Historical Perspective

Historical Perspective 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Québec City in New France, Canada 1634 Trois-Rivières 1642 Ville Marie at Montréal Seigneuries established along the St. Lawrence River In Pays d en haut (country upriver) in what became Michigan St. Ignace location of Michilimackinac 1679 St. Joseph des Miamis (Niles, MI) 1691 Le Détroit du Lac Érié 1701 British arrived at Detroit in 1760 Americans in 1796

Carte des environs du fort Détroit [Carte du détroit et du lac Sainte-Claire] 1703

Detroit Iroquois Territory in 1701 No Indians lived at Le Détroit in 1701 An important part of the plans to found a fort there was to invite Indians from elsewhere to relocate Huron from Michilimackinac and some from St. Joseph (Niles, MI) agreed, as did Some Ottawa from Michilimakinac (then at St. Ignace, MI), and a few Loup (Mohican) Miami from Ft. St. Joseph (Niles, MI) also agreed to relocate but did not come right away

Great Peace of Montréal 1701 Signed by more than 30 Indian Nations previously French allies and 5 Iroquois Nations

Crop from Dunnigan Ottawa Village Lac Ste Claire Loup Village Fort Pontchartrain Small River Huron Village Lac Erié

Other Indian Nations Miami from about 1703 to 1706 violence, when they left Ottawa also left after the violence of 1706 but returned and located on the South Shore, now Windsor, Ontario. This opened up already cleared territory on the North Shore to the east to grant land concessions in 1707 Fox above the fort briefly, invited by Cadillac, 1710-1712 Potawatomi settled where Ste. Anne de Detroit now is at Ambassador Bridge Huron moved from next to the fort, first to Bob-lo Island, which also opened up land to be conceded by 1747 south and west of the fort and then relocated to where Assumption Church now is on the other side of the bridge in modern-day Ontario

New France ca. 1750

Western Portion in 1755

French Forts in or near Michigan

Seigneurial System Land management in New France was governed by the Seigneurial System It was not identical to Feudalism as practiced in France I present a very simplified description. See my handout for more on our FCHSM webpage: http://habitantheritage.org/frenchcanadian_resources/land_and_census_informati on

Seigneurie: a plot of land granted to a seigneur A seigneur was not necessarily a lord or even noble. He could also be a she, a seigneuresse, thus a landlord or landlady. The seigneur could be a religious order. The seigneurie consisted of grants of land: censives or rotures, occupied by censitaires, who paid annual fees called cens and rentes

Two Seigneuries on the St. Lawrence River: Ste. Anne de Beaupré and St. Joachim, 1680

Ste. Anne de Beaupré Church ----- Outside of the three main cities Québec City (1608), Trois Rivières (1634), Montréal (1642) the first settlements were on long, narrow lots on the St. Lawrence River é -- North 5 arpents by about three miles deep --- Pierre Boivin One arpent in length =192 feet by 5 = 320 yards, about 3 football fields on the river

Carte du gouvernement de Québec effectuée par Gédéon de Catalogne en 1709

Censitaire A censitaire was a free habitant, inhabitant, not a serf or peasant. He or she could not be removed so long as he / she maintained a hearth or home there, worked the land, and paid the fees. Owners of land in a seigneurie could have more than one piece of property, even in different seigneuries, pass them on to inheritors including wives and daughters sell them, or hire a fermier, a person under contract, to work the land in return for stipulated payments.

Banalités The seigneur had certain rights, called banalités, not all of which were actually demanded. The censitaire was obliged to: 1) grind his grain at the mill of the seigneur 2) bake bread at the seigneurial oven (almost never enforced) 3) give the seigneur every eleventh fish caught in the river 4) dance around the May-pole to honor the seigneur each springtime 5) serve in the various corvées, work crews.

Corvée When called to a corvée, the tenant would give personal service (about six days a year) for such things as building common roads or bridges. This banalité could be purchased with money, thus exempting wealthier tenants from performing the task.

