ELEVENTH GENERATION

2030. Francois FRIGON @ was born between 1648 and 1651. He was buried on 13 May 1724 in Batiscan, Champlain, P.Quebec. <From "Our French Canadian-Ancestors" by Thomas J. Laforest. vol.5 pg.70-79>

An old proverb says that money can not buy happiness. Thousands of years after the discovery of the filthy lucre, men still do not understand the wisdom of this axiom; no more than did certain of our ancestors. Each day poorly drawn wills continue to tear asunder families which, up to then, were very united.

For our ancestor Francois Frigon, the problem presented itself from a slightly different perspective. It was his persistent search for an elusive inheritance which broke up his home and caused his downfall. He and his wife, Marie-Claude Chamois spent a lot of energy and contracted considerable debt pursuing a hazy inheritance, perhaps quite real, but which they seem never to have grasped.

In 1896, Benjamin Sulte published some aspects in the eventful life of the best known of the "King's Daughters." He himself obtained the story from the lawyer Donat Brodeur. Thirty-seven years later Aegidius Fauteux made a heroine of Marie-Claude ("Marie Chamois or the story of an honest girl rejected by her mother." "La Patrie", 16 September 1933.) His evidence was checked and corroborated by silvio Dumas in his valuable work on the few hundred ancestresses, subsidized and strongly encouraged by the King, to cross the seas where so many men waited for them.

In September 1978, the trifluvien historian Raymond Douville, revising and correcting his article which appeared twenty years earlier, published a more fully documented and fairer account of the exploits of Francois Frigon and his wife. Writes Douville:
"The history of the life of Francois Frigon, pioneer in the seigneurie of Batiscan, who
worked in the service of Jean Lemoyne in the seigneurie of Sainte-Marie, situated
between those of Batiscan and Sainte-Anne, and who thought for a time to settle
there, was, indeed, about one of the most pitiful pioneers that the documents from the
early days of colonization allow us to reconstruct. In our history of those beginnings,
there was drama of all sorts, as in all eras of human endeavor: passionate tragedies,
family ordeals, economic disappointments. But his was probably the most unique of its
kind in New France."

After three hundred years, it is difficult to make a judgement, severe or indulgent, on the actions taken by Francois and his wife in 1685 and during the subsequent years, and on the sufferings which there actions could not help but inflict on the whole family. An inheritance, left by her father and to which she thought she had the right, explains Marie-Claude Chamois's departure for France; but why did she return only at the end of twenty years? Why then did she borrow a large sum of money in Canada, only to leave almost immediately without ever replanting her feet in her adopted country? There are no documents which explain the reasons for this and it is futile to build hypotheses which can go as easily in one direction as well as in another.

We can admire Marie-Claude's determination or obstinacy in wanting to present her case against a mother who rejected her; however, it is difficult to understand the way she avoided her own family obligations. And this poor naive or gullible husband persisted, after so many years, in believing that his wife was going to return from France with glory and fortune.

Francois Frigon arrived in New France with a draft in 1665, at the same time as did the soldiers of the Carignan regiment. Since neigther the act nor the contract of marriage has been found, it is impossible to know the name of his parents or the exact place from which he came.

Francois was recorded in the census of 1666 and of 1667. He was then a very young man of 18 or 19 years, in the employ of Michel Pelletier de la Prade, future seigneur of Gentilly. Already, in spite of his youth, he had begun to run trap lines along the Batiscan and Sainte-Anne rivers and to trade his furs under the protection of his employer's business. On 24 May 1667, he rented a piece of land from Jean Cusson, neighboring that of Pelletier; but the following year, he ceded the spot to Pierre Guillet dit Lajeunesse, who had acquired it by a grant.

From the year 1668, Frigon seemed permanently settled in Batiscan where he continued to work for Michel Pelletier. This was confirmed by an act drawn up the following year by notary La Tousche. On 3 July 1671, Father Andre Richard superior at Cap-de-la- Madeleine, granted a concession of 40 x 40 arpents, situated at the extreme east of the seigneury of Batiscan, in the immediate neighborhood of the seignuery of Sainte-Marie. Francois signed his name "frigon."

We know the origin of Marie-Claude Chamois (sometimes called Marie-Victoire), from a marriage license which she took out with Pierre Forcier on 23 October 1670 at the home of notary Severin Ameau. This contract was annulled a few weeks later, and the young woman accepted the proposal of Francois Frigon sometime about the turn of the year. There was no further news of the Frigon couple until 14 November 1673, when a new neighbor arrived, the future notary Francois Trotain de Saint-Surin. Trotain became a fast friend of Frigon, particularly during the difficult years to follow.

On 29 December 1675, our ancestor began to work in the seigneury of Sainte-marie, nearby Sainte-Anne-de-la-Perade. There he leased a farm from Jean Lemoyne, seigneur of a part of this domain, which allowed him to pasture his animals with those of the seigneur; in return for which he promised to harvest the wheat that grew there. On 4 October 1678, Frigon rented two oxen for four years from Charles LeGardeur de Villiers. He promised to return two oxen of the same value when the lease expired. Says Douville:
"These various acts leave us with the impression that the colonist Francois Frigon,
although an excellent farmer, worker and jack-of-all-trades, was taken advantage of by
his contemporaries, who had more business sense than he. they knew how to use the
ability of others to create a new land and make it fruitful."

