Urbain Tessier

Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne is one of the original settlers of Ville Marie (now Montreal). Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne, was born on the 24 Feb. 1624 in the Province of Anjou, France & baptized at Breil, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de Loire, France. He died & was buried on the 21 March 1689 at Notre-Dame Montreal, Canada. Pastor E. Guyotte signed the death entry. He arrived in Canada at Montreal in 1648. He was a pit-Sawyer & a carpenter by trade. First mentioned of him in Canada was a land grant by Mr. De Maisonneuve on the 10 January 1648 in Ville Marie. It was on this land that he built his first house. His 1st child, Charles Tessier, was born 18 July 1649. Like almost all of the new born children of Villemarie at that period, Charles Tessier soon closed his eyes in death. He died & was buried 24 July 1649, having only lived 6 days. It seems he was a determined man who would not allow the Iroquois to squash his dream of settling in New France. He was a worker on the stockade surrounding the fort and helped to build houses and other community buildings from the rough land of bush. He was a sawyer by trade. On the 16 May 1651 the Iroquois Indians burned his house & also his brother-in-law Michael Chauoin Then on 18 Sept. 1651 The Company of Montreal gave him another grant there in Montreal. 1652-Urbain Tessier is granted a large plot of land in what is now called Place de Armes near the Basilica Notre Dame. Chomedey de Maisonneuve accorded Urbain Tessier a grant which the office of the Notre-Dame-de-Montreal Company was to ratify at Paris 30 March 1653. This grant included "30 arpents, near the place intended for the construction of the town, with an arpent in the encloure of the latter adjoining on one side Jean Desroches and on the other side Jacques Archambault, commencing, for its width, twenty perches near said town, which will start at the landmarks which have been set, & this width to continue in the depth of the island, bearing north west, west quarter, up to said amount of 30 arpents...requiring a farthing of feudal fee per arpents & 5 sels as feudal fee for every arpent which is in the enclosure of the town & other seiguirial rights according to the common law of Paris...and to build, clear & cultivate the said lands & to leave the roads which the govenor of Montreal will judge necessary for the public convenience." To visualize the situation of the 2 grants made to Urbain Tessier, it should be pointed out that the town of Montreal was to develop between the river & the Petite Rivivire, which as given way to the present Rue Craig. The town arpent granted to Tessier cut across Rue St. Jacques, as we have said, to the north of Place d'Armes. It hence occupied a splendid position. When, in 1672, the question arose of a site for the church of Villemarie. It was decided to exchange a half-arpent "adjoining on one side, the lands of Urbain Tessier & on the other side, lands not granted, all of which is near to & adjoining the street & square of the church". 1661-King Louis XIV is now in power. The colony pleaded for new troops to be sent to help with the Iroquois. Urbain Tessier is captured by the Iroquois on March 24, 1661 and is taken from his family. one account states that Urbaine was working with 15 men on their land outside the walls of Ville Marie,[the original name for Montreal] they were pounced on by 250 Iroquois. The struggle was violent and very disproportionate. After the conflict 4 Frenchmen remained on the field, Urbain was among the others who were taken captive. They were blindfolded and had to march a long distance. They did not know where they were taken but it was among the barbarians. They were tortured! A person reporting later told of a Frenchman named Lavigne who had his finger detached by the Iroquois. The release of the Frenchmen was negotiated by father Simon Lemoyne-a Jesuit. Another account states that Urbain had rescued several of his peers with an audacious attack. During this time his son Urbain Tessier was born and baptized on June 7, 1661. No one knew weather Urbain was dead or alive. Marie Archambault knew that his fate, if he was still alive, might be nearly worse than death. Urbain was held a prisoner of the Iroquois Indians from 24 March 1661 to 31 Aug. 1661. 1662-Urbain Tessier is released by the Iroquois after 17 months of captivity and returns to his family. There is no doubt at all that he was held by a barbaric tribe. The cruel reception which awaited captives was widely known. On his arrival he was forced to pass between two rows & he was beaten as he moved down the row. He might be stopped to have his fingernails torn out or his fingers burned in a pipe. One Marguerite Bourgeouis actually wrote of Levigne "from whom the Iroquois have detached a finger", in her autobiography. In 1663 he was listed as having 30 arpents of land that he rented & had 450 other arpents he had. His home was situated on the street of St. Jacques in Montreal. Urbain was held a prisoner of the Iroquois Indians from 24 March 1661 to 31 Aug. 1661. History paints him as a brave man in his fighting of these Indians. In 1663 he enrolled as a soldier in the 8th Squadron of the Ste. Famille Militia. In the 1666 Montreal Census he had 2 servants working for him. Etienne Gendre age 18 & Jacques Hurtaut age 25. Per 1667 Census, he & family were living on L'ile D'Orleans 9 December 1675, Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne sold to the pastor Gilles Perrot a piece of land having about 15 perches in area, that is, 3 perches & 3' in length by 4 perches in width, ending at Rue St. Jacques, "bordering at one side, a piece of land which the buyer acquired from Jacques Archambault on the other side, the garden of the seller". Lavigne, having ceded to the pastor Perrot the northeastern extremity of his site situated to the south of Rue St. Jacques, granted a portion of it, situated to the north of this street, to his son, Jean. On 13 June 1686, Urbain sold the latter 40 feet of land near the corner of the house built by said buyer on the side of Rue St. Joseph (St. Sulpice) and on the level of Rue St. Jacques, with the depth which will be found from Rue St. Jacques, as far as the Chemin de la Petite Riviire. All that is known of the town house of the sawyer, Urbain Tessier, is that he lived on Rue St. Jacques. His neighbors were, to the west, the bailiff-mason Francois Bailly dit LeFleur, & to the east Jacques Archambault, his father-in-law. A staking out of the Montreal streets, carried out from July 1 - 15, 1672 gives this description of Rue St. Jacques; this street, being 18 feet in width, starts at the dividing line of the lands belonging to LeCavelier & Desroches, it asses in front of the houses of Francois Bailly, sergeant, of Urbain Tessier & of Jacques Archambault as far as the Rue Saint-Charles. Urbain Tessier presumably owned a barn & stable in town, besides a small garden (Basset, 9 December 1675) . His major cultivation was done outside of the enclosure. If the land grant act cited above is correct, his land of 20 perches, or 2 arpents in width, extended from the outskirts of the town as far as a depth of 15 arpents. It adjoined, to the west, Jean Desroches land likewise 2 arpents wide by 14 in depth, itself bounded by Robert leCavelier; & to the east it adjoined Jacques Archambault's grant.