Seigneur s Responsibilities required to maintain a dwelling on his property, to preserve oak trees for naval [or other] construction, to report mines or minerals discovered, to reserve land for roads.... {This is important for Cadillac s claims to his property at Detroit. He did not satisfy these demands.} Gustave Lanctot concludes: The tenant was certainly not exploited; for a holding of 120 arpents, free of all further charges, he paid about 173 sous a year. That s less than 9 livres. {Cadillac charged more than the rate in the colony on the St. Lawrence River}

Value of a Livre A livre contained 20 sous or sols and a sol contained 12 deniers. While it is impossible to assign a completely accurate modern value to the New France livre, some estimate that it was worth at least ten Canadian 1982 dollars. This must be adjusted for 2015 values, closer to $20 U.S. per livre

In case of default by a Seigneur The land returned to the king. It could again be conceded or it could become a DIRECTE SEIGNEURIE as part of the Royal Domain, with dues paid to the king through his representative. This is what happened at Detroit in 1734

Concessions of property in forts or cities Emplacements Gail s presentation Land was also conceded within forts, such as at Fort Pontchartrain This power to grant property and land was given to Cadillac, but canceled by royal decree in 1716 Once he was back in France, Cadillac s attempt to regain what he considered his property at the fort led to lengthy correspondence and the preservation of important references

The fort changed in size Burton attempted to illustrate the position of the emplacements in the fort. Fort Pontchartrain was between modernday Larned to the north and Jefferson to the south Wayne to the west and Griswold to the east. Land concessions were on the eastside of the fort at first

Dit and Dite Names Last names in New France are often followed by the word dit for a man, pronounced dee or dzee and dite for a woman, pronounced dit or dzit These words indicate an additional name by which a person was also known as or by which he or she was called. Sometimes only the dit name survived in later years.

Historical Perspective Antoine Laumet dit de Lamothe Cadillac left the fort in 1711, never to return. 1712: Outbreak of the war between the Fox (invited to Detroit by Cadillac) and other Indian Nations allied with the French. The French sided with their allies. War continued for years. 1716: Cancellation of concessions Once back in France by 1717 from Louisiane, Cadillac petitioned to have his property, resulting in a list drawn up by his agent, Grandmesnil, fils

1716 in Paris, the Conseil de Marine had already decided The sixty [sic] concessions that had been given by Lamothe Cadillac should not be in existence, as much because those to whom they were given were obliged to abandon them in fear of being killed by Indians and [that], for this reason, we should not make another establishment other than to maintain a garrison. The Conseil believes that these concessions are of no value but that it is right [in justice] to give new ones from the king to those who have satisfied the conditions by which [those persons granted concessions] were obliged.[1]

Signature page of 10 March 1707 Land Concession to Jacob de Marsac

1721 During Cadillac s appeal, the following people were identified in the colonial documents as still holding land in 1721, only four: Delorme [François Fafard dit Delorme] Desrochers [Jacob de Marsac dit Desrochers] M. Aubin [Jean Casse dit St-Aubin] The widow [of François] Beausseron [Marie Lepage, whose second marriage was to Joseph Vaudry]

Marsac Land Concession Still in possession in 1721 when Alphonse Tonty was commandant Also on list sent to France in 1721 of original concessions: #4 10 March 1707 To Jacob de Marsac a piece of ground of two arpents in front by twenty deep, adjoining on one side Jean Baptiste Goriou (Gouriou dit Guignolet), and on the south the great river; five livres quit-rent and rent. {These terms are cens et rentes in French}

Concessions in the 1730s to 1747 No maps survive for the plots of land outside of the fort until 1731