In 1681 the census taker noted that Frigon was thirty-one years old and his wife was twenty-three. They had four children. The couple owned a gun, five head of cattle and had seven arpents under cultivation.

From 1682 until 1684 several events were entered in the record of Antoine Adhemar, among others a proxy from Francois to his wife, dated 14 May 1683. This implied that he already considered authorizing his wife to go to France, where she wanted to try to regain the inheritance from her father. However, her voyage was delayed for more than two years. On 2 November 1685, Francois Frigon made his way to Quebec and appointed Marie-Claude his general proxy so that she could defend the estate which might belong to them in the mother country. "where she was to go," according to the record.

If we know a little about the beginning and the end results of this disturbing story, it is thanks to the publication of her defense by the celebrated prosecutor Henri d'Aguesseau, who took the case of the young Canadian woman in 1693. There we learn that Marie-Claude Chamois had been baptized at Saint-Gervais in Paris in 1656 and that she was the youngest of the four children of Honore Chamois, an expert on heraldry and secretary to the King, and Jacqueline Girard. After her father's death in 1660, the child was cared for by her mother who does not seem to have loved her deeply, if at all. This is why she ran away from home at the age of twelve or thirteen. She was sheltered by a priest who entrusted her care to one Gabrielle Emeri who, in turn, brought her to the Hopital de la Pitie. Three days later she found herself at the Salpetriere, the Paris refuge for abandoned young girls. In the spring of 1670, this adolescent was recruited for Canada and the people of Trois-Rivieres welcomed her the following autumn.

The circumstances which decided Marie-Claude to return to France in 1685 was that her two brothers and her sister were dead and she had become her father's principal heir; he had left a very considerable fortune. Once again repudiated by her mother, she appealed to the Parliament of Paris for justice. The suit was instituted in April 1686; the trial followed but then dragged on because of the interminable appeals lodged by Jacqueline Girard, evidently on the basis of paternity. In 1693, Henri d'Aguesseau took matters in his own hands and succeeded in convincing the Parliament that Marie-Claude was indeed the ligitimate daughter of Honore Chamois and Jacqueline Girard. On 21 April, the Parliament issued a judgement which re-established her rights of patrimony.

What happened next? Why didn't Marie-Claude Chamois return home in 1692 when she was free to do so? This remains an obscure point in the story. It seems that she finally did return in 1704, apparently no better fixed financially than when she left in 1685. On 19 August 1704, the trusting Francois signed a new proxy in favor of his wife. On 15 October 1705, duly authorized by her husband, she borrowed 1000 livres from the master-wigmaker Nicolas Gillet, in order to go back to France. On this same occasion she promised to repay the sum by the following 24 June.

This loan, a large amount for the times, suggests that Marie-Claude may never have touched the inheritance which she hoped to obtain. Did she depart again with the assurance of finally attaining her goal? Or had she come back simply to visit her family after having decided to live in France? We don't know. It could well be so, because Francois Frigon and his children did not see her again after this. No document mentions the presence of Marie-Claude in Canada after 1705.

Meanwhile, our ancestor stepped up his fur trading activities. He tried desperately to mend the holes in the bottom of his purse. As early as 1683, he was associated with the merchant Jacques Babie from Champlain in a project to trap in the land of the Outaouais. In 1685-86, he accompanied Nicolas Perrot to the West. However, as Douville notes, these journeys did not enrich him. On 28 October 1692, he mortgaged his land to obtain the sum of 200 livres from Jean Baril, in order to pay his creditors. On the preceding 11 April, he obtained from Father Raffeix, acting in the name of the Society of Jesus, a commutation of rent on his land in Batiscan, which he had neglected to pay from the time he bought it. The trips to the high country continued from year to year, some fruitful, others disastrous, while the debts continued to accumulate. But what does constant poverty matter? Like all adventurers, Francois Frigon persisted. By now, he was fifty years old, the children were grown and some of them married. Each year he signed on for trips to the fur country. Did he ever manage to get out of his misery? He seemed to hope so.

The old trapper was unable to concentrate on working his land. He had become addicted to that well known malady of the coureur-de-bois, - wanderlust. Nevertheless, he realized as he got older, that one day he would have to stop. On 10 March 1710, he assembled his children for the solemn act of donation - the bequeathing of his wealth. Since there was none, it amounted to throwing himself on the mercy of his son Jean-Francois. This understanding young man agreed to pay his father's debts, amounting to 1,680 livres, and to take care of him. In return, on the same occasion, the other children renounced that part of the inheritance which would come to them from their mother under the agreement reached by their parent's marriage contract. Was Marie-Claude Chamois dead by then? The act did not mention her. The complete silence suggests that, if she were still alive, they would prefer not to know.

It seems that her husband and her children never knew what became of her and that Francois Frigon was still unaware of her when he died at the age of 75 years, on 1 May 1724, in the parish where he had been one of the pioneers. He was married to Marie Claude CHAMOIS @ in 1673 in Batiscan, Champlain, P.Quebec.

2031. Marie Claude CHAMOIS @ was born on 8 Jan 1656 in St-Gervais, Paris, France. She was baptised on 29 Jan 1656 in St-Gervais, Paris, France. She died in 1705 or 1710 in France. Children were:

1015 i. Marie Francoise FRIGON @.