Jean Cusson
Jean Cusson, sometimes called Caillou, arrived in Canada around 1653. A native of Rouen, Normandy he was baptized at Ste. Marguerite sur Duclair in November of 1630.
In September of 1656, he married Marie Foubert in Trois-Rivières, the daughter of a furniture maker whose parents had just arrived in Canada that summer. Also from Rouen, she was from the parish of St. Vivien where she had been born July of 1640. In time, there would be 16 children in the Cusson household. The second daughter, Marie-Madeleine would become my ancestor.
The 1666 census lists him and his family as living in the Trois-Rivières area as a habitant (settler). His widowed mother-in-law, 55-year old Marie Rivière was living with the family. They also had a domestic (a contract worker), François Vanasse living with them also.
A snapshot of the 1666 census record: (Source: website Alberta Family Histories Society)
Jean Cusson - 30 habitant
Marie foubert - 25 sa femme
Marie Cusson - 7 fille
Jean Cusson - 6 fils
Magdelaine Cusson - 4 fille
Jeanne Cusson - 3 fille
Eslisabeth Cusson - 14 mois fille
Marie Riviere - 55 mere de lad. foubert
Et francois Vannart - 24 domestique
The 1667 census shows him still living in Trois-Rivières area (Cap-de-la-Madeleine) with 2 domestics, 7 head of cattle and 28 arpents (about 24 acres) of improved land. At this time, he and his wife had six children.
It was in 1669, that the Jesuites, seigneurs of the fief, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, awarded a commission of notary, fiscal procurer and scribe to Cusson, and Intendant Claude de Bouteroue confirmed it all on the 16th of April "pour exercer en qualité de notaire royal, -- en non autrement, -- dans la seigneurie du Cap-de-la-Madeleine". Translation: to uphold in excellence the office of royal notary -- and no other way -- in the seigneurie of Cap-de-la-Madeleine. So, Jean Cusson was a notary for the king (notaire royal) in 1669, then again from 1687 to 1700 working in the Cap de la Madeleine and Champlain area. He also served 31 years as a notary from 1669-1700 in the Trois-Rivières, Sorel, Bastican area. After that, he worked in Montréal, most notably in the Pointe-aux-Trembles area where he lived. He retired in 1704 at 74 years old.
In the 1650's and 60's, Jean Cusson's name appears on many documents as witness to the trafficking of alcohol to Indians.
But his was a fur-trading family. Five of his sons were legally involved in fur trading, getting permission for many trips to the Great Lakes for trading missions. They all worked for Nicolas Perrot and Bissot de Vincennes. The Cusson daughters often married men involved in the fur trade.
The following is taken directly from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online... www.biographi.ca/index-e.html
Written by André Vachon
It has been said with a good deal of justice that the settlers of New France, craftsmen or soldiers rather than farmers, attracted moreover by the fur trade, had only a slight interest in farming. For many of them, cultivating their land remained a marginal activity and simply constituted, in the final analysis, a necessary means of supplementing their income but one which they endured impatiently and got rid of at the first opportunity, there were true habitants; Jean Cusson belonged to that group. After his marriage on 16 Sept. 1656, at Trois-Rivières, to Marie Foubert, a girl 15 years of age who originally came from Rouen, Cusson settled down at Cap-de-la-Madeleine. By 1667 the couple owned 7 head of cattle and 28 acres of land under cultivation, a quite extraordinary achievement. Certainly Cusson had sufficient means to take on hired men, such as François Vannasse (who was already there in 1666) and Jean Pilon, the first being 25 years of age, the other 40, both of them being listed in the 1667 census as living in his home. And despite the offices which he was to occupy in the realm of justice, Cusson did not neglect his farming; in 1681 he declared 6 head of cattle and 40 acres!
In 1669, just at the time when the Jesuits, who were the seigneurs of Cap-de-la-Madeleine, gave Cusson a commission as notary, seigneurial attorney, and clerk of court, the intendant, Boutroue* d’Aubigny, was engaged at Quebec in a struggle to take away from the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales the right of appointing notaries and to restrict the powers of the seigneurs in the realm of justice. Although he gladly admitted Cusson to his offices as seigneurial attorney and court clerk, the intendant authorized him to act as notary only provisionally, and on the express condition that he take the title of royal notary. Soon the seigneurs were to have only the right of presenting notaries, the appointment itself falling within the intendant’s competence. Cusson acted as notary at Cap-de-la-Madeleine until 1687, and then in the seigneury of Champlain from 1687 to 1700. In 1700 he moved to Montreal, where he carried on his functions for four years. He lived at Pointe-aux-Trembles. In 1704, at about 70 years of age, Cusson retired, but he came out of retirement for a short time in 1707–8, when he was acting king’s attorney for Montreal.
Jean Cusson died in April of 1718.
The genealogy of it all...
Each indentation indicates another generation, ie: Marie-Madeleine Cusson is the daughter of Jean Cusson and Marie Foubert; Marie-Jeanne Lefebvre is the daughter of Marie-Madeleine Cusson and Ange Lefebvre, and so on.
A carat (>) indicates there is at least another sibling who is an ancestor, ie: Marie-Jeanne Lefebvre has a brother, Jean-Baptiste Lefebvre who is also an ancestor.
Jean CUSSON and Marie FOUBERT, m. 9-16-1656 in Trois-Rivières, PQ
Marie-Madeleine CUSSON and Ange LEFEBVRE dit Senneville, m. 1679 in PQ
>Marie-Jeanne LEFEBVRE and Pierre LAFOND, m. 8-13-1715 at Bastican, PQ
Pierre LAFOND and Marie-Gabrielle HOULE, m. 4-22-1743 in Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
*Gabriel LAFOND and Marie PROULX, m. 1-5-1785 in Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
Gabriel LAFOND and Genevieve ALLARD, m. 10-21-1816 in Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
Hélène LAFOND and Antoine DARGIE, m. 9-1-1844 at Granby, PQ
Napoléon DARGIE and Léonise TURCOTTE, m. 10-15-1883 in Lewiston, ME
Delia DARGIE and Wilfred CAMERON, m. 10-11-1910 in Attleboro, MA
Rhea CAMERON and Edward LIZOTTE, m. 6-20-1636 in Attleboro, MA
~~~
Jean CUSSON and Marie FOUBERT, m. 9-16-1656 in Trois-Rivières, PQ
Marie-Madeleine CUSSON and Ange LEFEBVRE dit Senneville, m. 1679 in PQ
>Jean-Baptiste LEFEBVRE dit Senneville and Madeleine CHASTENAY, m. 1-26-1722 at Bastican, PQ
Catherine SENNEVILLE and Jean PROULX, m. 4-18-1747 at Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
*Marie PROULX and Gabriel LAFOND, m. 1-5-1785 at Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
Gabriel LAFOND and Genevieve ALLARD, m. 10-21-1816 in Baie-de-Febvre, PQ
Hélène LAFOND and Antoine DARGIE, m. 9-1-1844 at Granby, PQ
Napoléon DARGIE and Léonise TURCOTTE, m. 10-15-1883 in Lewiston, ME
Delia DARGIE and Wilfred CAMERON, m. 10-11-1910 in Attleboro, MA
Rhea CAMERON and Edward LIZOTTE, m. 6-20-1636 in Attleboro, MA
~~~
* This is a marriage between second cousins.
