Joseph Chevalier

Biography

Joseph Chevalier was a master joiner in Montréal, in present-day Québec, Canada, but the 1681 census shows that his household's livelihood was not represented by a trade alone. He and his wife, Françoise-Marthe Barton, had two cattle and twelve arpents under cultivation. Their home included five children, with the eldest ten years old and the youngest two.

Joseph came from the parish of Saint-Jacques in Dieppe, a port on the English Channel coast of Normandy, France. His parents were Jean Chevalier and Madeleine Leureux. His birth year is uncertain: the age recorded in the census would place it around 1644, while the much greater age assigned at his burial points to an earlier birth.

He married Françoise-Marthe at Notre-Dame in Montréal on October 7, 1670. The census later distinguished their sons Jean and Jean-Baptiste as separate children, six and four years old.

Françoise-Marthe died in August 1699. Joseph survived her for more than twenty years. His burial entry at Notre-Dame, dated May 26, 1721, states that he had died during the preceding night at the Hôtel-Dieu. It provides the setting for his final hours, although the conflicting age prevents a secure calculation of his lifespan.