile" policy of France (i.e. the establishment of colonies to enrich the mother land faster than its three main competitors, Spain, Holland and England).
    For the years 1631-1632, the minutes of this notary form a whole book of about 200 folios, most minutes containing numerous signatures by a bunch of officials as well as commoners.

    The reliability of the information contained in these minutes is likely very high. In particular the identity and religion of each of the 40 men as the cardinal had written a number of orders about insuring the qualities of these 40 men a number of times. These letters can be seen on the website of both the Archives of Canada and of France.

    The marriage contract of Marie d'Abancourt in 1651, stating Soissons as the place of origin of either her only or the whole family is less reliable. It was prepared by the Jesuit Poncet. Marie is the only one who could state where she was from, as both parents had died earlier and none of the witnesses had known the parents. If she had been born about 1617, assumption based on the age given at the census of 1666 and 1667, she was thus about 16 - 18 years old when she emigrated. She might have stated Soissons, but she might also have said only St-Vaux. In the latter case, it is worth noting that Poncet knew Soissons, having spent three years previously at the College de Clermont, and he might have been the one who freely added Soissons. Also the same registration states that her mother's name was d'Orville, a name totally absent for the period prior to the XIX century from all existing genealogical databases in France at this time as opposed to many Orgeville. This is obviously inconclusive.

    So far I have not found any primary source stating fully the name of Simone d'Orgeville.


    LINK TO OTHER RESEARCHES

    I will keep on adding to this page as time flies. Bye.


    Contact: mr9434641@yahoo.com