Jacques Legardeur De Saint-Pierre: Officer, Gentleman, Entrepeneur

The Worldly Possessions of Saint-Pierre, 1755

8 EPILOGUE THE WORLDLY POSSESSIONS OF SAINT-PIERRE, 1755 Saint-Pierre did not die in vain even though the Battle of Lac Saint-Sacrement (Lake George) was not decisive. The English colonials' planned attack on Fort St. Frederic and invasion of New France from the south were stopped in their tracks. At the same time, the preemptive strike by Dieskau failed to defeat his enemy the way Braddock had been crushed at the Monongahela, and it was the French who were obliged to withdraw from the field of action, leaving their wounded general behind to be taken prisoner. This alone was sufficient reason for the English to rejoice and the French high command to gnash its teeth. The loss of Saint-Pierre caused more sorrow in Montreal and Quebec than the captivity of a general who had allowed himselfto be taken. Two weeks after her husband's death, Marie-Joseph Guillimin petitioned the king's attorney for an inventory of all the property and belongings in her and her late husband's communal estate. She was heir to his estate since they had had no children and because, in accordance with their mutual gift agreement of 1750, she was the recipient of the gift of all his movable and immovable communal property. After removing the seals placed by the notaries Louis-Claude Danre de Blanzy and Pierre Panet on all the movable items after Saint-Pierre's death, the two appraisers, Etienne Auger and Jacques Perras, inventoried and appraised all of his belongings in his home on Notre Dame Street on 22 and 23 September 1755. On 14 February 1756, the notaries met again with Saint-Pierre's widow at her house to receive her declaration of those possessions and money that had subsequently come in, adding to the estate. This very lengthy and detailed inventory has survived, and its close examination reveals a virtual gold mine of information on the Saint231 232 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre , ( .. / .. '- "7"' • ~.... Q l' I",.. :? .,..1.0 Of • .. I·~. First page of the twenty-page "Inventory of the possessions and belongings left after the death of M. Ie Gardeur de St. pierre," 22 September 1755. Archives nationales du Quebec, Direction des Archives nationales de I'Quest du Quebec, du Griffe "Danre de Blanzy": CN601-108. Epilogue 233 Pierres, including several major surprises on their material wealth. (The complete inventory is translated in appendix 3) We find first that MarieJoseph Guillimin did not live alone during the long absences of her husband , having her unmarried paternal aunt, Jacquette Guillimin,l "living with the aforesaid lady" (p. 1, lines 30-32) as well as several servants (p. 5, lines 27-30; p. 14, lines 8-9). We also find that Jean Lechelle, the merchant and agent accused repeatedly of dishonesty by Meret in his 1752 letter to Saint-Pierre at the Western Sea, was nonetheless present at the inventory and was even the caretaker of the seals on Saint-Pierre's property who attested to their soundness and intactness (p. 2, lines 11-13). Since the inventory listed the property room by room, we are able to determine a number of the features of the house as well as its contents. Upon entering the house one came into what appears to have been the living room/dining room with a fireplace and one window which was covered by an old coarse cotton curtain. This room was decorated with "Old needlepoint tapestry" and it contained a pine sideboard, twelve wooden chairs with straw seats, a small sheet-iron fountain and basin with two faience water pots, and a small jar with a wooden cover from Marseille (pp. 2-3). Next to the fireplace was a room with two windows with painted-cloth curtains, containing a small folding pine table, a small bed and mattress, an old bed valance, a pine couchette (small bed) with a straw mattress, an old feather mattress covered in twill, and accompanying bedcovers, bolsters, blankets, sheets, and pillows. An armoire in this room contained six dozen bordered faience plates, ten faience platters, and four small faience salad bowls. Next to the faience was the first item ofgreat value to be inventoried, a service for seven or eight with two candlesticks, "All of it hallmarked silver from Paris weighing Together sixty-eight-marks-six-ounces," appraised at 3,609livres, eight sols, and six deniers, a very considerable sum.2 Also in...