Series

This series chronicles the personal life and professional activities of Pierre-Édouard Leclère, père.

It contains several notarized documents illustrating major events in his family life, including the baptismal certificates of two of his daughters, Marie Célanire, born October 4, 1820, and Julie Célanire, born November 20, 1823. Both were baptized the day after their birth in the parish of Saint-Nom-de-Marie in the city of Montreal. A death certificate dated May 17, 1822, reveals that little Marie Célanire died when she was only 19 months old. In these three documents, Pierre-Édouard Leclère (Leclerc) is identified, in turn, as a merchant (1820), law student (1823) and notary's clerk (1822). The series also contains the death certificate of Marie Josephte Saint-Germain, deceased on December 12, 1843, at the age of 81. She was the widow of Jean-Baptiste Castonguay and the mother of Pierre-Édouard Leclère's wife, Marie Josephte.

In addition, the series contains a typewritten copy of a document recounting an incident between Pierre-Édouard Leclère and Édouard E. Rodier, a lawyer and member of the Patriote party. Rodier complained that Leclère, at that time the owner of the newspaper L'Ami du people, de l'ordre et des lois, had permitted the publication of a slanderous article about him. Rodier refers to an anonymous piece published on April 2, 1834, which alleged that he had harangued some inhabitants of Saint-Philippe. Offended by this declaration, Rodier demanded a public retraction and the name of the author. Leclère asked his friend A. Rambau to act as an intermediary. Rambau tried to calm things down, but Leclère's negative response to Rodier's requests escalated the situation, which degenerated into a duel. Happily, the altercation was resolved with no loss of life. The two parties eventually came to an amicable agreement on how to preserve Rodier's honour. The matter is recounted by A. Rambau himself, who says that his intention is to correct the version of events published in the journal La Minerve. His account includes transcriptions of letters exchanged between the various parties.

The series is completed by two tributes to Pierre-Édouard Leclère written in 1842 when he was appointed police magistrate of Montreal. These testimonials were delivered by the inhabitants of Sainte-Rosalie and Saint-Hyacinthe, respectively, who were sad to see him leave, praising his skills, impartiality, and commitment to the public good and the preservation of public safety. Finally, there is a copy of the January 15, 1841, edition of the Morning Courier, with a piece about "summary process" that has been highlighted, and a press clipping from another newspaper with an anecdote about Leclère. This story recounts that Leclère, known for his fierce opposition to the Patriot movement, had Dr. Pierre-Claude Boucher de la Bruère arrested in 1838 on suspicion of having taken part in the Rebellion. Then, several years later, Leclère's daughter married de la Bruère's son, Pierre-René-Joseph-Hippolyte de la Bruère.