François Pelletier dit Antaya

  General Notes:

IMMIGRATION: François came to Canada with his parents and older brother Jean about 1637. From 1637 to 1640, his father was a carpenter for the habitation of Québec City.

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-the following is by Y.J. Antaya, British Columbia

Francois Pelletier follows his parents until 1659. The Pelletier family lived in Quebec from 1637 to 1649. On March 22, 1649, Francois' father, Nicolas, purchased a "concession dans la Seigne urie Des Sauvages" at Cap Rouge, approximately 7 miles south of Quebec. In 1650, two Iroquois Indians attacked Nicolas in his house at Cap Rouge, but luckily he survived.

Francois doesn't leave his parents until February 3, 1659. He leaves with his brother-in-law, Noel Jeremie, husband of his sister, Jeanne. Noel Jeremie was moving to Tadoussac to work as a clerk. Francois is said to be the first white settler of Lac St. Jean. He married Dorothee la Sauvagesse, an Indian, in April 1660. Father Albanel married the couple. Dorothee died on April 13, 1661 at L'Hopital de Quebec, possibly while giving birth. She was buried in the Hospital basement.

Francois remarried the following year to Madeleine Morriseau. When he remarried, Francois Pelletier used the name Antaya for the first time. Antaya is an Indian word that Francois Pelletier added to his name as a dit name. It was a French as well as Scottish tradition to add a clan name to their family names. The first time the name Antaya was written down was in 1667 by a notary, he wrote Francois Pelletier dit "Nontay". The same notary wrote another contract in 1669 and wrote "Anthaia". Again, in 1678, the same notary wrote "Anthaya" on a different contract. Finally, in church records in St. Pierre de Sorel in 1748, the name was written as "Antailla".

There are some indications that Dorothee la Sauvagesse may have been Montagnese as the Montagnais tribe inhabited the Tadoussac region during that period. It is also possible that the name Antaya is a derivation of the word Montagnais pronounced either "Montagn" or "Montanya". It is also possible that Antaya could be a Huron word. I was once told by an elderly Antayan that Antaya was a Huron name. He said the name Antaya was a nickname given to our ancestor by his Indian wife's family and it meant "coureur des bois" or "runner of the woods". With that information in mind, I searched old books and found an old French/Huron dictionary written by the Jesuits in the mid 1600's. In it, I found the word "antaye" and it meant "by the lands" and the word, "ataya" which meant "petune or tobacco". Keeping in mind that by 1635, the Huron Indians were almost exterminated by the Iroquois and had moved to Quebec to seek refuge, I think there is a strong possibility that Francois fell in love with a Huron woman from Quebec and took her back to Tadoussac where he was living. This could explain why his marriage to Dorothee La Sauvagesse was performed without the obligatory 3 week readings at the Church. This apparently caused a scandal in the French community and quite upset Francois' parents.

On May 30, 1660, Francois purchased a "concession (land) at Tadoussac and worked as a clerk at the Poste de Traite.

On May 11, 1661 Francois accompanied Jesuit fathers Gabriele Druilette and Claude Dablon, adventurers Guillaume Couture, Denis Guyon, notary Pierre Duquet, Jean Langlois and Michel Leneuf, Sieur de Lavalliere. They and a few hundred Indians left Quebec in 80 canoes. Sickness slowed down their progress and they had to spend a few extra days in Tadoussac. The road they followed was almost identical to the road that Father de quen took in 1647. They rested 7 or 8 days alongside the Lac St-Jean. On June19, 1661, they paddled up the Chamouchouane River, known as Nikouba which they renamed themselves as The Sait-Sacrement River. The expedition stopped at Lake Nikabau. They were planning to go to the Hudson Bay, but had to turn around at the beginning of July when their Indian guides refused to go any further. Francois returned to Quebec with the expedition as the Poste de Traite at Tadoussac had been burned by the Iroquois.
Francois moved to Fort Saurel (Saurel is the old French for Sorel) with his wife, Marguerite Morisseau and his children in 1670. The five remaining children were born in Saurel (Catherine 1670 to Louise 1678). They had a total of 10 children, eight of them married.

