François Plante

Biography

When François Plante accepted the family property at Château-Richer, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence downstream from Québec city in present-day Québec, Canada, in 1694, he also accepted responsibilities toward the people living there. The agreement required him to provide his parents with lodging, warmth and food, and to keep his younger siblings Louise and Joseph with him. His other siblings relinquished their inheritance rights in return for payments.

François, a son of Jean Plante and Françoise Boucher, had been born at Château-Richer on December 3, 1668 and baptized the next day. The transfer was made before the notary Étienne Jacob on February 22, 1694. Later that year, on October 26, François married Louise Bérard.

They had three sons—Jean-Baptiste, Joseph and François—before Louise died in May 1699. François married Marie-Anne Cognac in October 1700, and their household grew to include another large family.

Family historian Clément Plante describes a substantial rebuilding of the farm during François’s ownership. A stone house replaced the small timber dwelling in which the older generation had lived. François sold that earlier house and its site to the shoemaker Pierre Bail dit Labonté in 1704. Stone farm buildings followed. These changes give the inheritance a physical history beyond the names in the family register.

François died at Château-Richer on January 2, 1742 and was buried on January 4. His son Louis eventually succeeded to the property, continuing the family’s association with the farm.

The burial listing places François Plante at Cimetière de Chateau-Richer, Château-Richer, Capitale-Nationale Region, Québec, Canada.