Andre Patry

(Our 7th generation ancestor), Story comes from Ancestry.com, Chapter 14
(pages 149-155)

From our motherland, France, three Patry pioneers came to us; Rene, Jean and Andre.  They were not related.  According to Albert Dauzat, the family name of Patry is derived from Patrice or Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland.

Rene patry, son of Rene and Marie Pean, originally from Saint-Sauveur de Chateau-Gontier, in the diocese of Angers in Anjou, was married at Trois-Rivieres on 25 May 1750 to Marie Beaudry dit Lamarche, the daughter of Joseph and Francoise Leclerc.  The Patry-Beadry couple raised a family of 5 children.  Their line seems to be extinct.

At the end of the seventeeth century, also arriving at Trois-Rivieres came Jean Patris, son of Pierre and of Leonarde Ville-Longue, from Lomoges in Limousin.  On 21 September 1693, Catherine Vanasse, daughter of Francois-Noel and of Jeanne Fourier, became his bride and subsequently gave him 10 children, 7 of whom were girls.  The 2 boys died before founding a family and without being able to bring the beautiful name of Patris into the future.

This Chapter is about our ancestor Andre Patry, Patris or Patrix, spelled according to the pen of notaries and priests.  It was Andre alone, who preserved the Patry name in America.

Andre Patry, son of Rene and Renee Cousinet was born in 1649, in upper Poitou, at Airvault.  Known to the Romas as “Aurea Vallis”, or valley of gold, airvault is the capital of the canton in the department of Deux Sevres.  It is located on the Thouet River, 24 kilometers from Parthenay, which is the capital of the arrondissement by the same name, and presently numbers about 2,000 people.

Airvault had a church an an ancient abbey, built by a famous abbot, Pierre de Saine-Fontaine, eight centuries ago.  It is still recommended to tourists, especially for its iconographical value.  In ancestor Patry’s time Airvault was part of the diocese of La Rochelle; today, its episcopal authority is situated in Poitiers, in la Vienne.
Why did Andre Patry leave this golden valley at the age of seventeen?  Will the mysteries of history ever surrender us their secrets?  We can state without too much risk of being mistaken that Andre Patry undertook the voyage to New France from the busy port of La Rochelle.

The Parsienne

The bride of Andre was one Henriette Cartois, a native of Saint-Barthelemy de Paris, daughter of the late Lambert Cartois and Marie Lambert.  This orphan girl probably arrived in the country aboard le Saint-Jean-Baptiste, a 300 ton vessel which departed from Dieppe in June 1671.  The ship also carried ancestors Damien Berube and Robert Levesque, as well as Jean-Thomas Thiboutot and 26 girls from Paris.  Arriving the in the capital of the colony, Henriette was, as a daughter of the king, under the protection of Anne Gasnier, widow of Jean Bourdon.  Suitors presented themselves to this sensible girl of 20 years.  On 18 October 1671, Henriette signed a marriage agreement with Michel Autehout before notary Romain Becquet.  Having second thoughts, she annulled it 4 days later, and then reconsidered her decision on the 24th of the same month.  Michael and Henriette were married at Notre-Dame de Quebec on 26 October.  Gabriel Lambert attended as a witness.  Was he the son of Eustache and a relative the bride’s on the mother’s side?  On that morning, 13 couples had their nupitals blessed by Father Henri de bernieres.  Many of these new brides had undoubtedly been companions on the voyage.  Henriette brought property to the marriage valued at 300 livres, not counting the gift of 50 livres from the King.

We know practically nothing about Michel Autebout, Handebout or Haut-Bout dit Bellehumeur, except that he was the son of Michel and of Marie Bidaud, from the town of Therigne in the diocese of Mans.  It is possible that he came here as a soldier.  The Cartois-Autebout couple lived at Saint-Michel-de-la-Durantaye and became the parents of two girls; Jeanne, future wife of Jean-Baptiste Bouting and Genevieve, born on 31 March, baptized on 30 April 1675, who joined her life to that of Joseph Coguard on 12 april 1690 at levis.  Charles Couillard, Sieur de Beaumont, was godfather to little Genevieve, with Genevieve Bissot, wife of Louis Meheu, acting as her godmother.
The good fortune of our Parsienne was short-lived however, soon after the birth of the second daughter, when her husband died prematurely, without leaving us neither the hour nor the day.  Henriette had to reorganize her life quickly, which she managed to do with Andre Patry.

New Beginnings

We know that Andre Patry had worked in Canada since 1666 because the following winter the census takers mention him as a servant in the home of Jean-Baptiste Halle, husband of Mathrine Vallee on the coast of Lauzon.  Then on 29 June 1668, Andre agreed to work for 2 years and 2 months in the service of Guillaume Albert dit Lafontaine, husband of Elisabeth halle in the same place.  He was paid the modest sum of livres  a year or 130 livres for the total length of his commitment, which ended on 26 August 1670.  We assume that the contract must have been renewed for a similar period.

