Pierre Gagné

Biography

Pierre Gagné was a child when his family crossed the Atlantic in 1653. Baptized in February 1645 at Saint-Cosme-de-Vair, in the Maine region of France, he was the son of Pierre Gasnier and Marguerite Rosée. His father’s death in 1656 changed the family’s course. Marguerite moved to Montréal with the younger children, and Pierre’s later life developed around Montréal and La Prairie, on opposite sides of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Québec, Canada, rather than the Beaupré settlement associated with his father.

In 1663 Pierre appears in Montréal’s militia, in the same squad as his stepfather, Guillaume Étienne. In November 1670 he married Catherine Daubigeon at La Prairie. Their marriage stands at the beginning of that parish’s surviving marriage register. The couple raised a large family, whose household possessions would eventually be described in the inventory following Catherine’s death.

Pierre also undertook responsibilities outside his own household. He served as a militia captain and held the office of churchwarden on several occasions, including 1687, 1694 and 1700. These appointments connected him with both the settlement’s defence and the management of its parish affairs.

After Catherine’s death in 1712, Pierre made a further provision for the church. In 1723 he established a fund of five hundred livres whose income was intended to supply oil for the sanctuary lamp. The sum was capital supporting a continuing expense, rather than the price of a single purchase of oil. Pierre died on March 26, 1726 and was buried the next day.