1731

1731 Map Shows no development until Fafard ** about 9 or 10 plots from the fort, going east by north, followed by: Vaudry, by virtue of his marriage to Marie Lepage ** Blank [formerly held by Jean Gouriou dit Guignolet] Marsac Jacob de Marsac dit Desrochers ** Lajeunesse [Pierre Estève dit Lajeunesse] Bineau [Jean Bineau dit Lajeunesse] Deslauriers [Pierre Duroy dit Deslauriers] widow Lajeunesse [possibly widow of Pierre Estève dit Lajeunesse fils, the son] blank space including Rivière a Parent [Bloody Run], then Sanspeur sergent [Simon Gilbert dit Sanspeur, granted by Tonty

1731

Landmark on 1731 Map Parent Creek, later called Bloody Run, now in Elmwood Cemetery In 1731, Sanspeur had 2 arpents next to land with no name In 1734, Jean Gilbert [sic] [Jean Gilbert dit Sanspeur], was granted 4 arpents [including Le Ruisseau a Parent] ], ouest sud ouest [west southwest] of Pierre Meloche

Fafard, 9 plots from fort, then Vaudry, through his wife Blank (Gouriou dit Guignolet) Marsac Lajeunesse Bineau Deslauriers Widow Lajeunesse: Notice women owned property River Parent Sanspeur, sergent Direction is West to East. Notice no Isle aux Cochons / Belle Isle

Potawatomi located at present-day Ambassador Bridge Grand Marais: Big Swamp, beginning about at modernday Belle Isle. 1731 Huron were still just downriver from the fort; Ottawa, at present day Windsor

Huron Village still next to the fort in this 1732 map

Belle Isle, Grand Marais, Pointe à Guignolet

Boishébert s 1733 map version, in Dunnigan (Fig. 2.13), shows Pointe à Guignolet at an unnamed river. In 1749, Chaussegros de Léry identifies Rivière à Guignolet at Pointe à Guignolet, the river and the point having the same name (Fig. 3.9); now the Milk River No settlers were at this pointe or river before 1766 Today it is Gaukler Point just below Nine Mile on Jefferson / Lakeshore Drive, St. Clair Shores

17 Concessions granted in 1734 Full text of the concession to Charles Chauvin is in my article. Terms apply to all concessions that year The doctoral dissertation of Dr. Guillaume Teasdale (University of Windsor) unravels this imporatant stage in land concessions.

Seigneurial Dues in 1734, as described by Guillaume Teasdale The seigneurial dues that Charles Chauvin had to pay were listed in his deed. His cens was set at one sol per fronting arpent and his rente was fixed at 20 sols for every 20 square arpents. In total, Chauvin s annual cens and rente amounted to four livres for the size of his land plus two sols and two minots of wheat for its frontage. {An arpent was about an English acre.} These numbers corresponded to the average cens et rente paid by roturiers in the seigneuries particulières of the St. Lawrence valley, where Harris determines that the most common rate was one sol per arpent of frontage... [and] up to twenty sols for each twenty square arpents, plus a capon or the equivalent in wheat. 186

Moulin Banal-Common Windmill (Guillaume Teasdale) The deed of Charles Chauvin s land grant further revealed that he was required to grind his flour at the Moulin banal.

One Difference (Guillaume Teasdale) Apparently, the only clause of Chauvin s deed that differed from such legal documents produced in the St. Lawrence valley concerned the possibility of paying his cens et rente with furs. Access to currency was difficult at Detroit. It was not reasonable for the receiver of seigneurial dues to expect being paid this way by the settlers.

Building Detroit Game Whatever the value of the cens et rentes, though, it was nowhere near two-thirds of the farm s production, and, in Detroit, payment could be made with animal pelts, because actual money was scarce. I mention the figure of two-thirds of the farm s production because this is the amount that is extracted from the inhabitants of Detroit by a fictional Seigneur Dubois in an on-line, awardwinning game called Building Detroit at the website of The Detroit Historical Society http://detroithistorical.org/buildingdetroit/

The game begins in 1750, and features a man and wife recently arrived from France, not a French-Canadian couple, which would have been much more accurate for 1750. Both the proportion demanded as seigneurial dues and the fictional Seigneur Dubois are errors, as there were no seigneurs at Detroit. The first royal notary, Robert Navarre, served as the receveur / tax collector for many, many years at Detroit.

