Fonds

The
families that are the focus of this fonds marked the history of Quebec in the
18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and are closely associated with the seigneuries
of Saint-Hyacinthe (Montérégie) and La Petite-Nation (Outaouais). Here are some
of the most well-known members of these families.

Born in
Quebec City, politician JEAN DESSAULLES (1766-1835) inherited a large parcel of
land in the Saint-Hyacinthe seigneury in 1814. He married Marie-Rosalie
Papineau, the sister of Louis-Joseph, in 1816. The couple had six children,
including Louis-Antoine (1818-1895) and Georges-Casimir (1827-1930).

MARIE-ROSALIE
PAPINEAU DESSAULLES (1788-1857) was the youngest daughter of Joseph Papineau,
and the wife of Jean Dessaulles. After her husband died, Marie-Rosalie agreed
to give the seigneury to her oldest son, Louis-Antoine Dessaulles.

LOUIS-ANTOINE
DESSAULLES (1818-1895) was a renowned politician, author and journalist, a
member of the Liberal party and Mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1849 to 1857.
Following an expensive misadventure involving the construction of a railway
line in the region, Louis-Antoine had to sell the seigneury in 1867. In 1875 he
left the country permanently for Europe; he died in Paris in 1895. Married to
Zéphirine Thompson, he had one daughter, Caroline (baptized Caroline-Angélina),
who married Frédéric-Ligori Béique.

GEORGES-CASIMIR
DESSAULLES (1827-1930) was the youngest son of Jean Dessaulles and
Marie-Rosalie Papineau. In the 1850s, convinced that the estate was being
mismanaged by their older brother Louis-Antoine, Georges-Casimir and
Rosalie-Eugénie (1822-1902) demanded that the Saint-Hyacinthe seigneury be
subdivided into three equal parcels. The share given to Georges-Casimir was
named the Yamaska seigneury. Georges-Casimir pursued a career in politics (he
was notably Mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1868 to 1897 and became a senator in
1907), in addition to being President of the Bank of Saint-Hyacinthe (which he
founded in 1874) for many years. In 1857, he married Émilie Mondelet, who died
in 1867. In 1869, he got married again, this time to Fanny (baptized Frances
Louise) Leman, the daughter of Dr. Dennis Leman and Honorine Papineau. He had
two girls and one boy (Alice Beaudry, Henriette Saint-Jacques and Arthur) with
his first wife and five children with his second wife (Rosalie, Fanny, Emma,
Casimir and Henri).

HENRIETTE
DESSAULLES SAINT-JACQUES (1860-1946) was the daughter of Georges-Casimir
Dessaulles and Émilie Mondelet. In 1881, she married Maurice Saint-Jacques,
with whom she had seven children. Following her husband's death, she began a
prolific career as a journalist, writing for numerous newspapers,
including Le Devoir. Although renowned for her lively, informed
writing during her lifetime, she also achieved prominence after her death, with
the posthumous publication in 1971 of her diary, Fadette : Journal d’Henriette
Dessaulles. Also published in English as Hopes and Dreams, The Diary of
Henriette Dessaulles, in 1986, this work offered an intimate portrait of young
Henriette from 1874 to 1881.

A surveyor
and notary by profession, JOSEPH PAPINEAU (1752-1841) acquired the La
Petite-Nation seigneury between 1801 and 1803. In 1809, he added Île Roussin to
his holdings and managed his land with the help of his son Denis-Benjamin.

LOUIS-JOSEPH
PAPINEAU (1786-1871) was the son of Joseph Papineau and Marie-Rosalie Cherrier
Papineau (1756-1832). Thanks to his leading role in the 1837-1838 Rebellions,
this lawyer, military man and politician marked the collective memory of
Quebecers. Although he took over the administration of the La Petite-Nation
seigneury in 1817, he did not in fact live there until he returned from exile
in France in 1847.

Merchant,
civil servant and politician DENIS-BENJAMIN PAPINEAU (1789-1854) was the
younger brother of Louis-Joseph. He was also the administrator of the La
Petite-Nation seigneury until 1817. His marriage with Angélique-Louise Cornud
produced nine children, including Joseph-Benjamin-Nicolas, a surveyor
(1814-1898), and Agathe-Honorine Papineau Leman.

ANGÉLIQUE-LOUISE
CORNUD PAPINEAU (1785-1870) was a friend of Marie-Rosalie Papineau Dessaulles,
and married her brother, Denis-Benjamin Papineau, in 1813.

The
daughter of Denis-Benjamin Papineau and Angélique-Louise Cornud Papineau,
AGATHE-HONORINE PAPINEAU (1818-1891) married Protestant physician Dennis Leman
in 1837. The couple had two children, Joseph Leman (1842-1885), also a
physician, and France Louise Leman (1844-1914), before Dr. Leman died an early
death in 1846, following a bout of tuberculosis.

CAROLINE-ANGÉLINA
DESSAULLES BÉIQUE (1852-1946) was the daughter of Louis-Antoine Dessaulles and
Zéphirine Thompson. A prominent social activist and feminist, she also
co-founded (with Marie Gérin-Lajoie) the Fédération nationale
Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the first Francophone alliance of women's groups.