Pierre Miville

Notes:

Pierre Miville, known as "le Suisse," emigrated to Canada. The research of historian-genealogist Marcel Fournier revealed that under the French Régime, 106 Swiss immigrants, six of whom were women, came to New France. Of the 106, 41 married and settled permanently.

Pierre Miville, born c1602 in the canton of Fribourg, was the first Swiss to immigrate to Canada. He was in Québec City with his wife and six children by 1649. He was in France in the second half of the 1620s. He may have been one of Cardinal Richelieu's Swiss guards. Perhaps he was one of those who laid siege to the city of La Rochelle in 1627. Eventually, he came to Brouage, the hometown of Samuel de Champlain, where he was married, c1630, to Catherine Maugis, a Saintongeaise from Saint-Germain-de-Lusignan. The couple settled at Brouage, where their seven children were born. The eldest, Gabriel, died at the age of five. Raymond Ouimet, related to the Miville family through his mother, wrote a book on Pierre Miville. He pointed out that Miville must have belonged to a coterie of people devoted to Cardinal Richelieu's interests, as all his children's godparents were either people in the cardinal's orbit or officials of the town.

Following the death of Richelieu in 1642, a number of people associated with him had to leave Brouage. This may well explain Pierre Miville's departure for La Rochelle in 1646. At the time, he made his living as a carpenter. Three years later, he decided to immigrate to Canada. He boarded a ship leaving for Québec City with Catherine and their six children. He had two boys and four girls: Marie was 17; François, 15; Aimée, 14; Madeleine, 13; Jacques, 10 and Suzanne, 9.

At the time, Jean de Lauson was looking for settlers for his seigniory of Lauson, as only two people were living there - Guillaume Couture and François Bissot. On October 28, 1649, Pierre Miville and his son François were each granted a concession of one hectare in width by thirteen in length. Two years later, Pierre got an extension that made his land one third wider. 1649, Pierre also acquired another piece of land on the Grande-Allée, on the north shore of the river west of Québec City.

The Mivilles didn't settle in the seigniory of Lauson immediately, but we know that they had done so by 1654. When they sold a house they owned in Saint-Louis Street near Parloir Street, in the upper town of Québec, the deed has them living on the Lauson shore.

It would seem that Pierre and his family weren't able to clear and develop their land, as Pierre went to France in 1655 to either hire a labourer (according to Raymond Ouimet) or to try and recruit some Swiss settlers in the canton of Fribourg (according to Marcel Fournier). In mid May of the following year, Pierre was back in Québec City, empty-handed. Soon afterwards, governor Lauson granted him a lot on Place Royale, in the lower town east of the king's stores. Miville built a house on the twenty by twenty-two foot lot.

The years from 1650 to 1660 were difficult ones in the colony. There were several wars with the Iroquois. Pierre Miville was attacked on his Lauson property on May 6, 1657. None of his family were wounded but he lost a sow and a cow.

If Pierre Miville had the courage to resist an Iroquois attack, he also had the audacity to try and get hold of some newly arrived labourers from France in the summer of 1664. He wanted to protest the decision of the authorities that were responsible for the allotment of the workmen. Pierre was condemned by the Conseil souverain for this seditious behaviour. He was sentenced to beg the king's pardon, to be banished forever from the city of Québec on the risk of hanging, to not leave the seigniory of Lauson and to pay a fine of 300 pounds. Miville did not return to Québec City until he was buried there.

The conviction did not mean the end of good relations with the authorities, however. For example, on July 16, 1665, the marquis de Prouville de Tracy, the king's lieutenant general, granted to Pierre Miville, his sons François and Jacques and to four other Swiss, some land measuring seven hectares in breadth by thirteen in length at the Grande-Anse. The place was called the canton of the Fribourg Swiss; it was in the area of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. Pierre never actually lived there. He died on October 14, 1669, in his house on the Lauson shore and was buried the next day in the parish cemetery of Notre-Dame de Québec. His wife lived until October 10, 1676. She had sunk into madness some two years before, presumably because after Pierre's death, she had such serious financial problems with her two sons that she was forced into bankruptcy.

All six of Pierre Miville and Charlotte Maugis' children were married. The first of the girls to do so, 17-year-old Marie, was married in Québec City in November 1650 to Mathieu Amyot dit (alias) Villeneuve. Abraham Martin was among the people present. At the beginning of July 1652, just before her seventeenth birthday, Aimée married Robert Giguère. Three months later, there was another Miville wedding. Madeleine, who was also on the brink of turning 17, married Jean Cochon, the son of the tax collector for the Beaupré shore. Suzanne, at 15 the youngest, followed her sisters' example and married Antoine Poulet or Pollet on April 25, 1655. Louis d'Ailleboust, the governor of the colony, attended the wedding. Marie would have sixteen children; Aimée, thirteen; Madeleine, sixteen and Suzanne, seven.

Pierre married Charlotte (or Catherine) Maugis in cir 1631 in Brouage, Saintonge, France. Charlotte was born in 1581; died on 10 Oct 1676. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gabriel Miville was born in cir 1628; died in cir 1633.
2. François Miville was born in 1630.
3. Marie Miville was born in cir 1632; was christened on 13 Dec 1632 in Notre-Dame de Brouage, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France; died on 5 Sep 1702 in Hôtel-Dieu, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
4. Aimeé Miville was born in cir 1635.
5. Madeleine Miville was born in cir 1636.
6. Jacques Miville was born in cir 1636.
7. Suzanne Miville was born in cir 1640.
8. François Miville dit Le Suisse was born in 1634; was christened on 16 May 1634 in Notre-Dame de Brouage, Rochefort, Saintes, Saintonge, France; died on 23 Nov 1711; was buried on 24 Nov 1711 in Rivière-Ouelle, Québec, Canada.