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François
Bienvenu dit Delisle
(1st
part)
François BIENVENU was baptized on
19 September 1666 at
Saint Pierre le Vieux, in the
department of the Vendee
in France, a community situated about a dozen kilometers
south of Fontenay-le-Comte, next to Maillezais and the
Marais poitevin.
At that time, St-Pierre le
Vieux was part of the province
of Aunis and was a parish of the diocese of La
Rochelle.
François was born or lived in
La Porte de l'Ile which might
be an explanation for his "dit name" of Delisle which
he took when he became a soldier. This community is located
next to St-Pierre le Vieux and which, at the time, had no
church.
He was the youngest son of Michel Bienvenu, born
on 23 September 1621 in Maillezais and of Hélène
Guyard who died on 9 November 1677.
His parents also had two other children : Jean, born in 1661,
who remained unmarried, and Catherine, of whom I am a
descendant, born 19 August 1663 at St. Pierre le Vieux and
who married Jacques Roy on 4 September 1692.
François was orphaned at the age of 11 in
1677. At this time it is not
known who took care of the children. Perhaps it was the
family of their mother, Hélène, whose father,
Jehan, was a royal notary in La Rochelle.
It is not known at what age nor from where François
decided to leave for New France. Nor is the name of the boat
known on which he embarked to cross the Atlantic.
He may have married about 1700
in Quebec his first wife, Geneviève CHARRON dit
LAFERRIERE, born 7 December 1679 in Quebec, the daughter
of Jean Charron and of Anne d'Anneville, who was the widow
of Anthoine Fillion.
In 1701, he was possibly in the group of soldiers who
accompanied Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac on his
founding voyage to Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit du
lac Érié which subsequently became the modern
city of Detroit, Michigan. U.S.A.
Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac left Lachine on
5 June 1701 with 25 canoes, 50 soldiers whose names are not known ( In research
that has been done to date, a few of these names have been
found but not the names of 50 as reported to have gone in
this first convoy.) and 52 voyageurs, and three months of
provisions.
He was accompanied by his lieutenants, Alphonse de Tonty,
baron de Palaudy; Pierre Dugué dit Boisbriand;
Chacornac, baron de Joannès; the Recollet priest,
Father Constantin Delhalle and the Jesuit, Father Vaillant
de Gueslis.
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