Robert LEVESQUE
Biography

"Robert Lévesque, son of Pierre Lévesque and Marie Caumont, was baptized September 3, 1642, at Hautot-Saint-Sulpice, Upper Normandy, France. His godfather was Robert Lévesque and his godmother, Anne Gontier. As his parents married in Hautot-Saint-Sulpice on October 27, 1641, one can assume he is the eldest of the family. We know Robert had one brother, François, baptized on April 5, 1644.

Jean-Baptiste-François Deschamps de la Bouteillerie, gentleman from the region of Caux, the same area Robert Lévesque is from, was promised a seigniory by the king of France. At the end of June 1671, Deschamps sailed from Dieppe on the Saint-Jean-Baptiste with two carpenters, two masons and four laborers. Robert Lévesque was probably one of the carpenters. On October 29, 1672, lord Deschamps received the grant of the seigniory of la Bouteillerie. Chances are he was already working on his land as early as 1672, maybe even before the date of the grant.

Robert worked first as a carpenter during the construction of the lord's manor. Then, on November 10, 1674, lord Deschamps gave him a tract of land of 12 by 30 acres southeast of the Houel river. A 1683 transaction pushed the depth of the land to 42 acres. His immediate neighbor was Gallerand Boucher and his second neighbor, Damien Bérubé, a mason also recruited by lord Deschamps.

Robert built his house and started to clear the land. For 20 months, between 1675 and 1677, he worked on the building site of the "Petit Séminaire" of Québec. The ledger of the Petit Séminaire shows that he was hired to work "on the framework" during his last four-month contract.

On April 22, 1679, Robert Lévesque married Jeanne Chevalier, the widow of Guillaume Le Canteur at L'Ange-Gardien, QC. She was the daughter of Jacques-Alexandre (Le) Chevalier and Marguerite Scormian of St-Nicolas de Coutances (or of Dieppe), Normandy. She arrived in New France during the same year as Robert Lévesque and married Guillaume Le Canteur on October 19, 1671. She had three sons from Le Canteur. Robert Lévesque adopted them and raised them as his own children. None of the Le Canteur children married and have descendants.

Robert Levesque died on September 11, 1699, at Rivière-Ouelle at the age of 57. After Robert's death, Jeanne Chevalier married lord Deschamps in 1701. He died in 1703 and Jeanne passed away on November 24, 1716.

Robert Lévesque looked after the building of the first church of Rivière-Ouelle. He was also one of locals who fought back Phipps' troops at Rivière-Ouelle Point in 1690. During his lifetime, Robert Lévesque built a substantial estate, especially after he purchased three properties from Joseph Renaud in 1692. At the end of his life, he owned two properties of 12 by 42 acres and three other smaller ones. Jeanne, on her part, inherited a piece of land granted by lord Deschamps to her son Nicolas Le Canteur who died in 1692. The Lévesque-Chevalier couple can be considered to be relatively wealthy."

Source: www.genealogie.org/ FAMILLE/ LEVESQUE/ ANC_ENGL.HTML



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