DEATH OF JEAN LAVALLÉE dit PETIT-JEAN IN 1692.

Original research by Michel Robert, 1995-2002


The circumstances surrounding the violent death of Jean Lavallée dit Petit-Jean in July of 1692 are not known with certainty. But from the sources available to us (the gang at LAVALLEY-L@rootsweb.com) at this time, we are inclined to believe that he was killed during a battle while in pursuit of a group of Iroquois at the Long Sault (now known as Carillon) on the Ottawa River at sunset on July 22nd 1692.

The main documents consulted and leading to this conclusion are the Annual Report of Intendant Champigny to the minister of the Navy, dated October 5, 1692 (available at National Archives of Canada) and reproduced below from an excellent anonymous translation made in the XIX century and the Church register of Notre-Dame de Montreal available at the Quebec National Archives (microfilm 109) also reproduced below, showing clearly that Jean had died on July 22 not 12.

Below are, first the excerpt from Champigny's report, then simple maps of the area, and the two entries in the Register of Notre-Dame. At the end of this page is a general background document setting the context of this incident in 1692.


  • Two partial pages from Champigny's translated report:

  • Location of the Long Sault

  • Two pages from the Parish Register of Notre-Dame de Montréal:
  • The first image is the note at the bottom of a page in chronological order for the 22 nd of July 1692 and referring to page 11.

    The second image is for the note itself on page 11 inserted on October 1, 1692.


    HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
    THE STAGE

    By the late 1680's, the Colony of New France,by then numbering about 13,000 persons, had established permanent settlements in the Valley of the Saint-Laurent River and its tributaries from the plains around Montreal to down river from Quebec City. The bulk of the export revenue generated in the country came from fur trading, among others for beaver pelts, to supply the hat industry of Europe (France, Holland, Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe). Beaver felt hats were the ultimate thing to wear as they were totally water repellent, undestructible and a perfect thermal insulator. About 20% of the population was directly involved in the fur trade, with up to a thousand Canadians living part of the year or sometimes continuously for a few years in the hinterland of North America, developing solid relationships and trades with Amerindians.

    By comparison, the English colonists settled mostly within 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean were counting on the Amerindians to bring the furs to them; this did not work very well as the Iroquois were controlling the territory immediately north of them and insisted, most often by force, to be used as intermediaries.

    There was quite a bit of smuggling trade by Canadians selling their fur in the English colonies to avoid paying taxes in Canada. This is how two of them, DesGroseilliers and Radisson, had come to form a trading company with Prince Rupert of England in 1672 and formed the Hudson Bay Company to go trade in the Hudson bay area.

    After 1675, there was practically no new immigration to New France from Europe, essentially due to lack of interest, as France was rich and the "lower classes" were relatively well off compared to the rest of Europe. But the story was different in the English colonies with a constant large influx of immigrants, thereby requiring more and more land thus leading to encroachments, sometimes violent, on what the Amerindians considered their homeland. This was particularly true in New-England where the Abenakis were just about anhinilated.

    THE SHOWDOWN

    There were thus two constant conflicts that intensified during this period: The Iroquois, trying to develop a trading empire by waging war against the western amerindians who were already well served by their trading with the Canadians in their own back yard and the New-Englanders encroaching on the Abenakis and the main group of the Mahicans (Mohicans).

    The heads of the two European colonies were quick to use the opportunities to advance their own interests. The Canadians who had had good relationship with the New-England Amerindians for decades were quick to give them refuge by settling them at St-François (still exist today) and lending them some Marine officers to mount counter-attacks in their homeland (now Maine). Meanwhile the Brits were arming and encouraging the Iroquois to take control of the Illinois Valley and attack Canadian settlements. Meanwhile Canadians went out by land and sea and took control of the Hudson bay from the HBC. The whole thing soon escalated, particularly when France and the League of Augsbourg (of which England was part) declared war in 1689; in England, for local reasons, this war was seen as a war between Protestants and Catholics. This theme was used in North America by the English settlers, while the French could not care less about war of religion, their ancestors having been there and done that (supremely futile). They were thinking Security and Furs.

    Many events took place in North America, with attacks counterattacks, terrorism of all sorts by everybody against population. At the Treaty of Riswick in 1697 at the end of the war, nobody had won any territory, but Canada had managed to sign a long lasting peace with the Iroquois which lasted until 1995 (Kanetasake events in Montreal), New-England had definitely wiped out the resistance of the main Mahican group and Abenakis from Maine and New-Hampshire, Hudson Bay kept on being fought over and the Western Amerindians did not fear the Iroquois anymore. The situation would not change much for the next 70 years.