Fonds
This fonds
focusses on Robillard family members who lived primarily in the settlements of
Côte Sainte-Anne, Côte Sainte-Marie, Côte Sainte-Geneviève, Côte de
Pointe-Claire, and Île Bizard. Located in Montreal's West Island, these areas
are known today as the cities of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Baie-d'Urfé, Kirkland
and Pointe-Claire, the village of Senneville, and the Montreal boroughs of
Pierrefonds-Roxboro and Île-Bizard-Sainte-Geneviève.
In 1739,
Claude Robillard (1712-1796?) was granted a parcel of land in Côte
Sainte-Marie, along Ste-Marie Road in modern-day Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Married
to Marie Élisabeth Daoust (1717-1748) in 1735, Robillard wed Marie Anne
Cardinal (1701?-1778?) in 1750 following his first wife's death. Together,
these unions produced at least 11 children, including Élisabeth Marie Isabelle
(1736-1793), Marie Josephe (1738-1816), who married Louis Saint-Denis in 1757,
and Joseph Marie (1740-1814).
Joseph
Marie inherited a large portion of the family property in Côte Sainte-Marie
and, in 1762, married Marie Reine Ranger (1742?-1817?). The couple had at least
nine children, including Marie Reine (1766-?), the wife of Joseph Legault,
Marie Geneviève (1768-1859?) and Michel (1772-1838).
Joseph
Robillard (1722-1784), Claude's brother, also lived in Côte Sainte-Marie. With
his wife Marie Joseph Ranger (1730?-before 1784), whom he married in 1751,
Joseph had at least 10 children, including Joseph (1751-?), who settled in Île
Bizard, Nicolas (1753¬-?) and Marie Geneviève (1761-1785).
Michel
Robillard married Catherine Brabant (1776?-1810) in 1797, the same year he had
a farmhouse built on the family property he had inherited. This house, located
on what is now Ste-Marie Road, has been designated a heritage building under
the name "Maison Michel-Robillard." Following the death of Catherine
Brabant, Michel Robillard married Felicite Sureau (1785-1834) in 1811. These
two marriages produced at least 24 children, including Angélique (1803-1834),
Euphrosine (1804-1891?), Josette (Josephte) (1808-1890), Scholastique
(1806?-1881?), Sévère (1814?-1875), Marie Euphémie (1819-1873), Marceline
(1824-1874) and Joseph Michel (?-1875).
Married in
1848 to Adelaide Gemme (James) dit Carrière (1824-1878), Sévère Robillard
settled on the farm formerly occupied by his parents. He and his wife had at
least 12 children, including Aldéric (1853-1906), Odile (1855-1939), Parmenie
(1859-1922?), Emma (1860-1927) and Marie Joséphine Félicité (1848-1883). Sévère
took an active role in managing the family's landholdings, working with his
brother, Joseph Michel.
The family
property was then inherited by Aldéric Robillard, who had no children. As a
result, upon his death it was transferred to his cousin Pierre Robillard, and
then to Pierre's son, Napoléon Robillard (husband of Parmenie Robillard, his
3rd cousin), who owned it until 1928. The property was purchased in 1932 by the
Williamson family, who dubbed it "Braerob Farm" and owned it until
the late 20th century.
Scope and Content
The fonds
documents the activities of six generations of Robillard family members, members
of related families and close friends, from the mid-18th to the early 20th
century. It chronicles the accumulation, administration and transmission of the
family's assets, particularly land. There is information about the key
alliances the Robillards formed with certain families (through marriage and
various land transactions), such as the Saint-Denis, Legaults (dit Desloriers),
Rangers and Pilons, as well as associations entered into among cousins, likely
in an effort to consolidate the family's property.
This fonds
makes a significant contribution to the history of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and
Montreal's West Island by providing information about some of the Francophone
families who settled in and shaped the area. In particular, it chronicles the
island of Montreal's agrarian past and the land tenure system created by the
seigneurial regime.
It contains
several notarial acts documenting the marriages and estates of various
Robillard family members. A substantial number of the documents focus on the
administration of the family's assets over the generations: legal documents
(land grants, sales, exchanges, transfers, donations, quittances and
inventories) in addition to survey records and reports. The fonds also contains
archives (genealogical notes, a biographical text and correspondence) tracing
the history of certain Robillard family members and Braerob Farm.
Finally,
several notarial documents record the administration of landholdings by
individuals or families, such as the Humerdeau family, whose association with
the Robillards has not been established.
Classification Scheme
P106
Robillard Family
P106/A Robillard Family and Friends
P106/A1 Personal
lives
P106/A1.1 Births
P106/A1.2 Marriages
P106/A1.3 Deaths and estates
P106/A1.4 Religious practice
P106/A1.5 History and genealogy
P106/A2 Professional lives
P106/A3 Finances
and assets
P106/A3.1
Properties and movable and immovable property
P106/A3.1,1 Notarial documents
P106/A3.1,2 Survey records and reports
P106/A3.1,3 Correspondence
P106/A3.2 Financial transactions
P106/A4 Legal affairs
P106/B Other Families and Properties
P106/B1 Assets of the Huberdeau family
P106/B2 Assets of Pierre Caillé
P106/B3 Assets of the Plouf family
P106/B4 Other
P106/C Miscellaneous
Source
of title proper: Title
based on the creators of the fonds.
Physical
condition: Some
fragile documents are cracking along the fold lines.
Immediate
source of acquisition: David Ross McCord acquired some of the documents in this fonds in
1919 and 1929, but Peter Williamson donated most of the documents to the McCord
Museum in 1967.
Language: The documents are in French,
English and Spanish, but primarily in French.
Finding
aids: A paper
inventory of the documents is available for consultation.
Associated material:
BAnQ (Old Montreal): Le fonds Cour supérieure. District
judiciaire de Montréal. Greffes
d'arpenteurs. (CA601) contains the subdivision plan for the property in the estate
of J. Lanthier (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Parish), drawn up by surveyor Claude-Élie
Rinfret, which mentions a Mr. Robillard.
Last update: August 30, 2017
Information about the objects in our collection is updated to reflect new research findings. If you have any information to share regarding this object, please email reference.mccord@mccord-stewart.ca.Information about rights and reproductions is available here.
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.