Michel Rognon dit Laroche

Biography

Michel Rognon's farm came with an unusually concrete obligation: after sowing, he was to spend ten consecutive days each year building its fence until the enclosure was complete. Without that protection, he could not seek compensation for damage caused by his neighbours' livestock. The concession also required road maintenance, help for neighbours and the grinding of grain at the seigneurial mill.

Michel came from the parish of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris, France, a son of Charles Rognon and Geneviève Le Parmentier. He arrived in Canada as a soldier in 1665 and stayed. In March 1667 he obtained land at Dombourg, later called Neuville, upstream from Québec city in present-day Canada: a narrow frontage on the St Lawrence, extending forty arpents inland.

His marriage contract with Marguerite Lamain was drawn up in Anne Gasnier's Québec home on September 3, 1670. Michel signed it; Marguerite declared that she could not write or sign. They married at Notre-Dame eleven days later.

The farm supported a growing family. In 1681 the census counted five children, three cattle and twelve arpents under cultivation. A sixth child, Louis, followed in 1683. Parish entries also place Michel at the baptisms of neighbours' children, including Marie Daveau, whose father held the adjoining land.

Michel died on November 8, 1684 and was buried at Neuville two days later. The children were still young. His property passed into an inheritance shared by Marguerite and the children, arrangements that continued after she married the miller Pierre Mercier in January 1685.

The burial listing places Michel Rognon dit Laroche at Cimetière de Pointe-aux-Trembles, Neuville, Capitale-Nationale Region, Québec, Canada.