The region of Lanaudiere is one of the first regions to have been occupied and farmed by the settlers from France. From 1637 until 1750, about a dozen "Seigneuries" were granted. The first "Seigneur" of the "Fief Dorvilliers" was a Gautheir de comporte. His Fief was granted by Jean Talon on October 10, 1672.

Francois Pelletier-Antaya bought the Dorvilliers Fief from the Sieur de Comporte on October 22, 1675 for 400 livres (pounds). The Fief was renamed "Seigneurie Dorvilliers-Anthaia". The Fief was situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, in the islands of Berthier d'en Haut, on one side the Fief D'Autray and on the other side, land not granted of Sieur Randin's, and Ile au Foin. The Seigneurie was half a league long on the St. Lawrence River and one league deep. In the 1681 census, The antaya family was from D'Autray, Francois (48 years old) Marguerite 38, Francois 16, Joseph 14, Marguerite13, Genevieve 11, Michel 7, Pierre 6 and Louise 3. Possessions: 3 guns, 10 cows.

Francois received at least 1 pieces of land (concessions) from the Seigneur Pierre de Saurel. He sold one in 1677 and exchanged the other one to one of his nephews, Jean Francois in 1690. This nephew was killed by the Iroquois at Saurel on November 2, 1692.

Francois Antaya and his wife Marguerite left Saurel in or about 1678. Francoise purchased a (fief) domain on the north shore of the St.Lawrence River near Berthier-d'en-Haut.

-Y. J. Antaya
British Columbia

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François Pelletier-dit-Antaya (1635 - bef 1689) - sieur d'Antaya - sieur de Dorvilliers [source: Benoît Shoja Pelletier, one of François' descendants, www.pelletier-genealogy.org ]


Now for François Pelletier. Based on his given ages in 1662 and 1667 we place his date of birth about 1635. He crosses the Atlantic ocean when no more than an infant, grows up in Québec City and, at the age of about ten, moves to Sillery.

Amerindians were surely not strangers to him in Québec and Sillery, so it should surprise no one that he marry a so-called "Sauvagesse."

According to the Association des familles Pelletier, early in 1659, François accompanies his brother-in-law, Noël Jérémie-dit-Montagne, on a voyage to the vast "Domaine du Roy", a trade area encompassing the great Saguenay-Lac St-Jean area. We don't know exactly how long Francois stays there, or his motivation for going there in the first place.

Jérémie was authorized to trade in the Domaine, but was François? Perhaps he was abusing his brother-in-law's position to trade illicitly with the Indians; perhaps he sought no more than adventure. We can only guess.

Some time before the autumn of 1659, François has returned to Québec; the Journal des Jésuites says that on November 21, François accompanies the Jesuit Albanel to Tadoussac, stating that he is not at their expense, but is under their name.

Here again we are unsure of François' motivations. Is he no more than a hired hand, or has he devoted himself to missionary work? Tadoussac is the site of a mission and a trading post, a fact further obscuring his motives.

When the Journal mentions Albanel's return from Tadoussac the following April 24, however, Francois' reasons for returning to Tadoussac become a little clearer: the Journal indicates that Albanel has married François to a Christian Amerindienne, without publication of banns, or permission from his parents, the bishop, or the governor, noting that this has caused quite a controversy.

At this point, François' reasons for travelling to the Domaine du Roy with Jérémie early in 1659 are no clearer than before, but we are in a better position to assume why he returned there later that same year with Albanel: for the affection of the "savaugesse," whose Christian name we later learn is Dorothée. Letting our imaginations stray a little into the realm of possibility, we might humbly assume that there was too little time during his first expedition to marry her, and François returned to Quebec determined to revisit Tadoussac and make Dorothée his bride. This would explain their hasty marriage, as well as why they publish no banns and consult neither family members nor local officials.