On 29 October 1673, things became a bit better for Andre, a gentle, good and obliging man.  Guillaume Albert rented him a farm neighboring that of his own, equipped with a house and barn.  Patry stated that he was familiar with the property, because he already lived there for some time.  The transaction became effective in April 1674.  The lease holder committed himself “to seed and sow the said land’s according to the soil and the seasons and with no wasting nor growing out of season.”  Understand tha tif you can!  Andre paid in kind as follows:  35 minots of wheat, 5 minots of green peas and 8 cords of wood.  But Guillaume albert, his family and 2 additional men all lodged in the house, Andre’s house.  Did Madame Albert bake strawberry pies for free?  The other details of the contract compel us to conclude that it was a matter of an association of prudent friends.  Jean Huard witnessed the transaction with his initials before Pierre Duquet.

Where did Andre meet the widow Autebout?  Probably at Quebec where she had been living since the recent death of her husband.  On 18 July 1675, the son of master weaver Rene Patry and the late Marie Cousinet, appeared quite timidly before notary Becquet while a row of upper class people surrounded the bride, Henriette Cartois.  Andre and Henriette were married in joint ownership of property; an inventory would be made of the property left by Auteout now called Godbout!  The two little Autebout girls would receive protection until they reached the age of 15.  On 23 July, Abbot Louis Augo des Maizarets joined Henriette and Andre in the bonds of marriage at the Cathedral of Quebec, in the presence of friend Guillaume Albert.

At Quebec on the following 2 September, Madame Patry held Henriette Hus, daughter of Jean and Marie Verger, at the baptismal font.  Had the Hus family befriended her during her mourning?  From whence came this honor?

Daily Life

After more than three centuries, we can imagine that the Patry pair resembled some couples of today, where there is one spouse reduced to silence and another who speaks for both.  It would seem that Henriette Cartois handled verbal combat very well.
On Monday, 5 August 1675, the new wife permitted herself a gambol (or gamble) in the Soverign Council.  A certain Rene Vande appealed a sentence which ordered him to forfeit a sow for not having penned it away from Henriette’s wheat.  The sentence was committed wherein Vande was required to work tow days under the orders of Madame Patry, but he kept his beautiful sow.  And on 28 August 1676, Henriette herself was present at the Superior Court of Quebec in the name of her husband and claimed 30 French livres from Francois Foucault “For the rent of a cow.”  Henriette had played and won!  On Tuesday, 6 Octobr of the same year, the butcher Michel Lecourt, demanded 14 livres in payment of a meat bill.  “Never, she said.  13 livres only!”  The great council yielded to the wishes of the obstreperous plaintiff;it award her 13 livres, but with tongue in cheek, made her pay the expenses!

Where did the Patries set up their tent?  Nothing could be less certain.  Probably on Autebout’s land at Saint-Michel.  Everything indicates that they were there for the birth of their first child in 1677.  The census of 1681 announced that the Patry family lived in the Lower-town of Quebec between the Gascon, Etinne Domingo dit Carabi and the Swiss, George Stems, a stone cutter.  The same census tells us that Andre, 29 years old, and Henriette, 30 years old, owned 2 guns, 2 head of cattle and had 7 arpents under cultivation.  An unknown 50 year old bachelor, Louis Griffon, boarded at the Patry home.
The royal notekeeper Gilles Rageot drew up a farm lease for Andre Patry on 17 April 1682.  The latter said he was an inhapitant of the Ile d’Orleans…His wife Henriette rented a house, belongint to Jean Delquel, for 7 months at Quebec.  She paid eighteen livres to the owner at the end of the lease.  Pierre-Georges Roy, in his Inventaire d-une Collection de pieces judiciaires, reminds us that there was a lawsuit between Gabriel Bourget, chandler for the ship La Maliere, and Henriette Cartois.  We have not had the opportunity to examine the details of this litigation which took place in the summer of 1683, but it did involve th sale of some pots of jam.

Two years later, on 14 August 1685, Andre Patry, an inhabitant of Saint-Michel, rented a farm for 3 years to Julien Bossy.  The property measured 3 arpents in frontage by 40 deep.  It had a shed on it and good fishing in front.  It was next to that of Patry himself and Joseph Lacroix.  Boissy used it to corral a steer, two cows and a calf belonging to Patry.  He gave Patry 25 pounds of butter a year an 15 minots of wheat.  Five years later, it was Patry who Boissy the sum of 53 livres for services rendered.

