Jacques Poissant

Biography

Jacques Poissant came from Marennes on France's Atlantic coast and reached New France as a soldier around 1684. Québec's official place-name history identifies him with the Marine troops in De Noyan's company. The name Lasaline, also written La Saline, accompanied him into the colony and remains attached to a road in Saint-Constant.

His early Canadian life included a public change of religion. The Poissant family association cites an April 1685 entry at Pointe-aux-Trembles recording his renunciation of Calvinism and entry into the Catholic Church. It also cautions that no surviving passenger list establishes the particular ship on which he arrived.

Around 1699, Jacques married Marie-Marguerite Bessette, who had been born in the colony. They established their household in the La Prairie seigneury, a colonial landholding across the St. Lawrence from Montréal in present-day Québec, Canada. Their children included Jean-Baptiste, Jacques, François, Pierre, Claude and Marguerite, followed by younger children; the association's account places the family near the Tortue River and the St. Lawrence.

Jacques died at La Prairie on August 19, 1734. His life there had extended well beyond his arrival as a young soldier: he had married, established a home and raised a family whose records continued in the same district.

The burial listing places Jacques Poissant at Cimetière Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge, La Prairie, Monteregie Region, Québec, Canada.