Albanel was undoubtedly sympathetic to François and Dorothée's situation, or else he certainly would not have taken upon himself to marry them without their having gone through the propers channels and necessary steps.

In the end, if François and Dorothée do truly marry for love, their happiness is short-lived: she dies April 13, 1661, at Quebec's general hospital, leaving no children.

Shortly after Dorothée's death, François betroths Marguerite-Madeleine Morisseau; they publish three banns in the parish of Sillery before their marriage, September 26, 1661. (We might wonder how François was able to move on so quickly after the death of his first bride.)

They settle in Sillery, first on the land of his father, and later on their own property, granted François by the Jesuits in 1667.

In 1669 François leases his property to Denis Ruette and he and his family head to Sorel, where he has apparently received a concession from Pierre Saurel; their relationship dates to at least 1666 when Saurel led a group of some three hundred men West to avenge the Iroquois massacre of two Frenchmen and to rescue four others captured by the Iroquois.

On October 22, 1675, François purchases an estate from Philippe Gauthier, sieur de Comporte; the frontage runs one "demi-lieue" (1.5 miles) along the St-Lawrence River across from Sorel between the Autray and Berthier estates, and it extends inland one "lieue" (3 miles).

François and Marguerite now merit the titles "sieur" and "seigneuresse", not to denote their nobility, but to reflect the esteem of their peers.

François renames his land "Antaya," discontinuing "Dorvilliers" and "Comporte," names it has borne in the past, but in some later notarized and baptismal acts we see "Dorvilliers" is sometimes used. Two years after this purchase the Pelletier family establishes itself at Antaya, François having sold his 80-arpent property in Sorel to Pierre Coutois, September 17, 1777.

From the 1681 census of New France we see that François maintains sixteen arpents of arable land, owns ten heads of cattle, and possesses three muskets with which to defend his family and homestead. The census places François at Autray, but what is most likely the case is that Antaya, which neighbors Autray, was simply counted under Autray. From Deshaies' 1686 map we see that "Antaia" is a separate estate sitting between Autray and Berthier, as described in the 1675 bill of sale.

François is cited for the last time at the wedding of his dauther, Marguerite-Agnès, May 7, 1685, in Berthier-en-Haut. He is not mentionned again until August 1, 1688, in Montréal: Antoine Adhemar notarizes a contract between a Jean Bougueran (i.e., Beaugrand) and Marguerite Morisseau, "widow of Francois Pelletier Ontaya of Dorvilliers."

Some time after François' death, Marguerite moves to Sainte-Famille, where the families of four of her children have lived since the 1690s; when she witnesses the marriages of two of her children there in 1703, Ste-Famille is her stated residence. She dies at Québec's general hospital December 15, 1707.

Possession of the seigneurie d'Antaya transfers to Pierre Pelletier-Antaya, who eventually sells the land to Louis Balthazar Keberio, December 3, 1754.

[source: Benoît Shoja Pelletier, one of François' descendants, www.pelletier-genealogy.org ]

François married Dorothée La Sauvagesse dite Antaya in Apr 1660 in Tadoussac, Saguenay, Québec, Canada.¹ (Dorothée La Sauvagesse dite Antaya was born about 1645 in Tadoussac, Saguenay, Québec, Canada,⁵ died on 12 Apr 1661 in Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Québec, Canada and was buried on 13 Apr 1661 in Québec City, Québec, Québec, Canada ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

Marriage took place without the publication of banns and without consulting anyone, causing quite a commotion. ¹

François next married Marguerite Madeleine Morisseau, daughter of Julien Morisseau and Anne Brelancour, on 26 Sep 1661 in Sillery, Québec, Québec, Canada.^{2 3} (Marguerite Madeleine Morisseau was born about 1642 in St-Pierre-de-Roye, Amiens, Picardie, France ³ and died on 15 Dec 1707 in Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Québec, Canada ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

François and Marguerite-Madeleine had 203 descendants by 31 Dec 1729. ⁶