Poverty always seemed to follow the Patry family.  On 5 September 1693, Seigneur Alexandre Berthier, a former Captain of the Carignan Regiment, offered to rent his estate for 5 years; on it there was only a barn and some domestic animals.  Was this like a Greek bearing gifts?  The seigneur promised to have a stable and house built the coming year.  Old Patry committed himself to the seigneur to pay 200 livres annually, not counting a severence sum of 320 livres when leaving the place in 1698.

On the 23rd of August 1694, the cooper Thomaas Lefebvre, after an unfavorable decision by the Provost of Quebec, which obligated him to pay 32 livres to Patry, appealed his case to the Soverign Council.  Henriette Cartois again put on her boxing gloves and knocked out her adversary.

A Small Family

The children of Andre and Henriette numbered only five; Anne-Louise, Andre, Rene, Joseph and Rene.

Anne-Louise, baptized at Quebec by Abbot Francois Dupre on 27 May 1677, had Marie Catherine Leseuf as her godmother.  She was still living at the time of the census of 1681.

Andre junior, the eldest of the boys, was born abou 1680.  He was married at Berthier on 18 January 1711 to Catherine Pruneau and was the father of 9 children.

Rene baptized at Quebec on 26 August 1684, had Rene Senard as his godfather.  He came the husband of Marie-Charlotte Dupuis dit Montarvan.  They had 6 children.

Joseph was baptized at levis on 3 April 1687.  That is all we can say about him.

A second Rene was born on 6 September 1689 and baptized the same day.  He received his first name from his godfather Rene Frerot.  This Rene was married at Beaumont to Marie-Catherine Girard and they became responsible for 11 children.

Andre Patry, father of a relatively young family, died on 11 November 1697.  That is all that history, miserly with details, has left us.  His life was rather quiet; and it was the same when he passed over from the living to the dead.  We know that the 40 year old Andre Patris, most certainly our ancestor, stayed at the Hotel-Dieu de Quebec for 29 days in June 1691.

Senior Citizen

Henriette Cartois tried to rebuild her life with a third husband.  On 6 October 1698, she was at Quebec at he home of notary Chamalon to consent to her marriage contract with Jean Coutelet di Larochelle, a soldier in the Company of the Seigneur de la Durantaye.  Jean was the son of the late Etinse, a shoe maker in his life time, living in the town of La Rochelle and of Francoise Martineau.  They wer married in joint ownership of property.  All was going well when, on the following 7 November, soldier Jean and widow Henriette revoked, broke and/or annulled their marriage plans.  Henriette repeated the same scenario that she had played with her first husban, Michel Autbout, 27 years earlier, but with a difference…

The broken marriage obligated poor Henriette to struggle for her survival.  In 1701, Silvio Dumas reports, that the widow Patry, reduced to begging, requested charity from Jacques Bernier.  On his refusal, she robbed him of playing card money worth 32 livres.  The injured owner dragged her before the court of the Provost of Quebec on 15 July….
Pierre-Georges Roy reports in his Invenfaire des Ordonnances de la Nouvelle-France, that a disputed piece of land in he seigneurie of La Durantaye was divided in two parts; one part for the widow of Andre Patry, remarried to Jean Costellete, and the other part for the children of the late Andre Patry and his widow.  This document dated 30 June 1708, certifies that Henriette was remarried to Jean Coutelet.  A second piece of evidence is found in the legal text of Chambalon signed 22 October 1710.  It concerned a donation from Henriette Cartois, a widow of michel Autebout and Andre patry, and wife in a third marriage to Jean Coutelet, from La Durantaye, to Andre Patry, her son.

Then a shroud of mystery comes down on the history of Henriette and her handsome soldier.  Henriette died at Saint-Vallier where she was buried on 8 January 1728.  Abbot Pierre Leclair wrote in the registry that she was 100 years old…it was the last homage offered as a flower of wisdom.

Family Name Variations

Patry has become Clement, Jerome, Patri, Patrick, Patrie, Patris and Patrix.

Family Chart - Merida to Andre Patry

Merida Patry Turgeon connection to Andre Patry (click to enlarge and see a more crisp picture)

Merida Patry was the great-great grand-daughter of Andre Patry and Henriette Cartois. Merida Patry married Phileas Turgeon, and her daughter, Mary, was our grandmother (wife of William Smith, Stickney). Someone recently asked me if our grandmother spoke French, and I recall her speaking French - I assume it was with either her sisters or cousins that came to visit their home in Stickney.

Merida came to Dakota territory with her young husband, Phileas; however, as we have later learned, other family also accompanied the Turgeons to the "old west". Other family included several of Merida's brothers and Phileas' cousins, also from the Beaumont, Quebec area.