Francois Monet (elder)

Biography

When François Monet's daughter Marie-Judith was baptized at La Prairie, across the St. Lawrence River from Montréal in present-day Québec, Canada, in September 1700, her father was identified as a soldier. He belonged to the company commanded by Pierre Payen de Noyan.

François was born in France around 1661. His precise birthplace and parents remain unidentified. He married Marie-Anne Dumas before their daughter's baptism, and their family continued to appear in the La Prairie registers through the following fifteen years.

The children included Marie-Judith, Pierre, François, Marie-Angélique and two sons baptized Jean-Baptiste, one in 1711 and another in 1715. Both of those boys survived to marry. The registers also record an earlier François and a daughter Marie.

Pierre was baptized on March 19, 1704. Years later he married Élisabeth Corse, who had been taken from Deerfield, in western Massachusetts, as a child. A family story places François himself among the Deerfield raiders, but his participation has not been established.

François lived to see several of his children establish households at La Prairie. He died there on October 4, 1746, aged about eighty-five, and was buried on October 5. Marie-Anne survived him and died in February 1753.