Jean-Baptiste Dumontet

Biography

Jean-Baptiste Dumontet married Elizabeth Corse at La Prairie, across the St. Lawrence from Montréal in present-day Québec, Canada, on November 6, 1712. She had been taken captive from Deerfield, in western Massachusetts, as a child and had remained in Canada, where her name appeared as Élisabeth Casse or Lacasse. Their marriage formed a household whose children would be recorded under Dumontet and the additional name Lagrandeur.

Jean-Baptiste was the son of Jean Dumontet and Georgette Forand. His origins have been obscured by a record calling him English. Research by John P. DuLong proposes a connection with a Québec hospital entry identifying a man from Blon, in the Limoges region of France. If the patient was this Jean-Baptiste, the entry would support a French origin; the identification, exact birthplace and birth year remain uncertain.

The couple's children included a little Élisabeth who died in infancy, another Élisabeth born in 1717, and sons Antoine, Pierre, and Jean-Baptiste. Their daughter Charlotte also survived to adulthood. Two of the younger children, Louis and Pélagie, died young.

Jean-Baptiste died at La Prairie on May 20, 1729 and was buried the next day. Élisabeth was left with children still growing up. She married Pierre Monet the following year; her daughter Élisabeth later married Pierre's brother François. Jean-Baptiste's household thus continued within the closely connected families of La Prairie after his death.