17 Concessions of 1734 (Guillaume Teasdale) The seventeen lots covered altogether 57.5 arpents (3.7 kilometres [2 miles] ) of the frontage along the Detroit River east of Fort Pontchartrain. Today, they would stretch from the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to the bridge leading to Belle Isle, formerly known as Hog Island ( Isle-aux-Cochons ). They extended back from the Detroit River through present-day Fisher Freeway in downtown Detroit, which is not, however, on the eastside of Detroit for the full extent of property granted.

xx X 1734 concessions described from east to west by southwest

The Locations of the Seventeen 1734 Concessions Chauvin, est nord est [east north east] of Fafard Delorme ** [granted by Cadillac 10 Mars 1707 and 18 to 20 arpents east of the fort in 1731] Philis, [Jacques Desmoulins dit Philis] 2 arpents next to Chauvin, east north east of Chauvin [So the 1734 concessions started at the limit of the earlier concessions to the east toward the Grand Marais, Big Swamp. [See the full 1731 map of the strait]

1734 Pierre Estève dit La Jeunesse, 2 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Marsac Desrochers conceded 10 mars 1707 by Cadillac Binault, 2 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Pierre Estève Louis Campot, [sic, Jean Louis Campaux [sic] / Campeau, 5 arpents sud sud est [south south east] of Binault Marsac Desrochers, [sic] Marsac Desrochers Père, the father, 4 arpents E.S.W. [east south west?] of Chapoton [This appears to be a new concession. A 1749 map shows two for the family, with Pierre Chesne fils, the son, between them.]

1734 Jean Chapoton, 3 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] next to Marsac Pierre Meloche, 5 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Jean Chapoton Jean Gilbert [sic] on folio 195v [Jean Gilbert dit Sanspeur {sergent 1731}], 4 arpents [including Le Ruisseau à Parent, Parent Creek, later called Bloody Run, now in Elmwood Cemetery], ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Pierre Meloche. [This is an important landmark. It became known as Bloody Run after the Pontiac Ottawa battle with the British there in 1763.]

*******

1734 Jacques Campaux, [sic, Jacques Campeau Père, the father], 4 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Jean Gilbert dit Sanspeur Moran, folio 196v, 4 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Jacques Campaux Labutte, folio 197, [Pierre Chesne dit Labutte] 3 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Moran La Déroute [Seguin dit Ladéroute], 4 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Labutte

1734 Chesne, Charles Chesne [brother of Pierre], 4 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of La Déroute Saint-Aubin [sic], Saint Aubin Père, the father, arpents [no number given, but the full summary sheet appears to read 2 arpents] ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Chesne Note: these two names still appear on Detroit streets.

1734 Pierre Saint-Aubin, Pierre Saint Aubin fils, the son, 3 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Saint Aubin père (These last two might be in the area of modern-day St. Aubin Street) François (Lauson) [sic] François Lauson, 4 arpents ouest sud ouest [west south west] of Pierre Saint Aubin (Closest to the fort in 1734)

1736 (Guillaume Teasdale) In 1736, sixteen additional tracts laid out the same way were granted, all of which measured four arpents wide by 40 arpents deep. Combined, the grants of 1734 and 1736 extended more than 120 arpents (seven kilometres) east of the fort. They reached the area where Engel Memorial Park is located today. {far end of Belle Isle, see map}

1736 (Guillaume Teasdale) Four grantees in 1736 were already married to Frenchwomen: Jacques Cardinal Sr. and Pierre St-Cosme had moved to Detroit with their families in the late 1720s whereas Charles Bonhomme dit Beaupré and Philippe Daniau had married Frenchwomen at Detroit. (55)

1736 (Guillaume Teasdale) Four other grantees of 1736 who settled on their tracts of land married Frenchwomen at Detroit in the 1740s and 1750s. These men were Claude Campau, Jacques Casse dit Saint-Aubin, Gaëtan Séguin dit Ladéroute, and Pierre Laurent St-Cosme.

1736 (Guillaume Teasdale) The two remaining grantees, Jacques Cardinal Jr. and Gabriel Casse dit Saint-Aubin, seemingly never married.

1736, octobre, 05 Lettre de Beauharnois et Hocquart Mentions the requirement to increase the garrison of Détroit, which has only 17 soldiers, 40 families and 80 men capable of bearing arms: 1,300 to 1,400 minots of wheat harvested in 1735, sixteen concessions to be ratified, the inhabitants are satisfied with their notary, the honest man Navarre who will collect the cens et rentes, seigneurial dues.

First Concessions to the South and West (Downriver on the North Shore), 1747 Remember: Jesuit Father Armand de La Richardie moved his Mission to the Huron to Isle aux Bois Blancs (now Bob-Lo Island) in 1742. This mission, entitled the Mission of the Assumption among the Hurons of Detroit, had first been established near and downriver from the fort of Détroit in 1728. See the 1731 map.

The Mission to the Huron remained on Isle aux Bois Blancs for five years, from 1742 to 1747. In 1748 it moved to Pointe de Montréal on the south bank of the Detroit River, at and near the present Church of the Assumption, after the rebel Huron destroyed the settlement on the island.[1] With the Huron having relocated, land became available to the left of the fort, south and west, downriver.

1749 Downriver from the fort Z. Isle aux Bois Blancs: Boblo

1747 (Guillaume Teasdale) Three more tracts were granted on the north side in 1747. Two of them had a width of two arpents whereas the third one measured three arpents wide. Robert Navarre received the latter.

Paul Szewczyk

Corktown Website Paul Szewczyk http://corktownhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=navarre For more maps of near-southwest Detroit

Of 37 tracts of land granted since 1734, only those of Navarre and Laurent Eustache Gamelin, also granted in 1747, were located on the opposite side of Fort Pontchartrain, between the fort and the Potawatomi village. What would become Southwest Detroit, downriver, had begun.

1749 (Guillaume Teasdale) During his first visit to Detroit in 1749, Chaussegros observed that French dwellings had been established on the north shore of the Detroit River from the Potawatomi village to a place called Presqu Isle [now Windmill Point] which corresponded to the location of Engel Memorial Park Chaussegros further added that those habitations, which included houses and barns, were to be found close to the waterway.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin FROM TWO DIFFERENT TIMES, 1752 and 1749 for the fort

Modern Street Names A few remain from the French ribbon concessions on the eastside: Beaubien and St. Antoine (named after Antoine Cuillierier dit Beaubien) St. Aubin Chene Joseph Campau

However Beaubien was not the original founding family s name Remember those dit names? Note: Marie Catherine Trottier's children by Jean Cuillerier came with her and her second husband to Detroit. The Cuillerier family adopted the name Beaubien from Marie-Catherine's Trottier family and signed themselves Cuillerier dit Beaubien. The name Beaubien became the family name (Source: Denissen, p. 53) And the street today is Beaubien (Anglicized Bo-be-in) not Cuillerier, the original paternal ancestor s name

Conclusion Land concessions at Detroit are complicated, both those inside and those outside of the fort. Don't believe everything you have read. Don't expect a person or family to remain in the same place forever, even though the concession documents say the land is theirs "forever". Some documents, however, are gone forever. Thank Cadillac for his attempt to regain possessions he claimed as his own.

Diane Wolford Sheppard The Last French Concessions and Beyond

On our New website 1749 Census

Habitatations of Mény, Cuillierier, Gouin = Domaine a Mr delamotte Barois fils, Eustache gamelin, Pierre Réaume, godet, St Martin Barois = sur la Banlieu du fort: neighboring the fort Lands from Point G to Point H http:// habitantheritage.org/